Worlds of the Imperium

Keith Laumer
Worlds of the Imperium Cover

Great period adventure sci-fi!

NateT
4/16/2017
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This was a really good science fiction adventure story. It is Science Fiction of the type where our current reality (in this case, the reality of the early 1960s) is disrupted by a new fantastic reality. It reminds me of Warp Speed or Into the Looking Glass, but older. The book shows its age, but when read with the full knowledge that this was originally written as a serial pulp it is really impressive. The action is non-stop and the sci-fi is imaginative. All characters but the main are pretty 1-dimensional, but that is stock-in-trade for this type of lone-hero adventure story. Also, the appearance of a female character or even a reference to that gender is rather rare, but always extremely respectful.

Worlds of the Imperium really is the distilled essence of action-adventure sci-fi at its best for the period. It's worthy of comparison to Heinlein, and, like much of RAH, is still enjoyable today.