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Legions of Space
Two complete novels, and a host of novelettes fill a large volume by the master of science fiction adventure. In the first novel, "A Trace of Memory," a drifter named Legion is hired by a millionaire who claims to be centuries old, but has nearly complete amnesia. He can only remember that "something "is hunting for him, and Legion's job is to protect him. The job turns out to be more than Legion bargained for when he finds himself and his employer on a prehistoric starship hurtling into the unknown. In "Planet Run," Laumer joins forces with SF legend Gordon R. Dickson in a novel of two ancient heroes who are going to trade the rest of their lives for one sweet year, and the chance to solve the secret of the last unexplored planet in this sector of the galaxy. Plus four short novels of exciting interstellar action and adventure. With an introduction by Joel Rosenberg, author of the best-selling "Guardians of the Flame" series.
Contents:
A Trace of Memory was first published as a serialized story in Amazing magazine (July–September 1962) and then reissued as a novel by Berkley in 1963.
Planet Run was first published in 1967 by Doubleday.
"The Choice" was first published in Analog in July, 1969.
"Three Blind Mice" was first published in The Many Worlds of Science Fiction (Ben Bova, ed.), E.P. Dutton, 1971.
"Mind Out of Time" was first published as "The Mind Out of Time" in The Farthest Reaches (Joseph Elder, ed.), Trident 1968.
"Message to an Alien" was first published in Analog in June, 1970.
Contents:
A Trace of Memory was first published as a serialized story in Amazing magazine (July–September 1962) and then reissued as a novel by Berkley in 1963.
Planet Run was first published in 1967 by Doubleday.
"The Choice" was first published in Analog in July, 1969.
"Three Blind Mice" was first published in The Many Worlds of Science Fiction (Ben Bova, ed.), E.P. Dutton, 1971.
"Mind Out of Time" was first published as "The Mind Out of Time" in The Farthest Reaches (Joseph Elder, ed.), Trident 1968.
"Message to an Alien" was first published in Analog in June, 1970.
480 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published September 28, 2004
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About the author
Keith Laumer
498 books227 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.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
November 5, 2012
Maybe 3.7 stars. Certainly a good read, but dated. After all it was written in the 50s and 60s. But some of what strikes a current reader as cliche may have been cutting edge SF then. The Arthurian back story to the titular novella is a good example.
The repetitive use of detective genre tough guy dialogue is tiring.
Especially enjoyed that the source of the gemstones around which so much death and mayhem focused in the final selection was not . . . wait, that would be telling.
A good read.
The repetitive use of detective genre tough guy dialogue is tiring.
Especially enjoyed that the source of the gemstones around which so much death and mayhem focused in the final selection was not . . . wait, that would be telling.
A good read.
August 2, 2015
Reading this book was sort of like exercising. I didn’t really want to start reading it but, once I did, I found I was enjoying it. Then tedium started to set in and, by the end of the book, I was happy to be done. Once it was over, I was glad I had read it. This is one of the many sixties-era science fiction compilations that were available at the Baen Free Library when I went on an e-book downloading spree a few years back. These types of books usually fall into one of two categories for me – “surprisingly good but with some dull parts” or else “just plain horribly dull”. This book was the former.
Legions of Space consists of two short novels with four short stories sandwiched in-between them. The short stories were very short, and pretty mediocre. I already can barely remember what they were about without going back to the book to glance at them. I liked one of the novels a lot, but I wasn’t crazy about the other.
The first novel, A Trace of Memory, was where the “surprisingly good” came in. The story interested me from the beginning – we meet our main character as he’s about to rob a store. Events soon take a strange turn and he gets caught up trying to help a mysterious, rich gentleman who has amnesia. This gentleman has a journal with centuries’ worth of entries, all written in the same hand, and the earliest entries are written in an unknown language. The story bounces around in different directions (in a controlled, logical manner) as one problem is resolved and leads to a new one. Each new direction rekindled my interest and curiosity in what would happen next. There were a few plot holes, I guess, but nothing I couldn’t overlook. I had a lot of fun reading this story and it took up nearly half of the book. If I were rating this story alone, I would probably give it four stars.
The second novel, Planet Run, was the last story in the book. This one was ok, but nothing special. We follow two men as they work together to try to stake a claim on land found on the last “frontier” planet within human’s reach. There’s fierce and deadly competition, and one of the two men has no experience whatsoever with this type of a situation so he gets them into various sorts of trouble. I didn’t care for either character, and there wasn’t anything about the story that really captured my imagination. There was one interesting twist in the story, but it wasn’t something that changed the direction of the story – it just changes the reader’s perspective about what’s going on.
