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The Star Treasure
THE STAR LORDS WANTED HIM DEAD...
but Ben Tarleton was not yet ready to die. He had found the corpse of his friend Paul Danton among the rings of Saturn, flotsam among the litter of Space, and he yearned for revenge.
The Star Lords controlled the Starcore, and the Starcore was the indispensable fuel of civilization. The aces, then, were in the hands of the enemy.
But that reckoned without the Ancils, strange denizens of the prison planet Pink Hell...
And without the determination of a strong man...
but Ben Tarleton was not yet ready to die. He had found the corpse of his friend Paul Danton among the rings of Saturn, flotsam among the litter of Space, and he yearned for revenge.
The Star Lords controlled the Starcore, and the Starcore was the indispensable fuel of civilization. The aces, then, were in the hands of the enemy.
But that reckoned without the Ancils, strange denizens of the prison planet Pink Hell...
And without the determination of a strong man...
- GenresScience FictionFiction
176 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1971
64 people want to read
About the author
Keith Laumer
497 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 - 19 of 19 reviews
May 17, 2018
Give the author credit for taking on a big philosophical issue: the nature of power and what happens when it is unlimited. Clearly the main character has extraordinary luck and survival skills. The story starts as an adventurous mystery but veers off course and, in my opinion, does not find its way back.
January 9, 2022
Like a hastily lettered sign begun with plenty of space around the finely constructed first letters, but with the final letters thin and cramped and squashed against the far edge of the sign.
July 18, 2018
Haha - just reread my earlier reviews of Laumer's Plague of Demons, Catastrophe Planet and A Trace of Memory, and virtually every thing I thought to say about this book I had already said in my reviews there. Anyway - here are my thoughts on The Star Treasure, repeats and all since I'm gonna assume no one has read - much less remembered - my previous comments.
So yes, Keith Laumer is kind of a guilt pleasure for me, largely because like Forrest Gump's box of chocolates, you never quite know what you're going to get. But odds are, it's going to be a roller coaster of a ride, even if it doesn't really take you anywhere particularly memorable.
Laumer's "gold standard" remains Dinosaur Beach, and I continue to look for anything else of his that even approaches that excellent story. And while Star Treasure is definitely not the droid I've been looking for, it was still kinda fun in its own trippy way. Laumer does a mean sci-fi noir, projecting classic retro tough-guy style into the far future, so he can be worth reading just for his writing itself. A few examples:
I was still alive, but that was a mere detail, subject to change.
The last burst picked me up and threw me a thousand miles into an open grave and the mud showered down on me and a giant tombstone fell out of the sky to mark the place, but I didn't care anymore, because I was far away in the place where the heroes and the cowards lie together with a fine impartiality, waiting for eternity to pass slowly, like a procession of snails creeping across an endless desert toward a distant line of mountains.
It occurred to me that somewhere along the way I'd lost something valuable. I began feeling over the sand, looking for it, but there was nothing there but powdery chalk and broken pebbles. And I realized then that what I'd lost was no trinket that could be tucked in a pocket, something that I could replace for a few credits. What I'd left behind in my adventures was youth and health and hope for the future. Those are the treasures that you hold for just a little while at the beginning of life before you lose them once and forever. And mine had gone a bit more quickly than most.
As I've noted in previous books, his plots tend to get away from him, and Treasure is no exception. I was honestly 3/4's through the book before I figured out what the story was actually about, and as in all three of the above-mentioned books he takes a wild left turn in the final pages, introducing undiscovered alien races and universe-shaking developments in the last 20 pages that weren't even hinted at in the first 150. And his spatial leaps can be equally dizzying, shuttling within pages between Saturn's rings, tropical Borneo, Northern Virginia and the prison planet of Pink Hell. Indeed, throughout the whole book I found myself saying "this scene could come straight out of The Expanse," and then "this scene could be right out of Papillon," and then in quick succession "from Enemy of the State, Chronicles of Riddick, Shawshank Redemption, Dune, Prometheus," until - at the very end - "this kinda sounds like Dinosaur Beach!," (published the same year, but apparently serialized before that).
But I don't necessarily mean that in a bad way. Certainly none of this is great literature or even great sci-fi, but it still makes for a fun and unpredictable diversion - which is why I continue to return to Laumer every few months, if only to see what strange rabbit holes his mind takes him down this time...
So yes, Keith Laumer is kind of a guilt pleasure for me, largely because like Forrest Gump's box of chocolates, you never quite know what you're going to get. But odds are, it's going to be a roller coaster of a ride, even if it doesn't really take you anywhere particularly memorable.
Laumer's "gold standard" remains Dinosaur Beach, and I continue to look for anything else of his that even approaches that excellent story. And while Star Treasure is definitely not the droid I've been looking for, it was still kinda fun in its own trippy way. Laumer does a mean sci-fi noir, projecting classic retro tough-guy style into the far future, so he can be worth reading just for his writing itself. A few examples:
I was still alive, but that was a mere detail, subject to change.
The last burst picked me up and threw me a thousand miles into an open grave and the mud showered down on me and a giant tombstone fell out of the sky to mark the place, but I didn't care anymore, because I was far away in the place where the heroes and the cowards lie together with a fine impartiality, waiting for eternity to pass slowly, like a procession of snails creeping across an endless desert toward a distant line of mountains.
It occurred to me that somewhere along the way I'd lost something valuable. I began feeling over the sand, looking for it, but there was nothing there but powdery chalk and broken pebbles. And I realized then that what I'd lost was no trinket that could be tucked in a pocket, something that I could replace for a few credits. What I'd left behind in my adventures was youth and health and hope for the future. Those are the treasures that you hold for just a little while at the beginning of life before you lose them once and forever. And mine had gone a bit more quickly than most.
As I've noted in previous books, his plots tend to get away from him, and Treasure is no exception. I was honestly 3/4's through the book before I figured out what the story was actually about, and as in all three of the above-mentioned books he takes a wild left turn in the final pages, introducing undiscovered alien races and universe-shaking developments in the last 20 pages that weren't even hinted at in the first 150. And his spatial leaps can be equally dizzying, shuttling within pages between Saturn's rings, tropical Borneo, Northern Virginia and the prison planet of Pink Hell. Indeed, throughout the whole book I found myself saying "this scene could come straight out of The Expanse," and then "this scene could be right out of Papillon," and then in quick succession "from Enemy of the State, Chronicles of Riddick, Shawshank Redemption, Dune, Prometheus," until - at the very end - "this kinda sounds like Dinosaur Beach!," (published the same year, but apparently serialized before that).
But I don't necessarily mean that in a bad way. Certainly none of this is great literature or even great sci-fi, but it still makes for a fun and unpredictable diversion - which is why I continue to return to Laumer every few months, if only to see what strange rabbit holes his mind takes him down this time...
June 14, 2023
“The Star Treasure”, is written by Keith Laumer and this book contains the following additional short stories:
• The War Relic, was published previously in the magazine Analog, Vol. LXXXIV, No. 2 in 1996.
• Test to Destruction, was published previously in 1969 in the anthology Dangerous Visions edited (including a contribution) by Harlan Ellision.
• In the Queue, was published previously in 1970 in Orbit 7 an anthology edited by Damon Knight.
ISBN: 0-671-65596-5
This issue is from Baen Publishing Enterprises, October 1986.
Cover Art by Vincent Di Fate.
Below a list of the main characters featuring in de the four stories.
The Star Treasure:
United Planetary Navy, The Tyrant:
• Midshipman Charles Yates Blane.
• Commander Paul Danton.
• Lieutenant Banastre Tarleton.
• Fleet Commodore Grayson.
• Mr. Crowder, civilian advisor.
• Boat deck NCOIC MacDonald.
• Mr. Hatcher, civilian advisor.
North Borneo, port Lahad Datu on the north side of Darcek Bay:
• Tumbela, Tarleton’s rescuer.
• Superintendent Otaka, Company man.
• Lacy, next-door neighbour.
• Shik, Freddy, Ba Way and Sharnhorst. Field hands of Mr. Joto, Area Superintendent.
• Mrs. MacReady.
Washington DC:
• Trillin Danton, Paul’s wife.
• Tancey, agent of the Hatenik council.
• Krupp, Naval Intelligence.
• Admiral Stane
• Admiral Lightner
• Admiral Hatch, President of the Court.
Planet Roseworld.
• Cymreag, recruiter of the mining operation at Llywarch Hen.
• Heavy, partner of Ban.
The Zephyres:
• Tank, the cook.
• Georgie, former junior Gunnery Officer.
• Grift, Dancer, Toad and Grinchy.
• Tiger, the doctor.
• The Ancil, a very old race found on the planet Roseworld by Ban.
The War Relic
• Bolo Stupendous, Mark XXV, nicknamed “Bobby”, Robotic warmachine, Unit nine-five-four of the line.
• Crewe, Disposal Officer of old War materials.
• Blauvelt, owner of the Blauvelt Provision Company.
Test to Destruction
• Johnny Mallory.
• Monica Mallory, his wife.
