Retiefs War

Retief is an interstellar diplomat who prefers a bit of hands (or guns, knives, or whatever is necessary) on peacekeeping, compared to the more paper-pushing-loving members of his bureaucracy. To get an idea of some of the Yes Minister, or Grass Roots, or The Games still of satire :- "Oh, prime minister, eh? Who gave him that title?" "Why, he advised the ambassador that it was conferred early this morning by unanimous vote of the Council of Drones." Retief followed Magnan into the lift; the doors closed with a soft whoosh! of compressed air. The car lurched, started heavily upward. "Let's see," Retief mused. "That's the dummy legislature he set up to satisfy the ambassador's passion for democracy, isn't it? It was fortunate he had seventy-three senile uncles handy to appoint; saved the bother of breaking in strangers." "Yours is a distorted view of the evolution of representational government here on Quopp," Magnan said reprovingly. "Closer attention to your Daily Bulletin from the Bird's Nest would go far toward homogenizing your thinking on the subject." "I thought that was something they "The term refers to voluntary alignment of viewpoint toward a group-oriented polarity; a sort of linkage of moral horsepower for maximal thrust toward the objective." "I'm not sure that pasteurized thinking is rich enough in intellectual vitamins to satisfy my growing curiosity about just what Ikk is up to." In this particular escapade, a native conflict is being stirred up by his old antagonists, and he gets to go wheeling (the natives have wheels/rotors etc.) around the place to see what he can do about it. 3.5 out of 5

The secret to the Retief series is their strong tongue-in-cheek attitude. Taken at face value, the unimaginative reader might stumble over the sub-moronic aliens, the unlikely settings, or the fact that reality seems to often stand on it's head, for no obvious reason. But if you read these series as a parody of the James Bond series, then you can relax and enjoy the experience. And the subtext of Mankind as having a noble, heroic streak is the best ego boost I get from Sci-Fi. Let other authors portray humans as weak, greedy, venal, flawed : Laumer's Retief is a hero in the strongest sense of the word. If the future holds people like Retief, then maybe Mankind will survive to grow out of our weaknesses.

While Retief is perhaps best presented in short story form, this novel is a fun romp through a wacky world full of (perhaps *too* full of) dialect and oddities. A worthwhile read in a somewhat unusual area - funny SF.