Williamson also coins a new word in his tale, with most unfortunate results. The novel has been written by Williamson in the best of pulp styles, although some instances of fuzzy writing do crop up (when the author writes of "Andromeda," for instance, we don't know if he's referring to the constellation or the galaxy), as well as inconsistencies (a mysterious object that enters our solar system is said to weigh 10 million tons 70 pages later, it is said to weigh 20 million tons). The novel provides us with much of Habibula's criminal background history, only teasingly referred to in previous installments, as well as a meatier role for Samdu, who had been reduced to pretty much a lumbering cipher in "The Cometeers." In one early scene, Samdu tells the perpetually whining Giles to "shut up" a long overdue statement, most readers will feel, despite Giles' innate lovability. Chan Derron, a Legionnaire who had been arrested and jailed in the mistaken belief that he is the archcriminal, and who now, an escaped convict, must try to clear his name by tracking down the real madman. And taking up the brunt of the action mantle this go-round is Capt.
Much of the action takes place on the New Moon (readers may recall that our old satellite had been destroyed by Aladoree Anthar during the war with the Medusae), an artificial orbiting world that is part casino, part pleasure resort. The story takes the form of a classic mystery, as no one knows just who the mysterious Basilisk really is, and there are many prime suspects.
Whereas in book 1, "The Legion of Space," the Legionnaires had defended our solar system from the jellyfishlike Medusae invaders, and in book 2, "The Cometeers," from the threat of a 12,000,000-mile-long comet, here, the threat to mankind is of a more human nature: the Basilisk, a criminal whose theft of a secret weapon enables him to accomplish seemingly miraculous feats of teleportation (across billions of miles!) and eavesdropping. The third installment of Jack Williamson's Legion of Space tetralogy, "One Against the Legion," initially appeared in the April, May and June 1939 issues of "Astounding Science-Fiction." A short, colorful and fast-moving novel, it reacquaints us with the Legionnaires Jay Kalam, Hal Samdu and Giles Habibula John Star and his extended family only make cameo appearances in this one.
0 kommentar(er)