• Dian, their daughter.
• Paul, John’s accomplice.
• Fey Koslo, dictator.
The ultimate test of man is his ability to master himself. It is a test which we have so far failed.
In the Queue
• Farn Hester, In the Line.
• Galpert, his cousin.
• The War Relic, was published previously in the magazine Analog, Vol. LXXXIV, No. 2 in 1996.
• Test to Destruction, was published previously in 1969 in the anthology Dangerous Visions edited (including a contribution) by Harlan Ellision.
• In the Queue, was published previously in 1970 in Orbit 7 an anthology edited by Damon Knight.
ISBN: 0-671-65596-5
This issue is from Baen Publishing Enterprises, October 1986.
Cover Art by Vincent Di Fate.
Below a list of the main characters featuring in de the four stories.
The Star Treasure:
United Planetary Navy, The Tyrant:
• Midshipman Charles Yates Blane.
• Commander Paul Danton.
• Lieutenant Banastre Tarleton.
• Fleet Commodore Grayson.
• Mr. Crowder, civilian advisor.
• Boat deck NCOIC MacDonald.
• Mr. Hatcher, civilian advisor.
North Borneo, port Lahad Datu on the north side of Darcek Bay:
• Tumbela, Tarleton’s rescuer.
• Superintendent Otaka, Company man.
• Lacy, next-door neighbour.
• Shik, Freddy, Ba Way and Sharnhorst. Field hands of Mr. Joto, Area Superintendent.
• Mrs. MacReady.
Washington DC:
• Trillin Danton, Paul’s wife.
• Tancey, agent of the Hatenik council.
• Krupp, Naval Intelligence.
• Admiral Stane
• Admiral Lightner
• Admiral Hatch, President of the Court.
Planet Roseworld.
• Cymreag, recruiter of the mining operation at Llywarch Hen.
• Heavy, partner of Ban.
The Zephyres:
• Tank, the cook.
• Georgie, former junior Gunnery Officer.
• Grift, Dancer, Toad and Grinchy.
• Tiger, the doctor.
• The Ancil, a very old race found on the planet Roseworld by Ban.
The War Relic
• Bolo Stupendous, Mark XXV, nicknamed “Bobby”, Robotic warmachine, Unit nine-five-four of the line.
• Crewe, Disposal Officer of old War materials.
• Blauvelt, owner of the Blauvelt Provision Company.
Test to Destruction
• Johnny Mallory.
• Monica Mallory, his wife.
• Dian, their daughter.
• Paul, John’s accomplice.
• Fey Koslo, dictator.
The ultimate test of man is his ability to master himself. It is a test which we have so far failed.
In the Queue
• Farn Hester, In the Line.
• Galpert, his cousin.
August 13, 2025
The Star Treasure by Keith Laumer is a space opera from one of the great classic science fiction authors. I'm a Laumer fan, and as usual, he writes with humour and authority. While this is less humorous than his usual, it is nevertheless a good story with his signature strong male lead character. This book is probably not the one to read if you've never read anything by him before. My suggestion would be to start with the Bolo tank stories or any of the Retief stories. Still, in all, a good read by a master from the past.
February 22, 2018
I'm a Laumer fan, but this story disappointed me. Most of the book chronicles the suffering of the protagonist in agonizing detail. Don't get me wrong, Laumer does a great job of describing it. It's just that I could have done without it.
I reality, this is a short story that was fleshed out to novel size and it takes quite a while to wade through it. There are three short stories at the end. One of them is halfway decent (a Bolo story).
I'm tossing this one.
I reality, this is a short story that was fleshed out to novel size and it takes quite a while to wade through it. There are three short stories at the end. One of them is halfway decent (a Bolo story).
I'm tossing this one.
April 23, 2021
È un normalissimo libro di avventura, in cui lo svolgimento è imprevedibile e non segue un filo logico particolare. Lo sfondo scifi rappresenta la scusa per parlare di temi legati al potere ed al destino, alla religione, alla speranza ecc. È meno peggio di quel che si dica, ma rimane un testo scritto velocemente, anche se le immagini finali sono interessantissime.
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September 10, 2024A bit baffled as to what to rate this. Definitely a book that sucked me in and kept me turning pages, but the twists started to feel like 'and so?' twists, and ended in a rather...confusing, 'so what?' way. Quick read if one wants a kinda off beat scifi book. I will say that it had a 'say don't tell' mentality. Would've loved a sequel for it following up on some of the ideas put down.
April 16, 2020
Predictable 1970's space opera. Not particularly interesting, with the typical "surprises" that really weren't surprises.
It's OK, but there are so many better Laumer books (the Lafayette O'Leary series and Retief). Skip this one.
It's OK, but there are so many better Laumer books (the Lafayette O'Leary series and Retief). Skip this one.
September 16, 2024
Ban Tarleton was born with glass bones and paper skin. Every morning he breaks his legs, and every afternoon he breaks his arms. At night, he lies awake in agony until his heart attacks put him to sleep.
April 14, 2021
The plot is sort of like a Harry Potter story. The protagonist is in danger, he is saved, repeat ad nauseum.
September 29, 2022
Fun classic SciFi. Main character, naive at the beginning, learns better, and then even triumphs over his first bad instinctive reflex.
May 24, 2016
L'inizio è quello di una piacevole spy story, ambientata nel futuro e su una astronave, ma piuttosto classica nella sua impostazione.
Dopo la prima parte però, il libro va letteralmente a spasso. Non si capisce perché il protagonista faccia quello che fa, né perché date certe cause si ottengano determinati effetti. Probabilmente non lo sa nemmeno l'autore, che infatti infligge al suo protagonista lunghi periodi di deliquio per i più svariati motivi, durante i quali scorrono le pagine e si suppone che qualcosa avvenga nell'intimo dello stesso, anche se a noi lettori non è dato sapere.
In ogni caso qualcosa succede, dato che alla fine del libro il coniglio diventa un'aquila, acquista poteri mentali, sconfigge tutti i nemici e se ne va a fronte alta rifiutando il fardello di una tirannia che gli viene proposta proprio per i suoi poteri.
Ultima cosa, non imputabile all'autore: non si capisce bene che cosa c'entri il Giove citato nel titolo, dato che il pianeta che ha un qualche peso sulla storia è Saturno, e che il titolo originale è "The star treasure", che una qualche attinenza con il testo ce l'ha.
Dopo la prima parte però, il libro va letteralmente a spasso. Non si capisce perché il protagonista faccia quello che fa, né perché date certe cause si ottengano determinati effetti. Probabilmente non lo sa nemmeno l'autore, che infatti infligge al suo protagonista lunghi periodi di deliquio per i più svariati motivi, durante i quali scorrono le pagine e si suppone che qualcosa avvenga nell'intimo dello stesso, anche se a noi lettori non è dato sapere.
In ogni caso qualcosa succede, dato che alla fine del libro il coniglio diventa un'aquila, acquista poteri mentali, sconfigge tutti i nemici e se ne va a fronte alta rifiutando il fardello di una tirannia che gli viene proposta proprio per i suoi poteri.
Ultima cosa, non imputabile all'autore: non si capisce bene che cosa c'entri il Giove citato nel titolo, dato che il pianeta che ha un qualche peso sulla storia è Saturno, e che il titolo originale è "The star treasure", che una qualche attinenza con il testo ce l'ha.
August 17, 2009
I picked this one up at my library used book bin for reasons unknown to me now. Written in 1971, this raggedy paperback spoke to me from my bookshelf, promising a quick romp through the amber tinted world of disco sci-fi, with bodacious babes, kooky aliens and laser weapons. As the book fell apart on me with every turned page, I started to realize that this was actually pretty bad on all counts: poor characters, a story that is a head scratcher, and a poor predecessor to the Messiah story that is Frank Herbert's 'Dune'. Sadly but fortunately, science fiction has progressed much further than this book would suggest. This was like reading a story written in 6th-grade composition class. Avoid this one, unless you got stoned and bought it out of a used book bin (oops).
November 15, 2014
Definitely not Laumer at his best, but then the "golden age"of sci-fi had plenty of schlock to go around. (grab a random Heinlein and you'll see what I mean.) This book is a thinly veiled allegory about the evils of corporate control and the failure of the common man to realize his plight. What are supposed to be suspenseful twists of plot seem like hurky-jerky stumbles between bad short stories that just happen to contain the same character. Is it ok for a late-night read? Yeah. Is it one to rush out and find? Nah...but if you see it in the used bin for less than a buck, it's a great cure for insomnia. :)
November 8, 2025
Not bad, but the protagonist has a big proclivity for falling asleep/losing consciousness and being miraculously saved, the only way this author knew how to move the plots forward I guess. And the half asleep half awake stream of consciousness got old real fast.
June 9, 2008
This was an okay read but the plot was a bit simplistic and the wrapup a bit contrived. It qualifies as a book to read but not to keep.
July 10, 2016
I liked this story, if you're a Laumer fan it will be worth the read.
December 21, 2014
1983 grade B
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews