"Keith Laumer - Galactic Odyssey" - читать интересную книгу автора (Laumer Keith)

when the final word is read, the reader comes away with both a sense of completion and a desire
for the tale to go on . . . forever, if possible.
In my own opinion, that result stems not simply, or even primarily, from his undoubted skill as
a literary craftsman so much as from his ability to touch the innermost chords of what makes all
of us human. Whether itтАЩs RetiefтАЩs biting wit, or Billy DangerтАЩs unwavering determination, or the
unbreakable gallantry of his Bolos, LaumerтАЩs characters not only live and breathe but challenge.
He was capable of bleakness and the recognition that triumph was not inevitable, however great
oneтАЩs determination might be, or that power could seduce even the most selfless, as in the case of
Steve Dravek in тАЬThe Day Before ForeverтАЭ or the protagonist of the chilling little gem тАЬTest to
DestructionтАЭ (which is one of my favorite Laumer pieces, despite its darkness). Yet in an era of
cynicism and тАЬenlightenedтАЭ distrust of and even contempt for heroic virtues, LaumerтАЩs characters
went about the day-to -day business of living up to those virtues with absolutely no sense that
doing so made them special in any way. It was simply what responsible human beings did, and
the profound simplicity of that concept made Laumer, like Piper, an author who was in many
ways an uncomfortable fit in the America of the 1960s and 1970s. Perhaps thatтАЩs one reason Retief
tended to overshadow other works of his, like Galactic Odyssey, A Plague of Demons, тАЬThe Night
of the Trolls,тАЭ Planet Run, and other stories and nov els too numerous to mention. Humor and
satire were more acceptable techniques for sliding the authorтАЩs sometimes discomforting precepts
into the readerтАЩs consciousness, especially when they were wielded so deftly. Yet the very qualities
which made LaumerтАЩs other characters misfits at the time he wrote are the same qualities which
give them their classic timelessness.
At the end of the day, fate hit Keith Laumer with failing health that was a particularly savage
blow to a man who had always celebrated human capability and the ability to triumph over
seemingly unbeatable odds. It was a final battle which he did not win, yet in its own way, and for
all the bitter irony it must have held for the teller of such tales, it could diminish neither the
message nor the messenger, because the true essence of the tales Laumer told were actually less about
triumph, in the end, than they were about an individualтАЩs ironclad responsibility to try. Like his
Bolos, or the protagonist of A Plague of Demons, who chose to fight his hopeless battle to the
death rather than permit his friend to die alone, Keith Laumer believed that the ability to confront
challenges and adversities, however extreme and however remote the chance of final victory, were
the ultimate measure of a human being. I suppose thatтАЩs the reason I consider him to have been
one of the three or four authors who had the greatest influence upon me throughout my life, as
both a reader and a writer.
And itтАЩs also the reason that the title of one of the stories in this v olume strikes me as a most
fitting epitaph for him, because itтАЩs true.
тАЬOnce There Was a Giant.тАЭ

David Weber
September, 2001
 GALACTIC ODYSSEY




CHAPTER ONE

I remember hearing somewhere that freezing to death is an easy way to g o; but the guy that
said that never tried it. IтАЩd found myself a little hollow where a falling-down stone wall met a dirt-
bank, and hunkered down in it; but the wall wasnтАЩt high enough to keep the wind off or stop the
sleet from hitting my neck like buckshot and running down cold under my collar. There were