Odyssey

By Keith Laumer

Book Overview

Billy Danger had gone past hitting the skids -- now he was freezing to death in a blizzard. So he took shelter in a corn silo that turned out to be a disguised alien starship, and woke up light years... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743435273
• ISBN13: 9780743435277
• Release Date: February 2002
• Publisher: Baen Books
• Length: 576 Pages
• Weight: 0.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Free SF Reader

This collection is a bit uneven, thanks to the poor first short novel included here, dragging it down to 3.29. Some solid stories in the middle, but it is the end that is the good part. The nebula novelette nominee Once There Was a Giant, and the final novel, Dinosaur Beach is just poles apart in quality and complexity from the opening book. If you just wanted to check out Laumer, the last two would be a pretty good place to start, assuming you don't mind time travel/time agent type books. Odyssey : GALACTIC ODYSSEY - Keith Laumer Odyssey : A Trip To The City - Keith Laumer Odyssey : Hybrid - Keith Laumer Odyssey : Combat Unit - Keith Laumer Odyssey : The King Of The City - Keith Laumer Odyssey : Once There Was A Giant - Keith Laumer Odyssey : Dinosaur Beach - Keith Laumer Billy Danger, wanderer. While that is perhaps a good name for a starship captain/adventurer, as this homeless young itinerant becomes, when accidentally coming across some alien hunters, there isn't too much good about the rest of it. It meanders from them taking him on a hunt on another planet for dangerous beasts, to that going horribly wrong, to strandings, separations, more looking around all over the galaxy for stuff, a bit of slavery and generally not hanging together all that well. With a finale: "The lords and ladies of the House of Ancinet-Chanore may have been out of touch with reality in some ways, but when it came to setting up the stage for a blood-duel on their fancy lawn under the g@y lights, they were the soul of efficiency." 2 out of 5 Urban dummies. 3 out of 5 Tree team-up, at length. 3.5 out of 5 Survivor power base consolidation. 3.5 out of 5 I'll tell you something. You think I'm sitting on top of the world, huh? I own this town, and everybody in it. All the luxury and fancy dinners and women I can use. And you know what? I'm bored." "And you think running the Navy might be diverting?" 3 out of 5 "Sure, I'm a contract killerand if not proud of it, at least not ashamed of it. Like they say, it's a tough, lonely, dirty jobbut someone has to do it." An assignment with Mob complications leads him to a planet where his skills come in handy, along with a big man and his big dog. 4 out of 5 This book starts simply, with a man with a happy home life, who walks out the door and shows us he is a time agent with a kill and retrieve mission. Things don't go as planned: "A lot of horror stories had circulated back at Nexx Central about what happened to people who misfired on a jump. They ranged from piecemeal reception at a dozen stations strung out across a few centuries to disembodied voices screaming to be let out. Also, there were several rules against it. The alternative was to set up housekeeping here on the beach, with or without dinosaurs, and hope that a rescue mission arrived before I died of heat, thirst, reptiles, boredom, or old age." He ends up running into a female agent from a different timeline who looks just like t

Awesome space opera...and more

This collection includes some of Laumer's best work. If you like space opera in the "down-and-out earth guy kicks galactic but" vein, you'll love Galactic Odyssey.Other selections include the Twilight Zone-like "A Trip to the City", the Bolo story "Combat Unit", the awesome time travel paradox novel "Dinosaur Beach", and a couple of others that are incredibly enjoyable but less easily categorized. "Once There Was a Giant" is one of the most powerful fiction pieces I've ever read, and it never fails to choke me up. But I'm a softy. If you like good SF (and who doesn't?) you'll enjoy this collection. Thanks to Baen for bringing Laumer back into print!

Odyssey

When I first read this book about 40 years ago I remember thinking that no government could be so spineless. Today when I see the way politicans are acting it is enough to make me wonder if Keith Laumer had a crystal ball or just a lot of experience with governments. I enjoyed this book immenselly when I was 16 and enjoyed re-reading it today. The adventures of Billy Danger as he wonders thru the Galaxy are fun reading.

Recommended for your collection

Odyssey is a joy of a book. First of all, it's not a novel and it's not a collection of short stories; it contains `Galactic Odyssey' and `Dinosaur Beach', both older, shorter novels; `Once there was a Giant', tipping the scales at a novella; and four significant shorter stories: `A Trip to the City', `Hybrid', `Combat Unit', and `the King of the City'.I wouldn't mind owning any of the longer books just for itself and the combination of short stories is also attractive. Having all of them together in one package is very convenient - I don't have to worry that somewhere down the line I will pick up the book to re-read my favorite story and continue reading and waste my time with a stinker. There is no stinker in this collection.What do you get with the collection? Here are my summaries of each story. I recommend every one of them.Galactic Odyssey is the prototypical `man kidnapped from Earth who meets the space girl, loses her, and spends many episodes trying to rescue her'. However, it's more than cheap space opera - the writing is smooth and transparent, so that when Laumer introduces little futurisms like `a dreamer and a supply of tapes' to explain Our Hero's further education you nod and go on. The characters are all interesting, the dialog is quirky rather than dated, and the story is still completely believable - something hard to get from a plain old space opera first published in 1967.A Trip to the City presents another idea that has been explored many times - what if part of the world we live in is a stage set that has been set up by aliens for reasons of their own? Laumer's hayseed Brett, with his open mind and disdain for pretense, is the perfect man to deal with the situation.Hybrid throws together the big, tough bully, the nerdy biologist who knows a lot but isn't listened to, and a giant alien tree with a very strange method of reproduction. The story is just the right length for the idea and one to come back to again.Combat Unit is a Bolo story in all but name. (I checked and the word `bolo' is not used in the story.) Those of us who enjoy these giant robotic tanks will also enjoy this story of an big intelligent weapon that wakes up in a room in bad shape but determined to carry out its mission - if it can figure out what its situation is and remember its mission.The King of the City starts off with the hero signing on as a driver for a transportation company in a post-apocalyptic Greater New York - but since this isn't a movie the point isn't just to shoot the gangsters up or exact revenge on some bad guy. Laumer reminds us that real heroes have a purpose in mind when they wade in.Once There was a Giant stars an antihero, a civilized contract killer who `always made a point to accept contracts only on marks that I agreed needed killing'. Of course he gets framed into taking on a job he wouldn't necessarily want to take. Through the clever device of trying to make murder look like an unfortunate accident, our assassi