49 Followers
58 Following
markk

markk

Two novels that don't live up to their reputations

Seven From the Stars / Worlds of the Imperium - Keith Laumer, Marion Zimmer Bradley

On my latest dive into my pile of Ace Doubles I came up with a pair of novels about which I had mixed feelings. Keith Laumer's Worlds of the Imperium is one that I have long wanted to read, as it's considered an early classic of alternate history. I've never been a fan of Laumer's work, though, and while there were elements of the story I enjoyed (in which an American from our world is kidnapped by another timeline in order to fight his dictatorial double on another world), it never felt like it lived up to its reputation.

 

Reputation also was a factor in how I judged Marion Zimmer Bradley's Seven From the Stars. While it seems as though the books of her Avalon series were everywhere when I was growing up this was the first of her novels that I've read. It's a more conventional sci-fi tale written early in Bradley's career in which seven human-looking aliens crash land in Texas, where they're forced to find ways to survive. This premise alone offers enormous possibilities, yet Bradley layers it with the efforts of an undercover observer to rescue them and the looming threat of an amorphous Big Bad. It felt like a case of too much plot getting in the way of a good story, and while I try not to hold an author's early work against them, given Bradley's horrifying personal actions I doubt I'll seek out any more of her novels.