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Legion of Space #1
The Legion of Space
Space Legionnaires
They were the greatest trio of swashbuckling adventurers ever to ship out to the stars! There was giant Hal Samdu, rocklike Jay Kalam and the incomparable shrewd and knavish Giles Habibula.
Here is there first thrilling adventure — the peril-packed attempt to rescue the most important person in the galaxy, keeper of the vital secret essential to humanity's survival in the deadly struggle against the incredibly evil Medusae...
They were the greatest trio of swashbuckling adventurers ever to ship out to the stars! There was giant Hal Samdu, rocklike Jay Kalam and the incomparable shrewd and knavish Giles Habibula.
Here is there first thrilling adventure — the peril-packed attempt to rescue the most important person in the galaxy, keeper of the vital secret essential to humanity's survival in the deadly struggle against the incredibly evil Medusae...
189 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1934
10 people are currently reading
616 people want to read
About the author
Jack Williamson
541 books166 followersJohn Stewart Williamson who wrote as Jack Williamson (and occasionally under the pseudonym Will Stewart) was a U.S. writer often referred to as the "Dean of Science Fiction".
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 65 reviews
August 18, 2011
"The Legion of Space," the opening salvo of a tetralogy that Jack Williamson wrote over a nearly 50-year period, was initially released as a six-part serial in the April-September 1934 issues of "Astounding Stories." (This was some years before the publication changed its name to "Astounding Science-Fiction," in March '38, and, with the guidance of newly ensconced editor John W. Campbell, Jr., became the most influential magazine in sci-fi history.) It was ultimately given the hardcover novel treatment in 1947. One of the enduring classics of swashbuckling "space opera," "Legion" is a true page-turner, written in the best pulp style. Though Williamson had only sold his first story, "The Metal Man," some six years before, by 1934 he showed that he was capable of coming out with a blazing saga of space action to rival those of E.E. "Doc" Smith himself. That elusive "sense of wonder" is much in evidence in "Legion," and the book's relentless pace, nonstop action, incessant cliffhangers, and remarkable panache make it truly unputdownable. Simply put, the book is a blast.
In it, we meet young John Ulnar, a recent graduate, after five years of training, of the Legion Academy. His initial posting as a Legionnaire is the planet Mars, where his supremely important duty is to guard beautiful Aladoree Anthar, keeper of the secret of AKKA, the system's ultimate superweapon. Three fellow Legionnaires (read: 30th century musketeers) are detailed to the same assignment, and so we get to meet, for the first time, the perpetually cool Jay Kalan; a redheaded giant of enormous strength, Hal Samdu (yes, an anagram of "Dumas"); and the perpetually complaining Giles Habibula, a master lock picker and a character universally described, in the 75 years since his initial appearance, as "Falstaffian." When Aladoree is kidnapped by the Medusae--enormous, levitating, jellyfishlike aliens from the dying world around Barnard's Star--with the help of some traitorous Legionnaires, the quartet embarks on an interstellar quest, against tremendous odds, to rescue her and save the human worlds from invasion. Before all is said and done, Williamson has dished out several space battles, a nebula storm, a raid on Pluto's moon, and a transcontinental slog across the Medusan homeworld, fighting various alien flora and fauna (including a giant amoeba!), not to mention the elements themselves, the entire way, all culminating in a suicidal incursion into the Medusans' miles-high city. This is truly red-blooded, rousing stuff, guaranteed to pump the adrenaline of all readers who are young at heart. "The single most popular science fiction novel serialized during the '30s," sci-fi great Alexei Panshin has written of it, and is it any wonder?
"The Legion of Space" is not for everyone, however, and does admittedly come with its share of problems. The book is inelegantly written, to put it mildly, and those readers who prefer their sci-fi to seem more like prose poetry should stick with the likes of Ursula K. LeGuin or J.G. Ballard. Several passages contain instances of fuzzy writing (such as the descriptions of the space cruiser The Purple Dream), and there are also some instances of faulty grammar, such as misplaced modifiers. Some of the action in the book will most likely strike readers as being highly improbable. (Is it really possible to climb down a 5,000-foot-high drainpipe in the pouring rain? Or construct a glider from the wings of a giant alien dragonfly and some lumber?) And time, it must be said, has rendered many of Williamson's scientific/historic pronouncements...well, dated. Man did not colonize the Moon before the 1990s, and the distance from the Earth to Mars is not the 100 million miles stated in the novel, but, at the most, 63 million. The Martian moon Phobos is not 20 miles in diameter, as Williamson has it, but a mere seven. And Williamson gives the planet Pluto a moon in his story, called Cerberus, although no moon had been discovered as of 1934. It would not be until 1978 that Charon was discovered, and then Nix and Hydra in 2005. Still, the grammatical goofs, improbabilities and scientific/historic blunders all somehow fade into nothingness while the reader is engaged in flipping those pages. The book is utterly engrossing and utterly fun, and has been thrilling generation after generation of readers since it first appeared. The secret of AKKA, and that unusual acronym, is NOT revealed in this book, I should add. Readers are advised to proceed on to book two in the series, "The Cometeers," for further explication....
In it, we meet young John Ulnar, a recent graduate, after five years of training, of the Legion Academy. His initial posting as a Legionnaire is the planet Mars, where his supremely important duty is to guard beautiful Aladoree Anthar, keeper of the secret of AKKA, the system's ultimate superweapon. Three fellow Legionnaires (read: 30th century musketeers) are detailed to the same assignment, and so we get to meet, for the first time, the perpetually cool Jay Kalan; a redheaded giant of enormous strength, Hal Samdu (yes, an anagram of "Dumas"); and the perpetually complaining Giles Habibula, a master lock picker and a character universally described, in the 75 years since his initial appearance, as "Falstaffian." When Aladoree is kidnapped by the Medusae--enormous, levitating, jellyfishlike aliens from the dying world around Barnard's Star--with the help of some traitorous Legionnaires, the quartet embarks on an interstellar quest, against tremendous odds, to rescue her and save the human worlds from invasion. Before all is said and done, Williamson has dished out several space battles, a nebula storm, a raid on Pluto's moon, and a transcontinental slog across the Medusan homeworld, fighting various alien flora and fauna (including a giant amoeba!), not to mention the elements themselves, the entire way, all culminating in a suicidal incursion into the Medusans' miles-high city. This is truly red-blooded, rousing stuff, guaranteed to pump the adrenaline of all readers who are young at heart. "The single most popular science fiction novel serialized during the '30s," sci-fi great Alexei Panshin has written of it, and is it any wonder?
"The Legion of Space" is not for everyone, however, and does admittedly come with its share of problems. The book is inelegantly written, to put it mildly, and those readers who prefer their sci-fi to seem more like prose poetry should stick with the likes of Ursula K. LeGuin or J.G. Ballard. Several passages contain instances of fuzzy writing (such as the descriptions of the space cruiser The Purple Dream), and there are also some instances of faulty grammar, such as misplaced modifiers. Some of the action in the book will most likely strike readers as being highly improbable. (Is it really possible to climb down a 5,000-foot-high drainpipe in the pouring rain? Or construct a glider from the wings of a giant alien dragonfly and some lumber?) And time, it must be said, has rendered many of Williamson's scientific/historic pronouncements...well, dated. Man did not colonize the Moon before the 1990s, and the distance from the Earth to Mars is not the 100 million miles stated in the novel, but, at the most, 63 million. The Martian moon Phobos is not 20 miles in diameter, as Williamson has it, but a mere seven. And Williamson gives the planet Pluto a moon in his story, called Cerberus, although no moon had been discovered as of 1934. It would not be until 1978 that Charon was discovered, and then Nix and Hydra in 2005. Still, the grammatical goofs, improbabilities and scientific/historic blunders all somehow fade into nothingness while the reader is engaged in flipping those pages. The book is utterly engrossing and utterly fun, and has been thrilling generation after generation of readers since it first appeared. The secret of AKKA, and that unusual acronym, is NOT revealed in this book, I should add. Readers are advised to proceed on to book two in the series, "The Cometeers," for further explication....
May 8, 2012
Zowie!
When the the last time you finished reading a book and said, "Zowie!"?
I might have said it when I finished Jack Williamson's The Legion of Space had I been twelve years old and read it in 1934, the year it was first serialized in Astounding Stories. I might have uttered an appreciative "zowie" had I read it in book form in 1947, assuming, again, and this always seems to be the crucial bit, that I was around twelve years old. But I just read it in a book club edition published along with two other Wiliamson "League: stories in 1975. Two confessions: I am not twelve years old, and I am not going to read the other two novels.
