Book Review: Earthblood and Other Stories

Book Review: 'Earthblood and Other Stories' by Keith Laumer and Rosel George Brown

edited by Eric Flint

3 / 5 Stars

‘Earthblood’ first was published as a serial in If magazine during 1966. That same year it was issued in hardback from Doubleday. 

This Baen Books paperback version (cover art by Bob Eggleton) issued in January 2008 is a hefty 703 pages in length, with 391 pages devoted to 'Earthblood' and the remaining pages devoted to short fiction from Laumer and Brown (rounding out the book is a 17-page preview of an awful David Webber novel from 2012). 

Needless to say, it took me a while to finish this book. 

I remember reading ‘Earthblood’ in the mid-70s and finding it quite entertaining. As an Old School space opera it offered something different, and in many ways refreshing, from the New Wave content that was then dominating sci-fi publishing: it was devoid of self-indulgent prose stylings, and featured a straightforward, plot-driven narrative. 

'Earthblood' is set far in the future, thousands of years after the Terran Empire has lost a war with the alien race known as the Niss. The fall of the Empire has left the myriad colony worlds to their own devices, and over the centuries knowledge of Terra, and its former glories, have faded into myth.

In the opening chapters we are introduced to our hero, Roan Corday, a genuinely ‘Terry’ child raised by a humanoid couple of limited means on the backwater planet of Tambool. Roan gradually becomes aware that he is an outcast among the races of aliens who dominate Tambool society, and that his Terry heritage marks him as a man destined for Bigger Things than can be found in the squalid slum district that is his home. In due course Roan finds himself travelling the galaxy in an increasingly fervid quest to find the fabled planet of Terra, defeat the remnants of the Niss, and restore the Terran Empire to its glory.

The fast pacing and plentiful action sequences that are Keith Laumer’s strong suit, and made me like ‘Earthblood’ nearly 50 years ago, remain engaging. But this time around I was more appreciative of the novel’s presentation of well-drawn human and alien characters, such as the erotic dancer Stellaraire, the stolidly noble Iron Robert, the pirate Henry Dread, and Roan’s sidekicks Skor and Sidis. 

Also worthy of note are the novel’s contemplative passages, which – presumably – were contributed by coauthor Brown. These passages, some of which deal with the discovery of long-abandoned Terran outposts, have an elegiac quality suffused with the sense of entropy that was becoming more and more prominent in the 1960s as the New Wave movement exerted its influence. It is the presence of these passages that give ‘Earthblood’ a depth not present in most (if not all) of the Space Opera fiction of the 1960s. 

‘Earthblood and Other Stories’ features three ‘Niss’ novelettes that Laumer published in sci-fi digests during 1963-1964. All reflect Laumer’s status as an author who wrote to earn a living: they are loosely plotted, and rely on all manner of contrived twists and revelations to keep the narratives rolling along (for example, a handgun is fired, but the villains in the adjacent chamber can’t hear it because ‘The Niss are totally deaf in our sound range without their hearing aids’). 

In ‘The Long Remembered Thunder’ an agent named Tremaine investigates the source of a mysterious, but powerful, radio signal. ‘The Other Sky’ is a rambling mishmash of sci-fi tropes such as time travel, portals to other dimensions, and alien overlords. Amidst all the frenetic action Laumer even works in a humorous take on ‘Gulliver’s Travels’, which gives the story the flavor of a Ron Goulart / Robert Sheckley composition. ‘The Soul Buyer’ sees tough guy Tony Adair tangle with city streets run by wise guys, some of whom are aliens; this story comes across as Laumer’s attempt to fuse sci-fi with the private eye theme.

Closing out the collection are six stories by Rosel George Brown (1926 – 1967), all first published in sci-fi digests during the interval from 1959 – 1962. These entries all are well-written, but basically apply a thin coating of sci-fi content to the sorts of wry domestic dramas that were representative of short fiction that, in the late 50s and early 60s, would have been at home in magazines like Women’s Day, The Saturday Evening Post, Ladies Home Journal, etc. 

For example, ‘Flower Arrangement’ sees housewife Sally Jo Warner enter the neighborhood contest with an unusual arrangement based on twisting an aspidistra leaf into a Mobius strip. There is drama when scientists, startled by the seemingly impossible arrangement, become involved, but Sally Jo just wants to one-up the Queen Bee of the Dried Arrangements committee.  

A 1962 story, ‘And A Tooth’, adopts a darker tone with its portrayal of Margaret Tilden, a distraught housewife who undergoes brain surgery to revive her from a coma, only to discover that she has acquired a split personality. It turns out the other personality is determined to take control of the shared body. It was an interesting premise at the time the story was written, and modern critics might expound that 'And A Tooth' has merit as a proto-feministic exploration of a woman rebelling against the strictures the patriarchy imposes on women who don't meekly accept their roles in society. Or something like that.

The verdict ? I would recommend that curious readers acquire 'Earthblood' on its own, rather than this particular Baen Books expanded version. I can't say that the ancillary material from Laumer and Brown included in this 703 - page compilation is all that impressive, save for those with a deep and abiding interest in collecting the output of either writer.