The Sword and Laser discussion

When I was in college, I took a gap year (as the kids call it these days). I had the good fortune of landing a job working at Bell Communications Research, writing code for whatever tasks needed to be done in the department.
One of the things that I enjoyed there was a small informal lending library. I don't know who put it together or why, but it was a great idea - people brought in their old pulp novels and filled a few bookshelves. You took what you wanted and returned it when you were done and maybe added your own.
In this collection, I found a half dozen or so books by Keith Laumer. I really enjoy the Bolo books, but one of the ones that stood out for me was A Plague of Demons - a book about a man who discovers that the world is not what he thinks and he has changed to transcend beyond his limits as a person to be able to effect change in the way that the world is run.
There was also a block of time in 1986 or so where I set myself a small goal of reading everything that Laumer wrote. While I'm certainly not an expert, I have a good solid feel of his style and his themes.
Wait.
Why are you talking about Keith Laumer in a section dedicated to Slan?
Well.
I read this book without any background information and as I read it, it felt a hell of a lot like Laumer. I thought, "Damn, this guy cribbed a lot of his style from Laumer. I'm reading the same terse action sequences; the same male-oriented dialogue; the same general themes and I thought that Vogt cribbed Laumer's style and figured this would be a great topic for Sword and Laser.
After I finished the book, I looked up the copyright date and found that it was a good 20 years before Laumer really hit his stride and realized that I have it all backwards.
Vogt didn't crib from Laumer - it was probably the other way around.

The name sounds familiar, but I don't recognise any of his books.

Laumer would probably say he was "inspired by", instead of "cribbed from" Vogt ;-)

I see he wrote a few books for "The Avengers". No not that Avengers kids ;-) It was a British spy show. That was one of my favourite shows from the 60s.

I remember Laumer and, especially, his many Retief stories. They reminded me far too much of my days in government service.

Keith Laumer . . . now there's a name from the past, and one who deserves to be better remembered!

Raucous wrote: "I remember Laumer and, especially, his many Retief stories. They reminded me far too much of my days in government service."

Yeah, the public library when I was growing up had a number of Retief collections, which I remember fondly.

Retief books are their own unique thing.
Laumer and van Vogt in Slan definitely share the same cadence and feel in his a lot of his other books (Bolo, Dinosaur Beach, The Great Time Machine Hoax, Plague of Demons, The Ultimax Man, etc.) and the general themes of one man against huge odds, transcendence.
So cribbed, inspired by? Maybe they shared an editor?
The Retief Books share more in mind with Bill, the Galactic Hero.

^ Childhood's End also riffed on "Evolution with a purpose" and the idea of a transcendence for humanity. It was in the air.