Secret Barrier X

Perry Rhodan - English #16

by W.W. Shols

Science-Fiction

Genres: Science Fiction, Pulp, Space Opera

128 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1969

Reviews

[Liedzeit Liedzeit · Rating 2 out of 5]

The highlight of this episode is that Rhodan successfully impersonates a Russian commissioner. Well done, especially since it was established in last issue that he does not speak Russian. Maybe he is talking Venusian to the guys. And again, very little Thora.

[Jonathan Harrington · Rating 3 out of 5]

Welllll- not the best of the series so far. At the end of 16 there’s not really too much changed from end of 15. But hey, Venus!

[Luis Tormento · Rating 4 out of 5]

(1981) Tomisenkow suceeds in destroying R-17, and, heads with Thora toward the Venus base, hoping she will be his key to entry. Rhodan and Okura make their way separately toward the same goal, somewhat ahead of the Russian, whose progress is slowed by firefights with Wallerinski's rebel "pacifist" forces. Tomisenkow’s situation is further complicated by the arrival on the scene of helicopters, commanded by Colonel Raskujan. He is the ranking officer of the surviving remnant of the second flotilla of Russian spacecraft, which had arrived on Venus 11 months earlier. As Rhodan had predicted, "mutiny is an epidemic" on Venus. Raskujan has also rebelled and aspires to control of the planet.
Rhodan and Okura rejoin Marshall and search for a means to cross the 200-mile ocean to Venus base. Raskujan captures Tomisenkow and Thora. Rhodan and team are able to loot and destroy several helicopters from Raskujan’s troops, and set out across the sea in a captured, motorized life raft.

[Kevin Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[C. John Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perry is still stuck on Venus (along with John Marshall and Son Okura). Thora is a prisoner of the remnants of the East Bloc troops that landed on Venus awhile back. Meanwhile Reginald Bell is stuck on board the Good Hope V, orbiting Venus and not able to do anything about the situation due to a defense barrier around the planet.

The above describes the situation at the beginning of the book. It also pretty much describes the situation at the end of the book. Despite this, quite a bit happens in between those two points. Rhodan and his two companions are actually closer to their goal, the Arkonide fortress on Venus. Thora, while still a captive, has exchanged captors, as some new players enter the game. Bell tries a gambit that he hopes will bypass the barrier. It doesn't, but we might have learned a bit more about said barrier. Finally John Marshall learns how to kill one of the planets many predators.

I enjoyed this book. The action moved along briskly. Although we know none of our main characters will perish there are plenty of East Bloc troops who can be sacrificed for the sake of the story. There is also at least one new Venusian predator introduced to reinforce how dangerous a planet Venus is.

There are some interesting extras as well in this book. The Scientifilm World feature focuses on the unfulfilled plan to film the novel When Worlds Collide in the 1930's, with Cecil B. DeMille directing. The second item is the beginning of a serialization of Garrett P. Serviss' Edison's Conquest of Mars (also known as Pursuit to Mars). This novel was a sequel of sorts to H.G. Wells' classic War of the Worlds and details Thomas Edison's expedition to the Red Planet to seek revenge for the attack on Earth. An interesting bit of Sci-Fi history. Finally there is a short story "The Swordsman of Varnis" by one Clive Jackson which is really nothing special, despite a bit of a twist at the end. The story was copyrighted in 1950 but I have no idea where it first appeared.

All in all not a bad read

[Joe Santoro · Rating 2 out of 5]

It seems Mr Rhodan has hit a lul... we're still on Venus... with Rhodan trying to get to the fortress to take down the barrier, Thora held captive by the Russians (more Russians, actually) and Bell in space failing to do much.

What I thought was going to be a segway to the next big adventure has turned into an epic saga, and one that really didn't need telling. There's only so much mileage on can get from deserted Russians and crashing landing on Venus, and that was up last book... it seems at least one more volume to go before we move on.

The long promised back up stories also arrived, but were similarly disappointing. there is what is advertised as a serialized sequel to War of the Worlds by Garrett Putnam Serviss, but it's terrible... it reads like bad fan fiction (and I guess it is, since it's not by HG Wells). The (overly long) essay on where it came from says it was lost for many years... perhaps that was not an accident.

There's also a cute 2 page story featuring Burroughsian Martians that is about as good as one can have for a two page story. Hopefully next volume will be done with Venus so I can see if the next big story is worth getting more of the books (I have the 1st 20, then a few random others)

[Duane Olds · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think the Perry Rhodan series can be summed up with this quote from Perry from this issue: "It’s typical of the human race that they can’t live anywhere in peace. Just a few average people from Earth and already they’re cracking each other’s heads on Venus, despite the fact we’re standing on the
threshold of the cosmic world and have to learn to live in it."

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of these titles are the best, and this is one of them. Venus fun continues

[Luiz Santiago · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,0

[AndrewP · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perry Rhodan #16 in English, different number in the original German.