''The Merchants' War'' is a 1984 satirical

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

novel by American writer

Frederik Pohl Frederik George Pohl Jr. (; November 26, 1919 – September 2, 2013) was an American list of science fiction authors, science-fiction writer, editor, and science fiction fandom, fan, with a career spanning nearly 75 years—from his first ...

. Set in a near future commercial dystopian interplanetary society, the novel was a sequel to '' The Space Merchants'', and was originally co-published with it as ''Venus, Inc.'' Pohl's collaborator in the first novel, C.M. Kornbluth, died in 1958, and so did not contribute to this sequel. In the story, the colony on Venus has managed to stabilize itself to a point. However, agents from the trans-national corporations on Earth attempt to undermine the stability of the colony. The story follows the trail of two advertisement company employees from the colony back to Earth, as one of them, Tennison Tarb, struggles with addiction and its effect on his advertising career. Eventually, he uncovers a 'Veenie' plot to take over Earth and has to choose sides. As with the preceding book, the characters are not what they seem, and the main character's loyalty changes drastically.

Reception

Dave Langford reviewed ''The Merchants' War'' for ''

White Dwarf A white dwarf is a Compact star, stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very density, dense: in an Earth sized volume, it packs a mass that is comparable to the Sun. No nuclear fusion takes place i ...

'' #70, and stated that "The original 'comic inferno' ended with the hero's escape to Venus: the hero of ''The Merchant's War'' stays on Earth and reforms it, with a priggishness which wrecks the satire. It's easy reading, but a completely unnecessary book."

Reviews

*Review by Richard D. Erlich (1985) in ''

Fantasy Review ''Fantasy Newsletter'', later renamed ''Fantasy Review'', was a major fantasy fanzine founded by Paul C. Allen and later issued by Robert A. Collins. Frequent contributors included Fritz Leiber and Gene Wolfe. Publication history The first iss ...

'', March 1985 *Review

rench The Rench is an eastern tributary of the Rhine in the Ortenau in Central Baden, Germany. It rises on the southern edge of the Northern Black Forest at Kniebis near Bad Griesbach im Schwarzwald. The source farthest from the mouth is that of ...

by Michel Cossement (1985) in ''SFère'', #21 *Review by Tom A. Jones (1985) in ''

Vector Vector most often refers to: * Euclidean vector, a quantity with a magnitude and a direction * Disease vector, an agent that carries and transmits an infectious pathogen into another living organism Vector may also refer to: Mathematics a ...

'' 128 *Review

by Richard D. Nolane (1985) in ''Fiction'', #367 *Review by Kenny Mathieson (1985) in '' Foundation'', #35 Winter 1985/1986, (1986) *Review by Ken Lake (1987) in ''Paperback Inferno'', #65 *Review erbianby Miodrag Milovanović? (1987) in ''Alef'', #1 *Review

by Bertrand Bonnet (2008) in '' Bifrost'', #52

References

1984 American novels 1984 science fiction novels American science fiction novels Novels by Frederik Pohl Sequel novels Dystopian novels Novels set on Venus Novels about advertising {{1980s-sf-novel-stub