The Space Merchants [Frederik Pohl, C. M. Kornbluth] on *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. In a vastly overpopulated near-future world. Unheralded yet fitting perfectly amongst these novels, C.M. Kornbluth and Frederik Pohl’s The Space Merchants is a dystopian novel that. In , Pohl and Kornbluth (–) published this wry tale of a future run by The Space Merchants. Frederik Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth.
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An alternate cover edition can be found here. It is the 22nd Century, an advertisement-drenched world in which the big ad agencies dominate governments and everything else. Now Schoken Associates, one of the big players, has a new challenge for star copywriter Mitch Courtenay.
Volunteers are needed to colonise Venus. It’s a hellhole, and nobody who knew anything about it wo An alternate cover edition can be found here. It’s a hellhole, and nobody who knew anything about it would dream of signing up.
Fantastical Andrew Fox
But by the time Mitch has finished, they will be queuing to get on board the spaceships. Biographical Notes Pohl and Kornbluth started writing together as early asalthough both authors produced a wide variety of stories separately, under their own names and pseudonyms.
Each wrote sections, starting where the other left off, and through long experience crederik developed an mercbants telepathic awareness of each other’s intentions. Paperbackpages. The Space Merchants 1. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about The Space Merchantsplease sign pkhl. I am about half way through this book and enjoying it. I am only just dipping into the water with SciFi abandoned many years ago. I have also read ‘I Robot’ and loved that.
Suggestions for a novice, please. Vincenzo Iuppa It’s hard to base a recommendation off of just this book because it is admittedly unique in the genre. If you are interested in more positive sci-fi …more It’s hard to base a recommendation off of just this book because it is admittedly unique in the genre.
If you are interested in more positive sci-fi because even though the world in this book is dystopian it’s from a pretty positive angle I would suggest Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie. If you are interested in more fiction from the time, you may really like the Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov you can always start with I Robot to just dip your toes in the deep end. If more stories about ad-men is where it is at, Philip K. Good luck in your journeys!
This question contains spoilers… view frederuk [Why did Hester kill herself? If indeed that actually was the case. As far as I can tell we only have Kathy’s word on it. I assume it must be transparent because no reader here seems to question. I get that Hester was in love with Mitch.
But the section where she died seemed to indicate that she died from poison. It also seemed to indicate that she had been consistently tasting their rations first. Lex Bijlsma This answer contains spoilers… view spoiler [ She drank the poison immediately after Mitch had made it clear that he regarded himself as her boss rather than a friend.
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Whether she knew the drink …more She drank the poison immediately after Mitch frederlk made it clear that he regarded himself as her boss rather than a friend.
Whether she knew the drink was poisonous we’ll never know. See 2 questions about The Space Merchants…. Lists with This Book.
Are you one of those people who miss Madmen desperately? Do you also have a taste for classic science fiction? If so, here is a book that could have been created just for you. Published inThe Space Merchants tells the story of the USA some centuries hence, a land still stuck in the morals and mores of the Madmen era, with sexist psace who take their privilege as a given and take their sexy and intelligent, and capable women for granted. But things are much worse in the future than they we Are you one of those people who miss Madmen desperately?
But things are much worse in the future than they were mercchants the 50’s. Population is soaring, nature polluted, wildlife decimated, fossil fuels exhausted. The quality of peoples’ lives, the wealthy not excepted, is poor: Now who would you put in charge of a world like this, a world where the most important thing is to make people who have every reason to be miserable think they aren’t miserable after all?
Why, advertising agencies, of course! Enter our hero, Mitch Courtenay, an advertising executive, who—like most great salesmen—is an expert at fooling himself. Are these the machinations of his firm’s powerful rival?
Or of the dreaded Consies ecological terrorists? Or could it be somebody else entirely? Then Courtenay is kidnapped, his identity wiped from the records, and soon he finds himself a virtual prisoner, condemned to slave labor. It is then that he learns, to his dismay, about the rank human misery his civilization creates to fuel its survival.
You could do a lot worse than to give this book a try. It is outdated, but that is part plhl its charm. Its prose is straightforward and muscular, and what it lacks in elegance it makes up for in clarity and the briskness of its pace. There are some horrors, o reader, you must discover for yourself.
View all spae comments. Apr 29, Lyn rated it liked it.
I like Frederik Pohl more the more of his books I read. Space Merchants, first published in is a science fiction gem. Then corporate espionage and the nefarious I like Frederik Pohl more the more of his books I read. Somewhat dated, this is told with humor frederrik intelligence and was no doubt wildly influential on the genre.
That’s true of much of Pohl’s work, he was an underrated master. View all 14 comments. Oct 13, Duane rated merchantts really liked it Shelves: This future world is run by several large corporations, primarily ad agencies, and based entirely on the idea of consumerism. The novel is of course satire, an exaggerated satire that almost reaches the level of comedy. Also, casual public smoking was still around which is an irony drederik itself because of the success that tobacco advertising had on that generation.
They had trouble finding a publisher originally until Ballantine agreed to do it. The rest is history. It has now sold over 10 million copies in 25 languages and is considered a science fiction classic. Nov 05, Apatt rated it really liked it Shelves: Think about smoking, think about Starrs, light a Starr. Light a Starr, think pohhl Popsie, get a squirt. Get a squirt, think about Crunchies, buy a box. Buy a box, think about smoking, light a Starr.
Izzy´s eBook Library – The Space Merchants by Frederik Pohl, Cyril M. Kornbluth
And at every step roll out the words of praise that had been dinned into you through your eyes and ears and pores. Earth is severely overpopulated, polluted and short on resources, including clean water. There are two main social classes, the executives, and the consumers. You can imagine which one is lording over the other.
The narrative is told in the first person by Mitchell Courtenay, one of the top advertising executives of Fowler Schocken Associates, an advertising agency poho one of the ruling giant corporations. Courtenay is put spac charge of a new project to induce the public to emigrate to Venus as colonists.
Unfortunately, Venus is an inhospitable planet with very ths temperature and uncomfortable climate. Rivalry within the company caused Courtenay to be abducted, his identity stolen and sent to work as a laborer for the United Slime-Mold Protein Workers of Panamerica in Costa Rica.
As an executive Courtenay despises the Consies and everything they stand for, but in his predicament, he sees them as a ticket out of the lowly consumer class, back to the executive life. The Space Merchants was first published in It is something of a minor sci-fi classic, though some of the concepts, science or even characterization may seem a little dated today; but a great story will always stand the test of time.
This is a heavily satirical book, often funny but the underlying theme of consumerism gone mad is always near the surface. Unscrupulous advertising agencies manipulating gullible, unsuspecting consumers still exist to this day. Besides the social satire the novel is also a competent espionage thriller, with a few exciting moments. My only complaint is that the book seems to lose steam a little toward the end and the pacing slackens more than it should.
The ending is quite satisfying, though not entirely unpredictable. Definitely recommended to readers who want to be well versed in sci-fi history.