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Odyssey
An omnibus edition containing a selection of the author's acclaimed action-packed space adventures chronicles the adventures of Billy Danger, who seeks refuge from a blizzard in what turns out to be an alien starship; Ravel, a time-traveling agent out to ensure the future of humankind; and Baird Ulrik, a killer-for-hire forced into a dangerous and distasteful mission. Original.
576 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published February 26, 2002
2 people are currently reading
166 people want to read
About the author
Keith Laumer
498 books226 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 - 13 of 13 reviews
February 3, 2016
Odyssey is an anthology of science fiction stories written by Keith Laumer in the 1960’s. This is the third anthology of his stories that I’ve read over the past couple of years and, as usual, my enjoyment level varied.
The first story, Galactic Odyssey, took up about a third of this 576-page book. This was the one I enjoyed the most, although it did have slow spots here and there. The main character is homeless and penniless, trying to find shelter on a cold winter's night. He crawls into what he thinks is a grain silo to try to get out of the elements and get some sleep. However, this grain silo isn’t really a grain silo and, the next thing we know, our human friend is learning about alien life first-hand. This starts off a series of adventures that were mostly entertaining, although sometimes they felt a little tedious.
The second story, A Trip to the City, was kind of odd. I can’t talk much about the premise without spoiling anything. This one kept me guessing, which made it fun to read. It didn’t end up where I was expecting, and I was a little bit undecided on how I felt about that. However, it had some really interesting themes about the nature of reality and blind acceptance of what we see around us and I did like that.
The last story, Dinosaur Beach, really got on my nerves. It was a time travel story and at first I thought it was going to be quite interesting. As the story progressed, it seemed like logical flaw was heaped on logical flaw, with a hearty helping of mumbo-jumbo, and lots of convenient discoveries to help the main character move on to the next stage in the story. In the end everything was kind of explained in such a way that most of my original complaints probably were invalidated. I wasn’t thrilled with the explanation, though, and it didn’t negate the annoyance I felt while reading the story.
The other stories held my attention well enough while I read them, but they weren’t particularly memorable. I still haven’t quite made my mind up about Keith Laumer. His writing can be quite good at times, but other times I have trouble getting through it. I downloaded several of his books from the Baen Free Library a few years back. I have two more unread anthologies, plus an omnibus of the first three books in his Retief series. My experience so far has been that his longer stories are the ones I enjoy the most. So I’m hesitant to give up on him until I try the Retief omnibus. On the other hand, that series has at least 15 books in it so the omnibus would have to prove very good to make me want to read the rest of the series.
The first story, Galactic Odyssey, took up about a third of this 576-page book. This was the one I enjoyed the most, although it did have slow spots here and there. The main character is homeless and penniless, trying to find shelter on a cold winter's night. He crawls into what he thinks is a grain silo to try to get out of the elements and get some sleep. However, this grain silo isn’t really a grain silo and, the next thing we know, our human friend is learning about alien life first-hand. This starts off a series of adventures that were mostly entertaining, although sometimes they felt a little tedious.
The second story, A Trip to the City, was kind of odd. I can’t talk much about the premise without spoiling anything. This one kept me guessing, which made it fun to read. It didn’t end up where I was expecting, and I was a little bit undecided on how I felt about that. However, it had some really interesting themes about the nature of reality and blind acceptance of what we see around us and I did like that.
The last story, Dinosaur Beach, really got on my nerves. It was a time travel story and at first I thought it was going to be quite interesting. As the story progressed, it seemed like logical flaw was heaped on logical flaw, with a hearty helping of mumbo-jumbo, and lots of convenient discoveries to help the main character move on to the next stage in the story. In the end everything was kind of explained in such a way that most of my original complaints probably were invalidated. I wasn’t thrilled with the explanation, though, and it didn’t negate the annoyance I felt while reading the story.
The other stories held my attention well enough while I read them, but they weren’t particularly memorable. I still haven’t quite made my mind up about Keith Laumer. His writing can be quite good at times, but other times I have trouble getting through it. I downloaded several of his books from the Baen Free Library a few years back. I have two more unread anthologies, plus an omnibus of the first three books in his Retief series. My experience so far has been that his longer stories are the ones I enjoy the most. So I’m hesitant to give up on him until I try the Retief omnibus. On the other hand, that series has at least 15 books in it so the omnibus would have to prove very good to make me want to read the rest of the series.
