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Retief
Retief Unbound
Jame Retief, Vice-Consul and Third Secretary in the Corps Diplomatique, is again called upon to protect Terra from aliens in a collection of five stories and the novel Retief's Ransom
343 pages, Mass Market Paperback
Published March 1, 1985
95 people want to read
About the author
Keith Laumer
498 books225 followersJohn Keith Laumer was an American science fiction author. Prior to becoming a full-time writer, he was an officer in the U.S. Air Force and a U.S. diplomat. His brother March Laumer was also a writer, known for his adult reinterpretations of the Land of Oz (also mentioned in Keith's The Other Side of Time).
Keith Laumer (aka J.K Laumer, J. Keith Laumer) is best known for his Bolo stories and his satirical Retief series. The former chronicles the evolution of juggernaut-sized tanks that eventually become self-aware through the constant improvement resulting from centuries of intermittent warfare against various alien races. The latter deals with the adventures of a cynical spacefaring diplomat who constantly has to overcome the red-tape-infused failures of people with names like Ambassador Grossblunder. The Retief stories were greatly influenced by Laumer's earlier career in the United States Foreign Service. In an interview with Paul Walker of Luna Monthly, Laumer states "I had no shortage of iniquitous memories of the Foreign Service."
Four of his shorter works received Hugo or Nebula Award nominations (one of them, "In the Queue", received nominations for both) and his novel A Plague of Demons was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1966.
During the peak years of 1959–1971, Laumer was a prolific science fiction writer, with his novels tending to follow one of two patterns: fast-paced, straight adventures in time and space, with an emphasis on lone-wolf, latent superman protagonists, self-sacrifice and transcendence or, broad comedies, sometimes of the over-the-top variety.
In 1971, Laumer suffered a stroke while working on the novel The Ultimax Man. As a result, he was unable to write for a few years. As he explained in an interview with Charles Platt published in The Dream Makers (1987), he refused to accept the doctors' diagnosis. He came up with an alternative explanation and developed an alternative (and very painful) treatment program. Although he was unable to write in the early 1970s, he had a number of books which were in the pipeline at the time of the stroke published during that time.
In the mid-1970s, Laumer partially recovered from the stroke and resumed writing. However, the quality of his work suffered and his career declined (Piers Anthony, How Precious Was That While, 2002). In later years Laumer also reused scenarios and characters from his earlier works to create "new" books, which some critics felt was to their detriment:
Alas, Retief to the Rescue doesn't seem so much like a new Retief novel, but a kind of Cuisnart mélange of past books.
-- Somtow Sucharitkul (Washington Post, Mar 27, 1983. p. BW11)
His Bolo creations were popular enough that other authors have written standalone science-fiction novels about them.
Laumer was also a model airplane enthusiast, and published two dozen designs between 1956 and 1962 in the U.S. magazines Air Trails, Model Airplane News and Flying Models, as well as the British magazine Aero Modeler. He published one book on the subject, How to Design and Build Flying Models in 1960. His later designs were mostly gas-powered free flight planes, and had a whimsical charm with names to match, like the "Twin Lizzie" and the "Lulla-Bi". His designs are still being revisited, reinvented and built today.
Keith Laumer (aka J.K Laumer, J. Keith Laumer) is best known for his Bolo stories and his satirical Retief series. The former chronicles the evolution of juggernaut-sized tanks that eventually become self-aware through the constant improvement resulting from centuries of intermittent warfare against various alien races. The latter deals with the adventures of a cynical spacefaring diplomat who constantly has to overcome the red-tape-infused failures of people with names like Ambassador Grossblunder. The Retief stories were greatly influenced by Laumer's earlier career in the United States Foreign Service. In an interview with Paul Walker of Luna Monthly, Laumer states "I had no shortage of iniquitous memories of the Foreign Service."
Four of his shorter works received Hugo or Nebula Award nominations (one of them, "In the Queue", received nominations for both) and his novel A Plague of Demons was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1966.
During the peak years of 1959–1971, Laumer was a prolific science fiction writer, with his novels tending to follow one of two patterns: fast-paced, straight adventures in time and space, with an emphasis on lone-wolf, latent superman protagonists, self-sacrifice and transcendence or, broad comedies, sometimes of the over-the-top variety.
In 1971, Laumer suffered a stroke while working on the novel The Ultimax Man. As a result, he was unable to write for a few years. As he explained in an interview with Charles Platt published in The Dream Makers (1987), he refused to accept the doctors' diagnosis. He came up with an alternative explanation and developed an alternative (and very painful) treatment program. Although he was unable to write in the early 1970s, he had a number of books which were in the pipeline at the time of the stroke published during that time.
