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Reynolds, Mack

Entry updated 13 January 2025. Tagged: Author.

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Working name of US author Dallas McCord Reynolds (1917-1983), who began writing work of genre interest with "Isolationist" forFantastic Adventures in April 1950. He occasionally used the pseudonyms Clark Collins, Guy McCord, Mark Mallory and Dallas Ross; he wrote two Gothics as Maxine Reynolds and one other non-sf book as Todd Harding. Some of his early work was with FredricBrown, including aJoe Mauser story,Happy Ending (September 1957Fantastic Universe;2009 ebook); and he also wrote stories with Theodore RCogswell and August WDerleth. He was for twenty-five years an active member of the American Socialist Labor Party, for which his father, Verne L Reynolds, had twice been presidential candidate; his "militant radicalism" is mutedly reflected, sometimes ironically, in his sf, making him a maverick in the mostly right-wing stable of writers associated with John WCampbell Jr'sAstounding Science-Fiction (Reynolds was one of several writers who wrote up Campbell's plot ideas). Many of his later works are unashamedly didactic, although not doctrinaire.

Reynolds's first novel,The Case of the Little Green Men (1951), was a murder mystery set at an sfConvention (seeLittle Green Men). It was to be ten years before he would publish another novel. Although his 1950s work is minor, he served 1953-1963 as foreign correspondent ofRogue magazine, travelling extensively, and began to plough back this experience into more substantial works on socioeconomic themes. Many of the books which appeared prolifically through the 1960s-1970s were expansions and fixups of earlier magazine stories; the tauter magazine texts are usually preferable to the padded-out versions.Planetary Agent X (fixup1965 dos), the first of several books featuringSection G, shows subversive secret agents of aUnited Planets Organization working in the cause of socioeconomic progress in the often-eccentricUltima Thule colony worlds of a Galactic Empire, masking their activities under thenom de guerre Tommy Paine. It was followed byDawnman Planet (December 1965-January 1966Analog as "Beehive";1966 dos),The Rival Rigelians (August 1960Astounding/Analog as "Adaptation"; exp1967 dos), which ironically describes an experiment comparing the methods of US capitalism and Soviet communism in developing a primitive world,Code Duello (1968 dos) andSection G: United Planets (September 1967Analog as "Fiesta Brava" and "Psi Assassin"; fixup1976).

Tomorrow Might Be Different (November 1960F&SF as "Russkies Go Home!"; exp1975) is aSatire in which the USSR has overtaken the USA as the world's leading economy. "Farmer" (June 1961Galaxy) is the first of three notable stories which Reynolds set in North Africa, each similarly dealing with the problem of fostering economic and technological development in the teeth of cultural inertia. It was followed by theHomer Crawford sequence, the first two volumes of which areBlack Man's Burden (December 1961-April 1962Analog;1972 dos) andBorder, Breed nor Birth (July-August 1962Analog;1972 dos), offering entirely serious and constructive versions ofSection G-type plots; although they have dated even more quickly than Reynolds's stories about the USSR, theRace in SF issues raised in them (otherwise virtually untouched in sf) remain politically pertinent.The Best Ye Breed (fixup1978), which incorporates "Black Sheep Astray" (inAstounding, anth1973, ed HarryHarrison) and a revised version of "The Cold War ... Continued" (inNova 3, anth1973, ed HarryHarrison), extends the series.Day After Tomorrow (August 1961Analog as "Status Quo"; exp1976) introduced a status-conscious future USA further elaborated inMercenary from Tomorrow (April 1962Analog as "Mercenary"; exp1968 dos), which became the first of theJoe Mauser series set in a future world in which corporate disputes are settled by pseudo-gladiatorial contests, packaged by the media as entertainment, and involving small professional armies fighting with pre-1900Weapons (seeGames and Sports). Several lines of speculative thought carried forward in the later didactic novels originated in this novella, but the later novels in the series –The Earth War (March-April 1963Analog as "Frigid Fracas";1963),Time Gladiator (October-December 1964Analog as "Sweet Dreams, Sweet Princes"; exp1966; further exp by Michael ABanks, vtSweet Dreams, Sweet Princes1986) andThe Fracas Factor (1978) – are routine action-adventure novels.Joe Mauser, Mercenary from Tomorrow (coll1986) with Banks contains revisions of the earlier items.The Cosmic Eye (January 1963F&SF as "Speakeasy"; exp1969) is a less convincing story set in a future USA where free speech is prohibited.

During 1965-1972 Reynolds's work was more determinedly commercial. He continued to write stories around Campbell plot ideas. All involve a good deal of rather slapstickHumour; examples includeAmazon Planet (December 1966-February 1967Analog; Italian trans1967;1975) andBrain World (1978).Of Godlike Power (1966; vtEarth Unaware1968) is a comedy about a preacher whose curses really work. "Romp" (October 1966Analog) was the first of a group of crime stories reprinted asPolice Patrol: 2000 A.D. (fixup1977).Space Pioneer (1966) andAfter Some Tomorrow (1967) are undistinguished, but two novels aboutComputers,Computer War (1967 dos) andThe Computer Conspiracy (1968), gained strength from the timeliness of their themes. The final two stories making upThe Space Barbarians (fixup1969 dos) andThe Five Way Secret Agent (April-May 1969Analog;1975 dos) were the last items Reynolds did for Campbell, and after late 1969 he published virtually no new sf for three years (although he did publish books in other genres).