I had hoped this anthology would help me make up my mind about the author, Keith Laumer. I had read one of his other compilations, A Plague of Demons & Other Stories, last year. I had a similar reaction to that one – there was one story that I quite enjoyed,and the rest were ok but nothing special. I still have four more of his compilations, plus the first book in his 15+ book Retief series. If I hadn’t liked this book I probably would have crossed them all off my list, but I’m still undecided so I’ll probably try one of the other compilations in the future.
On BookLikes I’ll give this 3.5 stars. Here on Goodreads, I have to round down to 3 because the overall enjoyment I got from the book wasn’t high enough to warrant 4 stars.
Legions of Space consists of two short novels with four short stories sandwiched in-between them. The short stories were very short, and pretty mediocre. I already can barely remember what they were about without going back to the book to glance at them. I liked one of the novels a lot, but I wasn’t crazy about the other.
The first novel, A Trace of Memory, was where the “surprisingly good” came in. The story interested me from the beginning – we meet our main character as he’s about to rob a store. Events soon take a strange turn and he gets caught up trying to help a mysterious, rich gentleman who has amnesia. This gentleman has a journal with centuries’ worth of entries, all written in the same hand, and the earliest entries are written in an unknown language. The story bounces around in different directions (in a controlled, logical manner) as one problem is resolved and leads to a new one. Each new direction rekindled my interest and curiosity in what would happen next. There were a few plot holes, I guess, but nothing I couldn’t overlook. I had a lot of fun reading this story and it took up nearly half of the book. If I were rating this story alone, I would probably give it four stars.
The second novel, Planet Run, was the last story in the book. This one was ok, but nothing special. We follow two men as they work together to try to stake a claim on land found on the last “frontier” planet within human’s reach. There’s fierce and deadly competition, and one of the two men has no experience whatsoever with this type of a situation so he gets them into various sorts of trouble. I didn’t care for either character, and there wasn’t anything about the story that really captured my imagination. There was one interesting twist in the story, but it wasn’t something that changed the direction of the story – it just changes the reader’s perspective about what’s going on.
I had hoped this anthology would help me make up my mind about the author, Keith Laumer. I had read one of his other compilations, A Plague of Demons & Other Stories, last year. I had a similar reaction to that one – there was one story that I quite enjoyed,and the rest were ok but nothing special. I still have four more of his compilations, plus the first book in his 15+ book Retief series. If I hadn’t liked this book I probably would have crossed them all off my list, but I’m still undecided so I’ll probably try one of the other compilations in the future.
On BookLikes I’ll give this 3.5 stars. Here on Goodreads, I have to round down to 3 because the overall enjoyment I got from the book wasn’t high enough to warrant 4 stars.
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March 6, 2023These novelettes from half a century ago show the strengths and weaknesses of Laumer. The protagonists are macho men. They pass a couple of women, but children are not to be seen. Still fun though.
May 2, 2015
More like 3.5 stars, but still an enjoyable read.
A TRACE OF MEMORY - I read this story many years ago, back when I was in either junior high or a freshman in high school. I remembered enjoying it, but didn't remember the name of it, who wrote it, or many of the actual details, just the overall plot and a couple of scenes. Thanks to the Baen Free Library and promotional CDs I found it again. Still an enjoyable story after all these years, but not quite as strong as I remembered it. For one thing, no women. In the entire story the only females that make an appearance are waitress in Miami who gets two mentions, and a girlfriend in Chile who is in about 5 pages. That's it. Still, a romping adventure across space, with good pacing. Legion is the only well defined character, it's a tale about his moral redemption more than about what Foster goes through. The body regeneration reminds me of some other stories, including PLANET RUN in this collection as well as Bruce Sterling's Holy Fire. Legion continually gets exceptionally lucky, and even he remarks upon it in the story. novel 4 stars
THE CHOICE - a completely over the top story of first contact between a small human exploration vessel and an intelligent machine. This would have fit in with Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It was funny and fun, but not really filling. short story 3 stars
THREE BLIND MICE - A story of first actual physical contact with an alien species humans have been at war with combined with an arctic survival story. Not bad, I liked the concept of the alien and it's drones. But not a great story either, left me wanting something more indepth while at the same time I just wanted to push through so it would end. short story 3 stars
MIND OUT OF TIME - Meh. I didn't care for this story all that much. It reminded me a little of the end of the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey where Bowman just living out his life, but time doesn't seem to be a constant. The astronauts remind me a little of what I've read about the old X-Plane test pilots, but even more reckless. short story 2 stars
MESSAGE TO AN ALIEN - I rather liked this one, even if the story of disgraced leader redeeming himself has been done over and over again. The little twist on WHY he did things the way he did was a nice touch. short story 4 Stars.
