N27: The Legion of Space by Jack Williamson

Book Review!

N27: The Legion of Space by Jack Williamson

I once again found myself randomly picking a work an author recommended in “Appendix N” by Gary Gygax. This time I chose The Legion of Space, a science-fiction novel by Jack Williamson. My used paperback copy of the book included 189 pages - though someone ripped out half of two of the pages near the end for some reason - and copyright dates of 1935, 1947, 1967, and 1969. To my surprise, this work actually contained several elements that I felt resembled inspirations for Dungeons & Dragons.

The Good

*This book contains one of the best prologues of all time. In about 15 pages, a character in 1945 pulls off what I refer to as a “reverse Assassin’s Creed” type of scenario in which he tells his doctor that he, through temporal telepathy, knows the memories of his descendants going out at least 1,000 years into the future. The doctor explains that the man wrote out manuscripts about the lives of these people living in the future and the rest of the book gives the details of one of those characters. Amazing!

*The main character deals with an interesting moral struggle.

*Williamson quickly established a mystery with a beautiful woman guarding its secret.

*Part of the story almost feels like The Three Musketeers, with the protagonist allying with 3 more experienced military officers in a similar fashion to D’Artagnan joining with Athos, Porthos, and Aramis.

The Bad

*The title The Legion of Space, in my opinion, needs to change to The Space Legion; a shorter title that sounds more like the military organization it represents works better.

*The story contains several easy to predict occurrences.

D&D Connections & Inspirations

*The far region of space with Pluto as a dark planet and strange beings from space reminded me of D&D’s the Far Realms.

*The alien aggressors in the story include foot-long purple flying eyes with powers that stun, freeze, and kill people; these creatures clearly provide a template for D&D’s beholders, who also exist as aliens from the depths of space.

Overall

I found myself conflicted when rating this work because I wanted to read the book non-stop and yet I also felt the text contained too many predictable/cliche-seeming elements. For the enjoyment of reading I want to go ahead and place the book higher than I probably should, at an 8/10. Gary Gygax knew his sci-fi/fantasy authors well and I appreciated this recommendation.