In the Queue, by Keith Laumer

One doesn't have time to do much in a short story. The best ones have an incisive point to make. In the Queue was nominated for both a Hugo and a Nebula. And I guess the early 70's were tough years for SF. This story is a decent one, would make a nice little read in an SF magazine, but it's hard to figure why a story about waiting in line, for years, would be that original. So it goes.

A Plague of Demons, by Keith Laumer

Today I finished A Plague of Demons, a nebula award nominated novel from 1965. I've read plenty of Keith Laumer, particularly the Retief series (for example Retief's War, also on Free SF Online). He has a solid grasp of straight-up adventure, rewarding for a teenage boy to read.

A Plague of Demons revolves around the premise that earth has been secretly invaded by a group of nasty superior beings that steal soldiers for their wars, among other things. Not a lot of development, other than that they are mean. Our protagonist is outfitted with experimental augmentations to battle them. He is assisted by a secret society dedicated to the preservation of civilization. All these were prominent tropes in 60's SF, including campy TV shows (The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Get Smart, etc.). The novel is decent up through the part where the protagonist is captured and put in a robot himself--it gets confusing there, but drives on relentlessly. Just OK as a read. 2 stars