Retief and the Warlords

by Keith Laumer

Retief (4)

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Across the galaxies, against wrongdoers and rogues Only Retief - the indomitable champion of the underdog and 27th-century diplomacy - can seal the peace between the battling earthlings and the lobster-like aliens known as the Haterakans. In constant peril, the daring spacewarrior must join a pirate band, cross the fatal boundaries of the Terran Defense League, and take on his arch rivals Foulbrood and Bloodblister. Facing certain torture, double-dealing, and ruthless espionage, he passes show more within inches of death. But he must emerge victorious - or the Hatracks will waste no time in executing their berserk plan to raise earthlings as a food supply show less

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3 reviews
High-energy, fast-paced space opera, with the inscrutable Retief always in full control. His resourcefulness is almost frightening. Completely over-the-top, but that's what makes this fun to read. Quite humorous too, including some highly stylized conversation and awkwardly funny aliens. If you don't like combat scenes, then this may not the book for you (there are many of them, even a long fistfight at the end), otherwise this is a light and entertaining read.
Jaime Retief is a highly skilled diplomat for a civilization, that is old, and very corrupt. In spite of a policy of never trying violence when personal corruption will do, the Earth Defense League has got itself a war with the Haterians. The Defense League may well take a serious beating here, but Jaime once more steps up for the system that has made him a desperate and cynical hero!
½
Best Sci-Fi Ever Written!

By far the greatest sci-fi series ever written. Follow James Retief and Ben Magnun on thier action packed, tounge-in-cheek adventures across the galaxy.

The Retief series started out as a series of short stories published the various science fiction pulps during the 1950's through to the 1960's. These are classic sci-fi as it was written before the days of the moon landing. All together there were more than 60 stories about Retief's space adventures.

After the death of Keith Laumer, editors began to compile collections of these classic pulp fiction stories into a book series. Each collection contains 3 to 5 or more stories.

Of the series this (Retief and the Warlords) is my fave!

If you like Douglas Adams' show more Hitchhicker's Guide to the Galaxy than you're sure to love Retief. show less

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266+ Works 17,437 Members
Keith Laumer was born John Keith Laumer in Syracuse, New York on June 9, 1925. Before becoming a full-time writer, he was an officer in the U.S. Air Force and a U.S. diplomat. He is best known for the Bolo stories and Retief series. His other works include The Other Side of Time, A Trace of Memory, Dinosaur Beach, and A Plague of Demons. He show more suffered a stroke in 1971, which negatively affected the quality of his work and his career declined. He was also a model airplane enthusiast, and published two dozen designs between 1956 and 1962 in the magazines Air Trails, Model Airplane News, Flying Models, and Aero Modeler. In 1960, he published How to Design and Build Flying Models. He died on January 23, 1993 at the age of 67. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

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Ochagavia, Carlos (Cover artist)

Series

Common Knowledge

Canonical title
Retief and the Warlords
Original title
Retief and the Warlords
Original publication date
1968
People/Characters
Jame Retief
First words
In his office on the two hundred and seventy-fifth floor of the stainless steel tower housing Sector Headquarters of the Corps Diplomatique Terrestrienne, Career Minister Magnan, Assistant Deputy Undersecretary for Interspeci... (show all)es Affairs, leaned back gehind his twelve-foot iridium alloy desk and inspected his fingernails complacently.
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Together, they drank.

Classifications

Genres
Fiction and Literature, Science Fiction
DDC/MDS
813.54Literature & rhetoricAmerican literature in EnglishAmerican fiction in English1900-19991945-1999
LCC
PZ4 .L375 .RLanguage and LiteratureFiction and juvenile belles lettresFiction and juvenile belles lettresFiction in English
BISAC

Statistics

Members
354
Popularity
88,876
Reviews
3
Rating
½ (3.47)
Languages
English
Media
Paper, Ebook
ISBNs
6
ASINs
6