History Creator / KeithLaumer

** Later on, when a single Hull ship lands on a frontier planet Dalton sets up energy rifles on hills surrounding the ship, After disabling the ship, he tricks the crew into surrendering by making them think they're surrounded by troops. Another character calls Dalton's ploy "the Fort Zinderneuf ploy".

His humorous AlienInvasion thriller, ''The Monitors'', was made into a fairly faithful low-budget movie in 1969, and his humorous HardboiledDetective story ''Deadfall'' was made into the 1976 movie ''Peeper'' starring Creator/MichaelCaine and Creator/NatalieWood.

* SocietyMarchesOn: "[[http://www.webscription.net/10.1125/Baen/0743436067/0743436067__17.htm Cocoon]]" has everyone living in virtual reality tanks a couple hundred years in the future. The husband "goes" to a virtual office and does virtual paperwork, while the wife sits at "home", does virtual housework and watches virtual soap operas all day. When the husband comes "home", he complains because the wife hasn't gotten around to punching the selector buttons for the evening nutripaste meal yet.

* AlternateHistory: The ''Worlds of the Imperium'' series includes one where WWI and the Russian Revolution never happened, one where Neanderthals ruled, one where Napoleon beat the British, and one where rats became the dominant sentient species.

* ImpersonatingTheEvilTwin: In ''Imperium'', a man is recruited by an interdimensional empire that occupies alternate Earths. His mission is to replace the overlord of one of these realities, who is his alternate self. [[Spoiler:In a subversion, Bayard's alternate-universe doppelganger turns out to not be evil, but a fellow very much like himself in character, who became dictator of the post-apocalyptic survivor state in order to keep some semblance of civilization going.]]

* ImpersonatingTheEvilTwin: In ''Imperium'', a man is recruited by an interdimensional empire that occupies alternate Earths. His mission is to replace the overlord of one of these realities, who is his alternate self.

* VichyEarth: ''The Monitors'' is a humorous inversion. The invading aliens are actually ''extremely'' benevolent--if paternalistic--and are here to end wars and raise up mankind. They can and do provide free food, education, housing, healthcare, counseling, etc., using their SufficientlyAdvancedTechnology. Nevertheless, a whole lot of people (often inspired by [[LampshadeHanging pulp science fiction]]) immediately treat it as a Vichy Earth scenario, and start forming LaResistance.

* DimensionalTraveler: ''Lafayette O'Leary'' novels. The protagonist has the ability to travel to feudal/magical alternate Earths.

* VichyEarth: ''The Monitors''

Keith Laumer (1925 - 1993) was an American science fiction writer. He is particularly known for the UsefulNotes/NebulaAward-nominated novel ''A Plague of Demons'', and for two series:

* DoorstopBaby: One story featured a huge insect- or crustacean-looking thing that took the army with lots of artillery to kill it -- and then they decoded the message which read, "Please take good care of my little girl."
** ''[[http://webscription.net/10.1125/Baen/0743435885/0743435885__61.htm Doorstep]]''.

His humorous AlienInvasion thriller, ''The Monitors'', was made into a fairly faithful low-budget movie in 1969, and his humorous HardboiledDetective story ''Deadfall'' was made into the 1976 movie ''Peeper'' starring MichaelCaine and NatalieWood.

* Literature/{{Bolo}}. The bolos are automated battle-tanks, originally developed to reduce the number of human crew required; later models are able to perform programmed tasks without any crew at all, and still later models are self-aware artificial intelligences in armor-plated bodies equipped with enough firepower to conquer an entire planet single-handed. The series is a set of mostly self-contained stories sampling events across the history of bolo development; in the later stages, the sometimes-tense relationship between the bolos and the humans they serve is inevitably a feature. This has become a SharedUniverse, with authors like DavidWeber and Creator/JohnRingo being the most recent contributors.

* [[Literature/DangerousVisions "Test to Destruction"]]

Keith Laumer (1925 - 1993) was an American science fiction writer. He is particularly known for the NebulaAward-nominated novel ''A Plague of Demons'', and for two series:

* AllTheMyriadWays: ''Worlds of the Imperium'' more or less averts this. Decision points spawn alternate universes, but the vast majority of them are barren and devoid of life because the direction of technological experimentation which can eventually lead to an interdimensional travel machine turns out to be ''millions'' of time more likely to to lead accidentally to an apocalyptic weapon. Hence, only a bare few timelines with advanced technology actually survive.

* Literature/{{Bolo}} series
* Literature/{{Retief}} series
* [[DangerousVisions "Test to Destruction"]]

* {{Bolo}}. The bolos are automated battle-tanks, originally developed to reduce the number of human crew required; later models are able to perform programmed tasks without any crew at all, and still later models are self-aware artificial intelligences in armor-plated bodies equipped with enough firepower to conquer an entire planet single-handed. The series is a set of mostly self-contained stories sampling events across the history of bolo development; in the later stages, the sometimes-tense relationship between the bolos and the humans they serve is inevitably a feature. This has become a SharedUniverse, with authors like DavidWeber and Creator/JohnRingo being the most recent contributors.

* {{Bolo}} series