In the mid-1970s, Laumer partially recovered from the stroke and resumed writing. However, the quality of his work suffered and his career declined (Piers Anthony, How Precious Was That While, 2002). In later years Laumer also reused scenarios and characters from his earlier works to create "new" books, which some critics felt was to their detriment:
Alas, Retief to the Rescue doesn't seem so much like a new Retief novel, but a kind of Cuisnart mélange of past books.
-- Somtow Sucharitkul (Washington Post, Mar 27, 1983. p. BW11)
His Bolo creations were popular enough that other authors have written standalone science-fiction novels about them.
Laumer was also a model airplane enthusiast, and published two dozen designs between 1956 and 1962 in the U.S. magazines Air Trails, Model Airplane News and Flying Models, as well as the British magazine Aero Modeler. He published one book on the subject, How to Design and Build Flying Models in 1960. His later designs were mostly gas-powered free flight planes, and had a whimsical charm with names to match, like the "Twin Lizzie" and the "Lulla-Bi". His designs are still being revisited, reinvented and built today.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
December 22, 2022
Once I started reading this, I realized that I've read it before. In fact I may even have a copy of it tucked away on my shelves. "Too many books?" The words sound like English, but I've no idea what they mean in this context.
Besides, it's been a few decades since I last read it (one of the perks of growing old is being able to casually refer to the passing of decades like it's no big deal. "Accumulated wisdom?" Yeah, that's a theory, sure.) I'd forgotten how much fun the Retief stories can be.
Jame Retief is a member of the Corps Diplomatique Terrestrienne. This book is the second collection of his adventures, consisting of five short stories and a short novel. The tales generally follow a pattern in which the CDT finds itself too caught up in red tape and bureaucratic minutiae to solve an alien-related problem. Retief takes a more direct approach and deftly dodges protocol, slyly mocking traditional diplomacy in the process, and winds up saving the day. It's loads of fun, and Laumer's tongue-in-cheek view of entrenched bureaucracy and diplomacy make everything sparkle. Imagine Douglas Adams writing James Bond and you kind of have the tone.
There is a noticeable lack of female characters, and the ones who do appear tend to be more decorative than memorable, but that's about par for the course with SF of this vintage. As I said, the stories are heaps of fun. I like to think that, if it had ever occurred to Laumer to write a woman fully capable of participating on an equal footing with Retief, he could have done so. I suppose we'll never know. Flawed though they may be, the Retief books are definitely worth checking out. Recommended!
Besides, it's been a few decades since I last read it (one of the perks of growing old is being able to casually refer to the passing of decades like it's no big deal. "Accumulated wisdom?" Yeah, that's a theory, sure.) I'd forgotten how much fun the Retief stories can be.
Jame Retief is a member of the Corps Diplomatique Terrestrienne. This book is the second collection of his adventures, consisting of five short stories and a short novel. The tales generally follow a pattern in which the CDT finds itself too caught up in red tape and bureaucratic minutiae to solve an alien-related problem. Retief takes a more direct approach and deftly dodges protocol, slyly mocking traditional diplomacy in the process, and winds up saving the day. It's loads of fun, and Laumer's tongue-in-cheek view of entrenched bureaucracy and diplomacy make everything sparkle. Imagine Douglas Adams writing James Bond and you kind of have the tone.
There is a noticeable lack of female characters, and the ones who do appear tend to be more decorative than memorable, but that's about par for the course with SF of this vintage. As I said, the stories are heaps of fun. I like to think that, if it had ever occurred to Laumer to write a woman fully capable of participating on an equal footing with Retief, he could have done so. I suppose we'll never know. Flawed though they may be, the Retief books are definitely worth checking out. Recommended!
January 12, 2019
I am not sure there has ever been a better science fiction character than the honorable Jame Retief. Great classic sf adventures starring Jame Retief, intergalactic member of the Corps Diplomatique Terrestrienne and his meetings with aliens. Great Fun. Stories of a distant future where Jame Retief an unsung agent solves international problems, helps aliens and thwarts the plans of the evil Groaci, all while his usually inept boss fails to understand the insults of their galactic hosts or the slightest bit of culture about the alien civilizations that they are sent to interact.
