Keith Laumer 33 min read

Left in charge of the Manpower Utilization Directorate, Division of Libraries and Education, MUDDLE, the diplomat Retief turns a rubber-stamp desk into an interstellar incident.

Keith Laumer's 1962 Retief story pits the wry troubleshooter against the pompous Magnan and galactic bureaucracy, in the sparkling satirical vein that made the series beloved. Fast, funny, sharp. Read it for classic comic SF as Retief outmaneuvers the paper-pushers and saves the day.

In its time

Published in 1962, during the 1960s, new wave revolutionizes the genre.

Reading it

33 min read (a novelette, room for a turn or two).

Illustrated by

R. D. Francis