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A review by aoc
The Space Merchants by Frederik Pohl, C.M. Kornbluth
4.0
Checking out Pohl's writings has been on my to-read list for a while now and though he didn't single-handedly pen The Space Merchants, having co-written it with Kornbluth, it was absolutely a worthwhile read with its satirical take on overt consumerism taken to the extreme in a society with uncomfortable parallels to our own contemporary world. But let's find out how much of an enjoyable read it really was.
As mentioned above it is the future and consumerism has taken over the world. Not only consumerism in its most virulent form, but also one where advertisements and companies who create them are de facto kings of the world, second only to corporations running the world proper with even governments being little than their puppets. It is such a sorry state of affairs that doing things like putting actually addicting additives into foods and drinks is considered perfectly normal and constant aggressive marketing campaigns push it as such to popular who really are little more than literal “consumers” to people making such ads. Necessities like water have become increasingly scarce and are often priced on by-gulp basis, for example. Yet, there is hope that humanity could find new virgin ground to exploit with the possibility that Venus could be colonized. Having confirmed such an opportunity exists it spurs couple of advertising companies to make the idea appealing to population at large in order to justify the costs such a great endeavor would require.
It is in such a world that we see our main character Mitch Courtenay working as a star-class copywriter for Fowler Schocken advertising agency, one that ultimately wins the contract to sell Venus to the public, so to speak. He's very loyal to the idea of Sales and full-heartedly believes his boss Fowler Schocken has the right ideas. Unbeknownst to him, though, a lot is going on behind the scenes – from Fowler Shocken's rival company looking to circumvent corporate rules of “targeted executive hits” on rival companies, ever-growing and seemingly sensible revolutionary movement that's so utterly incomprehensible to corporate world, to ultimately his own life packing a surprise or two.
I'm not sure why it keeps happening in my recent book reviews, but I find myself thinking settings always end up being far more interesting than the characters. Such is the case in The Space Merchants. Courtenay himself is rather well fleshed out, but that's sort of expected from the protagonist – problem is this comes at the expense of pretty much all other characters being tokens and never seeing much development. Hell, some even ingloriously “snap” and are promptly taken out of the story just as you grow attached to them. But to be balanced this is not all horrible bad because, and I'm not spoiling anything when I say this, The Space Merchants is a Mitch Courtenay story as much as it happens to be a commentary of a rather ridiculous world. There is certain charm and dread to a world where most of the foodstuff is regenerated, meat comes from a growing tumor of flesh dubbed “Chicken Little” and your everyday coffee has addictive properties where you need to drink two liters a day to with recommended jug on your nightstand just in case you can't get enough of it. Mmmm-mmmm.
One drawback I could level against the book is that it was too short for my liking. I wanted to see more of this world where merely going outside means packing nose plugs for the unbearable levels of smog, but you do get a very different reversal as far as POV is concerned because all we get for about half a book is the high and mighty inner advertisement company's take. Second half reveals just how utterly ridiculous and naive, to us at least, such a mindset is... not so much to people on the other side of the yoke, though. There is humor in The Space Merchants, but it's definitely rooted in satire and self-realization our protagonist goes through. Sadly, this also reflects itself in Courtenay kinda undergoing radical changes that could be justified and gradually eased into if only authors dedicated more time to them. At one point it seemingly comes off as someone turned the switch and things change simply because it's convenient for the story. That's not really a major negative and I don't phrase it as such on purpose, but I definitely felt something lacking in the characterization department for everyone involved.
Let's get to final words because I can't really talk about the book without spoilers considering much of it is a personal journey. I rather liked The Space Merchants and positives definitely outweigh the few negatives I've listed. Fascinating world , flat characters and future we can only pray never comes to fruition.
As mentioned above it is the future and consumerism has taken over the world. Not only consumerism in its most virulent form, but also one where advertisements and companies who create them are de facto kings of the world, second only to corporations running the world proper with even governments being little than their puppets. It is such a sorry state of affairs that doing things like putting actually addicting additives into foods and drinks is considered perfectly normal and constant aggressive marketing campaigns push it as such to popular who really are little more than literal “consumers” to people making such ads. Necessities like water have become increasingly scarce and are often priced on by-gulp basis, for example. Yet, there is hope that humanity could find new virgin ground to exploit with the possibility that Venus could be colonized. Having confirmed such an opportunity exists it spurs couple of advertising companies to make the idea appealing to population at large in order to justify the costs such a great endeavor would require.
It is in such a world that we see our main character Mitch Courtenay working as a star-class copywriter for Fowler Schocken advertising agency, one that ultimately wins the contract to sell Venus to the public, so to speak. He's very loyal to the idea of Sales and full-heartedly believes his boss Fowler Schocken has the right ideas. Unbeknownst to him, though, a lot is going on behind the scenes – from Fowler Shocken's rival company looking to circumvent corporate rules of “targeted executive hits” on rival companies, ever-growing and seemingly sensible revolutionary movement that's so utterly incomprehensible to corporate world, to ultimately his own life packing a surprise or two.
I'm not sure why it keeps happening in my recent book reviews, but I find myself thinking settings always end up being far more interesting than the characters. Such is the case in The Space Merchants. Courtenay himself is rather well fleshed out, but that's sort of expected from the protagonist – problem is this comes at the expense of pretty much all other characters being tokens and never seeing much development. Hell, some even ingloriously “snap” and are promptly taken out of the story just as you grow attached to them. But to be balanced this is not all horrible bad because, and I'm not spoiling anything when I say this, The Space Merchants is a Mitch Courtenay story as much as it happens to be a commentary of a rather ridiculous world. There is certain charm and dread to a world where most of the foodstuff is regenerated, meat comes from a growing tumor of flesh dubbed “Chicken Little” and your everyday coffee has addictive properties where you need to drink two liters a day to with recommended jug on your nightstand just in case you can't get enough of it. Mmmm-mmmm.
One drawback I could level against the book is that it was too short for my liking. I wanted to see more of this world where merely going outside means packing nose plugs for the unbearable levels of smog, but you do get a very different reversal as far as POV is concerned because all we get for about half a book is the high and mighty inner advertisement company's take. Second half reveals just how utterly ridiculous and naive, to us at least, such a mindset is... not so much to people on the other side of the yoke, though. There is humor in The Space Merchants, but it's definitely rooted in satire and self-realization our protagonist goes through. Sadly, this also reflects itself in Courtenay kinda undergoing radical changes that could be justified and gradually eased into if only authors dedicated more time to them. At one point it seemingly comes off as someone turned the switch and things change simply because it's convenient for the story. That's not really a major negative and I don't phrase it as such on purpose, but I definitely felt something lacking in the characterization department for everyone involved.
Let's get to final words because I can't really talk about the book without spoilers considering much of it is a personal journey. I rather liked The Space Merchants and positives definitely outweigh the few negatives I've listed. Fascinating world , flat characters and future we can only pray never comes to fruition.