Teaser

The Legion has defended Earth since the Purple Emperors were overthrown long ago. Yet the force now menacing Earth is unlike anything encountered before. This time, the enemy comes from beyond the light of the sun . . .

Review

Jack Williamson must surely hold one of the longest careers in science fiction. selling his first story at the age of 20, he was still writing well into his 90s. The only author who comes close is Frederick Pohl, and the two collaborated on multiple projects. A seven-decade career is an intimidating thing to approach, but I’ve started with an early work, and perhaps his most famous.

The Legion of Space was first serialised in 1934, though the collected version I read had an additional prologue written a decade later. In that regard, it shares a heritage with Asimov’s Foundation. Tonally, however, Williamson’s writing is much more in keeping with his contemporary E.E. Smith. Williamson and Smith, through their Legion of Space and Lensman series respectively, have a strong claim to have founded space opera as we know it. These are the major series that laid out the building blocks for a near-century of future writers to play with.

What does Williamson bring to the party? Well, for a start there is a solar system that has been explored and colonised. His aliens come from further afield, and are the utterly evil, bug eyed monsters that editors at the time loved. It’s an uncomplicated state of affairs, ripe for action and excitement. Yes, there are human traitors, but they are thoroughly telegraphed and moustache-twirlingly evil. You won’t find much subtlety here, but Williamson isn’t going for subtle. He’s going for entertainment. This is something he delivers in spades.

One of the fascinating things about exploring the history of a genre is finding crossover points. We can talk about how innovative and influential early books are, but it sometimes gets overlooked that even these pioneers of science fiction had literary influences. Williamson takes clear inspiration from the Three Musketeers in his trio of plucky soldiers. Their bumbling, wine-swilling companion, meanwhile, will be familiar to many a fan of Shakespeare. As with any classical tale, there is a maiden to be saved, and great monsters to be fought. Rip-roaring is the name of the game.

Where Williamson falls short, he lands in the good company of his contemporaries. The story is fun, albeit rather basic, but the delivery is questionable. Words are strung together in too-long sentences that begin with ‘He could not resist the desire to hasten the satisfaction of his anxious curiosity…’ Well, ain’t that a mouthful? As for Jack Star’s anticipation of receiving his marching orders, we are told that he is ‘a-throb with eagerness.’ The vim and vigour of the story carries it, but the prose is honestly quite weak. Not as lurid as E.E. Smith’s, perhaps, but closer to there than the stark simplicity of Asimov. It’s a forgivable style for someone who was literally inventing the genre as he wrote, but ninety years later, it makes for a challenging reading experience.

What I will say, however, is that authors generally improve their craft over time. If this is what Williamson was capable of in the 30s, then his work in the 90s must have been phenomenal. Indeed, he continued winning awards right up until the end of the century. The simplicity of this book is no reason tow rite off a return to Williamson, nor is the dated prose. This is as strong a book as any of its contemporaries, and hopefully only a tease of what Williamson would go on to achieve.

Book Stats

• Legion of Space (#1)
• First Serialised in 1934
• 189 pages