My odyssey to read and review every single one of the 58 Harlequin Laser Books.

On August 30th, 2024, my dad gave me an extraordinary birthday gift: a banker’s box containing old trade paperback novels by James P. Blaylock, Tim Powers, Allen Steele… and most of the 58 Laser Books published by Harlequin.

As Dad tells it, he was visiting his favourite rare book dealer, Minotavros Books, when the owner, Stefanos Lazakis, said, “I have the perfect gift for your son.” He sold Dad thousands of dollars of worth of rare titles for a little less than $300 CAD.

Digging through what I’ve since dubbed my “Treasure Chest” (and it indeed contains treasure–three of the Blaylock novels are signed!) on the day I turned 28, Dad poured out the story: Laser Books was an attempt by Harlequin to break into the science fiction market, publishing stories in “the good old fashion of SF”. Beyond that, he knew little.

I began to investigate.

What Are the Laser Books?

To begin, I’d like to note that these novels were published at the crest of the New Wave movement in science fiction. The authors belonging to the New Wave included women, people of colour, and queer folk who wanted anything but a return to “the good old fashion of SF.”

Never forget: the much-vaunted Golden Age of science fiction was deeply unkind and exclusive to writers who were not white, male, and heterosexual.

Edited by author/editor Roger Elwood, with cover designs by SFF heavyweight Kelly Freas, Laser Books put out three titles a month for three years, beginning in 1975 and ending in 1977. It operated on a subscription model, much like a magazine, though I imagine it was possible to find the titles in bookstores and at conventions as well.

SFF? More like FFS!

As with all Harlequin book lines, the Laser Books adhere to a strict house style:

• A word count of ~50,000 (about half the length of your average sci-fi novel)
• No blasphemous or scatological verbiage (in other words, cut the G*d-d@mn sh!t)
• No explicit sex scenes (though sexual situations, implied sex, and even implied rape are, unfortunately acceptable…)
• No slang in exposition (though slang in dialogue is “just peachy”)

According to the Wikipedia entry on the Laser Books, many authors chafed under these restrictions, having to cut large portions of their novels to fit the word count and changing their writing style to satisfy editor Roger Elwood and his publisher. After the line shut down, all rights to the Laser Books novels reverted to their respective authors, some of whom later restored the material they’d been forced to cut and republished the novels in their completed forms.

Would You Like to Know More?

A 2015 article by Steve Fahnestalk in Amazing Stories goes into exhaustive detail about the Laser Books line: how it started, how it was run, how it ended. It’s well worth a read, and covers things beyond the scope of this post.

My Goal

It’s quite simple: I’m going to read and review every single one of the Laser Books.

“Why,” you ask?

Why not?

Historically, given that the Laser Books were the launching point for many successful authors, they form a nugget of sci-fi history I don’t think many people are aware of.

Aesthetically, the novels serve as a time capsule for what a publishing giant thought readers wanted.

And personally, few things are more exciting for me as a reader than opening up a box, picking out a dusty old paperback, and reading the words of a writer whom the world might have forgotten.

Who’s First?

Actually, it’s “Who’s Zeroth?”

Thomas F. Monteleone‘s Seeds of Change is not a numbered entry in the Laser Books. Rather, it was a promotional title given away at select bookstores at the launch of the series, or by Roger Elwood himself at certain conventions he attended. The only other way to have obtained the book back in the day would be to become a subscriber to the Laser Books, or possibly buy it at a second-hand bookstore. In Laser Books listings, it is commonly assigned the number 0.

Join me next week to see if this zero’s a hero!

Seeds of Change Cover Blurb

The Denver Citiplex that evolves over the next two centuries, while technologically a masterpiece, is a living hell for those whom computer analysis labels potential deviants from the genetically controlled social norms. In his frantic effort to escape the fate of all such deviants, Eric Stone and his beautiful girlfriend, Jessica, manage to reach an underground colony living in the wastelands outside the city. It appears that not everyone loves the Citiplex, but only the arrival of a small colony of earthling survivors from Mars enables the dissidents to hope they may make some changes. But it is only a hope.