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Perry Rhodan #17
The Planet of the Dying Sun
Dedicated to the search for the world of Eternal Life, Peacelord Perry Rhodan and his Mutant team landed on the ghostly planet Gol, 14th world of the Vega system.
Suddenly the search was interrupted when, under attack by the voracious energy eaters, they were thrust out into space by a pulsator. Saved! But by whom? And now Perry Rhodan realised they were lost in a strange uncharted region of the cosmos...
Suddenly the search was interrupted when, under attack by the voracious energy eaters, they were thrust out into space by a pulsator. Saved! But by whom? And now Perry Rhodan realised they were lost in a strange uncharted region of the cosmos...
128 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1972
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71 people want to read
About the author
Kurt Mahr
645 books5 followersKurt Mahr was the pen name of Klaus Mahn (Klaus Otto Mahn), a German science fiction writer famous for his contributions to the Perry Rhodan franchise.
He was known among the writing staff as 'The Physicist', due to his original profession, which also allowed him to give a greater degree of scientific accuracy to his literary work.
He was killed in an accident in Florida in 1993, aged 59.
He was known among the writing staff as 'The Physicist', due to his original profession, which also allowed him to give a greater degree of scientific accuracy to his literary work.
He was killed in an accident in Florida in 1993, aged 59.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
January 19, 2017
I've only read half a dozen of the Perry Rhodan series. There are hundreds of volumes in it. Most of the ones I've read so far I've enjoyed, but I found this one extremely weak and didn't engage me at all. After looking through my records I see that the ones I've liked from the series were written by K. H. Scheer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K._H._S...). My favorite so far has been Fortress of the Six Moons.
This book, "The Planet of the Dying Sun," was written by Kurt Mahr, although from what I understand an original draft of the work might have been done by Scheer. Mahr was the pen name for Klaus Otto Mahn (https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...). Mahr/Mahn apparently wrote a bunch of the Rhodan titles but I'll probably give those a miss and stick from now on with the Scheer ones.
The most memorable thing about this book was the opening "letter" from Forry Rhodan. I'll quote a brief passage that made me arch and eyebrow and laugh. In speaking of Perry Rhodan, the letter reads: "He is a true super-Homo Sapiens, the representative of the Man of the Future, to show our present day Hippies, long haired defeatists, and their friends that the future of Earth is in the stars, not in drugs or in plain sex and pleasure!"
As a long-haired scientist myself, I thought this was laying it on a little thick.
This book, "The Planet of the Dying Sun," was written by Kurt Mahr, although from what I understand an original draft of the work might have been done by Scheer. Mahr was the pen name for Klaus Otto Mahn (https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...). Mahr/Mahn apparently wrote a bunch of the Rhodan titles but I'll probably give those a miss and stick from now on with the Scheer ones.
The most memorable thing about this book was the opening "letter" from Forry Rhodan. I'll quote a brief passage that made me arch and eyebrow and laugh. In speaking of Perry Rhodan, the letter reads: "He is a true super-Homo Sapiens, the representative of the Man of the Future, to show our present day Hippies, long haired defeatists, and their friends that the future of Earth is in the stars, not in drugs or in plain sex and pleasure!"
As a long-haired scientist myself, I thought this was laying it on a little thick.
August 1, 2020
Our heroes in this chapter get stuck in a far off universe, and have to figure out where they are and were to go next in the ongoing quest to find the race that has discovered immortality.
There were essentially two mysteries here... the first one was interesting, the 2nd one so obvious as to make the characters in the book seem dumb that they took so long to figure it out.
While this sort of series definitely does lend itself to episodic adventures like this, I'm ready for this quest to be done and having the larger story move on at this point.
There were essentially two mysteries here... the first one was interesting, the 2nd one so obvious as to make the characters in the book seem dumb that they took so long to figure it out.
While this sort of series definitely does lend itself to episodic adventures like this, I'm ready for this quest to be done and having the larger story move on at this point.
September 10, 2022
Now they find themselves on a planet they call Vagabond. Well, not really, because actually they named the Planet Tramp. No idea why this renaming was deemed necessary for the English version.
This is much better than the last book in the series. At least there are some ideas like the species that is intelligent or not depending on the position of their sun. And one of the little guys will play an important role later on. For now they seem to have found the coordinates of the planet of Eternal Life. I was about to say finally. But when you think of it, it was not really that much they had to do so far. I mean, we are talking about immortality here!
I always like to see Perry Rhodan doing something useful for the whole enterprise. In this case it is him who notices that the guy who they think is the mutant Fellmer Lloyd is actually a robot who has taken to position of the original. And how did he come to the conclusion? Because the man had a spot of missing hair on his head and the robot had full hair!
