Enter Perry “Gutmensch Zelig” Rhodan

So, when I was a kid there was too much really exciting and mind-opening science fiction to read for me to ever get into Perry Rhodan - to be brutally honest, sorry! With the help of audible offering Sammelbände, I have slowly gotten into the Rhodan world, and while I’d still not call myself a full blown fan, I can see advantages in the expansive format, which gives options to try out different things and take time to tell a story. I quite enjoyed the Traitor cycle. However, I was missing about 2000(!) earlier volumes. Short if buying on eBay a 1-3000 first edition collection, signed by the respective authors, I’m waiting to find a way to read / listen to the old volumes…

This book feels a few of this gaps, which is good, and hues beyond that. What is hilarious, though, is this continuous injection of PR into US or world history situations. He’s been in everything. He met JFK, listened to MLK, spoke to Armstrong’s “small step for man” quote first, was on the barricades in Paris in 1968 - you name it, he did it. A true Zelig! Well, the whole PR endeavor is a heroic epos… but still: too much.

Also, I would still like to know whether PR, in the first 1000 volumes, really was that good - always understanding, anti- misogyny, anti-racist, anti-suppression, etc etc. I would fully expect him to have been much less open-minded originally, especially somewhat sexist. That the series is going with the times, and improves its understanding of human relations, is great. But it’s hard for a series running what, 60+ years? to claim its main character was already in line with today’s values back then….

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!