On 8/24/2024 2:11 PM, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:

In article <vadaav$1ggik$[email protected]>,
Lynn McGuire <[email protected]> wrote:

"Thora's Sacrifice (Perry Rhodan #70)" by Kurt Brand
https://www.amazon.com/Thoras-Sacrifice-Perry-Rhodan-70/dp/B000LV97UM/ >>>
Book number seventy 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, and some of the Lemuria books.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Rhodan

BTW, this is actually book number 78 of the German pamphlets written in
1963. 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/Thoras_Opfergang

In this alternate universe, USSF Major Perry Rhodan and his three fellow >>> astronauts blasted off in a three stage rocket to the Moon in their
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 seventy 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
and keep them from being taken over by the robot administrator of Arkon. >>>
Thora the Arkonide, now Thora Rhodan and mother of their child, is dying >>> of old age. Perry was given immortality by the Immortal several decades >>> ago but, the Immortal refused to give Arkonides Khrest and Thora
immortality since they were a dying race. Perry Rhodan has General
Deringhouse take Thora with him on the Burma, a 100 meter (100 yards)
diameter spaceship, to the Arkon star system to negotiate with the Robot >>> Regent of Arkon for more star ships to fight the Druufs with. But the
Robot Regent does not want to negotiate.

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

Lynn

I think this and the Thomas Cardiff arc are where I really started notcing >> that the series wasn't written with American expectations in mind.

Do you mean where everything is not a success ?

Yup, there are definitely tragedies in the Perry Rhodan series.

Lynn