Galactic Odyssey

by Keith Laumer

Down and out on planet Earth... It was raining, starting to sleet. My last ride had dumped me twenty country miles from nowhere. If I didn't get warm soon I was going to die. That's why I took a chance on that weird corn silo, even after I knew it was...something else. and that's why I, Billy Danger, woke up 400 light years from home, "native" gun bearer for a lordly alien and his beautiful mistress.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

John 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.

Reviews

[Philip · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dumb, dreky fun from Laumer - as with much of his fiction, this is pretty bad, but in the best possible way. A good example of his "everything but the kitchen sink" style of sci-fi world building, Laumer throws in random scenes set in weird worlds the way Star Wars tosses off a place like Kamino or Utapau - for the sheer joy of creating it, (except that Laumer was doing it a full decade before Lucas filmed his first text crawl).

One note of actual interest here: a mere 20 pages before the end, Laumer drops this sentence:

But nobody, even someone who had only talked to me for five minutes three years before, could pretend to have forgotten my face: black-skinned, scarred, one-eyed.

I remember the scars and the lost eye - but "black-skinned"? Could Laumer way back in '67 have perceived his interplanetary Odysseus as black, and then never dropped any mention of it until this throwaway line at the end? How cool (and ahead of his time) if that was actually the case - that yes, the hero* was in fact black, but that it just didn't matter to the story one way or the other. Now that's a future I could get on board with.

* Named for some ungodly reason "Billy Danger"...yeah, I have no idea what he was thinking here.

[Tentatively, Convenience · Rating 2 out of 5]

review of
Keith Laumer's Galactic Odyssey
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - July 14, 2013

Ok, earlier this yr I went on a spree of reading John Brunner bks & reviewing them. He was a new discovery for me - even tho I'd know about him for decades I'd never read the work. That was sortof not a complete waste of my time. It might've been if it were the main thing that I do, but it wasn't. Then I went on a Jules Verne spree. I'd read Verne before, of course, mostly when I was much younger. That was somewhat interesting & maybe not a complete waste of time. Now I've turned my attn to Laumer. As w/ Brunner, he's a new 'discovery' for me - someone whose work I'd seen in plenitude but never read.

I started w/ Time Trap a mnth ago (my review's here: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16... ). I enjoyed it & found a reference to "The Entity", a generic enuf naming but one that resonated for me b/c I was making a movie in homage to my recently deceased pal "Blaster" Al Ackerman whose great writings were heavily influenced by pulp SF, as are Laumer's.

In the last mnth I've read Worlds of the Imperium ( http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30... ), The Great Time Machine Hoax ( http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15... ), The Time Bender ( http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/88... ), The Monitors ( http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16... ), Nine by Laumer ( http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/63... ), The Undefeated ( http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26... ) all in quick succession b/c they're engrossing & easy reads. SO, this is the 8th Laumer bk I've read in a mnth & there's a 9th one still to be reviewed.

The experience of reading all these was pretty good, it got better & better up 'til Nine by Laumer, wch was a pinnacle of sorts, & then starting to decline w/ The Undefeated & now, this, Galactic Odyssey - something that's practically a romance novel - but, fortunately, an SF romance novel. Reviewing ALMOST seems like a waste of my intellectual energy. ALMOST. Unlike most of the bks I read, I barely took any reviewing notes.

Laumer's beginning to exemplify for me a problem that's probably nagged at me my whole life but one that's coming to the fore again right now. Viz: the power of fantasy to divert a person from 'real life' so much that it saps one's strength to deal w/ it. Or something like that. How many people wonder: why is Arnold Schwarzenegger a Republican politician who's made films in wch he's the hero in SF written by lefty SF writers like P.K.Dick? Take Total Recall: the seeming msg of the film is probably one that alotof oppressed people can relate to has Schwarzenegger as a politician done anything that they can relate to or look up to in admiration? Not likely. B/c, after all, Total Recall is just escapist entertainment, a money-maker for people whose actual politics aren't necessarily those expressed by the plot of the movie. After all, the audience for such works is just there to escape - they're not necessarily going to do anything. & that's largely why I've been reading these Laumer works, reading in general, witnessing movies in general. Funny how music works for me in a different way. It's largely exempt from this criticism. Perhaps that's why I love it so much.

ANYWAY, Laumer's clearly a professional writer, someone who cranked out the bks for money, writing to entertain, & not full of interesting plot ideas. But I seriously doubt that he ever questioned the function of his writing. Like most artists, I suspect he thought the mere doing of it is enuf. Dunno, just speculating. Writers like Brunner & Verne were also professional writers but each of them seems to've had some larger sense of social purpose than I detect in Laumer. Maybe not. Maybe I'm just losing interest b/c Galactic Odyssey & the Laumer bk I'll review next, The Invaders seem like such pot-boilers, such commercial jobs. Not that it's such a bad way to make a living - I'm just one of those people who thinks that how a person makes a living deserves deep examination by the person working - even when it seems to be such a dream job, like writing novels.

I'm losing interest in Laumer, even tho I have another 10 bks by him I was planning to read soon, partially b/c his heros are so far-fetched. This far-fetchedness is, of course, what makes them heros, what makes them entertaining - but it's also what makes them unattainable as role models &, therefore, unhealthy for readers whose essence fades off into fantasy while their real life goes nowhere. I'm much more interested in an (anti-)hero like the 'real-life' (a problematic construction too) Emmett Grogan (author of the autobiographical Ringolevio &/or Abbie Hoffman.

Galactic Odyssey's hero starts off as a desperate hitch-hiker on the economic downswing. I cd totally relate. The opening description had some resemblance to my own teen-aged life. Then this character accidentally stows away in an intergalactic space-ship-yacht that's been on Earth for big-game hunting. The character's rather stupid, he's more or less immediately enslaved, his development into a hero largely hinges on his being thrust into the role of protector for a beautiful aristocratic woman from another planet, blah, blah..

The adventures that follow & the ability of the character to survive them, & to mature into a pretty spectacular creature, eventually getting the girl in the end, of course, are pure coming-of-age adolescent fantasy pushed way beyond what any average or even above-average 13 yr old male is likely to daydream about. &, aye!, there's the rub. Some people might say that such fantasies are healthy stimulants to imagination - & I agree - but there comes a time when it's more important to plunge out into the world & to stop fantasizing & take action. I've spent most of my life taking action, reading these bks is like retiring. But retiring, in this sense, is like accepting the downward trajectory toward death - maybe that's 'wisdom'.. or maybe it's just a waste of time. In this case, I'm inclining toward the latter opinion.

In other words, I love to read but it's time to read less & be out in the world more.

[Raja99 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why I Read This Book: I read Eric Flint's comments on the death of Christopher Anvil in the latest issue of Locus; I believe Flint said that Baen had released (almost?) all of Anvil's work in DRM-free ebooks, so I visited the Webscriptions site to try a sampler or two. Along the way I downloaded a free copy of Keith Laumer's Odyssey, which is an omnibus of Galactic Odyssey and several other books. I took a brief glance at the opening of Galactic Odyssey ... and was quickly hooked.

Galactic Odyssey isn't a profound book, but it doesn't attempt to be. Instead, it's a brilliantly-executed fast-paced space opera adventure story, with some clever ideas sprinkled throughout. Baen's free sample has paid off; I'm definitely interested in reading more of Laumer's work. ;-)

(Finished 2010-01-19 21:08:41 EST.)

[Traummachine]

There is SO MUCH story crammed into this 200 page book, it's incredible. The very basic plot of the book is that a guy, Billy Danger, is down on his luck and sleeps in a barn one night. The barn happens to be a disguised spacecraft, and he's accidentally become a stow-away. Rather than putting him out the airlock, the owners decide he can replace their former gun-boy. You see, this is a yacht for an interstellar hunting party. After hitting several planets, Billy finally seems to be getting the hang of it all. But disaster strikes, and the hunters are killed. He and the young lady who was aboard return to the ship, only to find that the combo on the door has been changed to prevent pirate access. So now they're stranded on the planet. That's the story only to about page 50, and it gets MUCH crazier after that. A very fun and engaging ride. I can't wait to read more Laumer.

[Bruce · Rating 4 out of 5]

An old-fashioned pulp sf adventure that lives up to its title. Four stars if that's what you are looking for.

[Koen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ruimteodyssee & Dinosaurusstrand
Geschreven door Keith Laumer
ISB-nummer 90 290 0460 6
Uitgever Meulenhoff SF, tweede druk 1981, nummer SF 95

Het eerste boek is geschreven in 1967, oorspronkelijke uitgave Berkley Medallion Books, New York.
Het tweede boek is geschreven in 1971, oorspronkelijke uitgave Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York. Dit verhaal is gebaseerd op het korte verhaal ‘Time Sweepers’ dat in augustus 1969 verscheen in ANALOG en in 1975 in vertaling werd opgenomen in Keith Laumer ‘Duizend jaar Schemering’, Meulenhoff SF 85.

Het eerste boek is een echt avonturenboek. Een niets vermoedende student raakt per ongeluk aan boord van een buitenaards ruimteschip en wordt meegenomen. Hij weet zich eerste instantie te handhaven en klimt later op als energie-technicus en zwerft het hele melkwegstelsel door met als doel de Freule Raire te redden.
Het verhaal zit goed in elkaar en voor mij een ****-Sterren beoordeling.

Het tweede boek, Dinosaurusstrand is een verhaal over tijdreizen waarbij het verhaal in lagen wordt afgepeld en dit is erg goed gedaan. Ook dit verhaal een ***-Sterrenbeoordeling.

Hieronder een opgave van de hoofdpersonen:

Ruimteodyssee:
Billy Danger, een aan lagerwal geraakte student die wanhopig probeert om niet verder in de misère te raken.

Billy is inmiddels na het volgen van een aantal studies, machinist/eerste Energiebaas aan boord van een luxe passagiersschip.
Ommu, zijn eerste ploegbaas.
Lath, energieman.
Till Oghnat, lid van het Ahaciaanse parlement.
Choom, een van de passagiers.
Humekoy, een Rishiaan die Billy ondervraagt.
Srat, een H’eeaq.
Nancy, techoperator.

Hruba, de majordomus van de Triach.
Huvile, een menselijke slaaf van de Triach.
Fsha-fsha, mede slaaf.

De Heer Desroy, eigenaar van het ruimteschip.
De Jonker Orfeo, jager.
De Freule Raire van het huis Ancinet-Chanore.

Kapitein Ancu Uriru kapitein van een vrachtvaarder.
In-Ruhic, plaatsvervangend Kapitein.

De Planeet Hrix
Knoute, baas van een sloperij.
Duin, hulpje van Knoute.

De Planeet Zeridajh
Heer Pastaine van het huis Ancinet-Chanore.
Dos, de bediende van Heer Pastaine.
Jonker Tanis, een mogelijke opvolger van Heer Pastaine.
Vrouwe Bezaille, van het huis Ancinet-Chanore.


Dinosaurusstrand:
Igor Ravel, tijdveger.
Zijn echtgenote Lisa.
De Karg, een mensachtige robot.
Dinosaurus-strand, de locatie van het Tijdveegprogramma. Tijdframe: 65 miljoen jaar geleden.
Nel Jard, Chef Tijdverdeler.
Mellia Gayl, tijdveger.
Dr. Javeh, chef ophaler en Karg (volgens Igor Ravel).
Dr. Fresca, tijdverdeler.
Koska, administrateur.

[S.j. Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another vintage Sci-Fi gem, written in 1967, opens with down on his luck earth man Billy Danger. He's lost in the country, it's begining to sleet and he is about to freeze to death when finds what he thinks is a corn silo but what turns out to be a space ship hiding on earth. Before he knows it, he's been whisked away into space with Lord Desroy, the ship's captain, Sir Orfeo the first mate and the beautiful Lady Raire. Billy is pressed into service as a gun bearer, learns the ropes quickly and accompanies the group on what are odd hunting expeditions on far away planets. When tragedy strikes, Billy is left to look after the safety of Lady Raire on a desert planet. After spotting what could only be a common house cat one night, Billy and Lady Raire follow it to where it lives. The discover a shipwreck thousands of years old but still preserved very well. The cat is part of a colony of felines that have evolved to enormous size. The crash site cut a deep ravine and out of the ship were giant pea plants bearing edibles. They make friends with one of the cats, name him Eureka and he becomes their trusty companion. They live on this desert planet for about a year and through a series of strange and unexpected events Billy and the Lady Raire are separated. He is left for dead and she is kidnapped and sold into slavery. Billy is later rescued, along with Eureka, and they spend the next several years looking for Lady Raire. He's made many contacts, been double crossed by unscrupulous pirates and politicians, and he's also been enslaved himself. In an exciting escape Billy and his fellow inmate, an alien named Fsha-Fsha, manage to get away from the prison. They have a series of interesting jobs and experiences which help them to seek the whereabouts of the Lady Raire. I've already given away too much of the plot, which was fast moving and fun to read. I recommend this book to lovers of vintage science fiction and action adventure novels!