The "Legion" series exists today as an interesting historical artifact, a sample of what sf was like before the Golden Age that began after World War II. It is also a good example of why the literary establishment -- damn those snobs -- were not inclined to take sf seriously. This is a slambang adventure story -- planet-hopping space opera with the fate of the human race at stake. Can this desperate band of misfits, lifted as characters from The Three Muskateers with a touch of Flastaff thrown in, get the job done? Can they rescue Aldoree!, a heroine whose name appears so often followed by an exclamation point that when one is missing it reads as a typo. Aladoree! who holds the secret to an all-powerful weapon. Aladoree! who is held captive by the grotesque Medusae, gigantic floating things from beyond our universe who fortunately, for mankind's sake, want the secret of Aladoree's weapon badly enough themselves that they don't just kill her and get it over with.
Williamson wrote this when he was twenty five years old, and he published his last Legion novel in 1982. If The Three Muskateers was his inspiration, Star Wars is his progeny. Had The Legion of Space been optioned by Hollywood in the 1930's or '40's, the film would have looked like a Buck Rogers serial, with which, admittedly, it has a lot in common. The sets would have been as stagy as the acting, and the monsters would have looked ridiculous. In fact most of the monsters could not even have been done unless the studio was prepared to pony up for stop motion animation. It was not until the last decades of the 20th century that special effects technology began to catch up with what was called for by sf narratives. But what we got, fifty years after the fact, were the same adolescent fantasies that appeared in the pulps. OK, not true across the board, but look in the movie guide of today's paper -- if anyone still takes the paper.
I am not going to change my rating of The Legion of Space, but I recommend that anyone interested in the history of science fiction give it a read.
When the the last time you finished reading a book and said, "Zowie!"?
I might have said it when I finished Jack Williamson's The Legion of Space had I been twelve years old and read it in 1934, the year it was first serialized in Astounding Stories. I might have uttered an appreciative "zowie" had I read it in book form in 1947, assuming, again, and this always seems to be the crucial bit, that I was around twelve years old. But I just read it in a book club edition published along with two other Wiliamson "League: stories in 1975. Two confessions: I am not twelve years old, and I am not going to read the other two novels.
The "Legion" series exists today as an interesting historical artifact, a sample of what sf was like before the Golden Age that began after World War II. It is also a good example of why the literary establishment -- damn those snobs -- were not inclined to take sf seriously. This is a slambang adventure story -- planet-hopping space opera with the fate of the human race at stake. Can this desperate band of misfits, lifted as characters from The Three Muskateers with a touch of Flastaff thrown in, get the job done? Can they rescue Aldoree!, a heroine whose name appears so often followed by an exclamation point that when one is missing it reads as a typo. Aladoree! who holds the secret to an all-powerful weapon. Aladoree! who is held captive by the grotesque Medusae, gigantic floating things from beyond our universe who fortunately, for mankind's sake, want the secret of Aladoree's weapon badly enough themselves that they don't just kill her and get it over with.
Williamson wrote this when he was twenty five years old, and he published his last Legion novel in 1982. If The Three Muskateers was his inspiration, Star Wars is his progeny. Had The Legion of Space been optioned by Hollywood in the 1930's or '40's, the film would have looked like a Buck Rogers serial, with which, admittedly, it has a lot in common. The sets would have been as stagy as the acting, and the monsters would have looked ridiculous. In fact most of the monsters could not even have been done unless the studio was prepared to pony up for stop motion animation. It was not until the last decades of the 20th century that special effects technology began to catch up with what was called for by sf narratives. But what we got, fifty years after the fact, were the same adolescent fantasies that appeared in the pulps. OK, not true across the board, but look in the movie guide of today's paper -- if anyone still takes the paper.
I am not going to change my rating of The Legion of Space, but I recommend that anyone interested in the history of science fiction give it a read.
October 22, 2019
This is an early Jack Williamson serial. It was fist published during the mid thirties and ranks along the lines of the works of Egar William Burrows Mars series and such; basically pre-golden age space adventure. This work was more akin to what Lester Murray or Edward Hamilton were doing at the time. I have to say that I do actually prefer this over the EWB Mars series or the Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon stories that were popular at the time because it has a little more actual science fiction in it. The multi-generational premise is well thought out and integrating as far as epic space opera is concerned, it is actually reminiscent to the Three Musketeers type stories, and I thought strangely, Stephen King's Dark Tower series came to mind on several occasions. I am onto, "The Commeteers" to see how the late Mr. Williamson took the idea further.
February 11, 2014
-Paternidad putativa de muchas cosas.-
Género. Ciencia-Ficción.
Lo que nos cuenta. John Delmar, anciano con dilatada experiencia militar a sus espaldas en diferentes escenarios bélicos de finales del siglo XIX y comienzos del XX, dice saber la fecha y hora de su muerte y dice haber visto el futuro. Cuando muerte el día y a la hora que había predicho, su médico decide no destruir sus manuscritos y en cambio ponerlos a disposición de los lectores, manuscritos que cuentan las aventuras de John Ulmar, más conocido como John Star, pariente lejano de Delmar y valiente miembro de la Legión del Espacio en el siglo XXX. Editada en 1934 por entregas en una revista de género y más tarde, revisada por el propio autor, como libro. Primer libro de la saga La legión del espacio.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
Género. Ciencia-Ficción.
Lo que nos cuenta. John Delmar, anciano con dilatada experiencia militar a sus espaldas en diferentes escenarios bélicos de finales del siglo XIX y comienzos del XX, dice saber la fecha y hora de su muerte y dice haber visto el futuro. Cuando muerte el día y a la hora que había predicho, su médico decide no destruir sus manuscritos y en cambio ponerlos a disposición de los lectores, manuscritos que cuentan las aventuras de John Ulmar, más conocido como John Star, pariente lejano de Delmar y valiente miembro de la Legión del Espacio en el siglo XXX. Editada en 1934 por entregas en una revista de género y más tarde, revisada por el propio autor, como libro. Primer libro de la saga La legión del espacio.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
February 24, 2020
The Legion of Space was pretty much as I expected - 1930s space opera. It was interesting to realize that this was a vision of the future from before television was invented, where an "optiphone" was an extrapolated gadget for personal audio/video playback. So we have to just forgive all the scientific misconceptions.
The characters and plot were simplistic by contemporary standards, more on a level with movie science fiction like Star Wars. The good guys are good, and the bad guys are bad, the girl is a trophy to be rescued and won, and the monsters are bug-eyed. Too formulaic for my taste generally, but fun on occasion.
The characters and plot were simplistic by contemporary standards, more on a level with movie science fiction like Star Wars. The good guys are good, and the bad guys are bad, the girl is a trophy to be rescued and won, and the monsters are bug-eyed. Too formulaic for my taste generally, but fun on occasion.
May 2, 2020
Jack Williamson’s The Legion of Space is the kind of science-fiction that I first discovered, more space opera than hard science-fiction. For me, it’s always been more of the “What if humanity could conquer space?” and “What if humanity is threatened by inhuman aliens?” than if the authors were merely extrapolating current technology and taking an imaginary leap. Don’t get me wrong. James P. Hogan’s and Robert Forward’s work, respectively, is high quality and touch on authentic human (or, sometimes, AI) issues.
Sometimes, though, one simply needs literal BEMs (Bug-eyed Monsters) for aliens, mysterious technologies, and familiar tropes. The Legion of Space has plenty of tropes. It seems there is always a scene where the protagonist and his allies (even love interest) find themselves caught between two disastrous events. Often the escape seems worse than the near-certain death. That trope is there more than once. Giant spider like aliens who float rather than walk around their cities, making them unworkable for humans? It has those. Massive alien ships and a hostile military base on the moon? It has that. The familiar trope of the princess, goddess, mystery woman in distress? It’s here. There is even a Fifth Element feel to the damsel in distress, even though the novel predates the action film by decades. Traitors? Yes, there is more than one in the novel. A comic companion (no Robbie the Robot but a Celtic compatriot who serves the same function and some more vital ones, as well)? Giles Habibula fits the bill.
Even in space opera, though, I love it when the author surprises me with a particularly vivid description of something incredibly alien. In the quotation below (page numbering from the Gateway Omnibus edition of Jack Williamson, even though I am reading these books separately and at different times as I do with most anthologies), the protagonist and company are facing a mysterious alien weapon in a space battle.
“Fiery mist swirled suddenly away from his body, from bulkheads, and instruments. Mist of excited or ionized atoms, dancing points of rainbow light. White searing pain probed his body, screamed in his ears, flamed before his eyes. Atom by atom, the ship and his body were dissolving away. Limp with suffering, he tried to keep awareness, to keep the hurtling cruiser within the narrow passage of partial wave-interference above the pole.” (p. 137)
I don’t know about every reader, but I find such a description to be alien, mysterious, dramatic, and intriguing. So, if you’re anything like me, I think The Legion of Space needs to be in your “to read” queue. I liked Williamson better than E. E. “Doc” Smith because the language didn’t feel as archaic and his tale didn’t yank me out of my suspended disbelief with “smoking” in space. Of course, readers who follow my reviews know that I am still making my way through Smith’s space opera series, so I will certainly make my way through the Williamson corpus.
