Book Review: The Mutant Weapon | The Pirates of Zan by Murray Leinster
It’s time for another Ace Double, those fun paperbacks that are two books in one, with two covers upside down from each other. In this case it’s two short science fiction novels by Murray Leinster (pen name of William Fitzgerald Jenkins (1896-1975)) from 1959. They’re set in roughly the same universe.
The Mutant Weapon was first done as “Med Service” in Astounding in 1957 and expanded for this printing. It is a far future in which humans have colonized the galaxy. Although faster than light ships exist, faster than light communication does not, and there’s really no such thing as a centralized government that covers more than a single star system. One of the few things holding humanity together is the Med Service, which propagates medical knowledge and helps out in case of medical emergencies.
Calhoun is a member of the Med Service, who along with his pet tormal Murgatroyd has come to the recently colonized planet Maris III for a routine check on the population’s general health. He’s rather shocked when the locals not only react negatively when he asks to land, but try to destroy his ship!
Making the best landing he can under the circumstances, Calhoun discovers a field of ripe corn…in which is the corpse of a man who’s starved to death! It soon becomes apparent that there’s a deadly plague afoot–but if that’s the case, why wouldn’t the inhabitants welcome a doctor?
Calhoun must battle almost alone against an insidious plot to conquer worlds that will murder millions.
Calhoun’s very much in the tradition of hypercompetent science fiction protagonists. He’s more guile than action, though, as he repurposes medical equipment to use as non-lethal weaponry so that he can trick the villains into thinking their plan has backfired on them. By the end, he’s anxious to get back to peacefully reading a good book.
Romance is thankfully relegated to two minor characters; our hero is no ladies’ man.
There’s a touch of ableism; this is a future where it’s possible to create custom diseases, but no one thinks of using advanced medical science (or even plastic surgery) to help someone born deformed.
The Pirates of Zan was originally published in Astounding in 1959 as “The Pirates of Ersatz”, and had one of the truly classic science fiction covers, which is the one I’m featuring here.
Bron Haddon ran away from his home planet of Zan because he didn’t want to follow in the family business of space piracy, but instead be an electronic engineer. He wound up on the very civilized planet of Walden. But “very civilized” also means “stuffy”, and when he came up with a new method for clean energy, no one wanted to buy it. Reverting to some of his childhood methods, Bron snuck into the planet’s power broadcast plant and installed his device to prove it would work.
It worked, all right, much to the horror of the Waldensians. When a corpse turns up near the power plant, the immediate assumption is that Bron Haddon’s device emits death rays. To prevent him or anyone else from ever using the device again, it and all the plans are destroyed, and Bron is condemned to solitary confinement for life.
Just so we’re all clear, Bron Haddon’s device does not in fact emit death rays. He cleverly evades his guards, then flees to the planetary ambassador’s compound. Again, there is no faster than light communication, so no actual extraplanetary government, but there is an Ambassadorial Service that tries to help when there are two planets clashing. The ambassador helps Bron escape Walden.
Bron then tries his luck on the more primitive planet of Darth, where one of the local warlords is in need of an electronic engineer. Bron runs into a series of cultural clashes and soon finds himself in even more hot water. (This part is very much in the planetary romance subgenre.)
Then a massive space fleet appears, far more massive than could possibly be practical for anything. Bron decides to investigate, and learns the secret of the fleet. He now realizes that he cannot escape his destiny. To resolve all the knotty problems he’s acquired, Bron Haddon must turn space pirate! Arr!
This is a much more humorous novel. While Bron is a whiz at electronic engineering, he’s kind of a dolt at understanding people, and especially women. Only when he starts thinking like a criminal does Bron get good results. Much of the humor is also carried by Thal, a somewhat cowardly but boastful Darthian who becomes Bron’s sidekick because Bron keeps providing opportunities for plunder, initially by accident.
The women in the story don’t fare as well as characters, though they do show considerable agency within their social roles. (It’s one of those “women, who knows what they’re thinking, am I right, fellas?” things.)
Overall, these two novels pair well and are solid work. Recommended for fans of good old fashioned science fiction.
