Product Description
cclaimed novelist, editor, and critic Eric Miles Williamson, with the publication of his first book of nonfiction, establishes himself as one of the premier critics of his generation. There is no other book that resembles Oakland, Jack London, and Me.

The parallels between the lives of Jack London and Eric Miles Williamson are startling: Both grew up in the same waterfront ghetto of Oakland, California; neither knew who his father was; both had insane mothers; both did menial jobs as youths and young men; both spent time homeless; both made their treks to the Northlands; both became authors; and both cannot reconcile their attitudes toward the poor, what Jack London calls "the people of the abyss."

With this as a premise, Williamson examines not only the life and work of Jack London, but his own life and attitudes toward the poor, toward London, Oakland, culture and literature. A blend of autobiography, criticism, scholarship, and polemic, Oakland, Jack London, and Me is a book written not just for academics and students. Jack London remains one of the best-selling American authors in the world, and Williamson's Oakland, Jack London, and Me is as accessible as any of the works of London, his direct literary forbear and mentor. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A critical view.........
This book of critical essays is a lot better than any of the author's novels.Some of the essays offer genuine insight into literature, while others are a bit long and uninteresting.This is worth a passing look.

Williamson's London
A fine book of essays by a great fiction writer. Williamson shows you his London, and their Oakland. He writes, "And this is why Steinbeck and London are our two greatest writers: they don't write like Harold Brodkey, about some ninny New Yorker who cut his thumb and got sad when his wife didn't sympathize. They don't do the sappy Updike dance of suburban sentimentality. No they write about people at work, together with other people working, alone in the cosmos of their physical and spiritual labors," and if you've ever read any of Williamson's fiction, you'd know he writes for the worker too, which is much more interesting than rich slobs making up problems out of sheer ennui. If the trend were to read about the honest perception of the American working class, Williamson would be at the top of everyones reading list. Instead, he doesn't even make the cut. If you want honesty, and if you don't want to be jerked-off and pampered, read Williamson; he'll deliver it straight. He has a license to write about London that no one else has, and he uses that license to prove London's literary value. Williamson's London, rightfully so, deserves to be in the canon as much as or more than his contemporaries. If you havn't read London, or Williamson's fiction, you will after you read 'Oakland, Jack London, and Me.' 5/1/10 ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Depressing Space Story
The wealthy and beautiful Megan Drake brings together five talented men to make her dead twin's dream of space travel a reality. The plan is to sow the stars with a thousand seed ships which will breed human colonists if they can find a habitable planet. Each of the men brings his particular talent to build the ships, his DNA to contribute to the genetic database, and his unrequited love for Megan.

The story is told in a series of disorienting flashbacks from a distant future where a cyborg "Defender" from a seed ship stumbles upon a previously inhabited world. He relives his memories of being each of the men, hopelessly in love and pining for Megan - who died on Earth millennia ago.

Most of the story is from the cyborg's point of view, and the descriptions are choppy, vague and confusing. I am a sappy romantic, but even I found the pining for Megan miserably depressing and over the top. Let's face it, there are a lot of crummy sci-fi books out there. This one is not awful, but it's not that good, either. The best thing I can say is that it kept me interested enough to read to the end to find out what happens.

not a space opera subtle and introspective only
i must disagree with mr deubler
i found this book to be a subtle exploration of the a beings true self
is defender only the parts he was made to be or is he more
all the while showing both the parts he was made from(the flashbacks) and the realities of the entire race ( the new colonists and the new type defenders )
also i find the colonization concept interesting from the perspective of both von neumann machines and the game i enjoy space empires ( 4 and 5) by malfador machinations

Spreading Humanity's Seed: Stiff, Depressing, Little Insight
Williamson gives us an all-too-forgettable novel of humanity's attempt to spread its seed into the depths of outer space. A beautiful woman, driven by the dream of her deceased brother, launches a daring scientific project that will send hundreds of probes each carrying the essence of humankind out to the far reaches of the universe.To do so, she acquires the aid of a small handful of men, each of whom possess one of the requisite characteristics to ensure the race's survival.

