LAUMER, (John) Keith

(1925-1993)

   US writer who used his experiences in the US armed forces and Diplomatic Corps to considerable advantage in his sf work. He served in the army 1943-5, studied architecture and graduated with a BScArch from the University of Illinois in 1952, served in the USAF 1953-6, and then joined the US Foreign Service. He rejoined the USAF as a captain in 1960. He began publishing sf in 1959 with "Greylorn" for AMZ, and for more thana decade remained extremely prolific, producing three major series and two minor ones along with a number of independent novels; after 1973, affected by illness, he published more sparingly.The most interesting of KL's series is the Imperium sequence, comprising his first novel, Worlds of the Imperium (1962 dos; with 2 stories added to make coll, rev 1982), TheOther Side of Time (1965) and Assignment in Nowhere (1968) - both assembled as Beyond the Imperium (omni 1981) - and Zone Yellow (1990). The Imperium dominates a complex nest of PARALLEL-WORLDS universes, andstrives to maintain the stability of its chosen time-stream. As opposed to the grimmer and perhaps more plausible versions of the same task expressed in novels like Barrington BAYLEY's The Fall of Chronopolis (1974 US), KL takes an essentially optimistic view of this kind of situation, treating it in a no-nonsense, problem-solving manner. Also related, if only thematically, to the Imperium series is Dinosaur Beach (1971), a tale of TIME PARADOXES in which a role similar to that of the Imperium is playedby Nexx Central. A second series, the parallel-worlds comic novels featuring Lafayette O'Leary - The Time Bender (1966), The World Shuffler (1970), The Shape Changer (1972) and The Galaxy Builder (1984) - attemptsto replay a similar scenario in terms of slapstick, with only moderate success.KL's other major series depicts the adventures of interstellar diplomatic troubleshooter Jaime Retief on a variety of alien worlds: Envoy to New Worlds (coll 1963; exp vt Retief: Envoy to New Worlds 1987), Galactic Diplomat (coll 1965), Retief's War (1966), Retief and theWarlords (1968), Retief: Ambassador to Space (coll 1969), Retief of the CDT (coll 1971), Retief's Ransom (1971; with new title story added to make coll, rev vt Retief and the Pangalactic Pageant of Pulchritude 1986), Retief: Emissary to the Stars (1975; exp 1979), Retief: Diplomat at Arms(coll 1982), Retief to the Rescue (1983), The Return of Retief (1984), Retief in the Ruins (coll 1986) and Reward for Retief (1989). Retief's unchanging role is to mediate between the residents of alien worlds, some of them nefarious, and his bumbling superiors in the Terran Diplomatic Corps, and to solve various sticky problems, almost all couched in comicterms, sometimes amusingly. Here as elsewhere, the KL bibliography is tangled; putting aside titles which partially replicate earlier titles, Retief collections assembled entirely from earlier volumes include Retiefat Large (coll 1978) and Retief Unbound (omni 1979), containing Retief's Ransom plus 5 stories from Envoy to New Worlds.KL's singletons are varied,ranging from broad HUMOUR like The Monitors (1966), filmed as The MONITORS in 1969, to taut, efficient sf thrillers whose structures amalgamate SPACE OPERA and the favourite sf theme of the coming to awareness of theSUPERMAN. Best of them is A Plague of Demons (1965), in which a tough human is biologically engineered into a sort of superman so that he can deal with a threat to Earth, and finds - after a long, remarkably sustained chase sequence ending in his capture by some singularly efficient aliens - that for centuries Earth has been being despoiled of its best fighting men, who, like himself, are taken off-planet and surgically transformed into command centres for gigantic, armed fighting machines embroiled in an eons-long interstellar war. In this CYBORG form, he regains autonomy, organizes a revolt of his fellow cyborg-supertanks and prepares to carry - fabulously armed - his message of freedom to the stars. Thematically associated with this novel are the Bolo books - Bolo: The Annals of the Dinochrome Brigade (coll of linked stories with newlinking material 1976) and Rogue Bolo (coll of linked stories 1986), both assembled, with 1 piece missing, as The Compleat Bolo (omni 1990), plus the weak The Stars Must Wait (1990) - which recount the long history of a military unit of constantly upgraded quasisentient tanks.In A Plague of Demons, and in other novels such as A Trace of Memory (1963), The LongTwilight (1969), The House in November (1970; with 1 story added to make coll, rev 1981), Dinosaur Beach and The Infinite Cage (1972), the essential KL superman takes shape: often an orphan, usually a loner, he discovers the world to be a persecuting snare and delusion, and gradually comes to realize that his PARANOIA is justified, for his frustrated human competence is no more than a cloak disguising his true - at times godlike - superiority. Once he has become a superman he is able to transcend theworld of normals, and often takes that world over, though behind the scenes. It is for novels in which this wish-fulfilment version of the superman is expressed that KL will be best remembered, though his tendency to repeat earlier inspirations in slackened form seems to have damaged his later efforts even in this favourite mode; books such as The Ultimax Man (1978) or End as a Hero (1985) are significantly weak by comparison withhis early work. But at his best KL wrote polished and succinct daydreams of sf transcendence that served as models of their kind.

   JC

   Other works: The Great Time Machine Hoax (1964); Embassy (1965), an associational novel whose protagonist, Brion Bayard, shares his name but no other circumstances with the hero of the Imperium sequence; Catastrophe Planet (1966; with added pieces to make coll, rev vt The Breaking Earth 1981);Earthblood (1966) with Rosel George BROWN (whom see for details); Nine by Laumer (coll 1967); Galactic Odyssey (1967); Planet Run (1967; with 1 story by each added to make coll, rev 1982) with Gordon R. DICKSON; The Day Before Forever and Thunderhead (coll 1968); The Invaders * (coll 1967;vt The Meteor Men UK) as by Anthony LeBaron and Enemies from Beyond * (coll 1967), adapting stories from The INVADERS ; The Afrit Affair *(1968), The Drowned Queen * (1968) and The Gold Bomb * (1968), adapting stories from The AVENGERS ; Greylorn (coll 1968; vt The Other Sky 1968 UK); It's a Mad, Mad, Mad Galaxy (coll 1968); Time Trap (1970); The StarTreasure (1971; with stories added to make coll, rev 1986); Once There was a Giant (coll 1971), a different book from Once There was a Giant (coll 1984), the first title containing 8 stories, the second 2 novellas;Timetracks (coll 1972); The Big Show (coll 1972); Night of Delusions (1972; with 2 stories added to make coll, rev vt Knight of Delusions 1982); The Glory Game (1973); The Undefeated (coll 1974); The Best of Keith Laumer (coll 1976); Star Colony (fixup 1982); Chrestomathy (coll 1984); Judson's Eden (1991); Alien Minds (coll 1991); Back to the Time Trap (1992).As Editor: Five Fates (anth 1972).

   About the author: Keith Laumer, Ambassador to Space: A Working Bibliography (last rev 1990 chap) by Gordon BENSON Jr and Phil STEPHENSEN-PAYNE.

   See also: ALTERNATE WORLDS; GODS AND DEMONS; HIVE-MINDS; INVASION; PSI POWERS; PSYCHOLOGY; ROBERT HALE LIMITED; WEAPONS.