PLANET RUN - Possibly the best of the stories in this book. At first it appeared like it would be a little disappointing, but it got interesting and stayed pretty interesting. Captain Henry is the only well developed character, and it's told through his eyes. Larry grows on you as he matures, but it takes awhile. Wilderness survival story combined with a little political intrigue and discovery of alien artifacts. I was slightly surprised by where the jewels came from. This would probably make a pretty decent movie. novella to short novel length 4 stars.
The eBook was formatted well with only one noticeable spelling error. Thanks to the Baen Free Library and promotional CDs.
A TRACE OF MEMORY - I read this story many years ago, back when I was in either junior high or a freshman in high school. I remembered enjoying it, but didn't remember the name of it, who wrote it, or many of the actual details, just the overall plot and a couple of scenes. Thanks to the Baen Free Library and promotional CDs I found it again. Still an enjoyable story after all these years, but not quite as strong as I remembered it. For one thing, no women. In the entire story the only females that make an appearance are waitress in Miami who gets two mentions, and a girlfriend in Chile who is in about 5 pages. That's it. Still, a romping adventure across space, with good pacing. Legion is the only well defined character, it's a tale about his moral redemption more than about what Foster goes through. The body regeneration reminds me of some other stories, including PLANET RUN in this collection as well as Bruce Sterling's Holy Fire. Legion continually gets exceptionally lucky, and even he remarks upon it in the story. novel 4 stars
THE CHOICE - a completely over the top story of first contact between a small human exploration vessel and an intelligent machine. This would have fit in with Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It was funny and fun, but not really filling. short story 3 stars
THREE BLIND MICE - A story of first actual physical contact with an alien species humans have been at war with combined with an arctic survival story. Not bad, I liked the concept of the alien and it's drones. But not a great story either, left me wanting something more indepth while at the same time I just wanted to push through so it would end. short story 3 stars
MIND OUT OF TIME - Meh. I didn't care for this story all that much. It reminded me a little of the end of the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey where Bowman just living out his life, but time doesn't seem to be a constant. The astronauts remind me a little of what I've read about the old X-Plane test pilots, but even more reckless. short story 2 stars
MESSAGE TO AN ALIEN - I rather liked this one, even if the story of disgraced leader redeeming himself has been done over and over again. The little twist on WHY he did things the way he did was a nice touch. short story 4 Stars.
PLANET RUN - Possibly the best of the stories in this book. At first it appeared like it would be a little disappointing, but it got interesting and stayed pretty interesting. Captain Henry is the only well developed character, and it's told through his eyes. Larry grows on you as he matures, but it takes awhile. Wilderness survival story combined with a little political intrigue and discovery of alien artifacts. I was slightly surprised by where the jewels came from. This would probably make a pretty decent movie. novella to short novel length 4 stars.
The eBook was formatted well with only one noticeable spelling error. Thanks to the Baen Free Library and promotional CDs.
June 19, 2009
One might worry a bit when the introduction to a collection of stories lists the "supernovae" of sci-fi writing and it doesn't include the author of the book being introduced. In fact, it goes on to wistfully invokes the simple pleasures of enjoying Laumer as a competent "journeyman" author. Faint praise for some, but I've come to rather enjoy Laumer's science fiction. Though not his strongest volume overall, this book was a decent subway read, reminding me that as in journalism, the prose craftsman has his place.
The details of the stories are almost irrelevant for purposes of review, but the collection is bookended by two long-form stories, the first a 66,000 word novella that begins as a mystery but ends with a Retief/Stainless Steel Rat style character stuck on a planet of forgetful immortals, and engaging in the usual cleverer-than-the-locals hypertalented jack-of-all-trades sort of shenanigans one might expect from such a character template.
The rest of the book picks up the pace from this original overlong mess, and keeps closes with a Gordy Dickson co-production about ruthless prospectors (and double-crossing politicians--a Laumer staple) on a remote planet.
