Worlds of the Imperium

INTRODUCTIONJohn Keith Laumer (1925–1993) was an American science fiction author. Prior to becoming a full-time writer, he was an officer in the United States Air Force and a diplomat in the United States Foreign Service. His older brother March Laumer was also a writer, known for his adult reinterpretations of the Land of Oz (also mentioned in Laumer’s The Other Side of Time). Frank Laumer, their youngest brother, is a historian and writer. My introduction to Keith Laumer’s work came through his Retief stories—tales of a space-travelling Earth diplomat, who had to match wits not only with aliens, but the dim-witted human bureaucracy that he supported. Somehow, he always came through. Retief led to discovering the Imperium series (of which Worlds of the Imperium is the first), then to such masterful novels as A Plague of Demons, Dinosaur Beach, and The Ultimax Man (all of which are worth seeking out). As for the Imperium series, it concerns a continuum of parallel worlds policed by the Imperium, a government based in an alternate Stockholm. In Worlds of the Imperium, the Imperium is formed in an alternate history where the American Revolution did not occur. Instead, the British Empire and Germany merged into a unified empire in 1900. The protagonist, American diplomat Brion Bayard, is kidnapped by the Imperium because the Brion Bayard in a third parallel Earth is waging war against his abductors. Further adventures follow after Bayard decides to remain in the service of the Imperium. The four titles are: Worlds of the Imperium (1962) The Other Side of Time (1965) Assignment in Nowhere (1968) Zone Yellow (1990) Enjoy! —John Betancourt Cabin John, Maryland