What do you think?
Rate this book
The Glory Game
Commodore Tan Dalton, of Terra's Space Navy, is approached by the Softliners, politicians who want to avoid war with the Hukk invaders at all costs. He is also harangued by the Hardliners, who want him to provoke full-scale military action.
Out in space, Dalton is faced with the harsh reality of the situation when the Hukk admiral pulls off a brilliant maneuver. Dalton's decision can mean mutiny, space war, or instant, terrible defeat.
Out in space, Dalton is faced with the harsh reality of the situation when the Hukk admiral pulls off a brilliant maneuver. Dalton's decision can mean mutiny, space war, or instant, terrible defeat.
222 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1973
75 people want to read
About the author
Keith Laumer
498 books227 followersJohn Keith Laumer was an American science fiction author. Prior to becoming a full-time writer, he was an officer in the U.S. Air Force and a U.S. diplomat. His brother March Laumer was also a writer, known for his adult reinterpretations of the Land of Oz (also mentioned in Keith's The Other Side of Time).
Keith Laumer (aka J.K Laumer, J. Keith Laumer) is best known for his Bolo stories and his satirical Retief series. The former chronicles the evolution of juggernaut-sized tanks that eventually become self-aware through the constant improvement resulting from centuries of intermittent warfare against various alien races. The latter deals with the adventures of a cynical spacefaring diplomat who constantly has to overcome the red-tape-infused failures of people with names like Ambassador Grossblunder. The Retief stories were greatly influenced by Laumer's earlier career in the United States Foreign Service. In an interview with Paul Walker of Luna Monthly, Laumer states "I had no shortage of iniquitous memories of the Foreign Service."
Four of his shorter works received Hugo or Nebula Award nominations (one of them, "In the Queue", received nominations for both) and his novel A Plague of Demons was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1966.
During the peak years of 1959–1971, Laumer was a prolific science fiction writer, with his novels tending to follow one of two patterns: fast-paced, straight adventures in time and space, with an emphasis on lone-wolf, latent superman protagonists, self-sacrifice and transcendence or, broad comedies, sometimes of the over-the-top variety.
In 1971, Laumer suffered a stroke while working on the novel The Ultimax Man. As a result, he was unable to write for a few years. As he explained in an interview with Charles Platt published in The Dream Makers (1987), he refused to accept the doctors' diagnosis. He came up with an alternative explanation and developed an alternative (and very painful) treatment program. Although he was unable to write in the early 1970s, he had a number of books which were in the pipeline at the time of the stroke published during that time.
In the mid-1970s, Laumer partially recovered from the stroke and resumed writing. However, the quality of his work suffered and his career declined (Piers Anthony, How Precious Was That While, 2002). In later years Laumer also reused scenarios and characters from his earlier works to create "new" books, which some critics felt was to their detriment:
Alas, Retief to the Rescue doesn't seem so much like a new Retief novel, but a kind of Cuisnart mélange of past books.
-- Somtow Sucharitkul (Washington Post, Mar 27, 1983. p. BW11)
His Bolo creations were popular enough that other authors have written standalone science-fiction novels about them.
Laumer was also a model airplane enthusiast, and published two dozen designs between 1956 and 1962 in the U.S. magazines Air Trails, Model Airplane News and Flying Models, as well as the British magazine Aero Modeler. He published one book on the subject, How to Design and Build Flying Models in 1960. His later designs were mostly gas-powered free flight planes, and had a whimsical charm with names to match, like the "Twin Lizzie" and the "Lulla-Bi". His designs are still being revisited, reinvented and built today.
Keith Laumer (aka J.K Laumer, J. Keith Laumer) is best known for his Bolo stories and his satirical Retief series. The former chronicles the evolution of juggernaut-sized tanks that eventually become self-aware through the constant improvement resulting from centuries of intermittent warfare against various alien races. The latter deals with the adventures of a cynical spacefaring diplomat who constantly has to overcome the red-tape-infused failures of people with names like Ambassador Grossblunder. The Retief stories were greatly influenced by Laumer's earlier career in the United States Foreign Service. In an interview with Paul Walker of Luna Monthly, Laumer states "I had no shortage of iniquitous memories of the Foreign Service."