July 31, 2016
A book of not so "short" stories (Available for free as an ebook on Baen's website?):
Galactic Odyssey 4 stars
Billy Danger hides in a "silo" to get out of the cold. But the "silo" is actually a space ship and the owner doesn't much care for stowaways. But his assistant intercedes and puts Billy to work.
Then there's the Lady Raire. A young passenger who's the third person on the private yacht.
Billy's off and running in an adventure that takes him across the galaxy.
It's a story of adventure and growth, well worth my time.
-----------------------
A Trip to the City 3 stars
Brett rides the train to the big city and discovers something quite unexpected. Lots of tension and danger once it gets going.
------------------
Hybrid - 4 stars
A story of struggle against nature as told by a sentient tree -- with a surprise ending that's worth the wait.
-------------------
Combat Unit - 4 stars
A Bolo story of a unit captured by the enemy and their struggle to become free. Good yarn!
-----------------
The King of the City - 3.5 stars (I couldn't make up my mind)
Post-apocalyptic story of a human spaceman "stranded" on an Earth that's devolved into anarchy with various "bosses" running sections of the planet -- especially the big cities. Worth at least one read.
-----------------
Once There Was a Giant - 3 stars
A scheme to swindle a man out of a planet. I didn't care for the characters other than the Giant himself. Worth one read.
--------------------
Dinosaur Beach - 3 stars
A time travel story.
It seems that the invention of time travel has created some problems in the time stream, so it's outlawed. An elite team is sent back in time to fix the problems, but of course, they create more problems. So another team is created to clean up both sets of problems. Etc.
Vintage Laumer, with the main character bouncing around in a mad attempt to survive and fix things.
Galactic Odyssey 4 stars
Billy Danger hides in a "silo" to get out of the cold. But the "silo" is actually a space ship and the owner doesn't much care for stowaways. But his assistant intercedes and puts Billy to work.
Then there's the Lady Raire. A young passenger who's the third person on the private yacht.
Billy's off and running in an adventure that takes him across the galaxy.
It's a story of adventure and growth, well worth my time.
-----------------------
A Trip to the City 3 stars
Brett rides the train to the big city and discovers something quite unexpected. Lots of tension and danger once it gets going.
------------------
Hybrid - 4 stars
A story of struggle against nature as told by a sentient tree -- with a surprise ending that's worth the wait.
-------------------
Combat Unit - 4 stars
A Bolo story of a unit captured by the enemy and their struggle to become free. Good yarn!
-----------------
The King of the City - 3.5 stars (I couldn't make up my mind)
Post-apocalyptic story of a human spaceman "stranded" on an Earth that's devolved into anarchy with various "bosses" running sections of the planet -- especially the big cities. Worth at least one read.
-----------------
Once There Was a Giant - 3 stars
A scheme to swindle a man out of a planet. I didn't care for the characters other than the Giant himself. Worth one read.
--------------------
Dinosaur Beach - 3 stars
A time travel story.
It seems that the invention of time travel has created some problems in the time stream, so it's outlawed. An elite team is sent back in time to fix the problems, but of course, they create more problems. So another team is created to clean up both sets of problems. Etc.
Vintage Laumer, with the main character bouncing around in a mad attempt to survive and fix things.
April 17, 2011
An excellent and varied collection of stories in the classic 'Golden Age' style.
March 5, 2017
I was lucky enough to grab this excellent collection of Keith Laumer tales from the Baen Free Library. It is, of course, Classic Sci-Fi in that it's science is somewhat retro now. Fortunately, it's not too specific in ways that make you groan. I enjoy reading the Laumer male lead characters with their can-do don't quit machismo attitude that has sadly been feminized into politically correct extinction. The creativity of plot behind the stories is great, and I always manage to keep his work in memory far longer than most things I read. That's why I like most of Laumer's work and give this compilation a hearty 4 starts and call it an Excellent Read!