There are some hints why PR is the right guy to inherit the Universe.
This is much better than the last book in the series. At least there are some ideas like the species that is intelligent or not depending on the position of their sun. And one of the little guys will play an important role later on. For now they seem to have found the coordinates of the planet of Eternal Life. I was about to say finally. But when you think of it, it was not really that much they had to do so far. I mean, we are talking about immortality here!
I always like to see Perry Rhodan doing something useful for the whole enterprise. In this case it is him who notices that the guy who they think is the mutant Fellmer Lloyd is actually a robot who has taken to position of the original. And how did he come to the conclusion? Because the man had a spot of missing hair on his head and the robot had full hair!
There are some hints why PR is the right guy to inherit the Universe.
September 11, 2019
Такие Трекоподобные истории мне нравятся больше, чем то, что шло до них.
April 17, 2023
A slight improvement over the precious volume. While it does a good job setting up the mystery of the story in the first 100 pages, only for it to rush a conclusion in the final chapter. But still an enjoyable enough adventure, although looking forward to the current overarching storyline to wrap up
February 14, 2020
Now they have a telekinetic mouse beaver, who's now a member of the crew
December 1, 2018
(1975-76) Rhodan and crew struggle to identify the strange galaxy into which they have been transported. Rhodan orders the ship to remain where it is until they can determine their location. His patience is rewarded when the galaxy of 56 stars proves to have been an illusion. Once the true state of their surroundings is revealed, Rhodan discovers that the logical path to have taken (towards the nearest star in the illusory galaxy) would have put them on a course straight into the system’s sun.
They investigate the lone planet circling the dim and dying sun, a planet they name Vagabond. Although their instruments detect no sign of intelligent life of the planet surface, on board ship strange if inconsequential mishaps begin to occur, as if telekinetics were toying with them. A force under the command of Lt. Tanner begins to explore the surface of the planet. Telepathic mutant Fellmer Lloyd detects mysteriously mixed signals combining impulses of childish playfulness and blind, destructive hate. The expedition force discovers herds of unintelligent mouse-beavers.
An android impersonating Lloyd attempts to assassinate Rhodan. The real Lloyd tells a story of being captured by robots with two legs and multiple arms, which manufactured the android assassin.
Increasingly serious incidents of telekinetic interference threaten the Stardurst,, as though the hidden source had grown bored and had to find more challenging shipboard systems to interfere with. Meanwhile, on the planet surface, the patrol expedition faces attacks demonstrating an ability to control and use gravitational shifts as a weapon.
Lloyd leads them back to the underground base where he had been held prisoner. There they engage and destroy several of the hostile robots. A huge gravitational disturbance (triggered by the slow decay of the system’s sun) incapacitates the remaining robots, which are found to be the artifacts of a now extinct colony some 35,000 years earlier. The robots prove to have organic brain material in their control systems, and to have been programmed to seek out and annihilate any alien presence “invading” the planet. Lloyd informs Rhodan that the instinct for hate had disappeared, and only the instinct for play remains.
Rhodan leads his force through a long, compact tunnel discovered under the hills, where they discover burrows dug by the mouse-beavers. These prove to be of intermittent intelligence: simple animals at night; possessed of limited intelligence, telekinetic powers, and childlike playfulness by day. In their burrow, Rhodan finds what the immortal unknown had left for them to find: a chart of the galaxy, revealing the way back to Terra’s sun (Sol) and to Vega … and indicating the position of a planet without a sun, which Rhodan concludes to be the planet of eternal life, traveling on a great elliptical orbit through space. Terra forms one of the focal points of the ellipse.
They investigate the lone planet circling the dim and dying sun, a planet they name Vagabond. Although their instruments detect no sign of intelligent life of the planet surface, on board ship strange if inconsequential mishaps begin to occur, as if telekinetics were toying with them. A force under the command of Lt. Tanner begins to explore the surface of the planet. Telepathic mutant Fellmer Lloyd detects mysteriously mixed signals combining impulses of childish playfulness and blind, destructive hate. The expedition force discovers herds of unintelligent mouse-beavers.
An android impersonating Lloyd attempts to assassinate Rhodan. The real Lloyd tells a story of being captured by robots with two legs and multiple arms, which manufactured the android assassin.
Increasingly serious incidents of telekinetic interference threaten the Stardurst,, as though the hidden source had grown bored and had to find more challenging shipboard systems to interfere with. Meanwhile, on the planet surface, the patrol expedition faces attacks demonstrating an ability to control and use gravitational shifts as a weapon.
