review of
Keith Laumer's Galactic Odyssey
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - July 14, 2013

Ok, earlier this yr I went on a spree of reading John Brunner bks & reviewing them. He was a new discovery for me - even tho I'd know about him for decades I'd never read the work. That was sortof not a complete waste of my time. It might've been if it were the main thing that I do, but it wasn't. Then I went on a Jules Verne spree. I'd read Verne before, of course, mostly when I was much younger. That was somewhat interesting & maybe not a complete waste of time. Now I've turned my attn to Laumer. As w/ Brunner, he's a new 'discovery' for me - someone whose work I'd seen in plenitude but never read.

I started w/ Time Trap a mnth ago (my review's here: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16155621-time-trap ). I enjoyed it & found a reference to "The Entity", a generic enuf naming but one that resonated for me b/c I was making a movie in homage to my recently deceased pal "Blaster" Al Ackerman whose great writings were heavily influenced by pulp SF, as are Laumer's.

In the last mnth I've read Worlds of the Imperium ( http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3033917-worlds-of-the-imperium ), The Great Time Machine Hoax ( http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15767245-the-great-time-machine-hoax ), The Time Bender ( http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8889691-the-time-bender ), The Monitors ( http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16298805-the-monitors ), Nine by Laumer ( http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6346319-nine-by-laumer ), The Undefeated ( http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2659447-the-undefeated?ac=1 ) all in quick succession b/c they're engrossing & easy reads. SO, this is the 8th Laumer bk I've read in a mnth & there's a 9th one still to be reviewed.

The experience of reading all these was pretty good, it got better & better up 'til Nine by Laumer, wch was a pinnacle of sorts, & then starting to decline w/ The Undefeated & now, this, Galactic Odyssey - something that's practically a romance novel - but, fortunately, an SF romance novel. Reviewing ALMOST seems like a waste of my intellectual energy. ALMOST. Unlike most of the bks I read, I barely took any reviewing notes.

Laumer's beginning to exemplify for me a problem that's probably nagged at me my whole life but one that's coming to the fore again right now. Viz: the power of fantasy to divert a person from 'real life' so much that it saps one's strength to deal w/ it. Or something like that. How many people wonder: why is Arnold Schwarzenegger a Republican politician who's made films in wch he's the hero in SF written by lefty SF writers like P.K.Dick? Take Total Recall: the seeming msg of the film is probably one that alotof oppressed people can relate to has Schwarzenegger as a politician done anything that they can relate to or look up to in admiration? Not likely. B/c, after all, Total Recall is just escapist entertainment, a money-maker for people whose actual politics aren't necessarily those expressed by the plot of the movie. After all, the audience for such works is just there to escape - they're not necessarily going to do anything. & that's largely why I've been reading these Laumer works, reading in general, witnessing movies in general. Funny how music works for me in a different way. It's largely exempt from this criticism. Perhaps that's why I love it so much.

ANYWAY, Laumer's clearly a professional writer, someone who cranked out the bks for money, writing to entertain, & not full of interesting plot ideas. But I seriously doubt that he ever questioned the function of his writing. Like most artists, I suspect he thought the mere doing of it is enuf. Dunno, just speculating. Writers like Brunner & Verne were also professional writers but each of them seems to've had some larger sense of social purpose than I detect in Laumer. Maybe not. Maybe I'm just losing interest b/c Galactic Odyssey & the Laumer bk I'll review next, The Invaders seem like such pot-boilers, such commercial jobs. Not that it's such a bad way to make a living - I'm just one of those people who thinks that how a person makes a living deserves deep examination by the person working - even when it seems to be such a dream job, like writing novels.

I'm losing interest in Laumer, even tho I have another 10 bks by him I was planning to read soon, partially b/c his heros are so far-fetched. This far-fetchedness is, of course, what makes them heros, what makes them entertaining - but it's also what makes them unattainable as role models &, therefore, unhealthy for readers whose essence fades off into fantasy while their real life goes nowhere. I'm much more interested in an (anti-)hero like the 'real-life' (a problematic construction too) Emmett Grogan (author of the autobiographical Ringolevio &/or Abbie Hoffman.

Galactic Odyssey's hero starts off as a desperate hitch-hiker on the economic downswing. I cd totally relate. The opening description had some resemblance to my own teen-aged life. Then this character accidentally stows away in an intergalactic space-ship-yacht that's been on Earth for big-game hunting. The character's rather stupid, he's more or less immediately enslaved, his development into a hero largely hinges on his being thrust into the role of protector for a beautiful aristocratic woman from another planet, blah, blah..

The adventures that follow & the ability of the character to survive them, & to mature into a pretty spectacular creature, eventually getting the girl in the end, of course, are pure coming-of-age adolescent fantasy pushed way beyond what any average or even above-average 13 yr old male is likely to daydream about. &, aye!, there's the rub. Some people might say that such fantasies are healthy stimulants to imagination - & I agree - but there comes a time when it's more important to plunge out into the world & to stop fantasizing & take action. I've spent most of my life taking action, reading these bks is like retiring. But retiring, in this sense, is like accepting the downward trajectory toward death - maybe that's 'wisdom'.. or maybe it's just a waste of time. In this case, I'm inclining toward the latter opinion.

In other words, I love to read but it's time to read less & be out in the world more. ( )

Laumer was always one of my favorite authors when I was a teen. He wrote exciting and humorous stories for adolescents. He also wrote some serious SF for adults.
This was one of the adventures for teens but not one of the best. It's a fast and dangerous story with some romance. He has done better. This was pretty average for the time period. ( )

Absolutely love this book. Not a great tome, not some epic quest. Just a rousing adventure story of a man saving the woman he loves.

I had forgotten just how short this was. But that allows Laumer to give us the quick details and then move on. He allows us, the reader, to fill in the gaps. Instead of being a blowhard, Laumer trusts his audience enough that he doesn't have to write out every single detail of the entire adventure.

And that kind of attitude and writing, they are refreshing every once in a while. Clear the synapses, let the old noggin' rest from cogitating on the latest foundation stone by [a:Brandon Sanderson|38550|Brandon Sanderson|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1201547425p2/38550.jpg] or [a:Steven Erikson|31232|Steven Erikson|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1219169436p2/31232.jpg] or some such. It is quick, neat and precise writing.

Definitely a good once a decade book! ( )

2000 Review:
scifi

2001 Review:
space age tale of swashbuckling, self-effacing hero, romance ( )