Genoa-Texcoco: zero a zero

United Planets #3

by Mack Reynolds, Maria Benedetta De Castiglione (translator)

Non è forse lontano il giorno in cui potrete azzeccare un 13 con una schedina come questa:
Vegana - Aldebaran IV = 1
Atiantis- Lunerosse = X
Sirio In - SS Asteroidi = 1
Proxima Centauri - Qfwfq = 1
Venusiana B - Cagliari = 2
dove - Pro Gemelli = X
GENOA - TEXCOCO = X
Intergalattica - Sirio II = 1
Sampnova - Capricornitana = 1
Sol IX - Iperspazio A = 2
Bidimensionali - Xal =1
Pro Neanderthal - Pleiadese = X
DD Umanoidi - Saturnitana = 1
Studiatela bene fin da adesso, tenendo conto che la partita-chiave è tra i due pianeti di Rigel. Arbitro: I'americano Mack Reynolds

Copertina di Karel Thole

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

142 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

Dallas McCord "Mack" Reynolds was an American science fiction writer. His pen names included Clark Collins, Mark Mallory, Guy McCord, Dallas Ross and Maxine Reynolds. Many of his stories were published in "Galaxy Magazine" and "Worlds of If Magazine". He was quite popular in the 1960s, but most of his work subsequently went out of print.

He was an active supporter of the Socialist Labor Party; his father, Verne Reynolds, was twice the SLP's Presidential candidate, in 1928 and 1932. Many of MR's stories use SLP jargon such as 'Industrial Feudalism' and most deal with economic issues in some way

Many of Reynolds' stories took place in Utopian societies, and many of which fulfilled L. L. Zamenhof's dream of Esperanto used worldwide as a universal second language. His novels predicted much that has come to pass, including pocket computers and a world-wide computer network with information available at one's fingertips.

Many of his novels were written within the context of a highly mobile society in which few people maintained a fixed residence, leading to "mobile voting" laws which allowed someone living out of the equivalent of a motor home to vote when and where they chose.

Reviews

[Liedzeit Liedzeit · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Science Fiction, I believe, original ideas are more important than plot and character development. But in this case the lack of story is quite frustrating.

The basic premise in the United Planet series is that Earthmen colonized planets and that on these planets societies emerge that somehow resemble societies that have existed on Earth in the past.

In this case we are on two planets of the Rigel system and on the one there exists a culture similar to the one of the Aztecs (including human sacrifice) and on the other there is a kind of Renaissance civilisation. Now Earth sends a team of development aid workers to these planets with the object to turn them into industrial societies. This is a second premise in the Reynolds books: progress is a value in itself. (Well, there is the threat of an alien invasion, but that is only mentioned in the other books of the series. And I think that this book was not even intended to be part of the United Planets series.)

Interestingly the team on the Aztecs planet tries to accomplish the goal by establishing communes (read Communism) whereas the other team counts on the power of Capitalism. The goal is to establish the turn to a modern society within fifty years. Every ten years the teams meet and compare notes.

The people on both planets are at the same time thankful for the changes and deeply against them. And some of the Earthmen get killed in the process (burned as witches for example). Or so it seems.

I love the premises (mainly because I grew up with them, I am sure). But actually, they are quite silly. We are led to believe that a thousand colonists can degenerate (if that is the word) to barbarism in a thousand years and then slowly crawl back to civilisation again, and at the same time go to a population of a billion people. Surely that is impossible, if you have wars and famines and no medical knowledge there is no way. Also, while they forgot everything they brought with them (including the use of wheels) the language itself stays unchanged. Think about it, can you forget what a wheel is when it is part of language? Look what happened to Latin in a thousand years.

Now, to be exposed to the idea of development of pre-industry societies is thrilling, but a bit of an actual story would have been helpful to create a real novel.

7/10

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice fast read on a summer afternoon. I have a box of science fiction books from the 60s and 70s that I like to dip into and read now and then. This one is from an ACE Double ( there are two stories in the book ) published in 1967, by Mack Reynolds ( who died in 1983 ). I had not read this one before ( and, yes, it had been sitting in the box A LONG TIME).
The rival Rigelians are on two planets in the Rigel system. Both planets were colonized from Earth and then lost contact with the home world. A team of experts from Earth arrives hundreds of years later with instructions to raise the planets to a level of development so that they can be accepted into a galactic federation in a fifty-year period... In order to carry out their mission, the team divides into two groups, as they have two opposing plans to develop the two worlds.
One group will go to the planet which is on the level of the Aztecs at the time of the Spanish Conquest. They want to build a powerful world state which will push industrial development ( on the Russian Communist model ). The other will go to the other planet which is on the level of Italian cities during the Renaissance. Their plan is to facilitate a "free market" and encourage trade and the spread of prosperity.
Of course, both groups face a number of problems over the fifty-year span, but both are determined to "win the race" and show that their plan is the more successful one. Who will win?

[AHW · Rating 3 out of 5]

Awkward sandwiching together of a burlesqued Third Camp Trotskyism of a sort (complete with retrograde views of colonized people) with Campbellian sci fi. As racist, sexist & wooden in its writing as you'd expect, but still fun for a quick read.

[Suden Käpälä · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not read this particular edition of the novel; instead, I read it in this omnibus.
I decided to add this separate novel to my shelves, for 'comparison' purposes; relatively few people have read the omnibus version. And I would like for people who also like this work, to be able to find out that I read it (and, if they want, connect with me).

[Roddy Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

‘Two worlds to conquer – or to be conquered by

MEDDLERS FROM TERRA

The team from Earth had the task of raising backward planets to the home world’s high level. The situation on Rigel was this:

‘The most advanced culture on Rigel’s first planet is to be compared to the Italian cities during Europe’s feudalistic years… The most advanced of the second planet is comparable to the Aztecs at the time of the Spanish conquest…

These planets are in your control to the extent that no small group has ever dominated millions before. No Caesar ever exerted the power that will be in your collective hands. For half a century you will be as gods and goddesses!’

But the Rigelians were themselves descended from the lost colonists of old Earth and they could learn their lessons as fast as they could be taught.

In fact, they could even teach their teachers a thing or two. And therein lay the peril the professors from space never dreamed of.’

Blurb from the 1967 Ace Doubles G-632 edition


Centuries before, Earth sent out colony ships to hundreds of newly discovered planets and then abandoned them to their own fate. The plan was to contact the planets again when they had reached a reasonable level of civilisation.
Earth has sent out a test team to Rigel where the civilisations are thriving on two of its planets. One, at the level of the Incas is called Texcoco; the other, at the level of medieval Italy, is called Genoa.
The team has fifty years to bring the worlds to an industrial level. On a whim, the team splits into 2 and decides to compete, but they have not reckoned on either the addictive nature of power or the colonists’ own ambitions.
It’s a clever piece, but it needed to be either shorter and punchier or longer with better character development. A common failing of Ace Doubles is that the necessary brevity sometimes causes problems in pieces with several main characters.