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No, I think Laser’s failure has to be attributed to their narrow guidelines and their editor, Roger Elwood.

The Laser covers might not have been his best work, but they were always competent. It must be admitted that the aforementioned gained fame for works that either pre-date or post-date their work for Laser. McIntosh, Joseph Green, and Timothy Powers. Jones, Stephen Goldin, George Zebrowski, Jerry Pournelle, J. A few of their authors: Gordon Eklund, Raymond F.

None were Lionel Fanthorpes, churning out pulp by the word. Some of them were already well-known some became well-known later some remained obscure. The books were to be inoffensive and of reliable quality. Authors were provided with stringent content guidelines by branding-conscious Harlequin, who applied the experience gained conquering the field of romance to the field of SF. Having won readers’ attention with the giveaway, Laser then began to crank out books.

The only reason that I did not have a copy foisted on me was that I lived in Waterloo, a backwater notable for having once voted down electrification 1. The first Laser novel, Thomas Monteleone’s Seeds of Change, was given away, gratis, to bookstores and at conventions. Laser was set to take the SF world by storm with a line whose consistent appearance and content would appeal to readers looking for the SFnal equivalent of breakfast cereal, the same experience in every bowl. Harlequin hired a seasoned professional - more of him anon - to edit the line, and employed Hugo-winning artist Frank Kelly Freas to produce covers that would give the line a consistent, crowd-pleasing look. Laser set out to publish three titles per month, which was impressive in those pre-computer, pre-internet days. This line was launched by romance powerhouse Harlequin Books in 1975. Some we may not mourn: imprints such as Laser Books. Some we may mourn we may remember the good books they did manage to publish and regret that they couldn’t publish more. There have been many well-intentioned but failed SFF imprints.