Sometimes, though, one simply needs literal BEMs (Bug-eyed Monsters) for aliens, mysterious technologies, and familiar tropes. The Legion of Space has plenty of tropes. It seems there is always a scene where the protagonist and his allies (even love interest) find themselves caught between two disastrous events. Often the escape seems worse than the near-certain death. That trope is there more than once. Giant spider like aliens who float rather than walk around their cities, making them unworkable for humans? It has those. Massive alien ships and a hostile military base on the moon? It has that. The familiar trope of the princess, goddess, mystery woman in distress? It’s here. There is even a Fifth Element feel to the damsel in distress, even though the novel predates the action film by decades. Traitors? Yes, there is more than one in the novel. A comic companion (no Robbie the Robot but a Celtic compatriot who serves the same function and some more vital ones, as well)? Giles Habibula fits the bill.
Even in space opera, though, I love it when the author surprises me with a particularly vivid description of something incredibly alien. In the quotation below (page numbering from the Gateway Omnibus edition of Jack Williamson, even though I am reading these books separately and at different times as I do with most anthologies), the protagonist and company are facing a mysterious alien weapon in a space battle.
“Fiery mist swirled suddenly away from his body, from bulkheads, and instruments. Mist of excited or ionized atoms, dancing points of rainbow light. White searing pain probed his body, screamed in his ears, flamed before his eyes. Atom by atom, the ship and his body were dissolving away. Limp with suffering, he tried to keep awareness, to keep the hurtling cruiser within the narrow passage of partial wave-interference above the pole.” (p. 137)
I don’t know about every reader, but I find such a description to be alien, mysterious, dramatic, and intriguing. So, if you’re anything like me, I think The Legion of Space needs to be in your “to read” queue. I liked Williamson better than E. E. “Doc” Smith because the language didn’t feel as archaic and his tale didn’t yank me out of my suspended disbelief with “smoking” in space. Of course, readers who follow my reviews know that I am still making my way through Smith’s space opera series, so I will certainly make my way through the Williamson corpus.
July 5, 2013
Yes, this book is indeed a blast. It's one of those hellzapoppin! pulp stories from before the "Golden Age" (according to Isaac Asimov that would be the 1940's) that appeared in Astounding Magazine in 1934.
As with any science fiction story from this period, the science is a bit wonky (to say the least!) and mostly takes a backseat to adventure and thrills. And this book is no different. Practically every chapter is a cliffhanger as our heroes, four members of a solar system wide "police" force, face one seemingly impossible obstacle after another in their mission to rescue a young woman with the key to a secret weapon that can destroy the solar system...or something like that. The villains are the evil Medusae from the black planet of Bernard's Star, a solar system so remote and deadly that the few survivors who've returned from it are reduced to mutated gibbering lunatics! The Medusae are greenish elephant-sized beings with four eyes and multiple tentacles, who can also fly! Also, our heroes have to contend with traitors among the legion who've joined forces with the Medusae in order to reclaim our solar system as their own...whew! (Notice the exclamation points are in the spirit of the genre.)
It's space opera pulp by one of the best pulpsters in the business, and a great nostalgic trip into the far-flung future of the past. Perfect summer escapism.
As with any science fiction story from this period, the science is a bit wonky (to say the least!) and mostly takes a backseat to adventure and thrills. And this book is no different. Practically every chapter is a cliffhanger as our heroes, four members of a solar system wide "police" force, face one seemingly impossible obstacle after another in their mission to rescue a young woman with the key to a secret weapon that can destroy the solar system...or something like that. The villains are the evil Medusae from the black planet of Bernard's Star, a solar system so remote and deadly that the few survivors who've returned from it are reduced to mutated gibbering lunatics! The Medusae are greenish elephant-sized beings with four eyes and multiple tentacles, who can also fly! Also, our heroes have to contend with traitors among the legion who've joined forces with the Medusae in order to reclaim our solar system as their own...whew! (Notice the exclamation points are in the spirit of the genre.)
It's space opera pulp by one of the best pulpsters in the business, and a great nostalgic trip into the far-flung future of the past. Perfect summer escapism.
January 7, 2019
8/10. Media de los 7 libros leídos del autor : 6/10
Con diferencia de este autor me quedo con este, por encima de los más afamados suyos.
Con diferencia de este autor me quedo con este, por encima de los más afamados suyos.
October 31, 2023
Ciencia ficción muy viejuna, vamos café para muy cafeteros. El protagonista es un joven idealista e ingenuo que se acaba de alistar en la legión del espacio. Su primera misión es rescatar a una especie de princesa que conoce el secreto de un arma de destrucción masiva de una antigua raza alienígena, para ello cuenta con la ayuda de 3 legionarios más veteranos y un pelín pendencieros.
El resumen del libro: Luke Skywalker conoce a los 3 mosqueteros y vence a los horrores de Lovecraft.
El resumen del libro: Luke Skywalker conoce a los 3 mosqueteros y vence a los horrores de Lovecraft.
May 6, 2010
This is a classic Science Fiction adventure story, the 1st novel by the Dean of Sci-Fi. Great fun for those who can place a work in its historical context.
December 13, 2020
The Legion of Space was the 1st book in American sci-fi author Jack Williamson's Legion of Space series of 4 books. It was published in book form in 1947, originally a 6-part series published in Astounding magazine in 1934.
The dedication to the books states -"To all the readers and the writers of that new literature called science-fiction, who find mystery, wonder and high adventure in the expanding universe of knowledge, and who sometime seek to observe and to forecast the vast impact of science upon the lives and minds of men."
Sci-fi was in its early stages at this time and Williamson was one of the earliest experimenters. This novel is definitely in the space opera genre; great adventures in the vastness of space. I've previously read one others of Williamson's books and recall finding it enjoyable. I wanted to enjoy The Legion more but it was a bit silly. I can appreciate the historical perspective of the beginnings of Sci-Fi and this story covered the vastness of space, strange, evil aliens, heroic spacemen saving humankind, but it was better suited to youngsters I think.
The beginning of the story explains the history or space flight, the origins of the Legion of Space, the war with the Ulner family who wanted to re-institute their Empire (the Purples of the Empire vs the Greens of the democratic governments of Earth). In this story, John Star, related to the Ulner's is sent to a distant planet to guard Alladore, a young woman, guardian of a secretive power, the AKKA. John and the other guards, Hal Samdu, Jay Kalam and Giles Habibula are betrayed by one Eric Ulnar, who kidnaps Alladore and takes her across the galaxy to the planet of the terrifying alien race the Medusae, whose aim is to destroy all humankind and take over Earth and all the other planets. The rest of the story is the 4 heroes voyage to save Alladore and humankind.
There is no shortage of action; a space race to the evil planet, madness as they have to traverse the Belt of Peril, months of slogging, battling and trying to survive their voyage across the planet (filled with dangerous plants, creatures and vile weather conditions) to the 'evil' city as they try to save Alladore. Each member has his own unique talents; Kalam is the leader, Samdu is the brawn, John the all around guy who will do anything to save the woman he's fallen in love with, and Giles Habibula, the constant complainer, whose big claim to fame is hes determination to keep a bottle of wine for a critical moment.. oh he's also a great lock picker)
It's all very convoluted, with countless impossible situations for the brave group. The story is like those Serials that I used to watch when I went to the Saturday matinee; each episode the heroes would find themselves in an impossible situations that you'd have to wait until the next week to find out how it was resolved. It was an entertaining, action packed story but just a bit too wild to really satisfy me. I think I'll continue to try the series as the books are short and easyish to read. (2.5 stars)
The dedication to the books states -"To all the readers and the writers of that new literature called science-fiction, who find mystery, wonder and high adventure in the expanding universe of knowledge, and who sometime seek to observe and to forecast the vast impact of science upon the lives and minds of men."
Sci-fi was in its early stages at this time and Williamson was one of the earliest experimenters. This novel is definitely in the space opera genre; great adventures in the vastness of space. I've previously read one others of Williamson's books and recall finding it enjoyable. I wanted to enjoy The Legion more but it was a bit silly. I can appreciate the historical perspective of the beginnings of Sci-Fi and this story covered the vastness of space, strange, evil aliens, heroic spacemen saving humankind, but it was better suited to youngsters I think.
The beginning of the story explains the history or space flight, the origins of the Legion of Space, the war with the Ulner family who wanted to re-institute their Empire (the Purples of the Empire vs the Greens of the democratic governments of Earth). In this story, John Star, related to the Ulner's is sent to a distant planet to guard Alladore, a young woman, guardian of a secretive power, the AKKA. John and the other guards, Hal Samdu, Jay Kalam and Giles Habibula are betrayed by one Eric Ulnar, who kidnaps Alladore and takes her across the galaxy to the planet of the terrifying alien race the Medusae, whose aim is to destroy all humankind and take over Earth and all the other planets. The rest of the story is the 4 heroes voyage to save Alladore and humankind.
