On My Shelves: The Legion of Space

Jack Williamson published his first story in 1928. His last novel was published in 2005. His writing career thus spanned *nine decades* -- from the 1920s to the 2000s. Of all his works, the tales of the Legion of Space may be the most enduring. (Note: that link goes to the omnibus edition Three From the Legion, which is OOP but apparently widely available, and happens to also be the edition I first read the novel in)

The original Legion tale, The Legion of Space, was first serialized in 1934, a contemporary of the Skylark and Lensman series by Doc Smith (and indeed, the first Skylark story was also published in 1928, the same year as Williamson's first story). As such, it is one of the earliest of the grand-scale space operas.

How early? Well, early enough that it comes with a framing story of the ostensible author actually just publishing the memoirs of an old man who seemed able to see the future. This was still used in the 1930s, though it was getting to be a bit old hat, but shortly thereafter it was pretty much extinct except for deliberately retro or ironic pieces.

Once past the frame, however, we get to a classic of space opera. Young John Ulnar, freshly graduated from the Legion Academy, is placed on a vital assignment – to guard the only person with the knowledge of how to use the Legion's ultimate weapon AKKA, a young woman named Aladoree Anthar. His fortune in getting the post appears explained when it turns out that his far more famous kinsman, adventurer and explorer Eric Ulnar – recently returned from an expedition to Barnard's Star – has requested him.

The Ulnar name is a famous one – and also infamous, as its members took advantage of many achievements in the past to establish a system-wide empire ruled from the hall named after the royal color, purple. "Purples" are still viewed with suspicion, as those of the Ulnar family and their former supporters have only relatively recently been thrown down. Still, a few Ulnars have retained high position, with Eric being one.

Despite some misgivings after meeting Eric and finding him not quite the paragon his publicity makes him, John takes up his post with earnestness and excitement. But all is not what it seems, and John's innocence and honest faith in the Legion is used against him to set him and the other guardians of AKKA up as victims, while Aladoree is kidnapped.

The enormity of Eric's betrayal is made clear when John catches up – momentarily – with his kinsman and discovers that Eric is working with monstrous alien creatures, the Medusae, native to Barnard's Star in order to overthrow the Legion and restore the rule of the Purple Hall, with Eric as Emperor.

Marooned on Mars, framed for the loss of AKKA's guardian, John Ulnar and the other three guardians – Jay Kalam, Hal Samdu, and Giles Habibula – must find a way to escape, to follow Eric all the way to Barnard's Star, and then – somehow – find Aladoree Anthar, free her, and give her a chance to use AKKA against the Medusae; for the Medusae never had any intention of leaving our system under human rule.

As early space opera, The Legion of Space cannot help but be compared with other early works, such as those of John W. Campbell and, of course, Doc Smith, and it compares very well to both. Campbell's works achieved a greater scope in many ways, but were notably absent the human element. Williamson's characters, while also derivative (it's known that he was consciously using the Three Musketeers as part of the template for the Legion), were more three dimensional, human, and interesting.

Similarly, Williamson's work here is fully the equal of the legendary Doc Smith. One key element of The Legion of Space and subsequent Legion stories which was only minimally present in the Lensman stories was the romance. In The Legion of Space John Ulnar's drive is just as much to rescue Aladoree as it is to make up for his failings as a Legionnaire. However, Aladoree is no shrinking violet; she not only survives torture, but is capable of fighting and surviving on her own, and ultimately is the keeper and only wielder of the ultimate weapon AKKA. Williamson would keep both romance and strong female characters as part of his writing, although they would mostly tend to be overshadowed by the male characters; later authors such as Schmitz reversed this, and in some of his later stories so did Williamson.

AKKA is itself an interesting invention; a superweapon that has a physical component but also a mental one, AKKA either destroys or displaces from the normal spacetime continuum any target or targets – of any size. When Aladoree uses AKKA against the Medusae at the end, she not only wipes out an entire Medusan battlefleet but also completely destroys the Moon (which had become a Medusan stronghold) and later Barnard's Star itself. Despite this incredible power, AKKA has a key limitation which becomes one of the essential plot elements for the sequel story, The Cometeers (which I will review later).

The Legion of Space series undoubtedly had considerable influence in the early years of SF; I'm not sure how to trace its influence today, but I certainly recall it vividly in many images and events. One interesting side question is the conflict between the Purple Hall (the Ulnars) and the Green Hall (the Legion), often shortened to the issue of the Purples VS Greens. This makes me wonder if Straczynski was referring to the Legion when he had the one episode with the Drazi: "Green must fight Purple. It is the only way."

In any event, I find The Legion of Space retains a great deal of power in its writing and events, even today. It is well worth reading if you have a taste for old-fashioned space opera, as are the sequels!