On 6/22/26 9:55 PM, James Nicoll wrote:

In article <111cadi$5hg$2@reader1.panix.com>,
James Nicoll <jdnicoll@panix.com> wrote:

In article <111c45a$2hhj0$12@dont-email.me>,
BCFD 36 <bcfd36@cruzio.com> wrote:

In another thread, the subject of Keith Laumer's Bolo stories was
brought up. So I started looking them up to see if the title that
reminded me of something was what I was remembering. Close, but not
quite. I digress.

In the process of looking up the short stories, I came across some books >>> in PDF, a couple of anthologies and maybe a novel: A Plague of Demons
(the novel that I originally spelled Daemons due to my Comp Sci
background intruding), The World Turned Upside Down (anthology with The
Last Command and also A Gun for Dinosaur, Who Goes There?, St. Dragon
and the George, The Cold Equations, A Pail of Air among a bunch of
others whose titles I did not recognize), and The Big Show (all Laumer
stories).

I've started working my way through The World Turned Upside Down. So
far, they are OK to good, but nothing great yet. The Last Command was
close to great, but... I don't know. But good enough I remembered the
plot pretty well after at least 50 years. So, maybe great?

I reviewed that for SFBC years and years ago.

I will post it here tomorrow, if tomorrow is less Monday-like.

Here is it, properly formatted. Because it was written to
help determine if the SFBC wanted to buy this, it is full of
spoilers. No, fuller than that.

On the whole I liked it. However, it was used as a sort of memorial for
Baen. I think a better approach would have been to do what Harrison
did for Campbell and commission one last story in series first published
by Baen.


Most of these stories are pretty good, with the inevitable duds outnumbered by the gems. All are dated in some way or another but generally not in ways that interfere with the pleasures of reading them (Aside from some notable sexism here and there). My only worry is that a lot of these have been anthologized many times and potential customers may already own anthologies with these particular stories in them.

Which is right on target, and precisely why I did not purchase a copy,
though it is indeed an excellent anthology.

However, to my surprise, someone down the hall had the book in their office[1]. He found it on a bench somewhere with instructions to read
it?and similarly leave it for someone else upon finishing.[2]

Tony?
[1] Yes, really! Another person who not only was reading SF, but would
also display it in their office, and also talk about it with others. Amazing.[3]

[2] I think he was disappointed that I returned it to him after reading
the few that were new to me, because now he felt obligated to leave it somewhere for someone else, which if he had been comfortable doing that,
it wouldn't have been in his office in the first place.

[3] Would you believe a third such person came along a few years later?
No really, I'm not kidding. Of course, he came after the other person
left, but still.

<big snip of story summaries>

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 6/22/26 12:58, BCFD 36 wrote:

In another thread, the subject of Keith Laumer's Bolo stories was
brought up. So I started looking them up to see if the title that
reminded me of something was what I was remembering. Close, but not
quite. I digress.

In the process of looking up the short stories, I came across some books
in PDF, a couple of anthologies and maybe a novel: A Plague of Demons
(the novel that I originally spelled Daemons due to my Comp Sci
background intruding), The World Turned Upside Down (anthology with The
Last Command and also A Gun for Dinosaur, Who Goes There?, St. Dragon
and the George, The Cold Equations, A Pail of Air among a bunch of
others whose titles I did not recognize), and The Big Show (all Laumer stories).

I've started working my way through The World Turned Upside Down. So
far, they are OK to good, but nothing great yet. The Last Command was
close to great, but... I don't know. But good enough I remembered the
plot pretty well after at least 50 years. So, maybe great?

I've been working my way through the stories. I've still got more to go
and for the most part I am not reading the ones whose titles I
recognize. I have run across some that I did remember reading once I got
into them (The Aliens, Code 3, et al) and a few I don't recognize. So
far, nothing great. One or two with very unexpected endings (Thy Rocks
and Rills) I will keep plowing through, one or two a day.

--
----------------

Dave Scruggs
Senior Software Engineer - Lockheed Martin, et. al (mostly Retired)
Captain - Boulder Creek Fire (Retired)
Board of Directors - Boulder Creek Fire Protection District (What was I thinking?)

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)