When his sf career resumed it was with the strikingly differentLooking Backward, from the Year 2000 (1973), a reprise of EdwardBellamy's classicUtopian novel, displaying Reynolds's ideas about thePolitics andEconomics of an energy-affluent society. He was later to add a sequel –Equality: in the Year 2000 (1977) – which borrowed an idea from his earlierAbility Quotient (1975) to subvert the ending of the first book. Reynolds further extrapolated this line of speculation into the increasingly doubt-riddenAfter Utopia (1977), which incorporates "Utopian" (inThe Year 2000, anth1970, ed HarryHarrison) andPerchance to Dream (1977), although he salvaged a curiously ironic optimism by re-using adeus ex machina first deployed in the earlierSpace Visitor (1977). He developed parallel lines of thought in theBat Hardin sequence – comprisingRolltown (July-September 1969If as "The Towns Must Roll"; exp1976),Commune 2000 A.D. (1974) andThe Towers of Utopia (1975) – though his lack of serious purpose can be discerned inRolltown, a title which has everything to do with large mobile homes (seeMacrostructures) and nothing to do with Robert AHeinlein's "The Roads Must Roll" (July 1940Astounding) (see also EdgarChambless). He also re-used the central characters ofThe Five Way Secret Agent in more lightweight stories with similar underlying concerns that make up theLagrange sequence, continuing withSatellite City (1975) and "Of Future Fears" (October-December 1977Analog), and further expanded in novels about the tribulations of a quasi-utopian colony occupying aSpace Habitat at the L5Lagrange Point:Lagrange Five (1979),The Lagrangists (1983) andChaos in Lagrangia (1984), The last two were edited by DeanIng, who went on to prepare for publication several other manuscripts which Reynolds had left behind on his death:Eternity (1984),Home Sweet Home: 2010 A.D. (1984),The Other Time (1984),Trojan Orbit (1985) andDeathwish World (1986).Space Search (1984) is a posthumous work credited to Reynolds alone.

The Best of Mack Reynolds (coll1976) has an introduction explaining Reynolds's decision to concentrate on sf which speculated on social and economic issues, and reflecting on his travels and the lessons he learned therefrom. Although he was once voted most popular author in a poll run by theGalaxy Science Fiction group of magazines, Reynolds never received the recognition he deserved for the fertility of his distinctive speculative imagination. His ideas were always far more interesting than his plots, and his writing was sometimes unpolished, but at his best he was a skilled craftsman whose attempts to foresee theNear Future were unusually bold, well informed and challenging. In the contrast between the arguments he laid down, and his inadequately subtle use ofGenre SF conventions to convey them, he resembles the significantly more competent MikeResnick. It is a great pity that he had such difficulty in finding publishers willing to put his work into respectable formats. [BS/JC]

see also:Automation;Cities;Cryonics;Future War;Immortality;Keep;Leisure;Religion;Sleeper Awakes;Social Darwinism;Technology;Time Paradoxes.

Dallas McCord Reynolds

born Corcoran, California: 11 November 1917

died San Luis Potosi, Mexico: 30 January 1983

works

series

Joe Mauser

United Planets

  • Planetary Agent X (New York: Ace Books,1965) [bound together withThe Rival Rigelians below, with separate title pages and pagination:United Planets: pb/JackGaughan]
  • Dawnman Planet (New York: Ace Books,1966) [bound together withDepression or Bust (see underindividual titles below), with separate title pages and pagination: first appeared December 1965-January 1966Analog as "Beehive":United Planets: pb/ChrisFoss]
  • The Rival Rigelians (New York: Ace Books,1967) [bound together withPlanetary Agent X above, with separate title pages and pagination: first appeared August 1960Astounding/Analog as "Adaptation";United Planets: pb/Peter Michael]
  • Code Duello (New York: Ace Books,1968) [dos:United Planets: pb/KellyFreas]
  • Il Segreto Delle Amazzoni (Milan, Italy: Mondadori,1967) [first appeared December 1966-February 1967Analog as "Amazon Planet": this Italian publication inUrania #471 is first book form:United Planets: pb/KarelThole]
    • Amazon Planet (New York: Ace Books,1975) [English text of above:United Planets: pb/uncredited]
  • Tomorrow Might Be Different (New York: Ace Books,1975) [short version first appeared November 1960F&SF as "Russkies Go Home!":United Planets: pb/]
  • Section G: United Planets (New York: Ace Books,1975) [fixup: September and December 1967Analog as "Fiesta Brava" and "Psi Assassin":United Planets: pb/Alex Ebel]
  • Brain World (New York: Leisure Books,1978) [United Planets: pb/AttilaHejja]

Homer Crawford

  • Black Man's Burden (New York: Ace Books,1972) [dos: December 1961-April 1962Analog: withBorder, Breed nor Birth below:Homer Crawford: pb/uncredited]
  • Border, Breed nor Birth (New York: Ace Books,1972) [dos: July-August 1962Analog: withBlack Man's Burden above:Homer Crawford: pb/uncredited]
  • The Best Ye Breed (New York: Ace Books,1977) [Homer Crawford: pb/Davis Meltzer]

Julian West

Lagrange

Bat Hardin

individual titles

collections and stories

works as editor

about the author

links

previous versions of this entry



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