Retief at Large (Jaime Retief Series #9) [Paperback]

Keith Laumer (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Ace Books (1980)
• ASIN: B000GHDCZM
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Evergreen Retief, February 26, 2011

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Morrow "RMS" (Tasmania, Australia) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Retief at Large (Jaime Retief Series #9) (Mass Market Paperback)

I needed this collection to share "Grime and Punishment" as an introduction to ecology and food webs with my older students. That story is perfect for that. I have read other reviews which 'pan' the Retief series as shallow and lacking in a message. Not so, I think. True, the characterisation may appear facile with 'stock' characters, but this series is one of the best 'hit below the belt' satires on politics and the diplomatic corps worldwide at the time of Keith Laumer's writing and it fits so well today. Smiling diplomats and main chance politicans are still with us, prattling platitudes and thinking the opposite. Laumer's take on the Vietnam War and the politics of Burma (he was a diplomat there post WW II) when Burma was given by the British to a lowland regional tribe, who hate anyone from anywhere else in Burma (Oops, Myannmar) and I think the injustice of this rankled with him. He was right about it serving up a lot of hurt up to the present day. Read the series and don't worry, just enjoy and laugh.