Popular Science Review - The Space Merchants

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Review - The Space Merchants - Frederik Pohl and Cyril Kornbluth

Science authors' favourites - Brian Clegg

If there's one science fiction book that every business person should read, it's this! The Space Merchants is a superb humorous adventure in its own right, but there's also some all-too-close to reality views of the possible outcome of large corporations being allowed to do pretty well what they like.

Written long before the anti-globalization movement was a glint in the eye (it dates back to the early 1950s), Pohl and Kornbluth apply their razor-sharp wit to the idea that companies could be so obsessed with controlling their customer base that they might be tempted to put addictive substances in their products. Similarly, long before Blade Runner, and the personalized advertising of Minority Report, it's no surprise that early on the hero, who works in a ruthless advertising agency hears '... tells me that soon we'll be testing a system that projects [advertising] direct onto the retina of the eye.'

Inevitably there are touches that haven't aged as well, but this is a book that should be in the library of everyone in business (particularly marketing and advertising) as well as any self-respecting science fiction fan.

Reviewed by Brian Clegg

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