The Legion of Time

"The Legion of Time" consists of two novellas that Jack Williamson wrote in the late 1930s, neither of which have anything to do with his wholly dissimilar Legion of Space novels of that same period. Both of these novellas are written in the wonderfully pulpy prose that often typified Golden Age sci-fi, and both are as colorful, fast moving and action packed as any fan could want. That elusive "sense of wonder" that authors of the era strove for seemed to come naturally for Williamson, and if the style is a bit crude by today's standards and the descriptions a tad fuzzy at times, the author's hypercreative imagination more than compensates. The first novella in this volume is "The Legion of Time" itself, which first appeared in the May, June and July 1938 issues of "Astounding Science-Fiction," scant months after John W. Campbell, Jr. began his legendary career there as editor. It is in some respects a mind-blowing story, in which we learn that Earth has two very different possible futures. In one, the Eden-like city state of Jonbar will flourish and mankind will thrive and become winged superbeings; in the other, the city of Gyronchi, ruled by the warrior queen Sorainya and the dark priest Glarath, will enslave mankind with the aid of their hybridized half human/half ant soldiers. These two possible Earth futures are thus in a deadly rivalry for fulfillment; a stalemate situation that Sorainya tips toward Gyronchi's favor by going into the past and making an oh-so-subtle alteration. Meanwhile, on the Earth of the present day, physicist Wil McLan puts together a team of deceased Prussian, English and American soldiers from various wars to man his timeship, the Chronion, and fight for the existence of Jonbar. If this capsule description sounds a bit way out, reader, let me just say that it doesn't even begin to do Williamson's tale justice. Time paradox stories usually give me a mild headache, and boy, is this one a doozy; still, Williamson does his best with his talk of temporal geodesics, nodes, hyperspace time continuums, and "conflicting infinitude of possible worlds" to put the conceit over. As I mentioned up top, the story's pace is relentless and the action virtually nonstop, a particular highlight being a daring nighttime raid on Sorainya's castle and its antmen soldiers within. The novella has many memorable touches, one of my favorites being a variation on a burial at sea; here, one of McLan's deceased soldiers (the story has a VERY high body count!) is pushed off the Chronion into "the shimmering gulf of time." The warrior queen herself makes for a wonderful villainess, one who is as likely to seduce a man as pour molten metal down his throat (another memorable touch, indeed!); she is more than a match for the 13 soldier members of McLan's team. As in the Legion of Space books, nearly insuperable odds are met head on by a team of extremely determined and can-do men. On a side note, "The Legion of Time" was the source of the term "

Ahh, this is grand Sci-fi from the old swashbuckling days of Sci-fi space opera. Our heroes from the Legion appear yet again to save mankind. My favorite, Giles Habibula (based on Falstaff) appears once again in this time twisting adventure. Turn off your expectation of hard Sci-fi, and strap on your blaster, fire up the Geodyne engines and we are off!