The stories collected in this volume are rather unusual for Keith Laumer. As a rule, despite his sardonic and often downright grim view of the world, Laumer was not prone to writing dystopias. His interest as a writer was generally on the struggle of the individual against adversity, not the adversity itself.
To a large degree, that's even true of most of the stories collected here in Future Imperfect. Only one of the stories—"The Walls"—ends in sheer despair. In all the others, there is at least the element of heroism: the hero has done what he could as an individual to deal with the situation, even if the end result remains bleak.
In the next volume of this Baen reissue of Laumer's writings, we'll be returning to more familiar territory: adventure stories, pure and simple. The volume will start with A Trace of Memory, one of Laumer's best novels, and will end with one of Laumer's few collaborations, a novel he wrote with Gordon Dickson entitled Planet Run. Included also will be such varying stories as "The Choice," "Three Blind Mice," "Mind Out of Time" and "Message to an Alien."
Mind you, Laumer being Laumer, things will remain grim enough. Planet Run has something of a comic flavor to it. The others . . .
Well. You'll see.