Lloyd leads them back to the underground base where he had been held prisoner. There they engage and destroy several of the hostile robots. A huge gravitational disturbance (triggered by the slow decay of the system’s sun) incapacitates the remaining robots, which are found to be the artifacts of a now extinct colony some 35,000 years earlier. The robots prove to have organic brain material in their control systems, and to have been programmed to seek out and annihilate any alien presence “invading” the planet. Lloyd informs Rhodan that the instinct for hate had disappeared, and only the instinct for play remains.
Rhodan leads his force through a long, compact tunnel discovered under the hills, where they discover burrows dug by the mouse-beavers. These prove to be of intermittent intelligence: simple animals at night; possessed of limited intelligence, telekinetic powers, and childlike playfulness by day. In their burrow, Rhodan finds what the immortal unknown had left for them to find: a chart of the galaxy, revealing the way back to Terra’s sun (Sol) and to Vega … and indicating the position of a planet without a sun, which Rhodan concludes to be the planet of eternal life, traveling on a great elliptical orbit through space. Terra forms one of the focal points of the ellipse.
March 7, 2018
The search for clues has lead Rhodan to a planet on the outskirts of the galaxy. Mysteries abound and even though the story raises more questions than it answers, it is fairly entertaining with a mischievous alien presence creating chaos.
January 17, 2014
Está a tornar-se claro que pelo menos na sua origem esta série não se distingue pela qualidade literária. Talvez seja da tradução, mas mesmo nos momentos mais agitados a prosa não corresponde às ideias. E nos piores momentos a linguagem narrativa é um lodaçal apenas tornado suportável pela curiosidade em perceber a continuidade da série ou pelas ideias intrigantes que explana. É o caso deste Planet of the Dying Sun. As ideias interessantes estão lá. Rhodan prossegue na busca do segredo da imortalidade e depara com um planeta desértico na órbita de um sol decadente. Este é habitado por duas espécies, uma de ratos-castores semi-inteligentes com capacidades telequinéticas que deixa de cabelos em pé os aventureiros da nave Stardust II com tanta avaria inexplicável, e os defensores das pistas da busca pelo segredo, robots milenares com cérebro orgânico. A história é, essencialmente, o corajoso Rhodan a enfrentar os mistérios das avarias misteriosas e os ataques dos robots, enquanto desvenda mais uma pista da busca pela localização dos imortais. Tem o seu quê de gremlins colidido com forbidden planet. E a ideia dos alienígenas parcialmente inteligentes é bem engraçada. Durante o dia inteligência primitiva com curiosidade e telecinese, à noite reverte para estado animalesco. Daria uma interessante história de desenvolvimento civilizacional, talvez similar ao que o Vernor Vinge fez com uma sociedade de aranhiços num planeta gelado que apenas é capaz de se desenvolver durante os meses mais quentes até que a intervenção humana os dota de tecnologia capaz de enfrentar os invernos profundos em A Deepness Upon The Sky.
Li algures que a prosa de Perry Rhodan tem um carácter de precisão germânica, mais empenhada em quantificar com precisão do que em aprofundar os mundos ficcionais. E isso nota-se particularmente neste livro. Com os nossos heróis em expedição por um planeta desértico, um Arrakis avant la lettre, com duas sociedades alienígenas excelentes para aprofundar, e o autor perde-se na descrição precisa da quantidade de tripulantes que embarca no número definido de veículos que percorre uma determinada distância em quilómetros. Precisão nos detalhes, mas uma criação de espaço ficcional muito difusa.
Li algures que a prosa de Perry Rhodan tem um carácter de precisão germânica, mais empenhada em quantificar com precisão do que em aprofundar os mundos ficcionais. E isso nota-se particularmente neste livro. Com os nossos heróis em expedição por um planeta desértico, um Arrakis avant la lettre, com duas sociedades alienígenas excelentes para aprofundar, e o autor perde-se na descrição precisa da quantidade de tripulantes que embarca no número definido de veículos que percorre uma determinada distância em quilómetros. Precisão nos detalhes, mas uma criação de espaço ficcional muito difusa.
July 31, 2016
A decent book but for some reason I didn't seem it was quite as good as the previous ones. The crew is on a planet that seems to be floating in empty space. As well they aren't quite sure of where they are, as most of the star map they can see is unidentifiable. To make matters worse when they land on a planet strange things begin to happen. One of the mutants, Fellmer Lloyd, is finally able to sense the aliens thoughts but they are contradictory with both strong feelings of wanting to play and of extreme hatred for the humans. Of course Rhodan will be successful in determining what is happening (of course you knew he would be, the series has been going on since 1961 so he has to, right). It's the getting to the solution that is interesting. This book brings Rhodan and company one step closer to the secret of eternal life.
February 5, 2017
Perry Rhodan #11
May 21, 2012
Biggest SF Series in History - English translations only got to 100 or so unfortunately
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews