“Medal of Honor”

Essay: “Medal of Honor”, Mack Reynolds, 1960.

This is on the cusp of Reynolds writing more political stories, but there is an element of that here. This also has one of Reynolds’ better examples of characterization though I wouldn’t say any of his works I’ve read would meet the standards of those primarily seeking vivid and realistic characters in their science fiction. However, they’re usually serviceable enough for the plot and ideological arguments.

This may be part of the Johnny Norsen series since it also has humanity warring with the alien Kraden and specifically mentions the New Taos. On the other hand, Reynolds’ frequently re-uses names so that doesn’t mean much.

I suspect this 1960 story had more emotional effectiveness 15 years after the end of World War Two than it does now. Its full societal mobilization for war and the prominence and generosity afforded to the winner of the Galactic Medal of Honor would have seemed familiar to contemporary readers who, I suspect, would have known the names of a lot more Congressional Medal of Honor winners than the public does today.

Protagonist Donal Mathers is a sub-lieutenant who pilots a one-man Scout ship on two-week patrols. He’s understandable but not likeable. 

(more…)

Review: “Stowaway”, Mack Reynolds, 1953.

This installment of Reynolds’ New Taos series repeats the same main beats as the earlier “Doctor’s Orders”. Yet, there is a hint of politics here unlike that earlier story.

Again, New Taos is on a yearlong mission. This is their fourth combat mission. We learn that it is the “proudest ship in the fleet” with a “record that’s the envy of the solar system”. So, it seems to have actually fought the alien Kadren.

As in the earlier story, Doc Thorndon is very concerned with the crew being struck down by the “space cafard”. He’s never had a case on a ship he’s served on, and he intends to keep it that way.

As with the earlier story, boredom is a big problem. All the books have been read multiple times. (Lieutenant Johnny Norsen isn’t even interested in history, but he’s read Decline and Fall of the United States at least four times.) The videos have all been memorized. All the games are boring.

They’ve resorted to an old trick for those cut off from civilization: they read a pile of newspapers, in order, one issue a day. Of particular interest are the exploits of Jackie Black. At first, it seems Black is just a robber with a wide dragnet against him, but he managed to escape it on the planet Calypso.

(more…)

And, so, I start a look at another Mack Reynolds series.

Sort of.

I don’t even know how many stories are in what ISDFB calls the Johnny Norsen series (though it’s a series of one in its listing) and what would be better called the New Taos series. And I’m not going to find out.

Actually, I didn’t even know it was a series until I read Reynolds’ blurb for this story and the story. Then I – vaguely – remembered seeing the characters before.

Review: “Doctor’s Orders”, Mack Reynolds, 1952.

One of Reynolds’ claims to fame is that he wrote the first Star Trek novel: Mission to Horatius. It was by far his most popular work, he said. Not his most profitable though. It was written for a straight fee so no royalties.

Reynolds’ said that, long before he wrote that novel, he “anticipated the trials and tribulations” of the Enterprise with his series about the ship New Taos.

Indeed, there is a bit of a Star Trek feel about the story, but Reynolds was hardly the first author to do a story about a military starship on a long voyage. Here, it’s less exploration than a yearlong patrol against the alien Kraden.

The cast of main characters is what would you would expect. Lieutenant Johnny Norsen at least has something to keep him busy, but navigator Dick Roland doesn’t have much to given that the computer does most of the plotting. We have Ensign Mart Bakr and Doc Thorndon. Norsen dubs the latter as, next to him, the most useless man onboard. And, of course, we have the Commander Mike Gurloff.

Morale is not doing well. The crew did not get the rest they expected after their last long voyage before they were sent out again. Boredom has set in after several months. All the books have been read multiple times. They’ve resorted to going through a book on old card games and resurrecting them (which, of course, gives Reynolds a chance to pad the story with their description) and practical jokes.

(more…)

Essay: Code Duello, Mack Reynolds, 1968.

The freaks from Section G’s Special Talents section return in their third outing.

We’ve seen two before: Dr. Dorn Hornsten and Helen who were introduced in “Fiesta Brava”. The new additions are Jerry Rhodes, a man possessed of freakish good luck but only when his own interests are at stake, and Zorro Juarez, a man very talented in using a bullwhip.

Section G Director Metaxas visits the Special Talents school to see more freaks in what seems a bit of either padding or setting up other characters for future use in the series – which never happened.

We hear series hero Ronny Bronston is in the hospital for some reason and Birdman, the Section G agent who helped him in Dawnman Planet, is dead from unknown causes.

The team’s assignment is to go undercover to Firenze, a planet settled by colonists tracing their origins back to Italy, and it’s vaguely like Renaissance Florence with relatively modern technology. The mission is unusual though. Rather than subverting the Firenze government, they are there to help it stomp down on a subversive group called the Engelists which are holding back the planet from achieving the sort of progress Section G deems it should be making in fighting the alien menace.

At least here, Reynolds finally clears up his muddled presentation of that alien threat which, even after the events of Dawnman Planet, is still sometimes said to be some unknown alien race lurking in space. Here it’s made clear the threat is the Dawnmen. Progress must be made to match their fantastic technology. In the meantime, the existence and location of the Dawnman Planets must be kept a secret to avoid the spectacular retaliation if anybody visits there trying to steal their technology.

(more…)

Essay: “Summit”, Mack Reynolds, 1960.

This story is worth an extended look not because it involves Cold War nuclear war anxieties. There are lots of those kind of stories. Nor is the sting at its ending memorable. I read this story almost four months ago and had forgotten it by the time I looked at the story again.

However, it condenses a lot of Reynolds’ Cold War critiques and later themes when his work became more political about this time.

The first Cold War summit to include the US and USSR was in July 1955, but that featured leaders from other countries. The first restricted to just those two was in September 1959, and I suspect that was Reynolds’ main inspiration.

After pomp-and-circumstance, Marshall Vladimir Ignatov and President James Warren Donlevy retire alone to a meeting for an amiable and frank discussion, addressing each other as Vovo and Jim.

(more…)