The Long Twilight [Paperback]

The Long Twilight and Other Stories (2007) is an omnibus edition of two short novels and four short stories. These tales are not related to any of the major story cycles by the author.

The Long Twilight (Putnam, 1969) is a short novel. Two members of an offworld civilization have been fighting each other for millennia. They have a final collision at a time when the USA is building its first beamed power unit. It is thematically similar to A Trace of Memory, but has a very different ending.

Birthday Party (Asimov's, 1978) is about a couple on the day of their child's fiftieth birthday. The child has been modified to have an extended lifespan.

The Half Man (IF, 1969) tells of a half-breed male who returns to the planet of his mother as an adult. His father is onplanet and learns of his presence.

The Lawgiver (The Year 2000, 1970) recounts the story of a Senator who sponsors a bill on population control that mandates first trimester abortions for fetuses conceived without a birth permit. Then a highly pregnant young woman appears in his suite carrying the illegitimate child of his son.

The Plague (Analog, 1970) relates the troubles of a pioneer family when a bureaucratic agency starts settling poverty victims on their land. Naturally, the head bureaucrat appropriates their home as headquarters of the colonization effort.

Night of Delusions (Putnam, 1972) is a short novel. It is a film noir detective story that turns into a nightmare. Florin is hired to bodyguard an insane Senator while his associates use technological illusions to shock him into reality. But events start out bad and go downhill. Then things get really weird.

These stories illustrate several major themes that appear in many of the author's writings. One is the loner with extraordinary physical ability and a quick wit. Another is the incompetence and arrogance of bureaucratic agencies. Others include the importance of camaraderie, patience and knowledge.

Highly recommended for Laumer fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of weird events, human perversity, and heroic action.

-Arthur W. Jordin

For thousands of years, Grayle and Falconer have battled--and their superhuman struggle has turned into legend (they are also known as Thor and Loki). Now, human technology has enabled them to accomplish their mission--the destruction of Earth. Falconer knows he must go forward with the mission despite Grayle and despite the death of billions.

Laumer writes great superhumans, but he does an especially good job humanizing them. Through each character's interaction with ordinary humans, we learn to sympathize and empathize with them, to care about them as people. Written in 1969 at the height of Laumer's power, the novel employs that quick-paced style that made Laumer so popular with his Retief series, but in a far darker and more profound novel.

You'll want to read the entire novel in a sitting, then flip it and start over. A great book.

The Long Twilight (1969) is a standalone short SF novel. It starts in the far past and carries through to the near future.

Captain-Lieutenant Gralgrathor is stranded on Terra far in the past. He is captured by primitives and carried to their home on a sailing ship. In a fight with their leader, Gralgrathor is the winner and is accepted into the tribe.

Over the years, Gralgrathor becomes the leader of the tribe and takes a wife. Then Commander Lokrien disobeys orders to rescue him. Lokrien takes Gralgrathor to his ship and asks if he is ready to leave.

Gralgrathor states that he is not willing to leave his wife and child. After more discussion, Gralgrathor goes for a walk to think about the offer and returns to find his family dead and Lokrien gone. He vows vengeance upon Lokrien.

In this novel, many centuries have passed. Grayle has been imprisoned for murder. He has been a model prisoner for many years, but then he runs amok and is transferred to another prison. On the way, he escapes by extraordinary feats of strength and agility.

Grayle acquires a companion during his escape. Anne Rogers came to live near the prison after her brother was confined there. Her brother died a few months ago, but she is still living nearby. She volunteers to drive him out of the area.

Falconer is living in Princeton. At an all-night diner, he hires John Zabisky -- a cab driver -- to drive his car. Although the new man is unaware of the purpose, they set out on a search for a lost spaceship. When they are stopped by a military cordon, Falconer steals a half track and continues cross country.

Grayle and Falconer converge on the buried spaceship. Xix is hidden by a pile of rocks, but is still partially functional. Xix considers Gralgrathor to be a traitor and wants to kill him, but Lokrien forbids the ship to execute Gralgrathor.

In this story, the government has built a prototype of a beamed power station. The media and VIPs are present for the switchover of several governmental facilities and public utilities to the new power system. After the station is functioning, the technical staff start monitoring its efficiency. They find losses in the system.

Meteorologists on the weather satellite notice an anomalous formation centered west of Somerset Island in the Bermudas. Despite being located in a high pressure area, it is now three miles wide and steadily growing larger. It swallows a thirty-five foot cabin cruiser and then sucks in a Navy plane.

The technicians at the beamed power station detect two unauthorized drains on the system. One is located in the nearby mountains, but the major drain is dead center on the huge conical weather pattern off the Bermudas.

This tale is an adventure through time. Gralgrathor was probably stranded among the ancestors of the Norse clans. Lokrien seems to have come looking for his lost comrade several decades later. The conflict between these two was eventually incorporated into Norse mythology.

The novel is thematically similar to A Trace of Memory and other works by the author, but has a very different ending. Gralgrathor and Lokrien are warriors from an ancient galactic civilization. They fight against each other for more than a millennium and now face one another for the last time.

This novel is not among the best works of the author. Yet it is a very interesting story. Enjoy!

Highly recommended for Laumer fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of close combat, delayed vengeance and personal charisma.

-Arthur W. Jordin

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