Customer Reviews

Sweet Dreams, Sweet Princes

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Mack Reynolds was a man who liked to drink beer and talk politics, and so do many of his characters. Between karate fights, they may be found in a favorite bar, dialing drinks with credit cards and debating about the state of the economy, who really holds power in government, and whether the ends justify the means. It must be acknowledged that their conversation is slangy, filled with remarks like "Holy Jumping Zen!" and "Wizard!" and "It's your top, you spin it." It must also be acknowledged that their dialogue often sounds more like political speeches than normal conversation. In fact, Reynolds's characters talk in the style (though not exactly the substance) of a John W. Campbell editorial: folksy, colloquial, and assertive.

Yet these dialogues, for all their literary faults, are the heart of a Mack Reynolds story. Other elements of the story-- the action sequences, the sex scenes, even the changing allegiances of the characters-- are important but not really essential. To Reynolds, politics, economics, and history matter greatly. In story after story, he invites us to be partisan about the social sciences. The political dialogue is critical in getting the reader to think about these things.

_Sweet Dreams, Sweet Princes_ was serialized in _Analog_ in 1964. It is the third of a trilogy of novels called the Frigid Fracas novels. The Cold War has cooled to the Frigid Fracas. War is outlawed, but conflicts between countries are carried out in gladitorial contests. Most of the proletariat are slobs vegetating in front of their television sets and watching the games and circuses.

The Frigid Fracas novels [the other two are _Mercenary from Tomorrow_(1968) and _The Earth War_(1963)] all feature a mercenary named Joe Mauser. But in _Sweet Dreams, Sweet Princes_, Mauser is not the central character. The main characters are now a younger generation of soldiers and spies who are all plotting various types of revolution and who sometimes find themselves making strange alliances with nominal enemies.

Reynolds uses political dialogue to explore the various aspects of his society, and to answer the question: Of the various approaches to revolution, which one is likely to be most effective? There is a lot of action in this novel, and a lot of twists and turns and double-crosses. On the balance, this is an entertaining and thoughtful novel.

I read this a long time ago along with the companion edition, Joe Mauser. This story is the best idealistically written one-on-one combat story I have ever read. It sticks in my memory year after year. The idea of one man representing an entire country in decisive and final combat isn't here yet, but....