Below is a review of individual stories. Be careful reading past the first summary sentence for each if you don't like spoilers...
Galactic Odyssey [3 stars]
Journey with Johnny Danger, a down-on-his-luck accidental spaceship stow-away, to the edge of the galaxy and back as he finds himself the only hope for saving the lovely Lady Raire. This story is a damsel in distress adventure followed by the lead character as he discovers and adapts to totally new and never imagined situations on a very long and convoluted trek. The adventure was good, but it did become a bit monotonous to read at times. Laumer seems to have the ability, sometimes, to paint a picture with more detail than is really needed to further the story. He especially tends to overly detail the drab or run down scenes he chooses. It gets a bit depressing to read if it goes on too long. Otherwise, the adventure part of the story was great.
A Trip to the City [2 stars]
A quirky tale of a young man who's first trip to see what the big city world is all about before following his plans for settling down in the rock steadiness of his own home town reveals that the things are not as solid as they might seem. I found this one to be a bit weird and pointless. The ending leaves the story unfinished. Not that good, but it was short, so not much time wasted in the reading.
Hybrid [5 stars]
A group of galactic traders (scavengers?) land on a planet to pick up some resources just as the last of the semi-mythical sentient Yanda trees succumbs to violent hurricane. I found this to be a very compelling story, and it left me wanting much much more. It's one of those 'idea' stories that deserves to be expanded upon into a full novel.
Combat Unit [4 stars]
This story can also be found in The Compleat Bolo collection. A bolo of the Dinochrome Brigade awakens to find itself the unwitting tool of it's ancient enemy. This short bolo tale is a perfect example of the Bolo Tank as a sentient machine loyal to it's creators, and how that affects its existence as a being or race in the Laumerverse.
The King of the City [2 stars]
A dystopian tale of man who feels he has only one shot to find a viable future for himself in a future where only the strong can rule the remains. I didn't like this one very much, so I'm not going to spend time on spoilery info.
Once There Was A Giant
An assassin for hire is blackmailed into a job to rid a planet of it's last resident so the mob can take it over for it's wealth... but that last resident just happens to be a giant! It's a great story with the morale of "A man must finish what he sets out to do."
Dinosaur Beach [5 stars]
The best of this collection is the story of Igor Ravel, Timesweeper, a time-traveling agent on a mission to correct the anomalies created by previous time traveling agents trying to correct time travel anomalies. This one keeps you on your mental toes as you try to keep up with the paradoxes with paradoxes. I was impressed with the swirl of theory, most of if made up for the story. The wheels-within-wheels nature of the time traveling interactions and the final outcome leave you wondering each time something is revealed if that is indeed the last something.... hint, it's probably not! The main character's personality evolves as the plot twist, but his devotion to his love interest stays with him throughout, making it a wholly engrossing tale of love, time-travel and paradoxical thought. I loved it and give this one 5 stars because of it.
Below is a review of individual stories. Be careful reading past the first summary sentence for each if you don't like spoilers...
Galactic Odyssey [3 stars]
Journey with Johnny Danger, a down-on-his-luck accidental spaceship stow-away, to the edge of the galaxy and back as he finds himself the only hope for saving the lovely Lady Raire. This story is a damsel in distress adventure followed by the lead character as he discovers and adapts to totally new and never imagined situations on a very long and convoluted trek. The adventure was good, but it did become a bit monotonous to read at times. Laumer seems to have the ability, sometimes, to paint a picture with more detail than is really needed to further the story. He especially tends to overly detail the drab or run down scenes he chooses. It gets a bit depressing to read if it goes on too long. Otherwise, the adventure part of the story was great.
A Trip to the City [2 stars]
A quirky tale of a young man who's first trip to see what the big city world is all about before following his plans for settling down in the rock steadiness of his own home town reveals that the things are not as solid as they might seem. I found this one to be a bit weird and pointless. The ending leaves the story unfinished. Not that good, but it was short, so not much time wasted in the reading.
