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Perry Rhodan - English #104
The Man with Two Faces
Science-Fiction
- GenresScience FictionFiction
186 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1976
26 people want to read
About the author
Kurt Brand
171 books4 followersKurt Brand was a German science fiction author who wrote almost a thousand novels over his career, mostly in pulp booklet form.
He wrote under a number of pseudonyms, including C. R. Munro, Buster Brack, Conny Cuba, Cherry Moss, Lex Porter, and Lars Torsten.
He wrote under a number of pseudonyms, including C. R. Munro, Buster Brack, Conny Cuba, Cherry Moss, Lex Porter, and Lars Torsten.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 24, 2023
If ever you wish to check out Perry Rhodan, as it appeared in translation in North America back in the 1970s, I would advise acquiring #s 100-108 from the Ace paperback run. It is the story of the evil son of Perry Rhodan, Thomas Cardif, regaining his memories and emerging from his life as benevolent amnesiac, and usurping his father’s role as the “Peacelord” of Earth. Literally usurping his father’s role…he had already resembled papa Perry, much like an identical twin because Perry by this time retained his youth via a “cell-rejuvenator” (immortality device) gifted by a cosmic being, and with just a bit of surgery from his evil allies, the medical-genius Antis, a plan could go forward to capture or kill Rhodan and take his place.
With the start of # 104, Thomas Cardif has become Perry Rhodan and proceeds to fool all his friends, advisors, the Arkonides, the Mutants, while throwing Earth’s status in the galaxy, still in somewhat of a fledgling state with many alien races waiting for Earth to stumble, into chaos. All because of a son’s hatred for a father (see, among others, Perry Rhodan #s 59, 70, 88-90 - English language edition numbering).
This was THE go-to SF experience of my early teens, with the completist older me later finding out about some mail-order-only extensions (#s 119-137), and acquiring them too. I never learned German to go after the utterly MASSIVE amount of Perry Rhodan material that has become available over the decades, but I was tempted.
Perry Rhodan # 104, The Man With Two Faces, was a transition book in the series of sorts - at least for North Americans: regular cover artist Gray Morrow departed as of # 103, and the radically different look of what you see adorning the front of # 104 became the norm…especially, alas and alack, the perpetually bare-chested and caped (!?) Perry Rhodan. Or, I suppose, for a few books, Perry’s bare-chested evil son masquerading as Perry.
Thankfully one thing about this book was not transitional, just really annoying: I’m sure this is the one with more typos than I have ever, ever seen in a single book. My recollection is that things settled down again with # 105. But even as the typos (mostly) died off, the series was dying off, in North America. With book # 104, the Perry Rhodan books from Ace Books cut back to once a month. I think, years ago, they had started as one per month, then jumped to two, and then three, a month, with proud announcements on the covers about how popular the books had become. But sales figures slipped, SF was changing in big ways, US SF series were blossoming and dominating the home market, the German publishers were not always amenable to negotiations (at least that’s something gleaned from editorial comments), and so Perry Rhodan regressed to its original slow pace in North America. And then it was gone. Um, okay, mail-order only, and then gone. Um, some very quick, failed reboots, and gone.
My reading about what the series went on to become strongly suggests the best came later. I read the series during its infancy, followed by growing pains. Simplistic, militaristic, pulpy, silly, mindless adventures and nothing to say…well, that may be true. Maybe that’s all I got to read, when it comes Perry Rhodan. But - there is something special about Thomas Cardif’s replacement of his father, the man he should have become, but ultimately could never be. Something to think about on the way to # 108 - the finale of the story arc - as Thomas Cardif seeks and achieves immortality by duplicitously acquiring his own “cell-rejuvenator” (or was it called a cell-activator; gosh, should I re-read these books after all this time…?); but the cell-rejuvenators are very specific, designed for specific DNA, and to acquire one programmed for Perry Rhodan, by pretending to be Perry Rhodan, is not necessarily the greatest idea a clever villain can have. Cronenberg’s doomed scientist in The Fly comes to mind, when I think of what happens to Cardif. Of course I also spent time wondering if Perry was still alive somewhere. And could Earth survive the false Rhodan’s disastrous reign.
So…do I re-read the whole series (well, what I have access to), or just some sections of it, like #s 100-108?
With the start of # 104, Thomas Cardif has become Perry Rhodan and proceeds to fool all his friends, advisors, the Arkonides, the Mutants, while throwing Earth’s status in the galaxy, still in somewhat of a fledgling state with many alien races waiting for Earth to stumble, into chaos. All because of a son’s hatred for a father (see, among others, Perry Rhodan #s 59, 70, 88-90 - English language edition numbering).
This was THE go-to SF experience of my early teens, with the completist older me later finding out about some mail-order-only extensions (#s 119-137), and acquiring them too. I never learned German to go after the utterly MASSIVE amount of Perry Rhodan material that has become available over the decades, but I was tempted.
Perry Rhodan # 104, The Man With Two Faces, was a transition book in the series of sorts - at least for North Americans: regular cover artist Gray Morrow departed as of # 103, and the radically different look of what you see adorning the front of # 104 became the norm…especially, alas and alack, the perpetually bare-chested and caped (!?) Perry Rhodan. Or, I suppose, for a few books, Perry’s bare-chested evil son masquerading as Perry.
Thankfully one thing about this book was not transitional, just really annoying: I’m sure this is the one with more typos than I have ever, ever seen in a single book. My recollection is that things settled down again with # 105. But even as the typos (mostly) died off, the series was dying off, in North America. With book # 104, the Perry Rhodan books from Ace Books cut back to once a month. I think, years ago, they had started as one per month, then jumped to two, and then three, a month, with proud announcements on the covers about how popular the books had become. But sales figures slipped, SF was changing in big ways, US SF series were blossoming and dominating the home market, the German publishers were not always amenable to negotiations (at least that’s something gleaned from editorial comments), and so Perry Rhodan regressed to its original slow pace in North America. And then it was gone. Um, okay, mail-order only, and then gone. Um, some very quick, failed reboots, and gone.
My reading about what the series went on to become strongly suggests the best came later. I read the series during its infancy, followed by growing pains. Simplistic, militaristic, pulpy, silly, mindless adventures and nothing to say…well, that may be true. Maybe that’s all I got to read, when it comes Perry Rhodan. But - there is something special about Thomas Cardif’s replacement of his father, the man he should have become, but ultimately could never be. Something to think about on the way to # 108 - the finale of the story arc - as Thomas Cardif seeks and achieves immortality by duplicitously acquiring his own “cell-rejuvenator” (or was it called a cell-activator; gosh, should I re-read these books after all this time…?); but the cell-rejuvenators are very specific, designed for specific DNA, and to acquire one programmed for Perry Rhodan, by pretending to be Perry Rhodan, is not necessarily the greatest idea a clever villain can have. Cronenberg’s doomed scientist in The Fly comes to mind, when I think of what happens to Cardif. Of course I also spent time wondering if Perry was still alive somewhere. And could Earth survive the false Rhodan’s disastrous reign.
So…do I re-read the whole series (well, what I have access to), or just some sections of it, like #s 100-108?
June 11, 2019
I got this book as it contains one part of a Lensmen serialized novel. I can't say anything about the rest of the book.
May 31, 2012
The biggest SF series of all time - these early ones are a bit old style
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews