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"Enemy in the Dark (Perry Rhodan #85)" by Kurt Mahr

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  "Enemy in the Dark (Perry Rhodan #85)" by Kurt Mahr Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> - 2026-09-17 14:56 -0500
    Re: "Enemy in the Dark (Perry Rhodan #85)" by Kurt Mahr Don <g@crcomp.net> - 2026-09-18 02:00 +0000
      Re: "Enemy in the Dark (Perry Rhodan #85)" by Kurt Mahr Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> - 2026-09-17 21:36 -0500

#660522 — "Enemy in the Dark (Perry Rhodan #85)" by Kurt Mahr

"Enemy in the Dark (Perry Rhodan #85)" by Kurt Mahr
    https://www.amazon.com/Enemy-Dark-Perry-Rhodan-85/dp/1441660690

Book number eighty-five 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 93 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/Der_Feind_im_Dunkel
There is alternate synopsis site at:
    https://www.perryrhodan.us/summaries/93#

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.  Earth and Arkon with Atlan in charge have formed a 
mutual defense alliance.  Atlan has a problem with the planet Opghan 
where the robot administrator has been destroyed so Atlan asks Perry 
Rhodan to investigate.  Rhodan sends out a light cruiser over 10,000 
light years to the planet and they find it to be a water world.  And 
things go bad soon after they land on a small island.

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 space opera 
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/
3. Another excellent space opera series is the "Stand Alone: Wolfhounds 
- Book One" series by John Van Stry.
    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CJT8JTBP/

My rating:  4.0 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating:  0.0 out of 5 stars (0 reviews)

Lynn

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#660534

In rec.arts.sf.written Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:
> "Enemy in the Dark (Perry Rhodan #85)" by Kurt Mahr

<snip>

> Perry Rhodan is desperately looking for alliances to help defend The
> Terran Empire.  Earth and Arkon with Atlan in charge have formed a
> mutual defense alliance.  Atlan has a problem with the planet Opghan
> where the robot administrator has been destroyed so Atlan asks Perry
> Rhodan to investigate.  Rhodan sends out a light cruiser over 10,000
> light years to the planet and they find it to be a water world.  And
> things go bad soon after they land on a small island.

This story's a dud. Drudgery drove me to excercise my mp3 player's skip
forward button.

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

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#660535

On 9/17/2026 9:00 PM, Don wrote:
> In rec.arts.sf.written Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:
>> "Enemy in the Dark (Perry Rhodan #85)" by Kurt Mahr
> 
> <snip>
> 
>> Perry Rhodan is desperately looking for alliances to help defend The
>> Terran Empire.  Earth and Arkon with Atlan in charge have formed a
>> mutual defense alliance.  Atlan has a problem with the planet Opghan
>> where the robot administrator has been destroyed so Atlan asks Perry
>> Rhodan to investigate.  Rhodan sends out a light cruiser over 10,000
>> light years to the planet and they find it to be a water world.  And
>> things go bad soon after they land on a small island.
> 
> This story's a dud. Drudgery drove me to excercise my mp3 player's skip
> forward button.
> 
> --
> Don.......My cat's  )\._.,--....,'``.                     veritas    _|_
> telltale tall tail /,   _.. \   _\  (`._ ,.               liberabit   |
> tells tall tales.. `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'              vos         |

I managed to finish the book so it got my bottom score, 4 stars.  It was 
dragging at several times, not a excellent Kurt Mahr book.
I have over 200 books in my SBR that I have DNF'd.  I dare not throw 
200+ 1 star reviews on Big River, they will excise me despite my 1,300 
reviews up there.  Big River counts any review under 4 stars as a 
negative review.
  
https://www.amazon.com/gp/profile/amzn1.account.AGJZ2IAEX5W6JZX5A5UCJTD44I3A

Man, I need to update my picture up there.  I think that my father took 
that picture of me around 20 years ago before I turned 50.

Lynn

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