The story switches back and forth between "real time" - a point in the far future where a probe is actually well on its way to its destination - and extensive flashback sequences, where we meet the men whose personalities were impressed onto the part-human/part-robotic astronauts.The flashback sequences interrupt the story more than they inform it, and are ultimately annoying; not only because they delay the progress of the action, but because the characters themselves are both unpleasant and uninteresting.Because of all these interruptions, the action has very little flow to it.Even apart from that, the story being told is too episodic to hold together well, and neither the Defender nor his progenitors are engaging enough that we ever really care about the outcome.The few developed characters are so stiff and wooden that the novel reads like it was written in the 50's rather than the 80's.Okay, so humanity is fallible, already.This book provides no new insights, and seems pointlessly depressing.

Can man plan beyond his own lifetime?
A great book to show that man can plan to keep the race going.A fantastic story of the future of man while showing the limitations. ... Read more

Product Description
Jack Williamson, Science Fiction Writers of America Grand Master, takes readers to the near future, where humankind's Project Starseed uses faster-than-light quantum-wave technology to send colonists to distant star systems.Amazon.com Review
At 89 years of age, the "Dean of Modern Science Fiction" mustknow something the rest of us don't, because he's still writingwonderful books. This time Jack Williamson turns his talents to ProjectStarseed, humanity's ambitious attempt to populate the universe bysending out 99 "wavecraft," faster-than-light ships that provide aone-way ride to the first star they encounter . . . sometimes. Luck iswith the crew of ship 99, for their craft comes out of its waveform asplanned, but the star they've found is dead, and the planet below themhas been lifeless for 1 billion years. Until now. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (17)

Solid traditional tale of extraterrestrial exploration
The Black Sun is a solid, traditional SF story about a large team of astronauts/colonists who go on a one-way trip to a mysterious alien planet.The plot is good, and Williamson's characters are well-drawn enough that you care whether they fail or succeed.You'd probably call this "hard" SF, but it has some pretty effective Lovecraftian elements.Definitively worth a read.

Hard Science Fiction...If it were the Dawn of the Pulp Science Fiction Age
I will be honest up front...I did not finish this book; I have a rule that allows me to read more good books - if, by page 50, a book hasn't sucked me in or it is just plain bad, I put it down and move on. I gave The Black Sun one star because by page 50 I was thoroughly bored AND for something published in 1997 as new, it sure read like a book from the heyday of pulp Sci Fi - both in prose and believability of the science and plot.

Essentially, on a ravaged Earth, the Starseed missions are meant to populate the stars with humanity giving it a second chance from Global Warming, etc. (some things like Global Warming seem inserted into a book written a long time ago to make the book seem fresh - which it fails to do). And, on the opposite side of the spectrum the Fairshare group opposes these missions on the grounds that man will corrupt the galaxy - essentially the banner of Alien Rights.

The Starseed ships are 1930s style bullet rockets that use the "quantum wave" catch phrase to get them to their destination faster than light. Bullet shaped ships launching for the stars from terra firma?? And this wasn't written in 1930-something? Oh, and the whole mission, even with protestors hanging out around the facility every day, has such bad security that Fairshare can 1) convince a star-struck youth to get on the grounds and stowaway in the final launching ship; and 2) can get (in the span of two pages) an illiterate capable enough to get an inspection job on the ships before launching so he can sabotage the missions.

The setup to the story is thin and flimsy; the characters are so one-dimensional and under-developed that to call them cardboard cutouts would be giving them more depth than they deserve. I have a theory about this book: it is the first draft of what became Williamson's book Manseed (which was originally published about 25 or more years ago), but was rejected and Williamson went back to the drawing board and recreated it into Manseed; and, then a few years ago, it was dusted off and made into this book.

>>>>>>><<<<<<<

A Guide to my Book Rating System:

1 star = The wood pulp would have been better utilized as toilet paper.
2 stars = Don't bother, clean your bathroom instead.
3 stars = Wasn't a waste of time, but it was time wasted.
4 stars = Good book, but not life altering.
5 stars = This book changed my world in at least some small way.

A bad book
Given what I'd hear about this Williamson character, I had fairly high hopes as I began reading this book - hopes that were dashed within the first chapter.