There is no shortage of action; a space race to the evil planet, madness as they have to traverse the Belt of Peril, months of slogging, battling and trying to survive their voyage across the planet (filled with dangerous plants, creatures and vile weather conditions) to the 'evil' city as they try to save Alladore. Each member has his own unique talents; Kalam is the leader, Samdu is the brawn, John the all around guy who will do anything to save the woman he's fallen in love with, and Giles Habibula, the constant complainer, whose big claim to fame is hes determination to keep a bottle of wine for a critical moment.. oh he's also a great lock picker)
It's all very convoluted, with countless impossible situations for the brave group. The story is like those Serials that I used to watch when I went to the Saturday matinee; each episode the heroes would find themselves in an impossible situations that you'd have to wait until the next week to find out how it was resolved. It was an entertaining, action packed story but just a bit too wild to really satisfy me. I think I'll continue to try the series as the books are short and easyish to read. (2.5 stars)
April 26, 2019
Another “classic” alien-invasion, macho-militaristic space-opera which cranks the violence and action to a level of improbability and self-parody. It’s difficult to say how seriously the author intended the book to be taken, but most of the (evidently) intentional humor is strained and painful, focusing on a stereotypical Irish character and his perpetual whining. Actually, he serves to point out (repeatedly) how utterly hopeless the situations are that the characters nevertheless manage to overcome with virtually no resources at their disposal. Originally published toward the beginning of the Vietnam War, one could read this as a metaphor for the hopeless (yet ultimately victorious) struggle of the Vietnamese against a vast alien empire, although it was probably intended more as a Cold War parable for the United States inevitable defeat of the Soviet Union against all odds. Either way, it’s a pretty one-dimensional story.
December 30, 2024
This was a rather fun and light read in the old traditions of space opera by E.E. Doc Smith... quick to action and a technological solution to an attack by aliens that never fully gets explained but the adventure is nonetheless fun. Recommended if you're looking for a quick fix of SF or space opera.
May 21, 2021
Jack Williamson's The Legion of Space is an interesting artifact the Golden Age of science fiction, copyrighted in 1935 and then tweaked after the war with its twentieth-century narrative frame now mentioning Pearl Harbor. It is definitely an acquired taste, though. If this novel were the work of a modern author...well, the thing simply would not be publishable, as if Norman Spinrad's The Iron Dream, by Adolf Hitler had been stripped of irony and self-awareness; call that, at most, one star. From the perspective of the mid-1930s, though, presumably it would be a four- or perhaps five-star book...in the category of "science fiction space opera," of course. For a science fiction buff whose readings have included the old stuff, let us call it now two or three stars, rounding up on general principle.
The story is pure adventure, at a breakneck pace, with short little chapters ending with a cliffhanger. I do not fault it for that--such is the genre, and even quaint oddities such as future fortresses with medieval-style walls, alien jails whose completely mechanical locks can be picked by Earthlings, awe-inspiring buildings whose dimensions usually come in increments of thousands of feet, and whatnot do not detract too much. The voice of the narrative, however, is a little harder to swallow: a simple third-person point of view that is big on superlative descriptors of the external world while dipping into the inner mind of the protagonist somewhat perfunctorily. Again, though, that is the 1930s.
What grated a bit for me was the utter simpleness of worldview. Good is good, and bad is bad, and while there may indeed be truth in that, too often such things were just painfully obvious. The man who would overthrow democracy and reinstate a monarchy, with himself as Emperor of the Sun, for example, seems a baddie from the moment he steps onstage, wearing makeup bold enough to be read even by viewers in the last row. This distant relative of the protagonist is effeminate and haughty, possessed of "insolent pride" and a "[r]etreating chin and irresolute mouth betray[ing] the man's fatal weakness"--all of this given in five ex cathedra lines predating by three decades the "Show; don't tell" admonition of countless creative writing professors. When the protagonist ignores his shiver of unease and instead tells himself that he should not doubt this superior officer of the Legion of Space--who is attended, by the way, by one trooper described as ratlike and another described as wolfish--this gives us less complexity than an awkward and cringe-worthy moment. How, after all, did he miss the urgent piano music and the mustachios being twirled?
The giant jellyfish-like alien invaders are evil, as apparently can be apprehended at first glance. The "girl" who guards the secret of the ultimate weapon that has kept the peace of the Solar System is slim and beautiful, and naturally the protagonist falls--without, of course, ever consciously putting a name on it until the end--in love with her at their first meeting. One of his companions-to-be is a calm and quiet-voiced leader, one is hugely muscled, and one is an obese gourmand goldbrick always bemoaning, comic-relief-wise, his pathetic fate, and calling for another meal, another nap, or another bottle of wine...oh, yes, but he happens to be a top-notch locksmith and spaceship engineman, too. Even the protagonist's other distant relative, the one who arranged for the square-jawed fellow to serve under the baddie, is precisely what he seems, right down to the redeeming qualities that were obvious even when he seemed a traitor to all that was good and right.
Such carping out of the way, however, The Legion of Space is at least a decent book, so long as the reader understands that it comes from an era almost 80 years removed, from the heyday of pulp fiction. It is fun--it really is--if approached in the right frame of mind.
The story is pure adventure, at a breakneck pace, with short little chapters ending with a cliffhanger. I do not fault it for that--such is the genre, and even quaint oddities such as future fortresses with medieval-style walls, alien jails whose completely mechanical locks can be picked by Earthlings, awe-inspiring buildings whose dimensions usually come in increments of thousands of feet, and whatnot do not detract too much. The voice of the narrative, however, is a little harder to swallow: a simple third-person point of view that is big on superlative descriptors of the external world while dipping into the inner mind of the protagonist somewhat perfunctorily. Again, though, that is the 1930s.
What grated a bit for me was the utter simpleness of worldview. Good is good, and bad is bad, and while there may indeed be truth in that, too often such things were just painfully obvious. The man who would overthrow democracy and reinstate a monarchy, with himself as Emperor of the Sun, for example, seems a baddie from the moment he steps onstage, wearing makeup bold enough to be read even by viewers in the last row. This distant relative of the protagonist is effeminate and haughty, possessed of "insolent pride" and a "[r]etreating chin and irresolute mouth betray[ing] the man's fatal weakness"--all of this given in five ex cathedra lines predating by three decades the "Show; don't tell" admonition of countless creative writing professors. When the protagonist ignores his shiver of unease and instead tells himself that he should not doubt this superior officer of the Legion of Space--who is attended, by the way, by one trooper described as ratlike and another described as wolfish--this gives us less complexity than an awkward and cringe-worthy moment. How, after all, did he miss the urgent piano music and the mustachios being twirled?
The giant jellyfish-like alien invaders are evil, as apparently can be apprehended at first glance. The "girl" who guards the secret of the ultimate weapon that has kept the peace of the Solar System is slim and beautiful, and naturally the protagonist falls--without, of course, ever consciously putting a name on it until the end--in love with her at their first meeting. One of his companions-to-be is a calm and quiet-voiced leader, one is hugely muscled, and one is an obese gourmand goldbrick always bemoaning, comic-relief-wise, his pathetic fate, and calling for another meal, another nap, or another bottle of wine...oh, yes, but he happens to be a top-notch locksmith and spaceship engineman, too. Even the protagonist's other distant relative, the one who arranged for the square-jawed fellow to serve under the baddie, is precisely what he seems, right down to the redeeming qualities that were obvious even when he seemed a traitor to all that was good and right.
Such carping out of the way, however, The Legion of Space is at least a decent book, so long as the reader understands that it comes from an era almost 80 years removed, from the heyday of pulp fiction. It is fun--it really is--if approached in the right frame of mind.
March 3, 2015
‘SPACE LEGIONNAIRES
They were the greatest trio of swashbuckling adventurers ever to ship out to the stars! There was giant Hal Samdu, rocklike Jay Kalam and the incomparably shrewd and knavish Giles Habibula.
Here is their first thrilling adventure – the peril-packed attempt to rescue the most important person in the galaxy, keeper of the vital secret essential to Humanity’s survival in the deadly struggle against the incredibly evil Medusae.’
Blurb from the 1983 Sphere paperback edition
ER Burroughs employed a device of using a prologue to explain to the reader how his ‘factual’ accounts of John Carter’s exploits on Mars managed to find their way to a publisher. Here, Williamson does much the same thing as the first chapter, set in a contemporary USA, tells of old John Delmar, who is convinced of the fact of his death within a matter of weeks. John Delmar, it transpires, is receiving telepathic broadcasts from the future and has been writing the future history of his family. Pioneers and scientists, they eventually found an Empire within the Solar System and become despotic and corrupt rulers before being overthrown and replaced with a democratic system.