Hybrid [5 stars]
A group of galactic traders (scavengers?) land on a planet to pick up some resources just as the last of the semi-mythical sentient Yanda trees succumbs to violent hurricane. I found this to be a very compelling story, and it left me wanting much much more. It's one of those 'idea' stories that deserves to be expanded upon into a full novel.
Combat Unit [4 stars]
This story can also be found in The Compleat Bolo collection. A bolo of the Dinochrome Brigade awakens to find itself the unwitting tool of it's ancient enemy. This short bolo tale is a perfect example of the Bolo Tank as a sentient machine loyal to it's creators, and how that affects its existence as a being or race in the Laumerverse.
The King of the City [2 stars]
A dystopian tale of man who feels he has only one shot to find a viable future for himself in a future where only the strong can rule the remains. I didn't like this one very much, so I'm not going to spend time on spoilery info.
Once There Was A Giant
An assassin for hire is blackmailed into a job to rid a planet of it's last resident so the mob can take it over for it's wealth... but that last resident just happens to be a giant! It's a great story with the morale of "A man must finish what he sets out to do."
Dinosaur Beach [5 stars]
The best of this collection is the story of Igor Ravel, Timesweeper, a time-traveling agent on a mission to correct the anomalies created by previous time traveling agents trying to correct time travel anomalies. This one keeps you on your mental toes as you try to keep up with the paradoxes with paradoxes. I was impressed with the swirl of theory, most of if made up for the story. The wheels-within-wheels nature of the time traveling interactions and the final outcome leave you wondering each time something is revealed if that is indeed the last something.... hint, it's probably not! The main character's personality evolves as the plot twist, but his devotion to his love interest stays with him throughout, making it a wholly engrossing tale of love, time-travel and paradoxical thought. I loved it and give this one 5 stars because of it.
August 5, 2022
A collection of mostly fun, very dated short sci-fi stories that are wildly imaginative and deeply misogynistic. You could almost take it as a parody, with its characters named Billy Danger and Johnny Thunder. If phrases like "charming feminine illogic" will make you throw a book across a room, better to skip this one, or limit yourself to the stories without female characters, such as "Combat Unit" or "Once There Was a Giant" (my favorite one). Also, I really wanted more dinosaurs in "Dinosaur Beach," that one ended up being my least favorite of the lot (and it had the most painful female portrayal, too).
I did not throw it across the room, but possibly it deserved it.
I did not throw it across the room, but possibly it deserved it.
September 3, 2017
This book contains the two short novels, " Galactic Odyssey" and " Dinosaur Beach". It also contains five short stories including the classic "Once There Was A Giant". I am not going to attempt to review all these great works except to say if you are a fan of Keith Laumer and haven't read these stories then this is a must read. If you have never read Keith Laumer then this is a great place to start. Keith Laumer is one of my favorite authors. He was taken from us much too soon and as David Weber says about Keith Laumer in his preface to this book, "Once There Was A Giant"!
July 21, 2021
A compendium of non-Retief stories of varying lengths and quality. Slightly dated now, but still interesting.
March 2, 2014
An omnibus edition containing a selection of the author's acclaimed action-packed space adventures chronicles the adventures of Billy Danger, who seeks refuge from a blizzard in what turns out to be an alien starship; Ravel, a time-traveling agent out to ensure the future of humankind; and Baird Ulrik, a killer-for-hire forced into a dangerous and distasteful mission. Original.
August 14, 2012
First Book I read by Keith Laumer, I was almost put off when i figured out it was short stories but after I finished it I still can't get enough of scouring used book stores trying to find anything by Keith Laumer or by authors who base their work on his stuff. His imagination is amazing and always straight to the point. Love it!!!
May 2, 2012
I really tried reading through this. The only thing I could care to think of was, "Let Lady Raire go already and live happily ever after!"
It was too long. Way too long, and never proved a point.
Sad, because I loved the Retief omnibus.
It was too long. Way too long, and never proved a point.
Sad, because I loved the Retief omnibus.
January 9, 2008
Old style, BEMs, BUMs, the human wins... has a black protagonist; (very subdued mention of this) which I found interesting, not what I would have expected from the sixties.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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January 9, 2010baen ebook
May 6, 2012
Good fun read about an earthman going to the stars involuntarily
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews