#54. THE SPACE MERCHANTS By Frederik Pohl and CM Kornbluth

Published : 1952
Pages : 186
Overall Mark : 7/10

It is the 22nd century, an advertisement-drenched world in which the big ad agencies dominate governments and everything else. Now Schocken Associates, on of the big players, has a new challenge for star copywriter Mitch Courtenay. Volunteers are needed to colonise Venus. It's a hellhole, and nobody who knew anything about it would dream of signing up. But by the time Mitch has finished, they will be queuing to get on board the spaceships.

FREDERIK POHL (1919-)
C. M. KORNBLUTH (1922-1958)
Frederik Pohl has been a professional SF writer and editor for 50 years. He won the Nebula Award for best novel with Man Plus and Gateway. He grew up in New York, but now lives in Chicago. C.M. Kornbluth was a leading SF writer of the 1950s, now best remembered for the novels he worte with Pohl. His wartime experiences damaged his health and he died of a heart attack aged 36.

VERDICT
This is a nice tale of how sales people could affectively take over the universe. By promoting the worst in life and downplaying the best, they could twist our views in whatever way they want, if only they had the power to do so. Pohl and Kornbluth's creation of a future where this has happened is both humorous and frightening, yet leads us down a path of redemption for at least one culprit of planetary pursuasion.