Our hero, John Ulnar, is a descendant of this future historian and is embroiled in a plot to restore the Empire. A young girl, Aladoree Anthar, is the hereditary guardian of the secret of a simple but devastating weapon known only as AKKA. To gain control of AKKA and implement a coup, the Ulnar family (unbeknown to John) have made an alliance with the Medusae from the hellish world which orbits Barnard’s Star. Aladoree Anthar is kidnapped and it is up to John and his trio of companions to travel to the world of the Medusae, rescue Aladoree Anthar and stop the great tentacled beasties in their secret plan to invade and conquer Earth.
It’s a simple but effective tale which suffers from rather obvious errors such as humans being able to live and breathe in the open atop a three thousand foot building on the Martian moon, Phobos, or indeed on Pluto’s moon, Cerberus.
One also wonders why Williamson’s Falstaffian character Giles Habibula is never told to shut up, since his rambling oratories and complaints appear with depressing regularity from his first introduction.
'Poor Giles Habibula, aged and crippled in the loyal service of the Legion, now without a place on any planet to rest his mortal head. Hunted through the black and frozen deep of space, driven out of the System he has given his years and his strength to defend. Driven out to face a planet full of green inhuman monsters. Ah me! The ingrate System will regret this injustice to a mortal hero!’
He wiped the tears away, then, with the back of a great fat hand, and tilted up the flagon.[p70]
On the positive side, Williamson’s settings are colourful and inventive and in describing larger cosmological issues such as the functions of dust-clouds and nebulae as the wombs for the creation of new star systems, he is very much in tune with current thinking on the issue.
It’s a novel which seems very hastily written for serialisation in ‘Astounding’ and not subsequently revised for book publication. This does however, give the story a fast-paced edge.
They were the greatest trio of swashbuckling adventurers ever to ship out to the stars! There was giant Hal Samdu, rocklike Jay Kalam and the incomparably shrewd and knavish Giles Habibula.
Here is their first thrilling adventure – the peril-packed attempt to rescue the most important person in the galaxy, keeper of the vital secret essential to Humanity’s survival in the deadly struggle against the incredibly evil Medusae.’
Blurb from the 1983 Sphere paperback edition
ER Burroughs employed a device of using a prologue to explain to the reader how his ‘factual’ accounts of John Carter’s exploits on Mars managed to find their way to a publisher. Here, Williamson does much the same thing as the first chapter, set in a contemporary USA, tells of old John Delmar, who is convinced of the fact of his death within a matter of weeks. John Delmar, it transpires, is receiving telepathic broadcasts from the future and has been writing the future history of his family. Pioneers and scientists, they eventually found an Empire within the Solar System and become despotic and corrupt rulers before being overthrown and replaced with a democratic system.
Our hero, John Ulnar, is a descendant of this future historian and is embroiled in a plot to restore the Empire. A young girl, Aladoree Anthar, is the hereditary guardian of the secret of a simple but devastating weapon known only as AKKA. To gain control of AKKA and implement a coup, the Ulnar family (unbeknown to John) have made an alliance with the Medusae from the hellish world which orbits Barnard’s Star. Aladoree Anthar is kidnapped and it is up to John and his trio of companions to travel to the world of the Medusae, rescue Aladoree Anthar and stop the great tentacled beasties in their secret plan to invade and conquer Earth.
It’s a simple but effective tale which suffers from rather obvious errors such as humans being able to live and breathe in the open atop a three thousand foot building on the Martian moon, Phobos, or indeed on Pluto’s moon, Cerberus.
One also wonders why Williamson’s Falstaffian character Giles Habibula is never told to shut up, since his rambling oratories and complaints appear with depressing regularity from his first introduction.
'Poor Giles Habibula, aged and crippled in the loyal service of the Legion, now without a place on any planet to rest his mortal head. Hunted through the black and frozen deep of space, driven out of the System he has given his years and his strength to defend. Driven out to face a planet full of green inhuman monsters. Ah me! The ingrate System will regret this injustice to a mortal hero!’
He wiped the tears away, then, with the back of a great fat hand, and tilted up the flagon.[p70]
On the positive side, Williamson’s settings are colourful and inventive and in describing larger cosmological issues such as the functions of dust-clouds and nebulae as the wombs for the creation of new star systems, he is very much in tune with current thinking on the issue.
It’s a novel which seems very hastily written for serialisation in ‘Astounding’ and not subsequently revised for book publication. This does however, give the story a fast-paced edge.
January 26, 2023
Interesting as a look at what American SF magazines were publishing in the 30s, but it pales in comparison to what Stapledon was publishing at the same time. I think parts of it must have been rewritten between its 1934 original printing and the 1975 copy I read (a nuclear war mentioned in passing sounds a little odd to have in a 30s novel).
The framing device of a dying old mercenary writing a premonition of the future of humanity got my hopes up that it would be more interesting than it actually was. While it did have its moments (the anti-entropic nebular storm, the images of the ancient and deadly planet of the Medusae, the confrontations between John and his aristocratic uncle Adam Ulnar), the vast majority of the story consists of rather mundane scrapes, constantly escalating in deadliness. Every single chapter consists of escaping by the skin of their teeth from the danger set up at the end of the last chapter, only to be confronted by another, even worse. While there was some amusement here, there's no room to breathe. Maybe this would be tolerable as a magazine serial, but as a novel it's just monotonous. The fact that the descriptions are repetitive makes it nearly unbearable. The age of the medusae, the soaring blackness of their city, anything evocative in the description will be repeated ten times at least. But even worse than this, is the character of Giles Habibula. The "comic" relief of the cast, he's a gluttonous rogue of an old man, whose main trait is his voluminous complaining about any situation he's in. It would be no exaggeration to say that half of the dialogue in this book consists of him talking to himself about how old and feeble he is and the intolerable hardships of his situation, and his loyalty ad nauseum.
The rest of the characters are one-note, except for Adam Ulnar, who manages a 2nd dimension to his treacherous aristocrat stereotype. I do also have to give credit to the story for having some actual science-related material, even if it leans on the two great crutches of space opera (FTL and artificial gravity). If it weren't for Giles, I might have even said it was okay. As is, unless you want to know what people writing space opera in the later 20th century read as kids, there's not much reason to read this.
...Or you've also consigned yourself to reading every book in Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials.
The Medusae are cool in concept, if underused in the actual book. An ancient race pillaging other star systems to keep their dying planet alive, all brain and hand as Wells' Martians were. Barlowe's rendition is faithful as always to the description of the book, from the four black-rimmed eyes to the translucency of the body. I really loved this picture as a kid, and found the Medusae one of the creepier entries. I do wish Barlowe had taken some artistic license and given some evidence of organs inside the body, but oh well.
The framing device of a dying old mercenary writing a premonition of the future of humanity got my hopes up that it would be more interesting than it actually was. While it did have its moments (the anti-entropic nebular storm, the images of the ancient and deadly planet of the Medusae, the confrontations between John and his aristocratic uncle Adam Ulnar), the vast majority of the story consists of rather mundane scrapes, constantly escalating in deadliness. Every single chapter consists of escaping by the skin of their teeth from the danger set up at the end of the last chapter, only to be confronted by another, even worse. While there was some amusement here, there's no room to breathe. Maybe this would be tolerable as a magazine serial, but as a novel it's just monotonous. The fact that the descriptions are repetitive makes it nearly unbearable. The age of the medusae, the soaring blackness of their city, anything evocative in the description will be repeated ten times at least. But even worse than this, is the character of Giles Habibula. The "comic" relief of the cast, he's a gluttonous rogue of an old man, whose main trait is his voluminous complaining about any situation he's in. It would be no exaggeration to say that half of the dialogue in this book consists of him talking to himself about how old and feeble he is and the intolerable hardships of his situation, and his loyalty ad nauseum.
The rest of the characters are one-note, except for Adam Ulnar, who manages a 2nd dimension to his treacherous aristocrat stereotype. I do also have to give credit to the story for having some actual science-related material, even if it leans on the two great crutches of space opera (FTL and artificial gravity). If it weren't for Giles, I might have even said it was okay. As is, unless you want to know what people writing space opera in the later 20th century read as kids, there's not much reason to read this.
...Or you've also consigned yourself to reading every book in Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials.
The Medusae are cool in concept, if underused in the actual book. An ancient race pillaging other star systems to keep their dying planet alive, all brain and hand as Wells' Martians were. Barlowe's rendition is faithful as always to the description of the book, from the four black-rimmed eyes to the translucency of the body. I really loved this picture as a kid, and found the Medusae one of the creepier entries. I do wish Barlowe had taken some artistic license and given some evidence of organs inside the body, but oh well.
March 14, 2015
"Η λεγεώνα του διαστήματος", εκδόσεις Λυχνάρι.
Γραμμένο το 1934, αυτό το Space Opera μυθιστόρημα επιστημονικής φαντασίας δείχνει αρκετά τα χρονάκια του και μπορεί να θεωρηθεί παλιομοδίτικο ή "χαζό" και μπορεί τα διάφορα επιστημονικά στοιχεία (αποστάσεις μεταξύ πλανητών, διάφορα μεγέθη) να μην στέκουν, αλλά σίγουρα πρόκειται για ένα κλασικό περιπετειώδες παλπ μυθιστόρημα που προσφέρει διασκέδαση και ξεκούραση στο μυαλό. Η γραφή δεν μπορώ να πω ότι ήταν άσχημη, απλώς έδειχνε τα χρονάκια της και αυτή, κάποιες εκφράσεις ήταν αρκετά παλιομοδίτικες, και επίσης οι χαρακτήρες είχαν κάποια προβλήματα. Ειδικά αυτό ο Τζάιλς Χαμπιμπούλα, μερικές φορές μου έσπαγε τα νεύρα. Εντάξει, μια, δυο, μην το συνεχίζεις, κόφ'το. Και κάποια πράγματα μέσα στη πλοκή ήρθαν λίγο εύκολα, λίγο βολικά στους πρωταγωνιστές, αλλά εντάξει, τι να κάνουμε, γίνονται αυτά, και στις καλύτερες οικογένειες... Και οι εξωγήινοι... τεράστιες και πανέξυπνες μέδουσες. Και όχι μόνο. Ο πλανήτης τους είχε και λογής - λογής τέρατα, με χαυλιόδοντες και γλώσσες με αγκάθια. Το τέλος αναμενόμενο και λίγο πρόχειρο. Αυτό το ΑΚΚΑ, το υπέρ-όπλο, πως έκανε τέτοια δουλειά, δεν κατάλαβα. Κατά τ'άλλα πέρασα ευχάριστα την ώρα μου, η όλη αίσθηση και η ατμόσφαιρα με τα κυνηγητά και τις αναζητήσεις σε εχθρικούς πλανήτες μου άρεσε λιγάκι.
Γραμμένο το 1934, αυτό το Space Opera μυθιστόρημα επιστημονικής φαντασίας δείχνει αρκετά τα χρονάκια του και μπορεί να θεωρηθεί παλιομοδίτικο ή "χαζό" και μπορεί τα διάφορα επιστημονικά στοιχεία (αποστάσεις μεταξύ πλανητών, διάφορα μεγέθη) να μην στέκουν, αλλά σίγουρα πρόκειται για ένα κλασικό περιπετειώδες παλπ μυθιστόρημα που προσφέρει διασκέδαση και ξεκούραση στο μυαλό. Η γραφή δεν μπορώ να πω ότι ήταν άσχημη, απλώς έδειχνε τα χρονάκια της και αυτή, κάποιες εκφράσεις ήταν αρκετά παλιομοδίτικες, και επίσης οι χαρακτήρες είχαν κάποια προβλήματα. Ειδικά αυτό ο Τζάιλς Χαμπιμπούλα, μερικές φορές μου έσπαγε τα νεύρα. Εντάξει, μια, δυο, μην το συνεχίζεις, κόφ'το. Και κάποια πράγματα μέσα στη πλοκή ήρθαν λίγο εύκολα, λίγο βολικά στους πρωταγωνιστές, αλλά εντάξει, τι να κάνουμε, γίνονται αυτά, και στις καλύτερες οικογένειες... Και οι εξωγήινοι... τεράστιες και πανέξυπνες μέδουσες. Και όχι μόνο. Ο πλανήτης τους είχε και λογής - λογής τέρατα, με χαυλιόδοντες και γλώσσες με αγκάθια. Το τέλος αναμενόμενο και λίγο πρόχειρο. Αυτό το ΑΚΚΑ, το υπέρ-όπλο, πως έκανε τέτοια δουλειά, δεν κατάλαβα. Κατά τ'άλλα πέρασα ευχάριστα την ώρα μου, η όλη αίσθηση και η ατμόσφαιρα με τα κυνηγητά και τις αναζητήσεις σε εχθρικούς πλανήτες μου άρεσε λιγάκι.
July 21, 2020
1930's pulp space opera that reads like one of those movie serials with a cliffhanger ending every chapter. Lots of imagination and color, and better written than many pulps, but more pace than logic, and paper thin characters. Extra star because so many bits were later stolen by Star Trek, Star Wars, etc. etc.
February 9, 2016
Fantastic SiFi from one of the early masters. Follow the adventures of 3 members of the legion. Highly recommended!
December 10, 2022
Jack Williamson was writing at the dawn of magazine science fiction. The term space opera wasn't even coined until 1941, yet Jack Williamson and E.E. "Doc" Smith were mastering it.
The Legion of Space appeared as a serial (6 issues) in Astounding Stories in 1934. Yes, it is dated, but not as bad as one would think. The pace of this story was non-stop, nearly frenetic. As with any serial from then, there are multiple repetitions. The readers only had the magazines in which to read these early science fiction stories, and the longer ones were broken up into monthly installments. The authors needed to throw in little reminders to a readership that had to wait a month in order to carry on a story.
The story is set in a future era, mankind has developed faster-than-light travel and they've colonized the solar system. An ill-fated expedition to Barnard's Star went horribly wrong when the crew came back babbling and diseased, with stories of a race of huge four-eyed jellyfish-like entities, called Medusae, that used flight instead of walking.
The Legion of Space is a militaristic branch of Earth's government run by a family named Ulnar. The main character is John Ulnar, related to but distantly to the dynastic branch of the family. After graduating from the Legion academy, his first tour of duty takes him to Mars where he is to protect Aladoree Anther, a young and beautiful keeper of the one secret weapon that will protect humanity. However, the Ulnar family has dreams of returning to the days when they were more like royalty and have turned treasonously against humanity in their search for power. John's blind trust in his relatives allows them to use him to lock up the young woman's guards. Thus allowing the Medusae to kidnap her. Thus begins a frenetic chase and survival tale against all odds. If you like space opera, you should love this.
The Legion of Space appeared as a serial (6 issues) in Astounding Stories in 1934. Yes, it is dated, but not as bad as one would think. The pace of this story was non-stop, nearly frenetic. As with any serial from then, there are multiple repetitions. The readers only had the magazines in which to read these early science fiction stories, and the longer ones were broken up into monthly installments. The authors needed to throw in little reminders to a readership that had to wait a month in order to carry on a story.
The story is set in a future era, mankind has developed faster-than-light travel and they've colonized the solar system. An ill-fated expedition to Barnard's Star went horribly wrong when the crew came back babbling and diseased, with stories of a race of huge four-eyed jellyfish-like entities, called Medusae, that used flight instead of walking.
The Legion of Space is a militaristic branch of Earth's government run by a family named Ulnar. The main character is John Ulnar, related to but distantly to the dynastic branch of the family. After graduating from the Legion academy, his first tour of duty takes him to Mars where he is to protect Aladoree Anther, a young and beautiful keeper of the one secret weapon that will protect humanity. However, the Ulnar family has dreams of returning to the days when they were more like royalty and have turned treasonously against humanity in their search for power. John's blind trust in his relatives allows them to use him to lock up the young woman's guards. Thus allowing the Medusae to kidnap her. Thus begins a frenetic chase and survival tale against all odds. If you like space opera, you should love this.
October 6, 2021
A bit of a weak read in my opinion, although it is important to remember that this was written in the 1930s. It is an interesting read but can be a bit monotonous at times.
Pros:
- the ideas are very unique as far as SF goes. There are some very different takes on the appearance of aliens, space ships, and alien planets and cities. Considering the time period in which it was written, these people had no idea how a spaceship would possibly work. Let alone imagine the surface of a different planet, even Mars, so its cool to imagine it their way.
-a bit corny in a lovable way, for classic old SF nerds.
Cons:
-bad grammar in my opinion, who knows maybe it was fine for the time but the way the author phrases some things are down right strange.
- I don't feel attached to the characters, like at all really. There is never much description in the way of any characters back story, or any real in insight on how the characters look/think/feel.
-very repetitive writing, legitimately one of the characters says about the same thing every time he speaks and in all honesty I just wish the characters would speak with a bit more emotion.
Overall not an terrible book at all, in fact its a very interesting read if you want to get into that old SF mind set. ( I'll cut it a little slack because its so old ) But the poor character development and grammar left me a bit put off by it over time and finishing this book became a bit of a chore.
Pros:
- the ideas are very unique as far as SF goes. There are some very different takes on the appearance of aliens, space ships, and alien planets and cities. Considering the time period in which it was written, these people had no idea how a spaceship would possibly work. Let alone imagine the surface of a different planet, even Mars, so its cool to imagine it their way.
-a bit corny in a lovable way, for classic old SF nerds.
Cons:
-bad grammar in my opinion, who knows maybe it was fine for the time but the way the author phrases some things are down right strange.
- I don't feel attached to the characters, like at all really. There is never much description in the way of any characters back story, or any real in insight on how the characters look/think/feel.
-very repetitive writing, legitimately one of the characters says about the same thing every time he speaks and in all honesty I just wish the characters would speak with a bit more emotion.
Overall not an terrible book at all, in fact its a very interesting read if you want to get into that old SF mind set. ( I'll cut it a little slack because its so old ) But the poor character development and grammar left me a bit put off by it over time and finishing this book became a bit of a chore.
November 3, 2024
In some ways, "The Legion of Space" is very much a product of its time (1947). In others, it was far ahead. Overall, however, this pulpy science fiction story is a fun and often creepy read that is sometimes a chore to get through.
If you have read a lot of pulp novels, you know that they follow a pattern of whatever genre they are in. This is no exception. Dashing hero. Lovely lady. Danger on every page that seems inescapable. All of that is here. So much so that it becomes tiring and is unbelievable to a degree seldom seen in these types of stories. Much of this can be overlooked because of the planet the heroes end up on, and the enemy that lives there.
Williamson's description of the planet and enemies makes everything seem appropriately alien and dangerous to the point where it is often unsettling in the best of ways. In fact, that feeling reminds me of how Lovecraft's work makes me feel, and that is a solid bonus. It is what saves this digest from getting one star.
As to the "chore" part of reading this. It is one character named Giles. I suppose he is meant to be comic relief, though he saves the day more than once. His constant yammering, speech mannerisms, and just general annoyance, made me put this down more than once in anger.
Do not read this if it will be your first foray into science fiction. There are far better works out there, but do check this out if you are a fan of Williamson or pulp fiction in general.
If you have read a lot of pulp novels, you know that they follow a pattern of whatever genre they are in. This is no exception. Dashing hero. Lovely lady. Danger on every page that seems inescapable. All of that is here. So much so that it becomes tiring and is unbelievable to a degree seldom seen in these types of stories. Much of this can be overlooked because of the planet the heroes end up on, and the enemy that lives there.
Williamson's description of the planet and enemies makes everything seem appropriately alien and dangerous to the point where it is often unsettling in the best of ways. In fact, that feeling reminds me of how Lovecraft's work makes me feel, and that is a solid bonus. It is what saves this digest from getting one star.
As to the "chore" part of reading this. It is one character named Giles. I suppose he is meant to be comic relief, though he saves the day more than once. His constant yammering, speech mannerisms, and just general annoyance, made me put this down more than once in anger.
Do not read this if it will be your first foray into science fiction. There are far better works out there, but do check this out if you are a fan of Williamson or pulp fiction in general.
August 5, 2021
Lots of action. Fairly fast moving. But clearly a book originally presented in serial form. So a lot of climaxes, with the final solution being a bit lame. Characters were ok, but a bit one-note, and not that well developed. I suspected it might be the first in a series, and sure enough it is. I'd likely read some more of them just to see if it gets any better. In other words, I think the concept is great, just not necessarily fully realized here. I will say that the opening prologue really draws you in. Very reminiscent of the opening to "A Princess of Mars". It's also interesting to see how the solar system and space in general was though of in the mid-30s when this book was written. A lot of the science is iffy based on what we know today. Don't get me wrong, I'm not really knocking that, it's just an interesting aspect of this book. (The science in "A Princess of Mars" is no better.)
I'm not sure I'd read this again any time soon, but it's probably worth a re-visit at some point. It's a really easy, fast read, so it that respect it's got potential depending on the situation.
I'm not sure I'd read this again any time soon, but it's probably worth a re-visit at some point. It's a really easy, fast read, so it that respect it's got potential depending on the situation.
November 2, 2025
Godibile space opera d’avventura d’antan, intrattiene grazie al ritmo serrato e all’atmosfera rétro che richiama i classici del genere. Particolarmente riuscita l’ambientazione del pianeta delle medusae, uno scenario affascinante e inquietante, con momenti che sfiorano il lovecraftiano, soprattutto nella descrizione della loro città pulsante e aliena.
Meno convincenti i personaggi, spesso ridotti a macchiette funzionali alla trama e privi di reale spessore psicologico. La storia, per contro, si lascia seguire con piacere: più vicina al fantasy che alla fantascienza pura, ma comunque intrigante nelle sue riflessioni (seppur poco approfondite) sull’akka e sul destino dei mondi ormai esausti, in bilico tra rovina e possibile rinascita.
Nel complesso, un romanzo imperfetto ma capace di evocare meraviglia e un certo senso del mistero cosmico che appartiene ai migliori racconti d’avventura interstellare.
Meno convincenti i personaggi, spesso ridotti a macchiette funzionali alla trama e privi di reale spessore psicologico. La storia, per contro, si lascia seguire con piacere: più vicina al fantasy che alla fantascienza pura, ma comunque intrigante nelle sue riflessioni (seppur poco approfondite) sull’akka e sul destino dei mondi ormai esausti, in bilico tra rovina e possibile rinascita.
Nel complesso, un romanzo imperfetto ma capace di evocare meraviglia e un certo senso del mistero cosmico che appartiene ai migliori racconti d’avventura interstellare.
January 4, 2022
I read this decades ago and it no longer has the impact on my now jaded palate that it had then. Hideous aliens come from a planet orbiting Barnard's Star to kill all Earth people and take over the Earth. John Ulner / John Star finds out that his life has been a fraud and the family people he looked up to are traitors who would betray mankind. The keeper of AKKA, the ultimate weapon has been kidnapped by the monsters and taken to their home world. Star and three other members of the Legion go after her in an impossible bid to rescue her from the deadly planet on which the monsters live. There were a number of holes in the story which I will not mention as they may spoil it for you, and one of the lead characters is like an elderly Billy Bunter.
June 26, 2024
Una curiosa aventura espacial, escrita en los años 30. La leí por primera vez de niña, antes de que Star wars fuese un éxito mundial y no tengo duda de que Lucas tuvo que inspirarse, en este relato de Williamson.
Todos los elementos están ahí: El héroe aventurero, la bella secuestrada, los amigos incondicionales, el arma que puede salvar el planeta, la nave mítica... enemigos alienígenas y mucha mucha acción.
Es cierto que la historia ha envejecido y ahora su prosa y los personajes nos resulten viejunos pero, en mi niñez, me abrió todo un mundo y contribuyó lo suyo a que me enamorara de los libros. Una pasión que me acompañará siempre así que , solo por eso, ya se merece mis cuatro estrellas
Todos los elementos están ahí: El héroe aventurero, la bella secuestrada, los amigos incondicionales, el arma que puede salvar el planeta, la nave mítica... enemigos alienígenas y mucha mucha acción.
Es cierto que la historia ha envejecido y ahora su prosa y los personajes nos resulten viejunos pero, en mi niñez, me abrió todo un mundo y contribuyó lo suyo a que me enamorara de los libros. Una pasión que me acompañará siempre así que , solo por eso, ya se merece mis cuatro estrellas
September 9, 2024
I gave this three stars, but only because I have a very high tolerance for old-school space opera and planetary romance. For most modern readers I think we are looking more at two stars or fewer.
I'd heard of the Legion of Space series as classic space opera and I was envisioning a Doc Smith style story with fleets of starships and mega weapons. But this reads a lot like Edmond Hamilton's Captain Future stories, or maybe Campbell's Arcot, Morey and Wade. This story comes from a time when pulpy adventure and strange locales were the primary ingredients of space opera. The female lead (who has so little character I can't even remember her name) is basically a Macguffin to be rescued, and the inimical aliens are of course not to be reasoned with.
I'd heard of the Legion of Space series as classic space opera and I was envisioning a Doc Smith style story with fleets of starships and mega weapons. But this reads a lot like Edmond Hamilton's Captain Future stories, or maybe Campbell's Arcot, Morey and Wade. This story comes from a time when pulpy adventure and strange locales were the primary ingredients of space opera. The female lead (who has so little character I can't even remember her name) is basically a Macguffin to be rescued, and the inimical aliens are of course not to be reasoned with.
January 5, 2019
When I was a kid, I vowed to read all the books covered by Wishbone. This is one of the lesser-known novels Wishbone features and I doubt I ever would've learned of it otherwise. Anyways, the Star Wars nerd in me inherently loves any space opera, so I enjoyed it heartily. I like that even though it was written in the 1930s, the one character who is entrusted with the knowledge of how to build the world's deadliest weapon, AKKA, is a woman, Aladoree, a sci-fi feminist icon worthy of comparison to Leia. The Medusae are also interesting villains in that they are basically giant jellyfish, and I like seeing representation of invertebrates in literature.
March 8, 2013
Warning: there are spoilers in the review below
Legion of Space is a space opera from the 40s. It's an entertaining read if you ignore some of the glaring items that challenge one's ability to suspend disbelief (something I usually save for movies). There are a number of instances when the author does not really seem to think through what he is writing compared to what happened or happens elsewhere in the story. Or with 'reality', as it were. For me it was more space fantasy than space opera. {shrug}
Story synopsis: John Star nee Ulnar is a new and enthusiastic graduate from the Legion of Space Academy. He is immediately assigned by the commander of the Legion of Space to Eric Ulnar, John's distant cousin, hero who traveled to Barnard's Star and back, one of the few survivors of that ill-fated expedition. When there Eric made a political alliance with the Medusae race in order to install him on the seat of power and restore the Emperor of the Sun rule, with the Ulnar name back in the royal saddle once again. To this end Eric has schemed to have a woman named Aladoree Anthar kidnapped by the Medusans and whisked off to Barnard's Star. The 'why' is because Aladoree is the only person in the Solar System who knows the secret of and how to build and operate AKKA, a time-space distortion machine that essentially erases whatever it is targeted at from our Universe - even a star. There is political intrigue atop of political intrigue at the start, as the commander of the Legion of Space, Adam Ulnar (another kinsman of John's), wants John Ulnar to take the mantle of Emperor of the Sun instead of Eric (but Eric is unaware of this). John and Eric and Eric's two Legionnaire henchmen travel to a remote site on Mars where Aladoree is being guarded by four other Legion-loyal soldiers. These defenders of Aladoree and AKKA are either killed and/or tricked into captivity, and Aladoree is whisked away by Eric and the Medusans (what happened to Eric's henchmen is a mystery). John, being utterly naive and having no clue, is duped into helping Eric with his plan, but before it all comes about, he meets Aladoree and falls in love with her. However, upon learning his name is Ulnar, she wants nothing to do with him. Upshot is that she is taken by the Medusans to Barnard's Star, John is left behind to free Jay Halam, Hal Samdu, and Giles Habibula, the only survivors who had once guarded Aladoree, and together the swashbuckling quartet - think the Four Musketeers in Space - work their way to Barnard's Star, and effect a rescue (and escape) of Aladoree with the impossible odds stacked two miles high against them. Then they have to get back to Earth, and stop the Medusan take-over of the Solar System. And as there are sequels to this novel, you can rest assured they manage to do just that. :-)
Now, I reiterate, if you can suspend disbelief to some high levels, this story should be a fun little read. But for me, I just couldn't suspend it high enough. Yes, I can accept the Medusans, interplanetary and interstellar travel, impossible-seeming flora and fauna, fantastic sun-like weapons, but….well, I was doing fine up until the group made it to the Medusan world, then some details started to distract me from the story.
First, the author doesn't seem to have a grasp as to how far people can travel in a given day. At one point the group, haggard, on this alien world, spend 12 hours crawling through a thick wall of deadly plants, battling untold hostile lifeforms, then jaunt around the outside of the Medusan city for about 20 miles without missing a beat. This after suffering many injuries in their fights for survival on the planet. Another point they are crossing up and down and up and down and up and down vast and craggy mountain ranges with little/no equipment, in short periods of time (being a mountaineer and knowing what is required to travel in mountains, craggy or benign….this was difficult for me to accept)
As they drew near the great Medusan city, with two mile high walls, without optical aid the group could make out in detail the physical characteristics of the Medusan aliens floating around the top of the wall. Down to being able to tell how many eyes they have (granted the eyes are a few feet in diameter - but from 2-3 miles away?)
Giles is a heavy set fellow with the need to eat pretty much constantly. After weeks of starving on the Medusan planet, he and the other three Legionnaires had become lean and bony. "They had become four lean, haggard men - even Giles Habibula was skin and bone…". However, not 6 pages later, once they get to the great city, he suddenly gets stuck coming through a hole that the others slip through with ease. But…but…"skin and bone"…?
Meanwhile, the Medusans stage a pretty successful take-over of the Solar System, and while Williamson does not go into detail on the damage wrought to Earth and the colonies, it's pretty evident that billions of humans had been killed by the time John and the rest get back to stop the Medusans.
Overall I did like the story. I liked the premise, I liked the characters, but I couldn't give this more than three stars because of the glaring distractions. For some folks, these may not be issues and they can accept them fine. For me, having the experiences I have from my own real life adventuring and in critical thinking, they are a bit harder to swallow. When I first read this as a kid, it was great, I couldn't get enough. But now as a more learned adult... :-)
Legion of Space is a space opera from the 40s. It's an entertaining read if you ignore some of the glaring items that challenge one's ability to suspend disbelief (something I usually save for movies). There are a number of instances when the author does not really seem to think through what he is writing compared to what happened or happens elsewhere in the story. Or with 'reality', as it were. For me it was more space fantasy than space opera. {shrug}
Story synopsis: John Star nee Ulnar is a new and enthusiastic graduate from the Legion of Space Academy. He is immediately assigned by the commander of the Legion of Space to Eric Ulnar, John's distant cousin, hero who traveled to Barnard's Star and back, one of the few survivors of that ill-fated expedition. When there Eric made a political alliance with the Medusae race in order to install him on the seat of power and restore the Emperor of the Sun rule, with the Ulnar name back in the royal saddle once again. To this end Eric has schemed to have a woman named Aladoree Anthar kidnapped by the Medusans and whisked off to Barnard's Star. The 'why' is because Aladoree is the only person in the Solar System who knows the secret of and how to build and operate AKKA, a time-space distortion machine that essentially erases whatever it is targeted at from our Universe - even a star. There is political intrigue atop of political intrigue at the start, as the commander of the Legion of Space, Adam Ulnar (another kinsman of John's), wants John Ulnar to take the mantle of Emperor of the Sun instead of Eric (but Eric is unaware of this). John and Eric and Eric's two Legionnaire henchmen travel to a remote site on Mars where Aladoree is being guarded by four other Legion-loyal soldiers. These defenders of Aladoree and AKKA are either killed and/or tricked into captivity, and Aladoree is whisked away by Eric and the Medusans (what happened to Eric's henchmen is a mystery). John, being utterly naive and having no clue, is duped into helping Eric with his plan, but before it all comes about, he meets Aladoree and falls in love with her. However, upon learning his name is Ulnar, she wants nothing to do with him. Upshot is that she is taken by the Medusans to Barnard's Star, John is left behind to free Jay Halam, Hal Samdu, and Giles Habibula, the only survivors who had once guarded Aladoree, and together the swashbuckling quartet - think the Four Musketeers in Space - work their way to Barnard's Star, and effect a rescue (and escape) of Aladoree with the impossible odds stacked two miles high against them. Then they have to get back to Earth, and stop the Medusan take-over of the Solar System. And as there are sequels to this novel, you can rest assured they manage to do just that. :-)
Now, I reiterate, if you can suspend disbelief to some high levels, this story should be a fun little read. But for me, I just couldn't suspend it high enough. Yes, I can accept the Medusans, interplanetary and interstellar travel, impossible-seeming flora and fauna, fantastic sun-like weapons, but….well, I was doing fine up until the group made it to the Medusan world, then some details started to distract me from the story.
First, the author doesn't seem to have a grasp as to how far people can travel in a given day. At one point the group, haggard, on this alien world, spend 12 hours crawling through a thick wall of deadly plants, battling untold hostile lifeforms, then jaunt around the outside of the Medusan city for about 20 miles without missing a beat. This after suffering many injuries in their fights for survival on the planet. Another point they are crossing up and down and up and down and up and down vast and craggy mountain ranges with little/no equipment, in short periods of time (being a mountaineer and knowing what is required to travel in mountains, craggy or benign….this was difficult for me to accept)
As they drew near the great Medusan city, with two mile high walls, without optical aid the group could make out in detail the physical characteristics of the Medusan aliens floating around the top of the wall. Down to being able to tell how many eyes they have (granted the eyes are a few feet in diameter - but from 2-3 miles away?)
Giles is a heavy set fellow with the need to eat pretty much constantly. After weeks of starving on the Medusan planet, he and the other three Legionnaires had become lean and bony. "They had become four lean, haggard men - even Giles Habibula was skin and bone…". However, not 6 pages later, once they get to the great city, he suddenly gets stuck coming through a hole that the others slip through with ease. But…but…"skin and bone"…?
Meanwhile, the Medusans stage a pretty successful take-over of the Solar System, and while Williamson does not go into detail on the damage wrought to Earth and the colonies, it's pretty evident that billions of humans had been killed by the time John and the rest get back to stop the Medusans.
Overall I did like the story. I liked the premise, I liked the characters, but I couldn't give this more than three stars because of the glaring distractions. For some folks, these may not be issues and they can accept them fine. For me, having the experiences I have from my own real life adventuring and in critical thinking, they are a bit harder to swallow. When I first read this as a kid, it was great, I couldn't get enough. But now as a more learned adult... :-)
March 9, 2024
There is something charming about science fiction written in the first half of the 1900's. There is a sort of hope about it. The good guys always win and there is a clear line between the good and the bad, something that doesn't always appear in modern works. I find that Jack's writing and descriptions make me feel as though I am stood there with John Star, Jay Kalam, Jal Samdu and Giles Habibula and I developed an affection for these characters. The story is clichéd, the science doesn't work, but then it was written in 1947...
Well worth reading.
Well worth reading.
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