September 22, 2023
Laumer's Retief casts a heck of a rakish grin and paints a jovially imperialistic picture of our galactic neighbors, but that might just be an unavoidable aspect of the Bond-influenced subgenre. It's a fundamentally conservative way of conceptualizing inter-societal relations, which can, at times, be hard to forget as Retief endlessly outsmarts the "savages." It's not a slog, though, the sense of the fantastic is alive and well (unlike the otherwise similar Ensign Flandry series), and the silliness and imagination are enough to make one feel a little unfounded in criticizing its politics.
Setting content aside, this almost-omnibus is quite frustrating as it contains one complete novel and all but one of the short stories that constitute the first Retief book. Now I guess I'll have to pick up the first book just for the sake of one short story?
Setting content aside, this almost-omnibus is quite frustrating as it contains one complete novel and all but one of the short stories that constitute the first Retief book. Now I guess I'll have to pick up the first book just for the sake of one short story?
August 11, 2010
As a brief anthology of Retief stories (including a novella called Retief's Ransom), Retief Unbound is a delightful collection that could just as easily have been entitled "Best of Retief." I well remember my first experience in reading "Protocol" and wondering what this junior diplomatic consul was doing to overturn the existing state of intergalactic diplomacy. I quickly found out that it was the senior diplomats who were out of touch with the state of intergalactic diplomacy. Most of the stories hinge on a basic misunderstanding or double-cross, so it is impossible to describe them without spoilers. Still, there was much to enjoy. In "Policy," I laughed at all of the labyrinthine exercises in logic that the established diplomats indulged in so that they would not have to see the sabotage being perpetrated by their enemies. In "Palace Revolution," I chuckled to consider that Retief's inventive ploy was worthy of James T. Kirk during the original run of Star Trek. And the nature of the aliens in the novella lends itself to all sorts of fun, including Retief's ability to pass himself off as a Groaci.
These terrific stories (and others about Jaime Retief) have a marvelous acidic quality when touching on the nature of bureaucracy and blind loyalty. First introduced during the acceleration of involvement in Vietnam under Kennedy, one can almost substitute representatives of the US government in a 1:1 correspondence to the most incompetent bureaucrats in the Retief stories. One can easily identity A. Dulles, R. Macnamera, E. Lansdale, M. Taylor, and G. Ball, among others. Of course, it could be that I'm such a "child" of my era that I see Vietnam behind every bush. I'm sure today's veterans of Gulf conflicts would see just as many parallels in their more modern experiences.
Human nature is such that I'm sure these stories will be treasured for many more generations.
These terrific stories (and others about Jaime Retief) have a marvelous acidic quality when touching on the nature of bureaucracy and blind loyalty. First introduced during the acceleration of involvement in Vietnam under Kennedy, one can almost substitute representatives of the US government in a 1:1 correspondence to the most incompetent bureaucrats in the Retief stories. One can easily identity A. Dulles, R. Macnamera, E. Lansdale, M. Taylor, and G. Ball, among others. Of course, it could be that I'm such a "child" of my era that I see Vietnam behind every bush. I'm sure today's veterans of Gulf conflicts would see just as many parallels in their more modern experiences.
Human nature is such that I'm sure these stories will be treasured for many more generations.
May 29, 2025
If James Bond was a diplomat, that would be James Retief. The humour is the goal. He wickedly and comedically skewers career diplomats and the diplomatic service as a bunch of incompetents. The stories are quite original and you have to concentrate to follow the plot.
August 28, 2023
Old school satire on diplomacy; today raises eyebrows about colonialism. But a lot of old scifi doesn't really age well. This one is fun.
October 14, 2023
Early short stories with the novel Retief's Ransom.
August 25, 2009
Retief is possibly Science Fiction's most humorous, and also invariably triumphant, recurring character; embodying the intelligence and machismo of James Bond (Retief's portrayal on the cover art of some of the books is rather remininiscent of James Coburn as Derek Flint from the Our Man Flint movies) and the wit and behind-the scenes manipulation of P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves.
Pick up any Retief novel or short-story collection and you're in for a rollicking "Good Read"! So uncork a bottle of Bacchus Black or Bacchus Red and toast the skewering of any number of Groacci foes (rhymes with whacky) accompanied by a repast of toasted Gribble Grubbs and sliced Hoob Melons for dessert.
Pick up any Retief novel or short-story collection and you're in for a rollicking "Good Read"! So uncork a bottle of Bacchus Black or Bacchus Red and toast the skewering of any number of Groacci foes (rhymes with whacky) accompanied by a repast of toasted Gribble Grubbs and sliced Hoob Melons for dessert.
December 23, 2010
Pretty much as I remember. Funny, Cold War-era science fiction.
November 19, 2021
Excellent. And as applicable to current diplomats as when it was written.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews