I mondi dell'Impero

Imperium #1-3

by Keith Laumer

Brion Bayard, giovane diplomatico americano, sta tranquillamente girovagando per le stradine della città vecchia medievale preservata proprio nel centro della moderna Stoccolma quando, di colpo, viene rapito dagli emissari di un mondo parallelo in cui gli Stati Uniti non sono mai esistiti, in cui l’Europa del Nord, la Gran Bretagna, l’emisfero occidentale e l’Australia formano un enorme impero: un impero che ha raggiunto uno straordinario livello tecnologico per quanto riguarda gli spostamenti negli universi paralleli ma è rimasto a uno stadio di totale ignoranza sulle scienze nucleari. Questo mondo, che ricorda molto la belle epoque europea, con il suo gusto per le uniformi sgargianti e la vita brillante, si erge a difensore della civiltà contro i continuum spazio-temporali che hanno scoperto il segreto del viaggio tra mondi paralleli e tentano di impadronirsi con la violenza e con la tecnologia bellica nucleare delle altre Terre più indifese. Così inizia uno dei cicli più belli e famosi sui tema degli universi paralleli: una serie di fantastiche avventure attraverso mondi sfarzosi e terre desolate distrutte dall’olocausto atomico, mondi in cui Napoleone non perse affatto a Waterloo ma portò l’Europa unita sotto il suo dominio, mondi in cui i Plantageneti non si sono estinti lasciando il posto ai Tudor e in cui discendenti di Riccardo Cuor di Leone e di Giovanni Senza Terra lottano ancora per il potere, mondi dominati da discendenti dei pitecantropi e di brutali uomini-scimmia, mondi in continuo pericolo per l’instabile equilibrio che governa il tessuto cosmico del continuum spazio-temporale e che può crollare per ogni minimo intervento esterno.

Genres: Science Fiction, Ebooks, Fiction

456 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2005

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

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three complete novels of cross-time action and suspense by Keith Laumer, grand master of science fiction adventure. Brion Bayard was an American diplomat . . . until he was kidnapped on the streets of Stockholm, and thrust into what he thought was a truck. At first, he was relieved to find that his abductors were very apologetic, and very British. Then they began speaking about nations and leaders which Bayard had never heard of. That was understandable, they told him, because they were from Earth, but not his Earth. There are millions or more parallel Earths, each different in some slight way from the other, where history has taken every possible turn, where the heirs of Napoleon rule Europe, where King John tore the Magna Carta to shreds and executed those who had presented him with it, even one where the ancestors of Homo sapiens lost the evolutionary struggle to another upright ape, who became the dominant intelligent lifeform. But mostly there are uninhabitable worlds, destroyed by the discovery of the technology to travel from one parallel Earth to another and the misuse of it. The Earth of the Imperium is at war with another parallel Earth and Bayard can stop the war by killing the ruler of the aggressor Earth and replacing him-because the ruler is a parallel version of Bayard. But when Bayard goes on his mission to the alternate Earth, things don't turn out to be quite that simple. And that was only the beginning of Bayard's adventures as he defends his new homeworld, both from internal enemies and invaders from the other side of time, becoming the staunchest and most resourceful defender of the Imperium! Publisher's Note: Imperium has previously appeared in parts as Worlds of the Imperium, Assignment in Nowhere and The Other Side of Time. This is the first unitary edition.

-- My Notes

Omnibus edition of Imperium, volumes 1, 2, & 3.

[Dantegideon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn’t enjoy this at all. An unpleasant combination of brutality and ridiculousness.

[Victor · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars, bumped up because I like the premise.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book contains three complete novels by Keith Laumer. I read each of these novels separately many years ago but I ran into this book with all three together and decided to revisit them. They are set in his Imperium universe and are as follows, Worlds of the Imperium, The Other Side of Time and Assignment in Nowhere. The first one, Worlds of the Imperium, is about the kidnapping of Brion Bayard, an American diplomat from our Earth. He is taken in a mysterious ship across timelines to Earth Zero, Zero where he learns that there are an unlimited number of parallel timelines and the Imperium government attempts to rule them all in order to keep them safe from a destruction which has fallen to a great many of them. One such timeline has been attacking Earth Zero, Zero and the Imperium wants Brion to replace the dictator of that timeline because he is his double. Brion soon learns however that everything is not as it has been explained to him. In The Other Side of Time a race of intelligent ape like creatures is attacking Earth Zero, Zero and trying to destroy it because they are rivals for control of the many timelines. It is once again up to Brion Bayard to save Earth Zero, Zero and the other human timelines. In Assignment in Nowhere Brion Bayard contacts Johnny Curlon from his old Earth timeline because he is a direct decedent of King Richard the Lion Hearted and the timelines are in disarray and he is the only one who can save the many timelines from self destruction. All three of these novels are a great read and I recommend them to fans of Keith Laumer.

[Houston Auer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not steampunk. Close. Mouth. Caution stoners will need to cut back, or else it's a lil hard to follow. Great series waiting to get the last book, invasion of the rat men or some s***. Anyway they're very well written and each book is very entertaining. The first Worlds of Imperium is the best. Its about an alternate timeline, not steampunk. In an alternate universe the american revolution never happened and Britain is the world superpower and instead of focusing on the fighting a British man was able to build a machine to cross the threads between universes. A fantastic new idea by Laumer. Remember it was the 60s~70s that these were written in the golden age of science fiction. They were very original. A must read if you like fiction. I recommend highly. Keith Laumer is widely considered one of the most popular sci-fi writers of all time. Most well known for the Bolo series. He wrote many great books throughout his life. But I personally hold this above all the rest. But if giant super tanks are more your style. Try the bolo series. Ha.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

A like-able character, a meaningful story, and the slightly disjointed but often suspenseful pace of a serialized novel. Laumers trademark humor makes a more understated appearance here than in his other novels.

[Liz]

Yeah! Steampunk! Traveling sideways through time

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars