The Long Twilight

de Keith Laumer

The Long Twilight and Other Stories (2007) is an omnibus edition of two short novels and four short stories. These tales are not related to any of the major story cycles by the author. The Long Twilight (Putnam, 1969) is a short novel. Two members of an offworld civilization have been fighting each other for millennia. They have a final collision at a time when the USA is building its first beamed power unit. It is thematically similar to A Trace of Memory, but has a very different ending. Birthday Party (Asimov's, 1978) is about a couple on the day of their child's fiftieth birthday. The child has been modified to have an extended lifespan. The Half Man (IF, 1969) tells of a half-breed male who returns to the planet of his mother as an adult. His father is onplanet and learns of his presence. The Lawgiver (The Year 2000, 1970) recounts the story of a Senator who sponsors a bill on population control that mandates first trimester abortions for fetuses conceived without a birth permit. Then a highly pregnant young woman appears in his suite carrying the illegitimate child of his son. The Plague (Analog, 1970) relates the troubles of a pioneer family when a bureaucratic agency starts settling poverty victims on their land. Naturally, the head bureaucrat appropriates their home as headquarters of the colonization effort.