"Perry Rhodan # 61- Death Waits in Semispace" by Kurt Mahr
https://www.amazon.com/Perry-Rhodan-Death-Waits-Semispace/dp/B0014LC9YO/

Book number sixty-one of a series of one hundred and thirty-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 translated by Wendayne Ackerman and transitioned
to one story per book with the sixth book. And then they transition
back to two stories in book #109/110. The Ace publisher dropped out at
#118, so Forrest and Wendayne Ackerman published books #119 to #136 in
pamphlets before stopping in 1978. 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 1975 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 #106,
plus the Atlan books.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Rhodan

BTW, this is actually book number 69 of the German pamphlets written in
1962. There is a very good explanation of the plot in German on the
Perrypedia German 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/Im_Halbraum_lauert_der_Tod

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 sixty-nine years since then and the Solar Empire
has flourished with tens of millions of people and many spaceships
headquartered in the Gobi desert, the city of Terrania. Perry Rhodan
has been elected by the people of Earth to be the World Administrator.

It has been almost 62 years since Perry Rhodan and Reginald Bull found
the Immortal living on his wandering planet who gave them the immortal
cell treatment. It is time for them to renew the cell treatment but,
the wandering planet is not where they computed it to be ! The
wandering planet has been stolen by the Druufs, the time thieves who are
stealing the populations of entire star systems. Perry, Reg, and Atlan
find the wandering planet in a time plane between our time plane and the
Druuf time plane. But, getting there is quite tricky.

Two observations:
1. Forrest Ackerman should have put two or three 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: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars (1 reviews)

Lynn

Lynn McGuire wrote:
> "Perry Rhodan # 61- Death Waits in Semispace" by Kurt Mahr

<snip>

> It has been almost 62 years since Perry Rhodan and Reginald Bull found
> the Immortal living on his wandering planet who gave them the immortal
> cell treatment. It is time for them to renew the cell treatment but,
> the wandering planet is not where they computed it to be ! The
> wandering planet has been stolen by the Druufs, the time thieves who are
> stealing the populations of entire star systems. Perry, Reg, and Atlan
> find the wandering planet in a time plane between our time plane and the
> Druuf time plane. But, getting there is quite tricky.

Characters must cater to man child IT's capricious whims in order to
earn another dose of his life extension tonic: a cell shower. And man
child's also an ungrateful control freak.
A pertinent post from October is reproduced below. As noted near the
bottom, the machine translation tickles my funny bone more than the
Ackerman.
The narrative exposition of Nathan's astral body was a high point in
the story for me. But it remains difficult for me to wrap my mind around
the mechanics of how object sizes change as Bell's perspective changes
when he turns his head.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ted Nolan wrote:
> Don wrote:
>>Ted Nolan wrote:

>>>>> Uncanny Collateral (Valkyrie Collections Book 1)

<snip>

>>> "They are. Your spirit is the thing that exists before and
>>> after your time in this mortal realm. When you're born,
>>> it's split into two pieces--the soul and the shade. The
>>> soul comes with you into mortality. The shade remains here."
>>> He gestured to the darkness around him. "Part of my job as
>>> Ferryman is to reunite soul and shade and send the entire
>>> spirit off to wherever it's meant to go."

