Venus Inc - Space Merchants, Bk 1 & 2 Author:Frederik Pohl, C. M. Kornbluth The ads were brilliant, persuasive. A sleek rocket stood poised on the launchpad, while the voiceover said triumphantly: "This is the ship that spans the stars... the ship that a modern day Columbus will drive through the void. Six and a half million tons of trapped lightning and steel -- an ark for 1,800 men and women, and everything to ma... more »ke a new world for their home. Who will man it? What fortunate pioneers will tear an empire from the rich, fresh soil of another world?" And the camera panned across highly imaginative shots of Venus as it would be - verdant valleys, crystal lakes, striking mountain vistas.
What the voice did not say, and the visuals certainly didn't show, was that Venus was currently a living hell, and that the pioneers would have to endure decades of hydroponics and life in hermetically sealed cabins while terraforming the planet'ss unbreathable atmosphere and waterless chemistry.
But as Mitchell Courtenay would say, that's advertising. And he should know, because Mitch is the copy genius behind the Venus campaign...
Here is Venus, Inc., a two-in-one volume containing the 1952 classic, The Space Merchants by Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth, and The Merchants War, Pohl's brilliant new sequel to the previous masterpiece -- a blistering satirical vision of Earth's foreseeable future, when advertising has gone mad, and society is divided into those who sell and the lowly consumers who buy . . and buy . . .and buy. It is a civilization in which no one eats natural foods, artificially cultivated meat cells provide all protein, soft drinks are laced with "harmless" addictives to ensure product loyalty - and onle the Conservationist rebels, or Consies, battle the status quo, waging an underground war against the powerful, exploitative advertising agencies that run the world.
A two-in-one volume containing:
the 1952 classic The Space Merchants by Frederik Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth, and The Merchants War, Pohl's brilliant 1984 sequel.« less