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"Secret Mission: Moluk (Perry Rhodan, No. 84)" by William Voltz

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  "Secret Mission: Moluk (Perry Rhodan, No. 84)" by William Voltz Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> - 2026-05-18 19:15 -0500
    Re: "Secret Mission: Moluk (Perry Rhodan, No. 84)" by William Voltz Don <g@crcomp.net> - 2026-05-20 05:23 +0000

#299 — "Secret Mission: Moluk (Perry Rhodan, No. 84)" by William Voltz

"Secret Mission: Moluk (Perry Rhodan, No. 84)" by William Voltz
    https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Mission-Moluk-Perry-Rhodan/dp/B0007186ZS

Book number eighty-four of a series of one hundred and thirty-six space 
opera books in English.  The original German books, actually pamphlets, 
number in the thousands with several spinoffs.  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 92 of the original 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/Geheimmission_Moluk
There is alternate synopsis site at:
    https://www.perryrhodan.us/summaries/92#

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.

Perry Rhodan is desperately looking for alliances to help defend The 
Terran Empire.  The Solar Defense forces found documents in the house of 
Maatal that said that Molecular Deformer colonists were from Moluk.  So 
he and Alan Mercant send the space ship Mexico to the planet Moluk which 
is 20,000 light years away from Earth.  But, as usual, things start off 
with a bang.

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:  0.0 out of 5 stars (0 reviews)

Lynn

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#300

Lynn McGuire wrote:
> "Secret Mission: Moluk (Perry Rhodan, No. 84)" by William Voltz
>    https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Mission-Moluk-Perry-Rhodan/dp/B0007186ZS

<snip>

> BTW, this is actually book number 92 of the original 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/Geheimmission_Moluk
> There is alternate synopsis site at:
>    https://www.perryrhodan.us/summaries/92#

<snip>

> Perry Rhodan is desperately looking for alliances to help defend The
> Terran Empire.  The Solar Defense forces found documents in the house of
> Maatal that said that Molecular Deformer colonists were from Moluk.  So
> he and Alan Mercant send the space ship Mexico to the planet Moluk which
> is 20,000 light years away from Earth.  But, as usual, things start off
> with a bang.

My favorite part of this story are the snippets set inside the tower of 
the dreaded desert. It reminds me of funhouse fantasy found in stories
such as THE DWARFT by Bradbury.
    Napolean's tactic to herd Others into a tightly controlled 
groupthink under his command seems like a psychological allegory. It may
mirror manipulation practiced by a reality politician or cult leader. 

Danke,

--
Don.......My cat's  )\._.,--....,'``.                     veritas    _|_
telltale tall tail /,   _.. \   _\  (`._ ,.               liberabit   |
tells tall tales.. `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'              vos         |

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