[Kevin Phyland · Rating 3 out of 5]

Billy Danger is homeless and about to freeze to death when he breaks into what he thinks is a barn…next thing he knows he has stowed away on a luxury spaceship owned by Lord Desroy and his companion Lady Raire and the majordomo Orfeo. After nearly being ejected into space Orfeo takes him under his wing as an assistant drive engineer until they land on Gar 28. Lord Desroy is something of a self-styled big game hunter but he is impatient and reluctant to take advice, which gets himself and Orfeo killed, marooning Lady Raire and Billy on Gar 28. The book chronicles their valiant attempts to leave the planet, their adoption of a feral cat, Eureka, and ultimately, the kidnap and enslavement of them both at various times on various planets. Billy finally learns that Lady Raire is from a distant planet, Zeridajh, and must find a way to get there and free his longed-for Lady. Plenty of action and political derring-do makes this book fly along. You know what you’re getting with Keith Laumer and as an adventure yarn it is pretty cool. Serialized in Worlds of If as Spaceman!

[George · Rating 3 out of 5]

Billy Danger, who is down and out and finds himself stranded 20 miles from anything needs to find shelter to avoid dying when he comes across a corn silo. Danger wakes up 400 light years from home on a hunter's spaceship as a "native" gun bearer for a lordly alien and his beautiful mistress. Disaster strikes when the hunter & guide are killed and the woman is kidnapped. The rest of he story is about Dangers trials and tribulations traveling across the galaxy trying to find her.

[Gregory Chevette · Rating 1 out of 5]

I enjoyed the first 40 pages or so, but this book is so insanely fast-paced that I lost interest quickly. The protagonist goes from being a homeless man seeking shelter in a barn to blasting through space within the book's first few pages.

This moves so quickly that I never felt invested and ended up bored.

[Larry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun, old-time SciFi. The hero never gets a break right up to almost the last page.

[Garrett Headley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love it that his name is "Danger". Not even his middle name.

[Edward Johnston · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is short it is complex it is sexist but its a wild romp

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sci-fi club - Laumer's book was a great example of the Space Opera style from the early years of sci-fi. It stars Lady Raire, the damsel in distress, and Billy Danger, the pure and noble hero, and follows his epic journey to save the fair maiden, all playing across a colourful backdrop of dozens of stars, planets, and races. So many that it seems that Laumer had just been collecting a stack of scenes in search of a story, but no matter, they are all entertaining. Of course, in the end, the damsel is saved, and rewards Billy with a kiss – off camera - as they ride off into the sunset.

[David Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite quest SF adventure ever. I first read it in my early teens and I re-read the book about once a year until I was in my twenties. The adventure on the ice-bound world blows away the scene in The Empire Strikes Back -- and it was written some years before Empire was released. If only Laumer had been paid to write longer books -- most come in well under 300 pages, which I guess was pretty typical for the time in which he was writing. Oh, well. If you haven't read this one, read it, it won't take you more than a couple of hours.

[Blueznl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Escapism pur sang. And why not?

If you're looking for an easy, comfortable read, and if you like popcorn action adventure movies, this is the same thing (but in printed form).

This was actually one of my first SF books ever read, and I was hooked on SF ever after.

If you are looking for deep, insightful, emotional stories, this isn't the thing.

If you're looking for entertainment... why haven't you read this one yet?

[Lynette · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's like a classic space opera, with the noble man doing his all to rescue the noble woman. The twist if course is, although it doesn't mean as much now as when it was written, is that the noble hero is a black man (African American), something that he leaves to the very very end to tell us, in true propagandist style. Good for him

[Trent · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very enjoyable sci fi classic novel. Fun characters and story line that covers 6 years of adventure. It has some odd coincidences with my book, so it was interesting to read those coincidences. Overall, I really enjoyed it.

[bluetyson]

Galactic Odyssey by Keith Laumer (2000)

[Deedee]

Novel completely included in Odyssey.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, rollicking, tongue-in-cheek, Laumer. A space opera spoof, sort of cross between Retief and his serious stuff. Recommended.

[Josh Goldman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Laumer's fast pace is what Robert Jordan was missing.

[Wampuscat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read & Reviewed as part of an collection: Odyssey

[Bec D · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring

[SciFiOne · Rating 4 out of 5]

1984 grade B+

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

You could argue
that this is not an
epic, profound science
fiction novel but I
just really enjoyed it.

[Jon Norimann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining science fiction about a man stranded on a planet. Although one must wonder if the world really needs yet another version of Robinson Crusoe.

[Jesse Toldness · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty much what it says on the tin. A good, solid, old-fashioned space adventure.

[Mike S · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really great Laumer story, fast paced, imaginative, witty, gritty, funny... classic Laumer. I'm going to read everything he ever wrote, I really like this guy.

[.___. · Rating 3 out of 5]

^___?