The characters are so ill-conceived, I was surprised to learn that the author, Williamson, was an aged (learned, even?) college professor.Across the board, the characters are so wooden and 1-dimensional (not even 2-dimensional!), I half expected the author to be a 16 year old kid.It's as if Williamson, before writing out this...book...sketched a little phrase-bank for each character, and then drew from that whenever it was a character's turn to say something.Mondragon: "Quien sabe?"Rima: "I don't trust him."Daby: "Me Me [stuffed animal] needs me!"

These characters (caricatures, more accurately) don't even act like humans.The act like plot devices.It's downright insulting.

To make matters worse, there must be at least 5 shrugs in each inane exchange between the doofuses populating this black hole of a book.I don't know if I've shrugged three times in the last 6 months; Williamson has someone shrugging every other dang page.Maybe that's the only way people communicate non-verbally where he comes from, but I doubt it.

Black Sun is the worst science fiction book I've read, and the 2nd worst book I've read in years.Don't try it for yourself.I would give negative-stars if that were possible.Alas, 1 is the least I can give.

Unbelievable premise followed by a pretty boring story
I found this book in my closet when I didn't have anything else to read at the moment.I should have left it there.It looks like an interesting story of interstellar colonization and adventure on a new world.However, it fails pretty miserably for several reasons.

First, the idea that people are going to sign up in droves to get on these seed ships that "may" take them somewhere if they're very lucky just wasn't at all believable.Then, if you try to look past that, the author makes it impossible by making the characters seem as if they didn't know what they were getting into.Then, once they got there, the story focuses on silly conflicts between the colonists and a vague alien presence on the world that is never explained very well.This story just never went anywhere.The most interesting part was a dream about the aliens that gave us the most background about them, but it wasn't enough.There was not enough attention paid to details, or enough tension in the plot to make the story at all worthwhile.The characters also weren't anyone you could get very interested in.They were poorly developed and their interactions didn't seem at all realistic.

I wouldn't recommend this book, and unless I see something that looks really good, I'll probably avoid anything by Williamson in the future.

Good but not great.
This book falls just shy of being a solid piece of sci-fi.I was capturedby the beauty of the descriptions while the characters were on Earth, inthe stars, and on the new planet.The story moved along very nicely withintrigue and faux-science throughout the book, until the end came in sight. The desperate situations and the human strength to overcome them areprevelant throughout this novel (really could you survive on this frozenplanet?).What I found to be the slowing point is the unending descriptionof the day to day mundane chores and and slow travel across what isdescribed as a gray lightless surface as the characters were coming to theending of the story.That coupled with the idea that when given theability to leave again, they chose to stay.I would have given 4-5 starsand put it on the shelf to read again down the road had it not been for theboredome suffered by both the characters near the end and finally the"everythings happy" ending.I would, however, read a sequal tothis book in hope that it would redeem and previous titles ending. ... Read more

Product Description
Chapters: People From Portales, New Mexico, Jack Williamson, Ronny Cox, Ed Foreman, Addie Peed Swearingen, Ned Sublette, Cody Ross, Michael Blake, Danny Leary. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 40. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt:Addie Peed Swearingen Addie Peed Swearingen (May 25, 1904 June 18, 2008) was a former beautician who became a philanthropist to Eastern New Mexico University in Portales , New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell and Lubbock Christian University in Lubbock, Texas . Swearingen and her husband, William "Hub" Swearingen (died 1975), became wealthy through purchasing land and mineral rights, mostly in Eddy County in eastern New Mexico . When petroleum and natural gas deposits were discovered on Swearingen lands, the income produced enabled Swearingen to become a benefactor of various causes. Swearingen was born in Leon County near Centerville in East Texas to John Oscar Peed (1883-1965) and the former Mary Lee Rodgers (1885-1980). The Peeds settled in the town of Elida in Roosevelt County , where Addie attended several rural schools and completed high school . She attended beauty school in Roswell and worked for twenty-eight years as a beautician in Santa Fe , thirteen of those years at the La Fonda Hotel. She returned to Elida in 1960 and lived with her mother until the family ranch was sold in 1979. She then settled in nearby Portales, the seat of Roosevelt County. Swearingen endowed scholarships to support students at Eastern New Mexico University in the fields of nursing , the fine arts , accounting , and other academic programs. She donated funds for the ENMU pipe organ and displayed her own art collection there, including paintings by Peter Hurd . In 1983, she received the ENMU Alumni Association's Distinguished Service Award. She was again recognized as the ENMU Foundation's Philanthropi... ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Brought back memories...
I first read this book about thirty years ago when I bought the "special" Doubleday Book Club edition.Over the years, I lost it.My brother and I were discussing books we'd read as kids that we enjoyed, and I remembered this one.I had to order it ;)

It's probably not a book that today's science fiction readers would enjoy.It's more of a space opera, with completely fantastic worlds and situations that will never come to be.It is not supposed to be reality; therein lies the meaning of "fiction".It's a means of escape, and I enjoyed it as much as a mature adult as I did as a young man.

Outstanding -- but with a caveat this time
One of the best things science fiction can offer is a fresh analysis of what it means to be human.This books delivers on that analysis -- in spades.Ordinarily, a review shouldn't provide a synopsis, but since one is not provided by Amazon.com, I'll provide a brief one.

The setting is Earth, one thousand years in the future.The world is populated by humans ("premen"), genetically perfected humans ("trumen"), genetically modified soldiers ("mumen") and gods, who are part human, part celestial matter.Many centuries prior, premen had created these other beings, who have now nearly displaced the premen.By order of Earth's god, they are to be relocated to a distant and inhospitable world.Two premen children, a boy and a girl, struggle against their deportation and discover that they may have the key to fighting against the gods, if only they have enough time.

This book is more than just action and kaleidoscopic settings.It's about what it means to be human, what rewards and suffering struggle brings, and about friendship, loyalty and hope.Think of it as s.f.'s equivalent to "The Shawshank Redemption."

2008 CAVEAT TO MY 2000 REVIEW.Over the years as I've reflected on this book I've come to realize its moral failure, which is a big one.SPOILER ALERT.The evil gods are overcome at the end by the Ultiman, the ultimate man, a God-like figure that supposedly combines the best of humanity with God-like powers.However, the Ultiman was created by flawed humans, the same people who created the evil gods in the first place.How long before the Ultiman stops defending humanity and begins to tyrannize the multiverse, just like his predecessor gods?(Varley's "Titan" series brings this problem out in bold relief.)We've heard of the banality of evil, but it seems there's a corollary of the banality of evil of absolute power.

Confusing, stiffly written, and decidedly unpleasant
Brother to Demons Brother to Gods is a sci-fi/fantasy about a frightening future where human cloning and genetic modification have resulted in a reality populated by four phases of creation: Premen, Trumen, Mumen, and Gods.And maybe some things called Demons.Plus a legend about a creation called the Multiman, or possibly Ultiman.Confusing?You bet, not to mention stiff and unpleasant.The so-called Gods have little use for humanity as we understand it, and are wholly self-centered and contemptible, cartoon-ish, really.If Williamson's point is that genetic manipulation is just a bad idea, he's made it, but he's written a very distasteful book in the process.The choice of suffering children as protagonists is just one of Williamson's bad artistic decisions.Not recommended.

Outstanding -- but with a caveat this time
One of the best things science fiction can offer is a fresh analysis of what it means to be human.This books delivers on that analysis -- in spades.Ordinarily, a review shouldn't provide a synopsis, but since one is not provided by Amazon.com, I'll provide a brief one.

The setting is Earth, one thousand years in the future.The world is populated by humans ("premen"), genetically perfected humans ("trumen"), genetically modified soldiers ("mumen") and gods, who are part human, part celestial matter.Many centuries prior, premen had created these other beings, who have now nearly displaced the premen.By order of Earth's god, they are to be relocated to a distant and inhospitable world.Two premen children, a boy and a girl, struggle against their deportation and discover that they may have the key to fighting against the gods, if only they have enough time.

This book is more than just action and kaleidoscopic settings.It's about what it means to be human, what rewards and suffering struggle brings, and about friendship, loyalty and hope.Think of it as s.f.'s equivalent to "The Shawshank Redemption."

2007 CAVEAT TO MY 2000 REVIEW.Over the years as I've reflected on this book I've come to realize its moral failure, which is a big one.SPOILER ALERT.The gods are overcome by the Ultiman, the ultimate man, a God-like figure that supposedly combines the best of humanity with God-like powers.However, the Ultiman was created by flawed humans, the same people who created the gods.How long before the Ultiman stops defending humanity and begins to tyrannize the multiverse, just like his predecessor gods?

A masterpiece by one of the original masters
I have read this book many times, and have come away amazed each time.One of the things I enjoy most about science fiction is the quality of the ideas it explores, and Williamson's are not only outstanding but bountiful.A lot of casual asides and brief exchanges between characters are rich with ideas that could easily require the length of a book to explore.As one would expect from an author who has been writing and winning awards for as long as he has, the plot, characterizations, style, etc. are all first-rate.Find this book and you will be delighted. ... Read more

Product Description
Contains the following stories: The Destruction of Amul, Beyond Infinity, Denizens of Zeron, Infra-Universe Part 2, Linked Worlds, Luminous Mine, Metamorphosis, SOS In Space, The Blue Spot ... Read more

Product Description
As the devils of the Demon Moon threaten to invade Wolver Riding, and a ravishing temptress seeks his doom, Zorn must solve the mysteries of his homeland, which his family has defended from various beasts for generations. Reprint. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

This is a very well written fantasy/sci-fi novel.
DEMON MOON is a fascinating story enriched with a twist of fantasy and science fiction.I was not able to put it down and truly enjoyed it.The story is brilliant and you come to care for the characters.It will captivate you and make you want to read it over and over!Don't miss this one! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Reluctant
This was a cheap reproduction of the original "The Humanoids" plot that did not make sense.The original was much better--don't waste your money on this one.

An Excellent Sequel To A Sci-Fi Classic
In Jack Williamson's classic short story "With Folded Hands" (1947), the inventor of the Humanoids--sleek black robots whose credo is "To Serve And Obey, And Guard Men From Harm," even if that means stifling mankind's freedoms--makes an unsuccessful attempt to destroy the computer plexus on planet Wing IV that is keeping the many millions of units functioning. In the author's classic sequel, the novel "The Humanoids" (1949), another unsuccessful stab is made, 90 years later, by a "rhodomagnetics" engineer and a small group of ESP-wielding misfits, to stop the Humanoids (which now number in the billions) and their campaign of relentless and smothering benevolence. And in Williamson's much belated follow-up, 1980's "The Humanoid Touch," we flash forward a good 1,000 years or so, to find yet another group making the attempt in what is now a galaxy with trillions of Humanoid units. In fact, the only place where the robots have NOT penetrated seems to be the sister planets of Kai and Malili, orbiting a binary star. On Kai, young Keth Kyrone dreams of one day joining his father's Lifecrew, a small group that is vainly trying to warn the planet's population of the Humanoids' imminent arrival and build some sort of protective weapon against the scourge. Kai is not the easiest of planets for its human settlers, who migrated there a millennium before to escape the ever-advancing robot servants. With its rapidly alternating summers and winters, migrations are frequent and dwellings must be built largely underground. But still, the planet is an Eden compared to Malili, where "bloodrot" spores will kill any man in a matter of hours, and where the folks of Kai can only live in the sterilized safety of The Zone. But how to explain the natives of Malili, naked "savages" who seem to do just fine there? And what is the secret of the feyolin drug that these indigenous folk extract from the local "braintrees"? It is against this fully realized backdrop that Williamson sets his action-filled plot, and brings his Humanoids to once again "give service."

Wisely, however, the author does not allow the robots to make an appearance until the book is halfway done, generating real suspense, and their initial appearance is shocking in the extreme. The Humanoids have, in the current novel, perfected their ability to make replicants of any human being, so that the reader is left uncertain just who is real and who might be a mechanized enemy. And it's not just the Humanoids who have perfected their arts over the years. Williamson's writing has improved as well (although some of the landscape descriptions of Kai and Malili are a bit fuzzy, almost Impressionistic, making the reader really use his/her imagination at times), and the looser mores of the '80s (as compared to the '40s) enable him to indulge in some mild sex scenes and to use some language unthinkable in the earlier pulps. Thus, the reference to "ferticloset sh_tbricks" (not a bad name for a rock band, come to think of it!) and, perhaps more shocking, to a woman's "pubes." The subject of drugs is raised with the depictions of feyolin, which Keth samples in an early scene; the drug seems more than anything like LSD, with its hallucinatory effects and time/space distortions. Still, despite the new looseness, this is some very serious science fiction here that asks some tough questions. Left with another ambiguously happy ending, the reader must ponder if happiness is worth the loss of freedom, and whether a drugged, artificial bliss is better or worse than a life of unaided struggle. In a telling argument close to the book's end, one of the Humanoids mentions that democracies are suicidal, with their "excessive developments of high technology and aggressive individualism that lead inevitably to racial annihilation," and most in need of their controlling services. Some serious food for thought, to be sure. "The Humanoid Touch," filled with interesting characters, unusual backdrops, some tense and exciting action scenes and unrestrained imagination, is a marvelous sequel; not as original or compact as its predecessors, perhaps, but still well worth any sci-fi fan's attention. Most readers, I have a feeling, will be left wishing that author Williamson had given us just one more book about those too helpful, self-replicating creations from planet Wing IV....

Slightly Untouched
Jack Williamson deserves to be remembered among the all-time science fiction greats.With The Humanoid Touch, he revives the humanoids - robots whose Prime Directive is to protect Man from harm.The Humanoids debuted in "With Folded Hands" in the late 1940s (which I've read) and in the novel The Humanoids (which I've not).In The Humanoid Touch, a last bastion of humanity tries to hide from or fight against the inevitable humanoid advance.

Williamson's humanoids are provocative in every sense.What happens when robots become too perfect, no matter how "benevolent" their intentions?There is a latent horror throughout the book as the characters realize the humanoids are near.Williamson succeeds in creating the aura of fear that Saberhagen hints at with his Berserkers, or Star Trek with the Borg.Williamson's humanoids, however, are far more terrifying than either - who would have thought the words "At your service" could induce such spine-tingling horror?

The human characters more or less get in the way of the true protagonists, and here is where Williamson's skills perhaps aren't quite up to snuff.The interaction and personal relationships between characters is not much more advanced than in his 1930s pulp sci-fi Legion series (a nevertheless fine read).And the ending doesn't sit right; it's on the one hand too pat, and on the other too troubling - I can't say more without divulging spoilers.

All in all, however, this one ranks as a must read by all science fiction fans.The humanoids are among sci-fi's greatest creations, easily the equal of Dune's Fremen or Asimov's psychohistory.If you thought the Borg were creepy, you haven't seen anything until you've seen the humanoids.

One of the gratest coming of age stories every written
Believe it or not this is one of the best coming of age stories ever written. In the tradition of studs lonigan or a midnite glear It truly is a powerhouse. Young Keth Korone passes through the threshold from boyhood to manhood set to a borg like invading army of benevolent robots. This is the only book I have read three times. Though I can not tell you who I am this work has had an amazing impact on my work

worth reading
this is a great book.For anyone that likes science fiction this is worth the read.It even has a happy ending, well sort of ... Read more

Product Description
Two complete novelsMegabook ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Good Old-Fashioned SF Enjoyment!
The late Jack Williamson was a stable factor in the field of science fiction for over 75 years.He could do very little wrong, and did most things very well.Good reading here, and recommended for sf collectors.This was the final Galaxy SF Magabook, a successor to Galaxy Science Fiction Novels, and created by Frederik Pohl.It is not readily available, and you may have to pay a bit more to get a copy. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Thrilling Generation After Generation For 75 Years Now
"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....

Super Reader
Shakespearean space musketeers.


Or, Porthos = Falstaff?

Anyway, a newly minted Legion of Space officer is sent to a planetary outpost where he finds that elder members of his wealth family support a return to monarchy over democratic science.

They plan to do this with the help of an alien invasion, and all that stands between them is John Star, your space princess in control of a super weapon, and her loyal trio of guards from the Legion.

Cue exciting adventure of monsters, gliders, aliens, gas, tunnels, superweapons, and the bemoaning of a lack of grog.

Pretty entertaining.

Dated, but a page-turner
You've got to love a sci-fi novel that predicts that seven centuries from now, ALBUQUERQUE will be the capitol of the entire solar system.
Seriously.
That's due, certainly in part, to the book's author having lived and taught for years in Portales, New Mexico, and I suppose the idea of Albuquerque (Population: Really Not That Many) as the big city to beat must have worked its way into his thoughts and his work.
The story tells of a crew of Musketeer-like space soldiers travelling across the solar system to rescue a girl from evil, jellyfish-like aliens bent on taking over the solar system, because the girl knows how to build a powerful weapon that can save the fate of everyone.The story frequently defies logic, but is almost always fun--particularly the character of Giles Habibula, who, when locked in a cell for a few hours, just can't believe he wasn't in there for weeks and weeks, he's so hungry.
My favorite part was when they disentegrated the moon, and it was all okay because the aliens were on it.No big deal!It was just the moon!Nothing important!It only influences Earth's tides and gravity, that's all.Good thing no one was hurt!Whew.
The story has great (although extremely 1930s-pulp) characters, and was good enough that I bought its three sequels after reading it.

Good Old Fashioned Space Opera
Jack Williamson is one of the most noted Grand Masters of Science Fiction.This is one of his earlier works, and has the unmistakeable feel of the era (Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers).It is very dated, but still a 'ripping good' read.
This book introduces one of my favorite characters in all Sci-fi: Gile Habibula - who is loosely based on Falstaff (according the JW himself).
Sit back with this book, and enjoy as the Legion legens (John Ulnar, Hal Samdu, and Giles) - fight the evil members of the reactionairy Purple Hall.

When to be alien was to be evil
It is always interesting to read science-fiction written before Childhood's End and Stranger in a Strange Land, back when anything that wasn't human was necessarily evil and bent on humanity's destruction.Most of today's sci-fi's writers go to great lengths to create and explain alien civilizations; not so in The Legion of Space.The aliens are ugly and they want to kill us.Period.

"A reader" has already accurately summed up the novel.I will add only that The Legion of Space is an interesting read for its gender portrayals.As one would expect from the 1930s, the male characters are all obsessed with how fragile and vulnerable the heroine is; they must do whatever they can to protect her and shelter her and the thought of her in danger or even uncomfortable fills them with chauvinistic horror.Williamson allows the men to carry on this way throughout the book, all the while giving us a woman character who needs no protection whatsoever and saves the day herself.No weeping in hysterics for this heroine; Leia-like she leads the escape from the alien fortress while the men hesitate.She and she alone has the secret to the weapon of ultimate destruction, and she unhesitatingly builds it and deploys it.Not bad for 1936, eh? ... Read more

Product Description
From the early days of Pulp Science Fiction comes this tale from an SF Grand Master. George Cleland, while returning home on a small passenger plane with three other passengers, flew into a purple cloud that suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Passing through the cloud they plummet into the black mountains under a blood red sky. The purple cloud is a gateway into the fourth dimension that takes them to a weird and inhospitable world. George and his new friend and love interest, Juanita, have to survive on this strange world while encountering blood-red rain and a mad man!

Product Description
This title has fewer than 24 printed text pages. Salvage in Space is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Jack Williamson is in the English language. If you enjoy the works of Jack Williamson then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Pristine condition vintage Pohl paperback
This arrive in pristine condition.Its yellowed from age, but all pulp novels are.To bad it wasn't printed on archival paper, because it is a classic.One of my favorites of the era.

Am I the Junk Man?
The Reefs of Space, by Frederick Pohl and Jack Williamson, is the first short novel of the Starchild Trilogy (which includes Starchild and Rogue Star).The novel follows the brilliant (and amnesia induced) scientist Steve Ryeland and his human "computational" companion Oporto through the a future Earth dominated by the Plan of Man Computer.i.e. everyone gets a little strip of paper whenever their next to a console telling them what to do.Think 1984-esque dystopia with a computer Big Brother.Well, Steve's job is to create a "jetless" drive.Also, Steve's a Risk (and has a bomb collar around his neck for doing something against the Plan of Man in the past) and he wants it off.Some reefs, whose the junkman questions, spacelings, and a drug pumpin' version of heaven, all make this a enjoyable read.

This future Earth flies by so fast with the quick prose/action/dialogue that the reader has little time to think about anything else.Is that good?If you want a enjoyable few hours, then yes.Is there anything more than a good yarn, probably not.Great fun!

The Gospel According to Hoyle
I am going to open this review by posing a problem. In _The Reefs of Space_ (1963), the reefs are a series of islands of "space coral." The novel makes it clear that they were originally formed by a stream of "steady-state" hydrogen and helium atoms-- a clear referece to the steady-state hypothesis of the astronomer Fred Hoyle. Now neither Fred Pohl nor Jack Williamson could be fairly described as a scientific ignoramus. By the time that this novel was published, they were surely aware that the steady-state hypothesis-- which suggested that the universe had been created by atoms streaming out of a vacuum-- had been superceeded by the big bang theory. So why did they stick to an out of date scientific idea?

The answer lies in the history of how the book was written. In his autobiography, _Wonder's Child_ (1984), Jack Williamson says that he actually began to work on the novel in the late 1950s. He was inspired in part by the social ideas of Walter Prescott Webb and the astronomy of Fred Hoyle:

Webb saw all our precious freedom in danger now with the closing of the Earth's frontiers. The reefs of space, formed between the stars by the steady creation of new matter as the universe expands, could open new frontiers, rich with limitless freedom. (212)

In other words, Hoyle's theory formed the basis for a symbol. It represents a dynamic (if somewhat dangerous), organic, new frontier of freedom, formed by the perpetual wellsprings of life. In opposition to the reefs is the mechanistic, tyrranical, conformist, and brutal government of the solar system-- the Plan of Man. The Plan of Man is co-governed by a dictator (called the Planner) and a super computer (called the Planning Machine).

The hero is Steve Ryeland, once a top government scientist. Now, he has been arbitrarily declared a Risk by the Planning Machine. He wears an iron collar filled with high explosives that can be detonated at any time by security guards. He must report his presence from stop to stop in a computer terminal wherever he goes. He has gaps in his memory. But a chance meeting with Donna Creery, the Planner's daughter, changes his position-- though not his basic condition.

Williamson states that he had a 400 page draft to the novel that had gotten out of control. He and Pohl redrafted it, and Pohl wrote the final draft. It was serialized in _If_, begining in the July, 1963 issue, on sale in May. It had striking and dramatic illustrations by Ed Emshwiller. Kennedy was President. In many of his speeches, he had talked about a New Frontier. The final installment was in the November issue, on sale in October. During that month, Kennedy was assasinated. While Americans certainly did not use these words, they surely felt that they had moved a bit away from the New Frontier and a little closer to the Plan of Man.

Great Concepts

I just finished the last book of the STARCHILD TRILOGY by Pohl and Williamson last week. I thought the first book REEFS OF SPACE was the best.

Some of the things I liked about REEFS OF SPACE:

The Plan Of Man - A super-computer which runs all human affairs. Citizens must constantly check-in at computer terminals for orders ie. before beginning work, after completing each task, before leaving a room, after entering a room etc.

Risks - People who have performed badly, underachieved, or been caught performing unplanned actions or having unplanned thoughts.

The Collar - An explosive collar worn by the Risks which can be detonated at anytime The Plan Of Man sees fit. It also explodes automatically if tampered with.

The Body Bank - If a Risk continues to screw up or underachieve there is still one way he can contribute to society by providing body parts for transplanting onto or into those citizens who need them in order to remain useful to society.

The JunkMan - A man built by using body parts and made to look exactly like one of the donors at The Body Bank in order to take his place so that this donor could escape, the only person ever to do so.

There was some cool scientific stuff too; jetless drive, Hoyle theory, simbiotic relationships. But all that mumbo-jumbo means little to me. Just call me Olaf Simpleton because it was the simpler concepts which I found entertaining and interesting.

One thing left me cold....At one point in the story someone says that they've known several people who were sent to The Body Bank, but they've never known anyone to recieve a body part from there. Nothing else was ever mentioned about that. ... Read more