Dallas McCord "Mack" Reynolds (1917 - 1983) was an American science fiction writer. His pen names included Dallas Ross, Mark Mallory, Clark Collins, Dallas Rose, Guy McCord, Maxine Reynolds, Bob Belmont, and Todd Harding.He was a considerably popular author from the 1950s to the 1970s, especially with readers of science fiction and fantasy magazines. Reynolds was the first author to write an original novel based upon the 1966-1969 NBC television series Star Trek. The book, Mission to Horatius (1968), was aimed at young readers. In this book: Potential Enemy Black Man's Burden Frigid Fracas Expediter Combat Border, Breed Nor Birth Freedom Dogfight-1973 Medal of Honor I'm a Stranger Here Myself Adaptation Mercenary Gun for Hire Revolution Summit Subversive The Common Man
What would the world be like if the Russians discovered how to beat us at our own capitalistic game, and began dumping inexpensive, quality goods on the world market? In this novel, Mack Reynolds deposits us into just such a future. It is a world where America is rapidly being turned into a second-rate power as its industries go bankrupt. A world that is falling under the wheels of the Soviet juggernaut, peacefully and passively. It is a world where the U.S. has only one way to retaliate - by bringing a little religion into the Soviet Union, a very special religion.
In Rolltown, Reynolds has turned his productive imagination towards the growing phenomenon of mobile living in America. Taking us decades into the future, he tells the story of a world where people have taken to the road en masse, in huge mobile "towns" composed of hundreds or even thousands of inhabitants, attempting to deal with a hostile and over-organized world.
UTOPIA WAS NO FUN They had a Guaranteed Annual Income and an automated world where no one had to work - but there was nothing to do! When Morris and his friends ran out of beer, there was only one alternative - they decided to overthrow the government!
First on the scene were Larry Dermott and Tim Casey of the State Highway Patrol. They assumed they were witnessing the crash of a new type of Air Force plane and slipped and skidded desperately across the field to within thirty feet of the strange craft, only to discover that the landing had been made without accident. Patrolman Dermott shook his head. "They're gettin' queerer looking every year. Get a load of it -- no wheels, no propeller, no cockpit." They left the car and made their way toward the strange egg-shaped vessel. Tim Casey loosened his .38 in its holster and said, "Sure, and I'm beginning to wonder if it's one of ours. No insignia and --" A circular door slid open at that point and Dameri Tass stepped out, yawning. He spotted them, smiled and said, "Glork." They gaped at him. "Glork is right," Dermott swallowed.
According to tradition, the man who held the Galactic Medal of Honor could do no wrong. In a strange way, Captain Don Mathers was to learn that this was true.
The evening was dark, it was unlikely that the other even saw the circle of steel that was the mouth of the shotgun barrel, now resting on the car's window ledge. "Who's it?" he growled. Joe Prantera said softly, "Big Louis sent me, Al." And he pressed the trigger. And at that moment, the universe caved inward upon Joseph Marie Prantera. There was nausea and nausea upon nausea. There was a falling through all space and through all time. There was doubling and twisting and twitching of every muscle and nerve. There was pain, horror and tumultuous fear. And he came out of it as quickly and completely as he'd gone in. He was in, he thought, a hospital. His second thought was "Something went wrong. Big Louis, he ain't going to like this.
It is sometime I the near future. The nations of Earth have drawn closer together - there is even hope of a new era of co-operation and progress will soon begin. These dreams of lasting peace are shattered by one momentous discovery. One of the members of an international team of scientists stationed on the moon has found an alien spacecraft - with all its incredible technology and weaponry intact. The discovery shatters the illusion of peace on Earth, as each nation joins the mad scramble to learn the terrible secrets entombed by alien visitors eons before. Only one thing prevents total war - Werner Brecht, the discoverer of the vehicle, is the only one who knows its location, and he has disappeared into thin air.
It looked remarkably like a sterile, cold metallic coffin. It was the Intuitive Computer, a fantastic invention that would allow a user to assume the identity of any historical figure - Napoleon, Cleopatra, Hitler - anyone who ever existed. The possessor of this top-secret device would be able to witness the building of the pyramids, the crucifixion, the discovery of America. The Intuitive Computer would revolutionise the studies of history, archaeology, anthropology; it would eventually revolutionise the entire entertainment and leisure industry. The lives of every person on Earth would be changed because of it. IT WAS PROBABLY THE MOST DANGEROUS INVENTION IN THE HISTORY OF THE HUMAN RACE.
