Customer Reviews

A Trace of Memory

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The librarian at my high school introduced me to this book in 9th grade (1977) I was blown away by the creativity of the story. Today, I read the same tattered text (purchased during a library book sale) bound by the library. The story of Foster and his odd memories creates a world familiar yet surreal. Truly one of the best sci fi books I have ever read.

Always been a fan of Keith Laumer but this is one of his best. It was the second book he got published.His books are full of wit and one liners. I must have read this book 20 times at least. When I go on a short trip and am not reading anything else, i bring this book to re-read. Its full of action and humor. A great story from a great but under rated writer. After being out of print for a number of years, this book is back in print. I wish the science fiction book club would re-issue this book and I wish one of the makers of audio books would finally get around to this one.

A Trace of Memory (1963) is the second SF novel by this author. It starts in the far past and continues into contemporary times.

Far in the past, a man awoke in a starship to find himself surrounded by dead men. Only Ammaerlin was still alive, but close to death. He made a recording of Ammaerlin's memories and pocketed the cylinder containing his own memory trace. Then the Hunters found him and he fled the spacecraft.

When the shuttle landed on the world below, he buried Ammaerlin within the landing circles. Then primitives armed with bronze weapons cut him off from the shuttle. The locals looted the landing craft, but they did something that caused it to return to the spaceship in orbit.

In this novel, Legion is a former music student, military intelligence agent, and hard luck case. If it wasn't for bad luck, he would have no luck at all. He reads an advertisement in the Mayport newspaper about adventure, but crumples the paper and returns to his intentions of robbing one of the stores.

Foster had placed the advertisement and others like it in various newspapers for over eight years. Many had answered the ads, but none were suitable for his task. Then he gets a call from the local police about a man claiming to be answering the ad and drives to the station to meet him.

Foster believes that Legion is the man that he wants. Still, Legion lacks self-confidence. Only the appearance of Hunters in the house convinces Legion to stick with him. They manage to elude the Hunters and flee out of state.

In this story, the Mayport police discover that Foster is no longer present in his home. They find various weapons within the house and suspect the structure has been used by criminal elements. They decide that Legion was a northern hoodlum who had murdered Foster and put out an all-points bulletin on him.

Then the local police find Foster's car parked outside the hotel where they are staying. When he returns to the room, Foster has gone through the Change and now remembers nothing of his former life. The car -- with its box of money and papers -- is unattainable, so Legion and Foster take a bus out of town.

Foster has an unusual notebook containing strange writing. Some entries are written in plain English, but the first such are dated in the eighteenth century. Legion starts reading the English entries and discovers that the entries are identical with Foster's handwriting.

Foster notices a scruff mark on the nearly indestructible back cover of the notebook and Legion uses a microscope to see an encryption key. He translates the encrypted middle section and finds some coordinates of the home nest of the Hunters. They interpret the writings to refer to Stonehenge.

This tale takes Legion and Foster inside an ancient control center with instruments and screens. The radar screen shows an object at a very high altitude. Legion pushes a button and the shuttle returns to Earth. Then they board the landing craft and fly off to the mother ship.

The story follows one of the major themes in this author's works. Something strange is found and further investigation reveals an even stranger situation. In Worlds of the Imperium, Bayard finds evidence of alternate worlds. In this story, Legion finds artifacts of an ancient interstellar civilization. Enjoy!

Highly recommended for Laumer fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of ancient civilizations, strange enemies, and high adventure.

-Arthur W. Jordin

Fabulous book! Worth reading over and over again (I have for 15 years or so). Wonderful imagery and plot.

Please someone convince the publisher to do another reissue of this title! I have been trying for over a week to remember the title or the author and finally remembered a few minutes ago only to find out it is out of print. I am willing to drive from Seattle to Portland (to Powell's bookstore!) this Saturday to find a copy. That is how good this book is!

In my opinion this was Keith Laumer's best work! It is a book of only 2 or 3 hundred pages but he hss packed enough excitement into the story that it seems much longer. The story begins on Earth and crosses intersteller space to another planet with a completely different plot. Great reading. I would love to have a new copy. Please reprint it!!

Like others commenting, I read the book in my youth - in a reasonable spanish translation. I have since tried to buy it in english - without luck.

Of the very many sci-fi books I have read - this one stands up there with "childhood's end" and "door into summer". What a pity Mr. Laumer chose to head in the Bolo direction - good but ... sought

Keith Laumer has a vivid imagination and an uncluttered style that make this book a simple, one-sitting read. The twists and turns of plot are exciting, unexpected, and highly original. This little known work should be read by all serious SF fans.