Four of his shorter works received Hugo or Nebula Award nominations (one of them, "In the Queue", received nominations for both) and his novel A Plague of Demons was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1966.
During the peak years of 1959–1971, Laumer was a prolific science fiction writer, with his novels tending to follow one of two patterns: fast-paced, straight adventures in time and space, with an emphasis on lone-wolf, latent superman protagonists, self-sacrifice and transcendence or, broad comedies, sometimes of the over-the-top variety.
In 1971, Laumer suffered a stroke while working on the novel The Ultimax Man. As a result, he was unable to write for a few years. As he explained in an interview with Charles Platt published in The Dream Makers (1987), he refused to accept the doctors' diagnosis. He came up with an alternative explanation and developed an alternative (and very painful) treatment program. Although he was unable to write in the early 1970s, he had a number of books which were in the pipeline at the time of the stroke published during that time.
In the mid-1970s, Laumer partially recovered from the stroke and resumed writing. However, the quality of his work suffered and his career declined (Piers Anthony, How Precious Was That While, 2002). In later years Laumer also reused scenarios and characters from his earlier works to create "new" books, which some critics felt was to their detriment:
Alas, Retief to the Rescue doesn't seem so much like a new Retief novel, but a kind of Cuisnart mélange of past books.
-- Somtow Sucharitkul (Washington Post, Mar 27, 1983. p. BW11)
His Bolo creations were popular enough that other authors have written standalone science-fiction novels about them.
Laumer was also a model airplane enthusiast, and published two dozen designs between 1956 and 1962 in the U.S. magazines Air Trails, Model Airplane News and Flying Models, as well as the British magazine Aero Modeler. He published one book on the subject, How to Design and Build Flying Models in 1960. His later designs were mostly gas-powered free flight planes, and had a whimsical charm with names to match, like the "Twin Lizzie" and the "Lulla-Bi". His designs are still being revisited, reinvented and built today.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
November 1, 2015
The Dec. 1983 version with the Tom Kidd cover (space ship on the cover).
Take Keith Laumer's Retief, enlist him in the Navy (space version) and promote him to Commodore and you've got Tancredi Dalton ("Tan" to his friends and other less printable names to his enemies). Add a cunning enemy, some idiot politicians (just like the ones we vote for/against today), and a Senator who may one day be his father-in-law, and you've got the makings for one of Laumer's outrageous yarns where the main character overcomes the stupidity of his superiors to save the day. But unlike Retief, Tan may end up fired and shipped out to the hinterlands.
I fine yarn of the type I've learned to expect from Keith Laumer. If I live long enough, I'll be reading this again when it comes around in my library's rotation.
Take Keith Laumer's Retief, enlist him in the Navy (space version) and promote him to Commodore and you've got Tancredi Dalton ("Tan" to his friends and other less printable names to his enemies). Add a cunning enemy, some idiot politicians (just like the ones we vote for/against today), and a Senator who may one day be his father-in-law, and you've got the makings for one of Laumer's outrageous yarns where the main character overcomes the stupidity of his superiors to save the day. But unlike Retief, Tan may end up fired and shipped out to the hinterlands.
I fine yarn of the type I've learned to expect from Keith Laumer. If I live long enough, I'll be reading this again when it comes around in my library's rotation.
February 13, 2018
I loved this book! Tan Dalton is one of the best military science fiction characters I’ve ever read about. The Glory Game is a short read, but packs quite a punch and has much relevance in today’s geopolitical climate. Dalton’s superb way of navigating his way through political intrigue and a military on the brink of war makes The Glory Game a thrilling ride.
My only criticism comes near the story’s end when it abruptly shifts to another story for the last 30-40 pages. It’s a strange transition that falls flat...hard, which is why I only give it 4 stars.
My only criticism comes near the story’s end when it abruptly shifts to another story for the last 30-40 pages. It’s a strange transition that falls flat...hard, which is why I only give it 4 stars.
June 18, 2023
Romanzetto di fantascienza poco convincente, anzi decisamente deludente!
September 15, 2017
Keith Laumer has written some excellent books about tanks. They had a lot more personality than the people in this book! This is more about the politics of dealing with aggressive aliens than about actual war, so not all that much happens. My first impression was that Laumer went with such polar opposite extreme political views that it turned into a farce. The hardliners want to completely eradicate the aliens, while the softliners want to encourage and subsidize the alien attack on humanity. Of course the hero of the story is the only sane human around. Completely unrealistic. Or is it?
What if you substitute the aliens for ... never mind, I'll keep politics out of it. You can thank me later. This book may just be more realistic than I thought at first. Prescient even. But it's still not a very good story.
The book finishes with an unrelated and inoffensive short story. There's not much to say about it, other than that it uses the common, but dumb, trope of skyrocketing population making Earth virtually unlivable. The West is already committing demographic suicide with birthrates less than 2.1. If having children was made any less attractive than it already is to us spoiled westerners, we'd die out even sooner.
What if you substitute the aliens for ... never mind, I'll keep politics out of it. You can thank me later. This book may just be more realistic than I thought at first. Prescient even. But it's still not a very good story.
The book finishes with an unrelated and inoffensive short story. There's not much to say about it, other than that it uses the common, but dumb, trope of skyrocketing population making Earth virtually unlivable. The West is already committing demographic suicide with birthrates less than 2.1. If having children was made any less attractive than it already is to us spoiled westerners, we'd die out even sooner.
August 15, 2024
The novel centres around Tan Dalton, a Commodore in the Space Navy, and an upcoming show-of-strength exercise to deter the alien Hukk. The back cover quote from 1973 suggests topically that this is a reworking of the Tonkin Gulf incident, but it's more like the Hukk are standing in for the Japanese, and Dalton intercepts the fleet heading for Pearl Harbour, with the book playing out the result. Much of the book concerns the internal political and personal manoeuvrings of Earth and the navy (which seems much like the 20th Century USA) as well as how to deal with the Hukk, although there is plenty of incident and action. Overall a solid, pacey (at 222 paces), well-thought out piece of space operatic SF.
June 16, 2021
It's a page-turner, at least after the first chapter. Space fleet Commodore Dalton navigates a precarious (politically) course between pacifist and war-monger factions, each giving him conflicting secret instructions as he heads his space ships to a demonstration against questionably hostile aliens (like Star Trek's Capt. Kirk confronting Klingons or Romulans). The suspense carries through the space confrontation to the political fallout and beyond, though I found some final plot developments less than convincing (hence 4 instead of 5 stars).
September 25, 2022
Good old school sci-fi shootemuop.
April 23, 2023
Easy read with a good story.
Read
October 23, 2025Tor, 1983. 1st Tor printing. First published in 1973. Adversarial political factions and harsh realities tug at a Space Navy commander, as he makes decisions that mean war or peace, life or death.
September 18, 2011
This is an expansion of Laumer's 1970 short story "Message To An Alien", which has been collected in Baen's Legions of Space anthology, and the first part of the book is chock-full of the kind of bureaucratic/political skulduggery that the Retief stories are known for. However, Commodore Tancredi Dalton is not Jame Retief, the Terran Space Arm is not the CDT, and the ironic humor that informs the Retief stories is completely absent. Nevertheless, this is an excellent story, and hopefully Baen will bring it back into print soon.
June 16, 2013
I enjoyed The Glory Game. I see this as a story of bureaucratic and naval intrigue wrapped in the clothing of space opera. Laumer does an excellent job showing the tactical confrontation between the humans and the Hukk, and also between the various human factions, I particularly liked the humanity and wisdom with which he portrayed Comdr. Dalton - actions have consequences, and a mark of adulthood is to accept the consequences of those actions.
This would make a great plot contrast to Ender's Game.
Recommended for anyone who likes intrigue.
This would make a great plot contrast to Ender's Game.
Recommended for anyone who likes intrigue.
November 21, 2011
Although this book is a bit dated by today's standards, it is still a great read by one of the Great's of Science Fiction. I particularly like Laumer's heroes. They are men who aren't afraid to make choices when they believe they are right and be damned the consequences!
May 6, 2012
Good old fashioned space opera with Laumer's gift for bureaucratic machinations
December 15, 2014
1980 grade C
I have this marked as being in the OL series.
I have this marked as being in the OL series.
August 9, 2015
Classic Space Opera by on e of the masters of Science Fiction. An enjoyable read.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews