Snowman in Flames

Perry Rhodan

by Clark Darlton

Science-Fiction

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

180 pages, Paperback

First published April 20, 1962

About the author

Pen name of German science fiction author Walter Ernsting.

Reviews

[Jay French · Rating 3 out of 5]

I grew up in a small, rural town on the Mississippi River. Our town of 1200 had a small, one-room public library, and I tended to read a lot. I quickly ran out of books there. My parents would take me to the city library about a half hour away to get additional books. The closest library also invested in a different sort of book than was available locally. One example was Perry Rhodan books. Rhodan is a German pulp science fiction character with many episodes in Germany, and 50 years ago they started releasing American versions of the stories in mass market paperback. I would get five at a time and read them, sharing them with my cousin. We must have read dozens back then.

Now, with new free time available, I thought I would try reading some of these again, about 50 years after I began. I found a few at a bookstore in Columbia, Missouri and #25, Snowman in Flames, is the first I’ve read in at least 45 years. I may have read it when in Elementary school, I don’t remember. The story was pretty much what I generically remembered about the series. There were interesting characters and the authors dived into these characters in places. There was a lot of action. There was a lot of discussing what had happened in earlier episodes. It was very sexist in a 60s way – the women were portrayed as scared and as girlfriends of the other characters, despite being research scientists. It ended abruptly, without the final battle described, as if the author had hit his word count goal for the book and called it done. It was poorly edited, or at least poorly typeset, with lots of incorrect words. And I enjoyed it quite a bit as a reminder of my pre-teen days.

I had forgotten that the books in these series had the main story, but also some additional sci-fi stories, movie reviews, letters, and artwork. I also forgot the staple of these mass market paperbacks, a bound in advertisement for True cigarettes. Quite a time machine.

[Liedzeit Liedzeit · Rating 2 out of 5]

Finally our cadets on the planet Snowman are rescued. The planet alas, has to die. Which is a tragedy because, surprisingly, there does exist a species of intelligent flowers more or less hibernating.

It is not nice to destroy an entire planet, as the Springers do. But considering the fact that they thought it was completely life-less one might think it is a bit harsh of Pucky, being prosecutor, judge and executioner at the same time to kill them all.

5/10

[Joe Santoro · Rating 4 out of 5]

This Perry chapter concludes what I suspect is the first battle with the Springers.. they seem like bad guys that will come again. Pucky was really the star in this one.. he's apparently now a super-mutant (he can teleport AND read minds AND telekinetic). The new aliens aliens they found were fun, too. I feel like they might be important again after a time skip or two.

What was most interesting was the juxtaposition between the Perry story and this chapter of Exile in the Skies. I'm definitely enjoying this backup alot more than the first one, and the fact the good guys there took pretty much identical actions to the Springers was really interesting.. I wonder if it was on purpose? The 'shock Shorts' were better this time around, too.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the Rhodan sections of the story. The technology, galactic society, and space battles are all very interesting. The character interaction on the planet was rough. The sexist dialogue and interactions was too dated. It was hard to read, and I could not take it seriously. The camp of Pucky and the new aliens was different and didn’t mesh well with the Rhodan sections, but it wasn’t as bad as the other human characters on the planet.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good type up of the main Springer storyline, with some good race against time action

[colleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

read 10.24.85

[AndrewP · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perry Rhodan #25 - English translation.