The Space Merchants

The Space Merchants is an ahead of it's time dystopian satire about corporate espionage. Copy smith Mitch is trying to get his marriage together while trying to sell a future on Venus for an overpopulated earth. He's shot at, interviews celebrities, undermines his associates, and is eventually sabotaged, and Pohl writes it like its all in a day's work for the man. The author makes him dislikeable enough to satirize but likeable enough to carry you through the world of the book. Worldbuilding is something this book does really well, especially because the anarchistic future is so believable. Every unfortunate event Mitch endures logically connects to the previous ones, but his series of shanghais guide us through the world of the corporate overlords, exploitative labor camps, and rebellious concies. Unfortunately sags in parts and makes the short read an expository slog. I also think that Pohl and Kornbluth couldn't decide if they wanted characters with arcs, or caricatures to satirize. Mitch was the only character with any sort of goals, and while he's a dick he remains focused on his goals throughout the entire work. Everyone else was flattened into one-dimensional caricature of a person, and I felt that the book lacked more depth that it could have had. It's a good book with a solid arc and world. But the lack of character depth from anyone who wasn't Mitch made it feel one-dimensional at times.