<snip>

>>_Uncanny Collateral_'s "shade" brings to mind IT's enigmatic "shadow"
>>nomenclature for matter aberrations on Wanderer.
>>
>> "69 Death Awaits in Semispace"
>>
>> The intelligence from Solitude! The being from Solitude,
>> the world on the alien time-plane, the being was capable of
>> separating its spirit from its body. Though intelligent, the
>> creature had been described by Reginald Bell as looking like
>> a sea cow. ...
>> "It's one of the oddest life-forms I've ever seen!"
>> someone said when Nathan had left, leaving behind only his
>> huge body which lay still on the control room floor.
>> "It isn't quite as odd as on first thought," Rhodan
>> answered. "The strange part is definitely the ability of
>> separating the spirit from the body. But that which so
>> strikingly reminds us of our childhood fear of ghosts surely
>> has a quite natural explanation."
>> The others looked at him expectantly.
>> "Of course," Rhodan continued, "the astral form is
>> immaterial. That which looks like a cloud to you is not at all
>> a gas, in case you thought so. The astral form itself is
>> nothing more than a field whose nature we know nothing about.
>> It is, in any case, a field with inherent intelligence. What
>> we see is the effect this field has on its surroundings. It
>> seems to give off energy that affects the refractive index of
>> the air around it. In that way it becomes visible to our eyes:
>> the area where the refractive index has been altered appears to
>> us as a cloud."
>> "The oddest aspect of it all, however, is the field's
>> ability to reflect nearby objects, even to the point of mimicking
>> them exactly. You have seen how Nathan took on my form and tried
>> to copy my face. I am convinced that he would develop his talent
>> into a perfect skill if he ever took enough time with it. Please
>> don't ask how shocked the Arkonide and I were when we first saw a
>> spirit-form on Solitude!"
>> The men were silent. The explanation had been illuminating
>> but the phenomenon was still impossible to grasp. They all
>> looked to where they suspected Nathan's spirit to be-out in the
>> darkness of space where there was nothing whose refractive index
>> Nathan could affect and become visible. ...
>> If anyone at all were able to reach Wanderer from here, it
>> would be Nathan. Not bodily but with the help of its astral form,
>> which not only could separate from its body but lead a most
>> independent existence. ...
>> Nathan looked back at the alien being lying far below in the
>> grass, unconscious with terror.
>> "It looks real, doesn't it?" said the stranger, amused. "Even
>> though it's only a shadow."
>> Nathan considered the concept of 'shadow'. It could not mean
>> the bodiless existence because the alien creature had been solid
>> and real. It, the ruler of this world, seemed to know of another
>> means of Spirit-Matter transformation.

<snip>

>> If anyone at all were able to reach Wanderer from here, it
>> would be Nathan. Not bodily but with the help of its astral form,
>> which not only could separate from its body but lead a most
>> independent existence. ...
>> Nathan looked back at the alien being lying far below in the
>> grass, unconscious with terror.
>> "It looks real, doesn't it?" said the stranger, amused. "Even
>> though it's only a shadow."
>> Nathan considered the concept of 'shadow'. It could not mean
>> the bodiless existence because the alien creature had been solid
>> and real. It, the ruler of this world, seemed to know of another
>> means of Spirit-Matter transformation.
>>
>>PS. IT became a sinister character to me after "Blood of Cardif...
>>blood of Thora... blood of Rhodan."
>>
>
> That one I have no memory of, not even after looking at the Squidlike
> spaceship cover image..

This is yet another story where Bruck's cover art:

<https://www.perrypedia.de/mediawiki/images/e/ee/PR0069.jpg>

jogs my memory better than Morrow's:

<https://www.isfdb.org/wiki/images/3/3d/PRRRHDNDTH1975.jpg>

In the story Bell (Bully) marginally reprises "He Who Shrank" (Hasse).
Nathan's a two story wonder who never shows up again:

<https://tinyurl.com/muzt6tbp>

Nathan's a Solitudean. The above machine translation - "[Solitudian's]
life's mission [is] to reflect and share their thoughts with each other."
makes me laugh more than a polished translation. Because it strikes so
close to home.

An unrelated, more prolific, character named Ernst Ellert, acts as a
spiritual bully. Ellert's a Mutant Corps member who invades Onot the
Druuf's body.

Danke,

--
Don.......My cat's )\._.,--....,'``. https://crcomp.net/reviews.php
telltale tall tail /, _.. \ _\ (`._ ,. Walk humbly with thy God.
tells tall tales.. `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.' Make 1984 fiction again.