Combat Mack Reynolds Books
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Combat Mack Reynolds Books
So far every Mack Reynolds story I’ve read deals with social evolution. There aren’t many writers who could pull this off and keep writing interesting stories, and I expect some readers might be turned off by his devotion to this theme. However, I appreciate his dedication to writing stories with meaning that are intended to make the reader think. These are all “Cold War” era stories, which is actually rather preferable to the “Terrorism” era we are now in. Both the Cold War and the War on Terrorism were/are to a great extent phony wars maintained by the powers to whom they are profitable, and as a means of keeping the populace under control. Readers who do not see these respective “wars” in this light, will not like Mack Reynolds. However minute his efforts were, Reynolds is concerned with intelligent evolution rather than trying to foment revolution . In this story aliens have landed in Moscow, and the West is concerned that this will give the Communist Bloc a devastating propaganda edge. So the government sends a spy to the Soviet Union to make contact with the aliens. Can’t really say more without giving away the story.Product details
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Combat Mack Reynolds Books Reviews
The. US President and his top aides are concerned and the balance of power is at stake. A special emissary, undercover, is sent to make contact and find out "why Russia?". A fascinating read with worthwhile observances. Worth the time.
It starts with a theme that Reynolds has used elsewhere at the peak of the Cold War, the Soviets sent their best and brightest to Math Olympiads, and recruited (or conscripted) them as engineers and scientists. At the same time, star students in the US were going into advertising, marketing, and popular entertainment - and, in place of Math Olympiads, we encouraged them into brain-damaging football. (Don't get me started.)
So, from there, this progresses nicely. Aliens from the Galactic Homeowners Association or some such arrive on Earth - and arrive in Red Square. Of course, this puts certain Western Power noses out of joint. Without going into detail, this sets a stage on which the various inane competitions can play out, in a few different polarities or lack thereof.
It ends on a utilitarian note, which just makes all the shenanigans look even sillier. Interesting as an artifact of its era (and I was a "duck and cover" kid, so that's my era), but hardly memorable.
-- wiredweird
Science fiction authors have often used the genre to express their political and philosophical views, but few writers have made sci-fi as political as Mack Reynolds. During the Cold War, this prolific author penned dozens of novellas and short stories dealing with political and socio-economic issues, filling the pages of the pulp magazines with anticaptialist propaganda thinly veiled behind adventure and espionage plots set in the near future. One such novella, Combat, was originally published in the October 1960 issue of Analog Science Fact-Fiction magazine. Though this one is more engaging than many of Reynolds’s works, it ultimately suffers from the same fault that marks so many of his stories too much politics and not enough sci-fi.
Hank Kuran is a U.S. government agent stationed in South America, where his job is to see that American industry competes favorably against that of China and the Soviet Union. His superiors call him away from his post, however, to assign him to a special secret mission to Moscow. Extraterrestrial visitors have landed on Earth, and instead of contacting the Americans, they have chosen to deal with the Soviets instead. Needless to say, the prospect of a Soviet-Alien alliance strikes fear in the heart of the American government. Kuran, who is fluent in Russian, is to pose as a tourist traveling on a package tour of Russia. When his tour group arrives in Moscow, he is to contact the aliens and act as the de facto ambassador for the U.S., opening the interplanetary lines of communication and stating the case for American supremacy over the Soviets.
For most of its length, Combat is a pretty fun spy novel. (The title is meant to be ironic. This is a Cold War after all, so the only warfare is spycraft.) To conceal his identity, Kuran pretends to espouse the views of a typical American businessman with a relentlessly pro-capitalist, American-supremacist attitude. His fellow travelers, who perceive him as an old-school conservative fuddy duddy, are quick to point out the successes and advantages of the Soviet system and rub them in his face. This approach to the story gives Reynolds the opportunity to promote his own socialist views. Throughout the narrative, he continually expresses admiration for the Communist economic system, while conceding that corruption in the Soviet hierarchy has led to totalitarianism and human rights violations. He seems to be advocating the middle ground of a socialist America that is free of capitalism yet retains its Constitutional freedoms.
I don’t have a problem with Reynolds’s political views; in fact I agree with him on some points. I just wish he would have put more effort into the science fiction framework upon which the story is built. I’ve read about a dozen of Reynolds’s works, and it surprises me that the science fiction magazines would even publish some of his stuff, since there’s actually so little sci-fi in it. The extraterrestrials in this story are little more than an afterthought. The ending is lazy and disappointing; almost an absence of an ending, quite frankly. Still, Kuran’s journey to Moscow was a fun ride while it lasted. Reynolds is a good writer when it comes to establishing characters, setting a scene, and building suspense, even if, as in this case, he doesn’t do anything with the suspense he’s built. Perhaps that’s why I keep coming back to his work. He offers just enough hope that one of his stories will deliver a truly visionary alternate future. Combat is not that story, but it is a moderately fun read for fans of Cold War sci-fi.
I really like some of his other works, but this one fell short and hard. The build up was good and I liked the characters, but the climax was, well sort of anticlimatic. A better ending would earn this story more stars.
Not what you think.
Warning, mild spoilers ahead...
This is more of a novella than a short story, and is representative of mid-twentieth century science fiction. It is heavily influenced by the politics of the cold war (Soviet vs. American). If you are looking for some reading that will give you a sense of an everyman's struggle to understand this conflict, set at the time of first contact, here's a good example.
So far every Mack Reynolds story I’ve read deals with social evolution. There aren’t many writers who could pull this off and keep writing interesting stories, and I expect some readers might be turned off by his devotion to this theme. However, I appreciate his dedication to writing stories with meaning that are intended to make the reader think. These are all “Cold War” era stories, which is actually rather preferable to the “Terrorism” era we are now in. Both the Cold War and the War on Terrorism were/are to a great extent phony wars maintained by the powers to whom they are profitable, and as a means of keeping the populace under control. Readers who do not see these respective “wars” in this light, will not like Mack Reynolds. However minute his efforts were, Reynolds is concerned with intelligent evolution rather than trying to foment revolution . In this story aliens have landed in Moscow, and the West is concerned that this will give the Communist Bloc a devastating propaganda edge. So the government sends a spy to the Soviet Union to make contact with the aliens. Can’t really say more without giving away the story.
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