review of
Keith Laumer's The World Shuffler
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - April 2, 2015

Ahhhh.. Laumer... This is the 3rd bk I've read by him in the last few days. I didn't exactly rave about the last 2 ("The Day Before Forever" and "Thunderhead": https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7673026-the-day-before-forever-and-thunderhe... & The House in November: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2877763-the-house-in-november ) but I must admit they've been serving a vital purpose for me: distracting me from the downside of my life.

I've got about $20 to live off of for the next wk, many of the machines I have around me that I use for various constructive purposes are broken, I have barely enuf food, I only have a few friends, I stay home alone most of the time. These are all '1st world' problems, I live in a house full of bks & tools, I barely have to work (altho I cd certainly use more), I'm working on repairing an accordion - yet another skill I can add to my vast skill-set that I won't make a cent off of. Enter Laumer: I can read this lit-lite & be distracted. I've got 5 more of his bks unread to get thru, they'll help me make it to my next pay period, I'll stay just engrossed enuf w/o having to expend much intellectual energy - it's a good balance.

Laumer has written some real trash, the made-for-tv The Invaders is about as bad as he gets - but he'll never stoop as low as, say, Mickey Spillane. This'll be the 12th one I've reviewed. I've even given 4 stars to 3 of them (The Great Time Machine Hoax: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15767245-the-great-time-machine-hoax , The Monitors: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16298805-the-monitors , & Nine by Laumer: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6346319-nine-by-laumer ). In my review of The Time Bender ( http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8889691-the-time-bender ), the precursor to this one, I even wrote:

"Keith Laumer, my new temporary favorite SF writer - a shordurpersav in SubG lingo. Of the previous 3 bks I read by Laumer, 2 were time travel stories & one was a parallel universe travel story so there's a commonality there that borders on gimmickry but I don't care, I like the stories."

The World Shuffler as a sequel to The Time Bender is funny enuf, the same characters in different permutations b/c they're in parallel universes. Whenever I refer to funny, gimmicky, formulaic SciFi I refer to Ron Goulart, whose work I like. Goulart's funnier for me than Laumer but Laumer's less formulaic. If you've read one Goulart you've read them all (well.. not really) but they're like chocolates w/ cherry interiors & you keep gobbling them down (well.. I do, you might not). The story begins w/ Laumer's idea of an ideal idyll:

"It was a warm autumnal afternoon in Artesia. Lafayette O'Leary, late of the U.S.A., now Sir Lafayette O'Leary since his official investiture with knighthood by Princess Adoranne, was lounging at ease in a brocaded chair in his spacious library, beside a high, richly draped window overlooking the palace gardens, He was dressed in purple kneepants, a shirt of heavy white silk, gold-buckled shoes of glove-soft kid. A massive emerald winked on one finger beside the heavy silver ring bearing the device of the ax and the dragon. A tall, cool drink stood at his elbow. From a battery of speakers concealed behind the hangings, A Debussy tone poem caressed the air." - p 1

Do you ever wonder about the names authors choose for their characters? I figure most authors wd rather not have their character names be evocative of an actual person b/c that might not be good for sd actual person. Hence names like "Lafayette O'Leary": a not-completely-unbelievable name but one whose mixture of French & Irish wd at least make it somewhat unusual.

"She skipped aside from his lunge, brought up the iron skillet, and slammed it, with a meaty thud, against the side of his uncombed head. He took two rubbery steps and sagged against the counter, his face six inches from Lafayette's.

""What'll it be, sport?" he murmured, and slid down out of view with a prodigious clatter." - p 24

When I was reading this, I made a note to myself asking whose writing was published 1st: Goulart's or Laumer's? Laumer was born earlier but Goulart's satire was published 10 yrs or so before Laumer's apparent 1st date of publication. Ergo, I falsely conclude, Goulart invented humor & Laumer is not worth mentioning. [That was a joke, a not-very-funny one]

Lafayette undergoes constant threats to his life.

""You enjoy being a torturer?"

""That ain't a term us P.P.S.'s like mister," the man said in a hurt tone. "What we are, we're Physical-Persuasion Specialists. You don't want to get us mixed up wit' these unlicensed quacks, which they're lousing up the good name of the profession." - p 79

Yes, in the World of the Future, the victim must be more sensitive to his or her tormenter, eh? After all, people like The Blond Angel (see my review of Manuel Vázquez Montalbán's The Buenos Aires Quintet:
https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/382361-don-t-let-them-get-away?chapter=1 ) were 'only doing their job', right? Torturers are often depicted as dumb brutes but they're often 'sensitive people of taste' like this member of the royalty:

""Slow down, Rudy," Lafayette wagged an admonitory finger. "How about giving some thought to the little lady's tastes?"

""Eh? How could she object to chopped chicken livers washed down with Pepsi and Mogen David while a steel band plays variations on the theme from the 'Dead March from Saul'?"" - p 88

& that's an advantage of parallel worlds stories: the author can mix up different time periods & fictions into one O'Leary stew: Pepsi w/ flying carpets, eg, & it all makes sense.

Ever since I learned (or relearned) the word "susurrus" from its being the title of an electroacoustic piece by my friend James Mansback Brody, a new category of literature has appeared in my mind: the category of bks that use the word:

"Lafayette's eyes roved around the room. It was ivory-walled, tile-floored. The soft susurrus of air-conditioning whispered from a grille above the door." - p 116

Imagine organizing yr bks on yr bk-shelves according to whether they use the word "susurrus" or not: 100 bks that do, 5,000 bks that don't. Or it cd be bks that use the word "hebephrenic" (as the late, great "Blaster" Al Ackerman was so fond of doing), bks that reference flying carpets, & bks that include all 3.

""Now you want to be careful of the carpet, Slim" the Customer Relations man said as he rolled out the six-by-eight-foot rectangle of what looked like ordinary dark-blue Wilton carpet. "The circuits are tuned to your personal emanations, so nobody can hijack her. She's voice-operated, so be careful what you say. And remember, there's no railings, so watch those banked turns. The coordination's built in, naturally, but if you're careless—well, keep in mind you've got no parachute." - p 137

"I'm turning in a report to my PR rep that will clean out this whole nest of hebephrenics before you can say 'noblesse oblige!' "" - p 214

In the end, who cd dislike a bk that's so forward-thinking?:

"". . . can't imagine what it's about," a male tenor was exclaiming. "Unless it's my investiture as Squire of Honor to the Ducal Manicure coming through at last . . ."

""Gracious knows it's about time my appointment as Second Honorary Tonsorial Artist in Attendance on the Ducal Moustache was confirmed," a fruity baritone averred. "But what a curious hour for the ceremony . . ." - p 220 ( )

Tedious farce with a few redeeming moments (the perfectionist Torturer is a gem). Repetitive action, but entertaining. Novel "time travel" concept but confusing in the way it is written. Okay read for a boring afternoon. ( )

(see copy 2)