The Stars Must Wait

Keith Laumer was one of the absolute masters of the 1960s and 70s, and one of his most important series was the BOLO family of novels and stories. In The Stars Must Wait, Laumer has crafted a modernist version of Rip Van Winkle that melts into the kind of scifi you would not have been shocked to find in a 1978 issue of Analog. Following Lt. Torrence Jackson, we discover a universe that is no longer able to live technologically as we were in 1990, but a patchy state of remnants and cast-offs that are manipulated by the inhabitants. The most fascinating aspect of Laumer’s novel isn’t the extrapolation of what the world might be like after a fall, but the power of what remains, and how incredible those who retain the knowledge and methods of the past are. With Jackson, and the other sleeper who has awakened, we are presented with the idea that it is only through the knowledge and techniques of the past that we able to move forward. This simple idea makes The Stars Must Wait into a true masterpiece of early 1990s Military Science Fiction. Why It’s on the list Laumer is a genius, and this reworking of his short story manages to play in an incredibly deep sea o thoughts.