Western society is split up into nine castes, from Lower-Lower to Mid-Lower all the way up to the privileged Upper-Upper. Mauser himself was born a Mid-Lower. Ambitious, he had chosen one of the few professions, Category Military, where upward mobility was still a reasonable possibility. To prevent any chance of a ruinous war between the West and the Sov-world, the Universal Disarmament Pact had restricted all militaries to pre-1900 technology. Gradually, powerful corporations began settling business disputes by hiring troops to fight real battles (fracases) on one of many military reservations. This served a dual purpose: to maintain a military well-honed by actual combat and to provide the decadent general population with a diversion. The life-and-death struggles are so popular that they are televised. Mauser had worked his way up to captain and Middle-Middle status after many years of effort. When upstart Vacuum Tube Transport finds itself forced into an expensive, division-sized fracas with Continental Hovercraft, he sees his opportunity. He signs up with the underdog, even though the much wealthier Continental is able to hire the best soldiers available, including Marshal "Stonewall" Cogswell, the finest commander in the business. Mauser tells Baron Haer, the head of Vacuum Tube, that he can engineer an improbable victory with a gimmick he has been working on for a long time; in return, he expects the baron's support which, in conjunction with his anticipated popularity with fracas fans, should be enough to get him promoted into the Upper caste. The baron's son, Bart, scoffs at the undisclosed idea, but the baron is desperate for experienced officers and hires him.
MILK RUN. That's what they told Ronny Bronston this job would be. "Just like a vacation," his boss had said. All he and the giant Dorn Horsten would have to do is visit the planet Einstein and see if there was any reason not to admit them to United Planets. The planet was a paradise, where the people had bred themselves for intelligence and beauty, where everyone was completely free. Free, sometimes, to get into more trouble than they could handle. Only Ronny could get them out of that trouble; and that's how he wound up on Dawnworld, in a gladiator's arena!
Legally, the United Planets Organization could do nothing about the repressive, backward planetary governments of Falange, Stalin and Doria. It was imperative, however, that something be done. The UP had proof that a race of highly advanced, warlike aliens existed somewhere in the depths of space - the human-held worlds ad to be ready to meet the challenge when it came. For this reason the secret corps, Section G, was formed. No government could be allowed to hold up the progress of mankind; Section G was ordered to bring them down - by any means necessary!
They put him into a hypnotic trance in a sealed room to cure him. Then the house burnt down and he was forgotten. Until he awoke forty years later and could not - dared not - believe what he saw . . .
POWER! Perhaps the rarest gift in the world is that ability to read the future, to know what will happen to a person, a group, even a country, and when it will happen! EXTRASENSORY PERCEPTION The year is some indeterminate time in the future; Mickey Grant and Anna Enesco are involved in special studies for people who have shown extraordinary ESP talent. Their progress is as frightening as it is incredible. But when our government sends them on missions that become increasingly dangerous and difficult, are their lives the price of their special pre-knowledge?
The odds were right for victory. The problem with computer warfare is that the computer is always logical while the human enemy is not - or doesn't have to be. And that's what the Betastani enemy were doing - nothing that the Alphaland computers said they would. Those treacherous foemen were avoiding logic and using such unheard-of devices as surprise and sabotage, treason and trickery. They even had Alphaland's Deputy of Information believing Betastani propaganda without even realizing it. Of course he still thought he was being loyal to Alphaland, because he thought that one and one must logically add up to two. And that kind of thinking could make him the biggest traitor of them all.
The most expensive, the most luxurious resort in the history of man. Where no request, no whim or pleasure, was denied. Where anything was possible - for a price. SATELLITE CITY The haven and the playground of only the very rich and the most powerful. It was the most amazing pleasure complex ever built - and it looked down on the Earth from an orbit 22,000 miles high. Yet, for all its glitter, there was something ominous about Satellite City - no nation or international body had any jurisdiction there, it was a law unto itself; no one knew who owned it; or what went on within its secret council rooms. Until one man penetrated the wall of secrecy and discovered satellite city's hidden masters.
The turmoil in Africa is only beginning-and it must grow worse before it's better. Not until the people of Africa know they are Africans-not warring tribesmen-will there be peace...
It is the far future. Earth is beautifully planned efficiently run and happily united. It is the world that dreamers have envisioned since the beginning of time - no slums, no crime, no poverty, no disease, no shortages. But still, it is a world with problems - people have become so lazy, so self-satisfied, that human progress has all but ceased. To make matters worse, addicts of the newly-developed "programmed dreams" are increasing at an enormous rate. Only a few individuals understand the far-reaching consequences of these problems; only a few realize that the human race is destroying itself.
Amazonia had a reputation for strangeness even among the zany worlds of the United Federation of Planets. It was a spartan planet ruled by a fearsome military caste - made up exclusively of women. The males of Amazonia usually wound up in some warrior's harem. When Guy Thomas arrived he was allowed the privilege of landing only because he offered the government profitable trade agreements, but it wasn't long before his real plans were fulfilled by his secret meetings with the male-liberationist revolutionary group, The Sons of Liberty. They needed a lot of help. The more he got involved, however, the more he got the feeling that something was wrong with the whole setup. Guy Thomas was soon to learn that there was more to Amazonia than met the eye - and he wasn't going to like the truth at all.
When the Asian Wars were over Major Bert Alshuler had few prospects, until Mid-West University asked him to take part in an 'educational experiment' that would test the effect of certain drugs on his I.Q.
Mack Reynolds has always been admired for his ability to portray the world of the future in its varied aspects - social, political, scientific and economic. Now, he presents his readers with an imaginative and action-packed look into the everyday life of a twenty-first century policeman.
New Arizona a lush, virgin planet teeming with rich vegetation and a vast hoard of mineral wealth. A company had been formed to colonise and exploit it, and the spaceship Titov set out with the Board of Directors and two thousand colonists. And shortly after the trip had begun, the trouble started. The Board of Directors was only interested in the vast profits that could be made by stripping the planet of its natural resources which could be sold to the highest bidder. Not for them the gradual establishment of a pioneer community, of farmlands and villages. The Colonists had given up everything by leaving Earth, and they wanted a new planet where they could work, prosper and establish a new and better way of life. They were determined to thwart the directors by any means they could find. And after landing on New Arizona, someone smashes the radio and sabotages the life-craft. Now the balance is more even - but when a real crisis erupts it seems as if neither side will be alive to win!
Newly accepted as a Special Agent of the star-spanning United Planets organization, Ronny Bronston found that his first assignment was one which had taken the lives of dozens of agents before him: he was to track down a man named Tommy Paine. 'We've been trying to catch him for twenty years,' said Ronny's section chief. 'How long before that he was active, we have no way of knowing. It was some time before we became aware that half the revolts, coups d'états and assassinations that occur in the United Planets have his dirty finger stirring around in them.' 'But what motivates him?' Ronny asked. 'What's he get out of all the war and killing he stirs up?' 'Nobody seems to know. But the best guess is that he's insane - a homicidal maniac on an intergalactic scale. He's dangerous, Ronny, and you've got to get him!
The world situation has become so confused that a young American living on Negative Income Tax finds himself drafted into an international espionage assignment by no less than 5 opposing interests. It is a story of humour and adventure that will be hard to forget.
GUNS WERE ILLEGAL Unless you were a member of Category Military, no one on Earth could own a gun. So who was shooting at Joe Mauser? And why? He'd been a mercenary, but he'd been thrown out when he saved Field Marshal Cogswell's life. Whose enemies were after him now - his own, or Cogswell's? In a world where the computers kept track of you, Mauser had to disappear - and stay alive long enough to reach the Field Marshal!
Rex Morris belonged to the master class which ruled the entire world by brain power or brutality, depending on which was needed. He should have functioned perfectly in the rigid totalitarian society of the future where every thought, word, and action was controlled by the superstate, where everyone was watched night and day by the Great Eye of the internal security forces. It was a strange world, but the rewards were great for those who belonged to the right caste. Morris had all the qualifications - yet he didn't belong. Nonconformity could mean liquidation - but he was prepared to take the risk!
At least he'd got far enough to wind up with a personal interview. It's one thing doing up an application and seeing it go onto an endless tape and be fed into the maw of a machine and then to receive, in a matter of moments, a neatly printed rejection. It's another thing to receive an appointment to be interviewed by a placement officer in the Commissariat of Interplanetary Affairs, Department of Personnel. Ronny Bronston was under no illusions. Nine out of ten men of his age annually made the same application. Almost all were annually rejected. Statistically speaking practically nobody ever got an interplanetary position. But he'd made step one along the path of a lifetime ambition.
WAS VENU'S FATHER ADRIFT IN SPACE, CAPTIVE...OR DEAD? Life changed abruptly for 16-year-old Venu Jhabulova when his father disappeared. Venu had been heir to a large fortune and his father's title...but now his uncle forced him to leave school and work for the family business. Venu's only wish - that he be allowed to search the star system for his father - was denied. Venu knew, deep inside, that his father still lived. So he escaped his uncle, fleeing from world to world in a desperate search. With the help of a mercenary who teaches him the proper use of violence and the ways of several planets, Venu learns and grows...during his SPACE SEARCH.
There are these two aliens in a bar in a place that'd be a tropical hellhole if it got any rain. Which it never does. "One can't be too cautious about the people one meets in Tangier. They're all weirdies of one kind or another. Me? Oh, I'm a stranger here myself.
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