pulps
Comerciante en mundos
This science fiction novel by John Brunner, translated as "The World Swappers," follows protagonist Counce, a man with extraordinary physical and mental abilities. Counce awaits a spaceship in the Pacific Ocean, which arrives piloted by Bassett, a wealthy trader seeking galactic dominion. After destroying Counce's boat, Bassett retrieves him from the water. Aboard the vessel, they meet in Bassett's quarters, where a three-dimensional chess set sits on a transparent table. Counce confronts Bassett with knowledge of his recent visit to Boreas and his true ambitions: governing the galaxy's thirty-one colonized planets within a two-hundred-parsec radius. The narrative explores themes of human expansion across space, colonial independence movements, and power struggles between Earth and its settled worlds. Bassett, impatient with terrestrial advancement, seeks galactic control while Counce appears positioned to challenge or facilitate this scheme.