Recently a friend mentioned the science fiction writer Keith Laumer to me, and I recalled reading quite a bit of Laumer’s fiction with enjoyment back when I was in high school. But I hadn’t read anything by him in many years, so I checked to see what’s available. As it turns out, there’s a free e-book edition of GREYLORN, a novella that appeared originally in the April 1959 issue of the digest AMAZING SCIENCE FICTION STORIES. It also happens to be Laumer’s first published fiction, according to the Fictionmags Index. So I thought sure, why not give it a try?
This is set in the future, naturally, when Earth is ruled by a one-world
government and has sent colony ships out into the universe, none of which have
ever been heard from again. Some sort of mysterious ecological catastrophe
called the Red Tide has struck the planet and wiped out most of civilization
except for North America. The government sends out ships to search for their
lost colonies, hoping to get help from one of them, but these expeditions fail.
As a last ditch effort, one more ship is sent out, equipped with a newly
discovered faster than light drive, to try to find the last of the lost colonies.
Its captain is Commander Greylorn, who invented the FTL drive and who narrates
most of this novella.
Laumer raises the stakes even more by including a mutiny and the first contact
with an alien race, a contact which quickly turns perilous. Greylorn has his
hands full just surviving this trip, let alone succeeding in his mission and
saving Earth.
GREYLORN is cleverly plotted and Laumer keeps things moving along at a nice
pace. In some ways, such as the rather shallow characterization and the lack of
female characters, it's reminiscent of the science fiction from the Twenties and
Thirties, but I like the SF from that era so that doesn’t bother me. This isn’t
a lost classic or anything (it’s actually been reprinted in numerous collections
of Laumer’s stories), but I enjoyed reading it and it makes me think I should read
more of his work. I own several of his full-length novels and maybe will tackle
one of them in the reasonably near future.
3 comments:
GALACTIC ODYSSEY, A TRACE OF MEMORY, DINOSAUR BEACH, WORLDS OF THE IMPERIUM, its first two sequels, and "The Day Before Forever" are my favorites. Never cared much for the Retief series.
Rather atypical sample of Laumer's work in that it plays everything straight. He's by far best known for the Retief stories, which is more of a mix of parody and intrigue, and for his military scifi BOLO stories, which have been imitated in pastiches by many other writers, none of whom came very close to the original in terms of quality. Also did a lot of tongue in cheek humorous scifi.
If we're talking favorites, I think Plague of Demons would be mine. It's a nice, light bit of military scifi with an upbeat ending, and doesn't overstay its welcome the way it might have if it had been written today as the first 600+ page book in some interminable series. Fun stand-alone short novels are a rare an precious thing today.
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