Star Treasure by Laumer, Sleepwalkers World by Dickson

Reading with adult eyes a favorite novel from one’s youth is always an interesting experiment, because it brings to the forefront the changes the passing decades have visited (or inflicted) upon the reader, and upon the genre.

I recently reread THE STAR TREASURE by Keith Laumer and SLEEPWALKER’S WORLD by Gordon R. Dickson. These novels, being neither the best known nor the least of these two science fiction authors, who are neither the most celebrated nor the least in the genre, may serve as apt examples of SF of the Silver Age, provide us some entertaining comment on the evolution of the genre.

Comments on the devolution of the reader is less entertaining, and can be summed in a sentence: I was easier to please.  In my carefree youth, I would not have cared about whether the light reading of a summer’s day contained a deeper meaning.

Before discussing the books, let me discuss their age of origin.

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