Mon 3 Jun 2024
SF Diary Review: KEITH LAUMER – Spaceman!
Posted by Steve under Diary Reviews , Science Fiction & Fantasy[5] Comments
KEITH LAUMER – Spaceman! Serialized in If SF, May-June-July 1967. Published in book form as Galactic Odyssey (Berkley X1447, paperback, September 1967).
Billy Danger is accidentally kidnapped off Earth by a hunting expedition consisting of two men and a girl, The Lady Raire. He is made a gun-bearer, and when the two hunters are killed, he is made responsible for the girl’s safety. They find cover and means for a signal, but slavers respond and steal her from him, leaving him for dead.
His hunt for her takes him across the galaxy, with many back-breaking jobs and imprisonments, but also with many friendships, until he reaches her home planet, where she has been returned but under another’s control.
Rousing action, from beginning to end, descriptive passages of alienness and nightmares, captures and escapes make this a most exciting story in the old tradition. Although a college student, Billy Danger at first seems more a grade-schooler in character, but his experiences mature him soon enough and he begins to fit his name exactly.
Rating: ****½
June 4th, 2024 at 5:49 am
I was a huge Laumer fan back in the day. usually stopping everything to read one of his books. Laumer suffered a stroke in 1971, however, that affected him physically and emotionally, and drained much of his talent. His books became less original and…less fun. As a person, he seem to become mean and participated in a bitter feud with SF writer Piers Anthony — the details of which left a bad taste in my mouth. Much of Laumer’s post-stroke work consisted of rehashes of previous work and lack the brilliance of his earlier efforts. Baen Books took up Laumer’s banner, flooding the market with books old and new (often mixing the two in omnibuses and collections), and printing new entries in his BOLO series by the usual Baen suspects. I do not hesitate to recommend any of Laumer’s earlier, pre-stroke books, such as GALACTIC ODYSSEY — they are fun, fast-moving, often thoughtful adventures; the later books can be entertaining or original, but seldom both.
June 4th, 2024 at 8:13 pm
Laumer was usually fun and at times more. His THE LONG TWILIGHT remains one of my favorite SF novels from my youth. For sheer storytelling and adventure he was hard to beat at his best.
He also penned a couple of of novelizations for The Avenger and The Invaders, and a well reviewed P.I. novel.
June 4th, 2024 at 8:56 pm
Before his stroke in 1971 Keith Laumer was always my favorite go-to-for-fun SF writer. Afterward, I know what kind of rehab he had to go through, and I admired him for it, but he just wasn’t the same author. I don’t know if Baen did him a favor by printing his later work or not. They helped keep him in print, but they also exposed his weaknesses as a writer at the time.
His PI novel was DEADFALL and was filmed as FAT CHANCE, with Michael Caine in the lead role. I’ve always meant to read it, but so far I just haven’t managed to.
Jerry mentioned a feud between Laumer and SF writer Piers Anthony, but that doesn’t ring any bells with me. I kind of remember Anthony going back and forth with Dean Koontz in fanzines of the day, so I certainly don’t doubt a feud between Laumer and Anthony as well. Piers Anthony was apparently just that kind of guy.
June 4th, 2024 at 9:03 pm
Here’s an online link to one reader’s opinion of DEADFALL under its FAT CHANCE title:
https://mobilemojoman.wordpress.com/2019/07/13/book-review-fat-chance-aka-deadfall-by-keith-laumer/
June 5th, 2024 at 7:43 pm
Steve, I had the same experience you, Jerry, and David had with Keith Laumer. Loved his early work especially the Retief stories. The 1971 stroke affected Laumer’s writing in a negative way. BAEN Books did us all a favor by publishing those Laumer omnibuses that kept the great early books in print.