"The Earth Dies (Perry Rhodan #41)" by Clark Darlton, translated by
Wendayne Ackerman
https://www.amazon.com/Perry-Rhodan-41-Earth-Dies/dp/B004HCDEVO/

Book number forty-one 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 1974 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 49 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/Die_Erde_stirbt

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.

The Springers and the Mounders have arrived in Betelgeuse system to
destroy the third planet since they think it is Terra. Several of the
Terran spaceships, mostly repurposed Arkonide ships, are in the system
to fool the Mounders that Betelgeuse 3 is Terra, Sol 3. And a Topide
fleet of 500 spaceships has arrived from the dictator of the Topide home
system. Most of the Topides not in spaceships are on Betelgeuse 4. And
Perry Rhodan has a plan to convince the Springers that he and the
Terrans are dead.

One has to remember that this book was written in German in 1962 and
translated to English in 1974. 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 (2 reviews)

Lynn

Christian Weisgerber wrote:
> Don wrote:
>
>> This "Red Eye of Betelgeuse" installment closes Die Dritte Macht Zyklus
>> - the premier Perry Rhodan cycle, or story arc.
>
> That's very much a retrospective division. Over the course of the
> first 200 installments, _Perry Rhodan_ would eventually settle into
> a structure of pre-planned story arcs, used ever since, so the
> rather unplanned beginnings were later grouped like that too, even
> if they didn't really form a story arc.
>
> Famously, when Scheer and Darlton started the series, they expected
> it to run for maybe 30 installments.

Thank you for the Zyklus tip in your other followup.

Actually, Zyklus is the least of my worries. It turns out my gigantic
FUBAR was to post my followup to the wrong thread! My latest two replies
there really belong here.

Although Atlan's apparently very popular, he isn't one of my favorite
characters. And so my own taste again puts me at odds with community
mores.
"Time's Lonely One" opens the Atlan and Arkon Zyklus. And it is
truly, literally different from what came before. Perhaps its literal
difference is why Atlan sort of grates on me.
Regardless, the next Zyklus sports hidden jewels, such as this
narrative from "Der flasche Inspekteur:"

Pucky listened with his head cocked to one side and managed
a very innocent and stupid expression. It was amazing how easily
this came to him. Rhodan made a mental note to bring this fact
to his attention later.

Alas, thus far, as in the case of Red Eye's Topidean refugees, it's
languished. Rhodan hasn't brought it up to Pucky yet. :(

Anyhow, "The Earth Dies" is a good story to close the first Zyklus
with. It's allegorical because internecine divisiveness between Earth's
nations also dies.

Danke,

--
Don.......My cat's )\._.,--....,'``. https://crcomp.net/reviews.php
telltale tall tail /, _.. \ _\ (`._ ,.
tells tall tales.. `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'