eh.
Nothing much here. Spaceman comes home from years at being at perpetual war on the frontier (two conglomerates are fighting it out), only to discover that the evil workers and their unions have become the third stool leg of tyranny. Fine. But he doesn’t care since he’s going to marry his girl who happens to be the psychiatrist who just invented a mind-control device that can be used (in good hands) to cure insanity (which seems to run rampant on the hopeless homeworld). Of course, there is no way, with evil and power and mercenary corporate cops all over the place, that this would be misused. But yes, she doesn’t meet him at the field, he gets framed for murder and now he’s on the run.
But of course, he isn’t the type to run. No. He’s going to find out who grabbed his girl. Nothing else for it.
Right.
Well, he’s helped in that he’s allowed to keep his service blaster, a sidearm so powerful it can blow up a power generating station. You’d think a triple tyranny might gun-control hand-cannons like this – maybe the NRA exists in this future as well? Anyway, I get that the author had a bone to pick with the ideal of utopia and unions. Somehow it’s expected that the ruler of a corporate cartel would live in a massive opulent fortress, but sneaky that the union president lives in a modest cottage atop his own massive opulent fortress.
Outside of an interesting plot twist at the end, this one wasn’t much of a yarn. Written in 1955, it runs pretty much down the usual scifi rails. This one’s on Gutenberg – I don’t have the link handy but with a cool reception like this, I doubt its an issue. Read it for free if you like. Like I said, meh.