review of
Mack Reynolds's The Rival Rigelians / Planetary Agent X
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - June 18, 2018

Read the full review here: https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/629641-gotta-luv-ya-mack-reynolds . If you only read this truncated version you'll miss the best part.

I'd already read The Rival Rigelians as part of another Ace Double coupled w/ A. Bertram Chandler's Nebula Alert. My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1670905334 . As such, I didn't bother to reread it here. This is the 1st Ace Double I can remember seeing that doesn't have the 2 stories upside-down in relation to each other. Shocking!

SO on to Planetary Agent X: This seems to be a prequel to Code Duello (see my review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2409376365 ). "Section G" appears in both. Here's an excerpt from the beginning of my review of that one:

"Code Duello is the one that really did it for me. I was quickly reminded of the humor of Ron Goulart, another writer whose work I enjoy, but I actually prefer the stories of Reynolds's to Goulart's b/c they have more politcal savvy & historical depth. Given that Goulart's 1st novels were apparently published in 1970 (although his short stories had been published for 18 years before that), it might be more accurate to say that Goulart's sense of humor is like Reynolds's. After all, Reynolds was born 16 years earlier & his 1st published short story was in 1950. His 1st novel, The Case of the Little Green Men was published in 1951. He also wrote a book, under the pen name of Bob Belmont, called How to Retire Without Money (1958). I should try to find a copy of that one.

""Look," he said, "I assume you're not trying to sabotage Section G. You've been dedicated too long for that. But when I give you a job of recruiting new agents, I didn't expect you to wind up with a bevy of pickpockets, shovel throwers and . . . lucky coin flippers. All this is out of the question, understand? We'll go back to our old system."" - p 12"

The humor isn't as developed yet in Planetary Agent X as it became in the later Code Duello but I still found this one pretty funny (ugly funny?).

""Ronald Bronston? Sit down. You'd like an interplanetary assignment, eh? So would I."" - p 6

"The secretary shrugged & looked at the car"[d] "again. "Religion?"

""Reformed Agnostic," Ronny said. This one was possibly where he ran into a brick wall. Many of the planets had strong religious beliefs of one sort or another. Some of them had state religions and you either belonged or else.

"The personnel officer frowned. "Is there any such church?"

""No. I'm a one-man member. I'm of the opinion that if there are any greater-powers-that-be They're keeping the fact from us. And if that's the way They want it, it's Their business. If and when They want to contact me, then I suppose They'll do it. Meanwhile, I'll wait."" - p 7

There're recurring characters in Planetary Agent X & Code Duello. Ross Metaxa's one of them.

""You're to go to the office of Ross Metaxa in the Octagon, Commissariat of Interplanetary Affairs, Department of Justice, Bureau of Investigation, Section G."" - p 8

I reckon after it was so easy to crash a plane into The Department of Defense HQ on Sept 11, 2001 the military decided it needed a few more walls. & that's not funny.

"He picked up a report. "Here's Monet, originally colonized by a bunch of painters, writers, musicians and such. They had dreams of starting a new race"—Metaxa snorted—"with everybody artists. They were all so impractical that they even managed to crash their ship on landing. For three hundred years they were uncontacted. What did they have in the way of government by that time? A military theocracy, something like the Aztecs of Pre-Conquest Mexico. A matriarchy at that. And what's their religion based on? That of ancient Phoenicia, including plenty of human sacrifice to good old Moloch. What can United Planets do about it, now that they've become a member? Work away very delicately, trying to get them to at least eliminate the child sacrifice phase of their culture. Will they do it? Hell, no, not if they can help it.["]" - pp 12-13

Sounds about right.

There're more recurring characters:

"In the outer office, Ronny said to the receptionist, "Commissioner Metaxa said for me to get in touch with Sid Jakes."

"She said, "I'm Irene Kasansky. Are you with us?"

"Ronny said, "I beg your pardon?"" - p 16

"Jakes chuckled. "When you've been in this Section for a while, you'll be familiar with every screwball outfit man has ever dreamed up. The Nihilists were a European group, mostly Russian, back in the Nineteenth Century, They believed that by bumping off a few Grand Dukes and a Czar or so they could force the ruling class to grant reforms. Sometimes they were pretty ingenious. Blew up trains, that sort of thing."" - p 19

Nice try. One of the hundreds of bks I have stacked around me to-be-read-if-I-live-long-enuf is The Russian Terrorists by Ronald Seth. The inside front cover flap blurb begins: "The Story of the Narodniki" "On 1st March 1881 Alexander II of Russia was assassinated by Nikolai Rysakov, a young member of the revolutionary group Narodnaya Volya (The People's Will). Though the secret police virtually wiped out the original Narodnaya Volya, other groups adopted its belief that assassination was a necessary political weapon in a police state, and for the next thirty years there were always a number of men and women from all walks of life ready to devote themselves to the hazardous and conspiratorial life of the terrorist." As usual, there's always the question of Who's the terrorist? If you're a child forced into hard labor b/c of an economic system that you have no control over then the people who do have control over it are the terrorists. It seems only natural to me to want to kill them & their system.

The Nihilists might be a "screwball outfit" to many but to me they set an example that the god-like people who were ruining the lives of the masses cd be killed. I've got to hand it to them for that. They were the avant-garde of the Russian Revolution. Alas, as time has taught us over & over again, it's not just a matter of killing off the oppressors or even, admittedly better yet, their systems, it's a matter of ethically (& I don't mean ethnically) 'cleansing' people of the Will to Power. I don't have much hope for that but I haven't completely given up either. At any rate, I have more admiration for the Nihilists than I do for most people.

"Ronny leaned forward. The three of them were having a beer in a part of a city once called Baltimore." - p 25

"He packed in a swirl of confusion. He phoned a relative who lived in a part of town once known as Richmond" - p 33

Baltimore & Richmond have been absorbed into the Washington DC megalopolis. I'd expect them to be absorbed in a shopping mall instead but I guess online ordering did away w/ that before it cd happen.

"Mankind was exploding through this spiral arm of the galaxy. There was a racial enthusiasm about it all. Man's destiny lay out in the stars; only a laggard stayed home of his own accord. It was the ambition of every youth to join the snowballing avalanche of man into the neighboring stars.

"It took absolute severity by Earth authorities to prevent the depopulation of the planet. But someone had to stay to administer the ever more complicated racial destiny. Earth became a clearing house for a thousand cultures, attempting, with only moderate success, to coordinate her widely spreading children. She couldn't afford to let her best seed depart. Few ere allowed to emigrate from Earth anymore." - p 32

Didn't think of that, didja? That's what we have SF writers for, to think of it for you.

""That's right. Well, back in the Twentieth Century, Christian calendar, they had an economic depression. During it a crackpot organization called Thirty Dollars Every Thursday managed to get on the ballot. Times were bad enough, but if this particular bunch had got into power it would have become chaotic. At first no thinking person took them seriously; however, a majority of people in California at that time had little to lose and in the final week or so of the election campaign the polls showed that Thirty Dollars Every Thursday was going to win. So, a few days before voting many of the larger industries and businesses in the State ran full page ads in the newspapers. They said substantially the same thing. If Thirty Dollars Every Thursday wins this election, our concern will close its doors. Do not bother to come back to work Monday." - p 59

This is one of the many things that Reynolds is good for, telling the reader about obscure political history. I'd never heard of "Thirty Dollars Every Thursday" before so I'll search for info about them right now & relay it here. Thanks to the wonderful "California Digital Newspaper Collection", "A Freely Accessible Repository of Digitized California Newspapers from 1846 to the Present" I found this relevant article from the "Desert Sun, Number 50, 15 July 1938":

"Thirty Dollars Every Thursday
There is keen interest —and divided opinion as to merit —in the proposed $3O-a-week pension plan in California. To the writer it appears as a proposal which is likely to be ratified by the electorate on the theory that the "stamp tax” will work to provide enough pension money to go 'round. Election is not far away, and since this controversial subject is a matter of divided opinion, the viewpoint of Harold Finley, writing for the Los Angeles Times, follows in this article: "Of all the remarkable propositions submitted to Ihe voters since California began experimenting with direct j legislation, there has been none to beat, or tie, the initiative measure titled "Tlie California State Retirement Life Payments Act —$30 a Week for Life,” apparently destined for a place on the coining November ballot. “The purposes of this proposed amendment of the state constitution have been duly summarized by the Attorney-General. The "Petition Campaign Committee for $3O a Week for Life, California State Pension Plan.” sponsor of the act. is industriously plugging for it. "The startling implications of the literature circulated by this organization with the mouth-filling name are borne out by the act’s provisions. The preview, indeed, failed to do justice to the offering itself. A reading of the act’s forty-five closely printed sections starts a whirling in the head. “It hurtles all precedent by decreeing that the Governor, within five days of its adoption, shall appoint one of three named men to serve as administrator until the general election of 1940. It gives that official unlimited power to draw upon and disburse a state appropriation of up to $700,000, authorized under the act to meet expenses while the program is getting under way. “Offered for the Governor’s selection on the altar of public service are Roy G. Owens and Will H. Kindig of Ixis Angeles and J. C. Elliott of Anaheim. The act provides tSec. 4) that if the state executive .fails to appoint one of the three within the specified time. MV. Owens, as “first on the list.” shall “automatically become such appointee,” that if he “shall refuse to serve . . Mr. Kindig. "as the second named person.” shall become the administrator. “and so on until the entire list is exhausted.” “Tlie appointment or automatic accession of an administrator having thus been assured, the drafters of the new constitutional amendment turned to fiscal provisions. The pensions, to get ahead of the story a bit, are to be paid in state warrants, hut the $700,000 to be placed at the administrator’s disposal for “expenses” would be real money. The bond expected of him in the acceptance of this responsibility. and for the fulfillment of subsequent duties in issuing pensions, is fixed at one-seventieth of that amount, or $lO,OOO. "Details of the pension plan itself are probably not very well known outside the dues-paying membership of the P.C.C P.T.-A W.K.L.C.B.P.P. The ebullient backers of the program propose that every resident of California who is 50 years of age or over, who is a "registered qualified elector” and who is not “employed for compensation” shall be entitled to receive "retirement life payment” of "not less than $3O a week” to the end of his other days. The "dollars" will be what the movement’s whooper-uppers call “guaranteed-by-the-state warrants.” It it the hope of these optimists that same will be acceptable as jack of the realm for everything from groceries to taxes. “The sponsors of the initiative freak, in fact, have sought to anticipate all objection to the new "money.” “Retirement compensation warrants,” their measure says, “shall be accepted in payment of any licenses, taxes, fees, royalties, or for the purchase price of real or personal property or for rents or services, or for any and all other debts or obligations of every kind and character due to the state, or to any county or city, or to any board, district, commission or other political subdivision . . If is interesting to note, however, that public officials and employees would not be compelled to accept more than 50 per cent of their salaries in warrants. "As a sweetener to induce more ( ready acceptance of the pension paper. 1 the drafters of (he act hit upon an ittractive device: Sec. 19 exempts all purchases made with warrants from he state sales tax and those portions >f personal and business incomes represented thereby from the California income tax, "The warrants, the public is inform ed, will be entirely "self-liquidating.' (The idea back of the conception, inci dentally, is not a new one, having beet advanced by financial pipe dreamers of other days and places.) The recip ient of a dollar warrant must affix tc the back thereof a 2-cent "redemptior stamp” issued hy the stale. This is to be done in the week of "pay day,’ which will come every Thursday, A new dated stamp goes on the warrant each week for a year. The game, ap patently, is to exchange one of flu papers for goods, services, taxes ot rents before any more stamps have to be stuck on it. “At the end of a year, as the pros pective pensioners figure things, the sum of $1.04 will have been collect ed by the state on each dollar war rant, the warrant itself will have ac quired a value of 100 cents and Sacra mento will have 4 cents left over tc “cover” administration expenses. When one starts analyzing the finan cial aspects of this particular plan to “restore purchasing power” the senses begin to reel. Estimate is made in the P.C.C., Etc. literature that there are enough persons past 50 and not employed for compensation in California to make up a pension payroll of 500,000 names. Thirty dollars a week to half a million pensioners would call for $15,000,000 in warrants each week, which is at the rate of $780,000,000 a year. "Pouring of such "riches” into the channels of business and industry, the public is asked to believe, would hoist California to a new arid never-before-dreamed-of prosperity. The stamps are not to be regarded as a pyramided tax. it seems, but as a mere formality. That such astronomical sums of optimism currency as they propose to put in circulation might turn out like dime-a-bushei marks issues in Germany never appears at have occurred to pension aspirants. "But it is the administration end of the “California State Retirement Life Payments Act —$30 a Week for Life” legislative program that wins the grand prize. “The act provides (Sec. 30) that “until sufficient funds are available from the sale of warrant redemption stamps . . . expenses shall be paid out' of the general fund of the state treasury upon a warrant of the Controller when requested by the administrator." That is where the $700,000 in taxpayers’ money comes in. "The administration (Sec. 20) is to! appoint all state and national banks 1 and branches thereof to act as pay-1 ment agencies and is given the option! of turning that responsibility over to I the merchants in case the banks do I not care for the job. If the merchants balk, he can “procure suitable ground j floor space” and "establish ‘Branch Retirement Life Payment offices.’ ” "He is authorized (Sec. 28) to “fix compensations” for branch office managers, clerks and deputies. Sec. 24 says he "shall pay each agent ap pointed bv him a commission of 10 cents each week for each retired person assigned to said agent and a commission of 2 per cent of all money col- 1 lected for warrant redemption stamps; sold by such agent.” “Sec. 41 gives the administrator full I charge of the printing of warrants, j warrant redemption stamps and '‘all j other printing of every kind and char-! aeter." He may, "at his own option.” instead of turning the work over to the State Printer, "purchase all or any part of said printed matter from private enterprise.” He may "purchase • | or rent, install and operate such equip’■ment as may be needed to do all or - ! an> part of said printing.” i, "The 'plan' is not to suffer from lack ? of ballyhoo if state funds can prevent • lit. "Immediately upon the adoption »jof this article and prior to the first i issue of retirement compensation warijrants,” says Sec. 33, “the administra'jtor shall expend the sum of $200,000 i to acquaint and Inform the public of I the coming issue. • I “Among the powers conferred by • constitutional amendment upon the ■ boss man of this amazing program is ■ that of regulating the value of the ! pension “currency" in "harmony with | fluctuations in price levels.” , "’The administrator,’ it is set forth in Sec. 8, "shall compute weekly re- . tirement life payments upon the basis ~of average prices of consumer goods and rentals which prevailed in 1937, , and in the event that the average | price level of all consumer goods in-1 J eluded by the United States Depart-i Jment of Commerce in computing index I , numbers of the consumer goods prices j for the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco shall show an increase in any quarter over the average price i level for those cities for the entire ! year of 1937, then the number of $1 ; ! warrants which the administrator' shall pay out to each person each week ! j shall be increased in the same proper-1 | tion as the higher price level of that j j particular quarter hears to the average I | price level of consumer goods for the | I year 1937.” I "Thus it will be seen that the direc- j tor of the proposed California pension I | warrant mint would actually he em-1 'powered to pay out more than the "$3O ja week” promised in the pension organization's literature and radio outipourings and emblazoned in the title lof its initiative measure. He could raise the ante every time the purchasing power of the real dollar showed a i decline. One may well shudder to think what such a pursuit of “parity” 'might lead to. “A dictatorial power in no way different from one of the prerogatives exercised by Herr Hitler himself is bestowed upon the hand-picked candiidate for the pension plan czarship unjder Sec. 37 of the "Retirement Life I Payments” act. 'Any amendment or amendments to this article . . .” this section says, “may be proposed by the administrator to the people at a special election which he may call.” The proposal thus to vest in a single individual powers not possessed by the Governor or less than three-fourths of the Legislature is one to give pause" - https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=DS19380715.2.53 ( )