Beyond the Imperium

The book deals with the concept of parallel universes. The concept is relatively well thought out by Laumer and given to us in more detail then I expected he would do in such short novels. The story deals with the conflicts played out between the worlds of these parallel universes and how they impact each other both knowingly and unknowingly. Overall I thought this was a really good read. The pace of the story was fast and what one would expect of a tightly written story. It always amazes me how much thicker today's science fiction novels tend to be versus those of 30 or 40 years ago. Could it be as simple as the art of tight writing and a strong editor are lost today? The characters are not that strongly developed and this seems to be the sacrifice Laumer makes to keep the stories to the point. The characters are developed only as absolutely necessary to the story so of course the only character we are attuned to is the single main character. I recommended and if you enjoy the genre at all I think you will enjoy the novel as well.