Mack Reynolds "Mercenary"

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Mack Reynolds was a very prolific SF writer who died in 1983. I've been re-reading a lot of ancient SF, and his "mercenary" tale is rather striking for having been written back in 1968. It can be read online or downloaded in numerous formats here -- http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24370

 

There is a wikipedia page on the story-- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercenary_from_Tomorrow

 

And here is reynolds' bio-- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mack_Reynolds

 

Reynolds was a socialist, but an interesting writer nontheless in the mold of prominent socialist George Orwell.

 

I had read a lot of Reynolds back in the 1960's when started reading astounding/analog SF magazine. Reynolds was not a "star author" but he was unusually successful in selling lots of stories to analog. So I don't remember a lot about reading his stories "the first time out" and since he didn't have a bunch of million selling hit novels, might be unfairly relegated as a "magazine hack". But he was a pretty dern good writer. Perhaps a kid wouldn't necessarily understand what Reynolds was "getting at" with his stories.

Edited May 29, 2013 by Lester Weevils

[Guest Lester Weevils]

I was wrong, the novelized version of this tale was 1968, but the original short story was 1962. He nailed some trends rather solidly from a perspective of 1962. The trends are much more visible today, but would have been harder to see, barely starting in 1962.