End as a Hero

John Keith LaumerProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.5

Word count: 70K words
Chapters: 8

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.End as a Hero by Keith LaumerAuthor: Laumer, Keith, 1925-1993,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Feb 22, 2016

Editor's review

Keith Laumer was an American writer of science fiction and adventure fiction. This book belongs to his familiar space-adventure vein, centered on a protagonist forced to take on the role of hero in a crisis. The work is briskly paced with direct conflict, carrying the typical appeal of mid-twentieth-century science-fiction magazine stories: technical settings serve the action, and characters make choices under pressure. As a public-domain e-book, it is a lightweight read for understanding the short science-fiction tradition of Britain and America in that period, and is also easy to read in segments during commutes or spare moments. Note that such works usually do not explore scientific detail or social issues deeply; the pleasure of reading comes mainly from plot momentum and the protagonist's handling of dilemmas. To understand Laumer's work systematically, read this alongside his adventure works of the same period and observe the continuity and variation in his narrative formulas.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy classic space adventure and military science fiction and want to add early British and American science fiction to their reading
Science-fiction fans who want to practice English reading with short, fast-paced works
Genre-literature scholars interested in the style of mid-twentieth-century science-fiction magazines

Not a good fit for

Science-fiction readers expecting hard science settings or deep social speculation
Contemporary readers unaccustomed to the direct conflict and simplified characterization of early science fiction

Reading tips

Treat it as a short-paced work; read one chapter at a time to maintain plot continuity
Note the turning point where the protagonist moves from passive to active, and consider the relationship between the "hero" label and personal choice
After reading, compare it with science-fiction magazine works of the same period and compare common adventure narrative formulas

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book a novel or a short story?

Judging by the length and narrative pace of the public-domain e-book, it is closer to a novella-length adventure story, with concentrated plot and fast progression, suitable for reading in segments.

Do I need to know the author's other works first?

No. The story is self-contained and can be read directly. If you become interested in Laumer's adventure science-fiction style afterward, you can expand to his other works.

Are the scientific settings in the book reliable?

Such works center on adventure plots, and scientific settings mostly serve narrative needs; they should not be read as rigorous technological predictions. Focus on the characters' circumstances and actions.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

John Keith Laumer Author · American · 1925–1993

Keith Laumer (1925–1993), born John Keith Laumer, was an American science fiction writer from Syracuse, New York. He served in the U.S. Air Force and worked as a foreign diplomat, experiences that informed the action and satire in his later writing. In 1959 he published his first science fiction story, "Greylorn," and entered the field of science fiction. His representative works include the "Bolo" series, centered on self-aware super tanks, and the "Retief" series, which satirizes diplomatic life; he also excelled at time-travel and parallel-world themes, and his work is often marked by tight plotting and dry humor. He was nominated for the Hugo and Nebula Awards multiple times and had a notable influence on twentieth-century American science fiction.