Laumer's anti-bureaucratic screeds are thankfully tempered with healthy doses of humor, which makes it a good fit for a beach chair or long train ride.
[Read an an eBook from Baen:]
The details of the stories are almost irrelevant for purposes of review, but the collection is bookended by two long-form stories, the first a 66,000 word novella that begins as a mystery but ends with a Retief/Stainless Steel Rat style character stuck on a planet of forgetful immortals, and engaging in the usual cleverer-than-the-locals hypertalented jack-of-all-trades sort of shenanigans one might expect from such a character template.
The rest of the book picks up the pace from this original overlong mess, and keeps closes with a Gordy Dickson co-production about ruthless prospectors (and double-crossing politicians--a Laumer staple) on a remote planet.
Laumer's anti-bureaucratic screeds are thankfully tempered with healthy doses of humor, which makes it a good fit for a beach chair or long train ride.
[Read an an eBook from Baen:]
July 7, 2009
An introduction that explains how this book is worth a few hours, despite being second-rate, is not an auspicious beginning. Fortunately, despite the introduction and after a slow beginning, I enjoyed it anyway.
A Trace of Memory, the main story, reminds me of David Weber's Dahak, Dr Who's Count Scarlioni, and Bowie's "The Man Who Fell to Earth", which I watched at the same time. It also reminds me My Name Is Legion (in reverse, which is appropriate because this is probably the inspiration for that, rather than vice-versa) and Glory Road (acknowledged in the introduction). Most annoying aspect: the supposedly intelligent narrator clinging to his ignorance and confusion like a drowning man.
The rest are mixed but decent. It's mostly amusing that Laumer cannot write a story without throwing in a Bolo.
A Trace of Memory, the main story, reminds me of David Weber's Dahak, Dr Who's Count Scarlioni, and Bowie's "The Man Who Fell to Earth", which I watched at the same time. It also reminds me My Name Is Legion (in reverse, which is appropriate because this is probably the inspiration for that, rather than vice-versa) and Glory Road (acknowledged in the introduction). Most annoying aspect: the supposedly intelligent narrator clinging to his ignorance and confusion like a drowning man.
The rest are mixed but decent. It's mostly amusing that Laumer cannot write a story without throwing in a Bolo.
March 2, 2014
Two complete novels, and a host of novelettes fill a large volume by the master of science fiction adventure. In the first novel, A Trace of Memory, a drifter named Legion is hired by a millionaire who claims to be centuries old, but has nearly complete amnesia. He can only remember that something is hunting for him, and Legion's job is to protect him. The job turns out to be more than Legion bargained for when he finds himself and his employer on a prehistoric starship hurtling into the unknown. In Planet Run, Laumer joins forces with SF legend Gordon R. Dickson in a novel of two ancient heroes who are going to trade the rest of their lives for one sweet year, and the chance to solve the secret of the last unexplored planet in this sector of the galaxy. Plus four short novels of exciting interstellar action and adventure. With an introduction by Joel Rosenberg, author of the best-selling "Guardians of the Flame" series.
June 28, 2011
I read the epub complements of Baen Publishing's free library (www.baen.com). Most of Laumer's writings can be summed up with a quote from a movie with a similar theme: "Endeavor to Persevere"
Good stuff. Laumer is said by some to be a journeyman author, but I disagree. In my opinion he ranks with the greats like Heinlein, and Norton. I "discovered" Heinlein, Norton, and others in my junior high school library in the 1960s, but have only recently done so with Laumer thanks to Baen Publishing and Eric Flint. Better late than never.
Good stuff. Laumer is said by some to be a journeyman author, but I disagree. In my opinion he ranks with the greats like Heinlein, and Norton. I "discovered" Heinlein, Norton, and others in my junior high school library in the 1960s, but have only recently done so with Laumer thanks to Baen Publishing and Eric Flint. Better late than never.
July 15, 2012
Can't seem to get enough of these books full of short stories by Keith Laumer and various authors who write in his style, epic and unique he definitely has a imagination many authors can only wish they had.
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March 5, 2017See my individual reviews:
A Trace of Memory
Planet Run
A Trace of Memory
Planet Run
January 26, 2013
Laumer is one of my favorite authors. The technobabble may be dated but the concepts are timeless, and I enjoy his unique blend of action, high ideas and plot twists, and the quintessential "bad-assery" of his heroes. To me, Laumer ranks among the greats in SF.
November 11, 2013
Good read, interesting story line..I would like to read more books by this author..
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews