"Challenge of the Unknown (Perry Rhodan #32)" by Clark Darlton
https://www.amazon.com/Challenge-Perry-Rhodan-Clark-Darlton/dp/B0006XFG78/

Book number thirty-two of a series of one hundred and twenty-six space
opera books in English. The original German books, actually pamphlets,
number in the thousands. The English books started with two translated
German stories per book and transitioned to one story per book with the
sixth book. The German books were written from 1961 to present time,
having sold two billion copies and even recently been rebooted again. I
read the well printed and well bound book published by Ace in 1973 that
I had to be very careful with due to age. I bought an almost complete
box of Perry Rhodans a decade or two ago on ebay that I am finally
getting to since I lost my original Perry Rhodans in The Great Flood of
1989. In fact, I now own book #1 to book #103, plus the Atlan books.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Rhodan

BTW, this is actually book number 40 of the German Pamphlets. There is
a very good explanation of the plot in German on this website of all of
the PR books. There is automatic Google translation available for
English, Spanish, Dutch, Japanese, French, and Portuguese.
https://www.perrypedia.de/wiki/Aktion_gegen_Unbekannt

In this alternate universe, USSF Major Perry Rhodan and his three fellow
astronauts blasted off in a three stage rocket to the Moon in 1971. The
first stage of the rocket was chemical, the second and third stages were
nuclear. After crashing on the Moon due to a strange radio
interference, they discover a massive crashed alien spaceship with an
aged male scientist (Khrest), a female commander (Thora), and a crew of
500. It has been over ten years since then and the New Power has
flourished with millions of people and many spaceships headquartered in
the Gobi desert, the city of Terrania.

Perry, Thora, Krest, and 700 of their crew from the Ganymede have stolen
a brand new 5,000 foot diameter spherical warship from Arkon that Rhodan
named the "Titan". Perry and his men escape the Arkon system with the
computer brain minions desperately searching for them. The Titan and
the Ganymede make a small three light year translation to the planet
Zalite, home to a race descended from the Arkonides.

One has to remember that this book was written in German in 1962 and
translated to English in 1973. Many items that came about in the 1970s
and beyond such as cell phones are not reflected in the book. However,
commercial aircraft commonly traveling at Mach 3 are not available to
the public as talked about in the book. Niels Bohr's saying "Prediction
is very difficult, especially about the future" comes to mind.

Two observations:
1. The publisher should have put two to four of the translated stories
in each book. Having two stories in the first five books worked out
well. Just having one story in the book is too short and would never
allow the translated books to catch up to the German originals.
2. Anyone liking Perry Rhodan and wanting a more up to date story should
read the totally awesome "Mutineer's Moon" Dahak series of three books
by David Weber.
https://www.amazon.com/Mutineers-Moon-Dahak-David-Weber/dp/0671720856/

My rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 5 out of 5 stars (1 reviews)

Lynn

Lynn McGuire wrote:

<snip>

> Perry, Thora, Krest, and 700 of their crew from the Ganymede have stolen
> a brand new 5,000 foot diameter spherical warship from Arkon that Rhodan
> named the "Titan". Perry and his men escape the Arkon system with the
> computer brain minions desperately searching for them. The Titan and
> the Ganymede make a small three light year translation to the planet
> Zalite, home to a race descended from the Arkonides.

Besides Perrypedia [1], there's also another English synopsis available
[2].

This installment's written by Clark Darlton, a favorite author of mine.
One thing missing from Buck's art on the cover of the Moewig is the
Mooff's methane pressure chamber. Then again, perhaps Rhodan's men
already shattered the chamber and its shards now carpet the floor.
"#62 The Last Days of Atlantis" is now being read by me. So far,
"die Unbekannten," or "the Unknown Masters," in the parlance of
Wendayne, have not re-appeared.

Note.

[1] https://www.perrypedia.de/wiki/Aktion_gegen_Unbekannt
[2] http://perryrhodan.us/summaries/40

Danke,

--
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