Status Updates From Legions of Space

The first novelette? in this book is a typical Laumer SF adventure (not comedy). The protagonist from near-present Earth ends up on a planet where people have been immortal but with a very small population (and a problem that needs be solved). This story has zero children, and a tiny scene where a woman mails something for him. It's all men on Earth or elsewhere. I bet lots of readers didn't notice back when.

350

PLANET RUN-Maybe the best of the stories in the book. At first I was a little disappointed in how it was going, but Capt. Henry is a pretty good character. Larry grows on you, but isn't well developed. I was slightly surprised at where the jewels were actually from. Fun action/adventure yarn, would make a good movie.

MESSAGE TO AN ALIEN-interesting little tale of a former military man trying to stave off an alien invasion on a colony world. The ending with the backstory surprised me a little. Overall, not bad.

MIND OUT OF TIME-Meh. It reminded me a little of the end of 2001, where time wasn't a constant. The characters reminded me a little of the old X-plane pilots, but I didn't really connect with them or the story.

THREE BLIND MICE-In a war with an alien race a scout ship crash lands on a frozen planet with it's injured crew. A meeting of first face to face contact between disparate races that have nothing in common.

THE CHOICE-a completely over the top and ludicrous story of first contact by a small manned mission to the outer planets. Kind of reminds me Douglas Adams.

oh yes, one thing that did strike me as I read it this time (I don't think it did the first time, I can't remember), no women. Mention of servering girl in a Miami eatery and his girlfriend in Chile gets about a dozen lines when he's escaping. That. Is. It.

A TRACE OF MEMORY-I read this once before, back in junior high or high school, not sure which, and forgot the name of it. Having wanted to re-read it, I was lucky enough to stumble upon it as part of the Baen Free Library/CDs. The part about regenerating youth reminds me of Bruce Sterling's Holy Fire. Good story, well paced, not very intricate and Legion is unbelievably lucky, even he admits it.