Customer Reviews

Reward for Retief (Jaime Retief Series #15)

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Reward for Retief (1989) is the fifteenth SF novel in the Retief series, following Retief in the Ruins. In the previous volume, Retief foiled Groaci schemes on three worlds. On Popu-Ri, a blowout cleared land for tall grass. On Slub, a tidal bulge displaced the planetary satellite. On Snotch Too, the revolution faded away.

In this novel, Jaime Retief is an officer within the Foreign Service of the Corps Diplomatique Terrestrienne. He is somewhat impatient with typical CDT behavior.

Ben Magnan is Retief's superior within the CDT. Magnan is from Kansas and has been thoroughly indoctrinated with CDT behavior patterns.

In this story, the CDT is establishing diplomatic relations with a planet that has been neglected for two hundred years. Captain Sol Goldblatt had discovered and reported the world back then, but his discovery report was promptly misfiled and forgotten. Now the CDT is about to land on U-784-a, variously called Goldblatt's Other World, Sardon, Zanny-du and Spookworld.

Magnan is busily gushing about the upcoming landing when a telepathic voice inserts a comment. Ben thinks that Retief had spoken and sheer confusion results. This will happen again.

After the landing, the Terran diplomats are confronted by an angry group of caterpillars. Retief urges them to set up a barrier of custom booths and other kiosks. They eventually clear a path to the vehicles and escape.

The Terran diplomatic mission is transported to the capitol in several worn trucks. Magnan and Retief are dropped off at a building made of mud dabbed wattle and find their room to be a bit primitive. They wash up and prepare for a conference at the temporary embassy.

The path to the embassy is limited to narrow bridges. Magnan discovers that he is acrophobic. When they arrive at the embassy, a mob of pillars is attacking the gate. Retief clears the way by leaping on the mob leader.

The gate guard is a Terran marine sergeant. Bill soon recognizes the expertise of Retief and discovers that the diplomat is a former Battle Commander from Northroyal. They rout the pillars and clear a path for Magnan to get to the conference room.

The Ambassador refuses to use the word mob to refer to the agitated pillars. He calls them a throng. He also sends Magnan and Retief out to learn what they want.

The pillar throng chases Retief and Magnan and catches Retief. Magnan flees back to the conference room. Magnan is sent out again to discover what had happened to Retief.

Retief and Bill have fled the throng and inadvertently discover the Cloud-Cuckoo Club. After Retief removes a blocking bar, they find themselves in a bar. Other Terrans are there, drinking alcoholic beverages and discussing the situation.

Some Terrans seem familiar, particularly the one called Will. Most of the others are spacemen stranded on the planet. They tell Retief about the loose nations that pervade the planet.

Then Magnan appears and joins the festivities. But the pillars are right behind him and a Terran shows them the back exit. They find themselves in a sylvan scene and meet Nudine the undine.

This tale takes Magnan and Retief through various adventures. Magnan finds a woman who is determined to marry him. Retief finds two princes from his homeworld.

BTW, Jaime is misspelled as Jame within this version of the novel. This typo is quite consistent throughout the volume.

This novel is filled with confusion and hallucinations. It is much like the author's Night of Delusions, but with more humor. It also has various Terrans on the make.

This seems to be the last Retief novel by the original author. Yet there are other novels and series, including A Trace of Memory. Read and enjoy!

Highly recommended for Laumer fans and anyone else who enjoys tales of faraway planets, alien creatures, and competent humans. If anyone is unfamiliar with this series, the initial volume is Envoy to New Worlds.

-Arthur W. Jordin

Reward for Retief (RFR) is remarkable in that Laumer had a stroke in the early '70s and was unable to write at all for years. When he began writing again much of his work was confused and incoherent. RFR is probably his last novel, and oddly, while it seems superficially quite as confusing as some of its post-stroke predecessors, it has a coherent theme and consistent storyline. The problem is that he uses a number of devices such as the strong anthropic principle in physics which are inherently confusing when one tries to talk about them. It is in fact an exploration of variability in consensus reality similar to other works of his such as the Lafayette O'Leary stories. RFR also displays a number signature Laumer devices including misunderstanding across educational divides, allusions to classical works of art, literature and music that will only reward readers with an adequate breadth of exposure to western art and literature to appreciate his devices. It is not a novel written to the common 8th grade education standard, nor did Laumer limit himself the constrained vocabulary that Hemingway imposed on much of the fiction that followed his career. In short this is not a novel that the average person will be able to follow or appreciate, but for some it will open into a remarkable tour de force, especially coming from a recovering stroke victim.