markk

Last night I had some anxiety-related difficulty sleeping, so I decided to start one of the Ace Doubles I have lying around. I began with Keith Laumer's Worlds of the Imperium, as it was an early alt-history novel that I had read about but never had the opportunity to read for myself until now.

I've never been a big fan of Laumer's work, and this novel didn't do a lot to change my opinion. In it, the central character gets kidnapped from our universe by an multi-world-spanning Imperium, because his alternate in another timeline is waging an inter-temporal war. It's an interesting premise that was pretty fresh when JFK was in the White House but it's been done quite a lot since and it wasn't difficult for them to improve on what Laumer does. What was potentially a rich premise ends up being squandered in what could have been a non-sci-fi adventure without too much tweaking.

Now I have to work out whether I'm going to read Marion ZImmer Bradley's book, as I have to decide whether I can separate the art from the artist.