_A Trace of Memory_, Keith Laumer's second novel, was originally serialized in _Amazing_ in 1962 and published in book form the following year. It was immediately recognized as a good science fiction adventure story by critics and readers alike.

What was not discussed-- at least, not to my knowledge-- were the Arthurian threads running through the novel. The enigmatic Foster is revealed fairly early in the novel to be the historical King Arthur, who abandoned the throne of England when his knights began to realize that he did not age. A number of the names of people and places are Arthurian. Foster's companion whom he buries is named Ammaerlin (Merlin); his home planet is Vallon (Avallon), and its capital city is Okk-Hamiloth (Camelot); the villainous despot of Vallon is Ommodurad (Mordred); and the identity that Legion adopts on Vallon is Drgn (dragon). There are other names of this sort that you may look up if you wish. I don't want to give away the ending of the novel, but I think that it is fair to say that the last few chapters draw heavily on Arthurian legend.

Laumer reinforces the Arthurian threads with a number of circle images throughout the novel: a notebook cover and signet rings embossed with two concentric circles... Stonehenge... the double orbits of the two planets in the Vallonian system... the rings on a tabletop in an ancient English pub... the great ring-boards of Okk-Hamiloth and Bar-Panderone... a sword embedded in a circular design in a castle wall... Collectively, they are reminiscent of the round table or of Excalibur-- of age, solidity, tradition.

Laumer also uses occasional musical images that reinforce the Arthurian tone of the novel. The hero, Legion, is a one-time music major. When Legion first stays at Foster's home, Foster is listening to the _Liebestod_. When Legion first enters the beautiful but empty city of Okk-Hamiloth, he plays Ravel's _Pavanne for a Dead Princess_ on the clarinet "and felt a forlorn nostalgia for a glory I had never known..." (109). But shortly afterward, when he is enslaved by a baser, more primitive civilization, he plays only tunes such as the _Beer Barrel Polka_ and _Little Brown Jug_. Laumer uses musical imagery to comment on man's nobility or lack of nobility.

Laumer also uses musical imagery to comment on Legion's character in one scene. Halfway through the novel, Legion has made his fortune on Earth. He is sitting on his island retreat smoking a fine cigar "and listening to the best music a thousand dollar hi-fi could produce" (76). It is an indication that Legion's concerns at this time are largely materialistic. He has not yet learned to to be more altruistic, to live for higher ideals.

It would be overstating the case to say that _A Trace of Memory_ is a retelling of the Arthurian legend. For one thing, Legion does not seem to be modeled on any Arthurian character. Indeed, through most of the novel, he is set up as a foil to Foster. He is more informal, more down-to-earth, more democratic, more practical, more witty. For another thing, the overall plot of the novel does not seem to rely heavily on any Arthurian legend. It is only at the end that the Arthurian references become obvious.

But if the novel is not a strict retelling of the Arthurian legend, it does seem to use Camelot as an ideal of chivalry and nobility that Laumer feels that most of mankind fails to obtain. It is also a goal toward which Legion unconsciously, almost against his will, strives. At the opening of the novel, he is a self-pitying vagrant contemplating robbery. At the close of the novel, he is a genuinely noble hero. Part of the fun is watching Legion change and grow along the way.

I read this book when I was young and still have my original copy of it from 1963 -- much, much the worse for wear. It's one of Laumer's best, and I'd love to replace it. In fact, that's what I was trying to do when I visited this page (having just reread -- well, re-devoured the entire book yesterday).

THE PLOT: A free-spirited but down-on-his-luck former intelligence agent hooks up with a gentleman named Foster, who wants some help figuring out who he is. And that's all I'm going to tell you, except that the process of discovering his identity takes place on two planets and involves the truth behind a well-known legend.

THE ACTION: Nonstop. If you like Heinlein and Robinson, this book's for you.

Unfortunately you can't buy it at the time I'm writing this review. So let's reprint it, please!

I read this book over a dozen times when I was younger and it was like seeing a good movie again and again. The story is credible in that the hero is just an ordinary man who gets involved, by accident, with a mysterious stranger who is not what he seems. The book combines SF with what is like a detective story combined with an action thriller to produce a story that keeps you reading until the end of the book. The descriptive powers of Mr. Laumer are excellent and make you almost believe you can feel the emotions experienced by the hero. Should be made into a Spielberg movie.