The conflict ended two hundred years beforehand, with the abdication of the last Emperor.Īfter the death of a Legion member, Eric gloatingly spills the beans: he is a traitor hoping to reinstate the Empire. The backstory includes a war between a despotic imperial force, signified by the colour purple, and a revolt set up by democratically-inclined research scientists, who adopted the colour green and established the Legion’s headquarters, the Green Hall. Accompanying Star on the mission are Jay Kalam, Hal Samdu and Giles Habibula. This turns out to be a weapon, known as AKKA, which was invented by one of her ancestors. The stern Major Stell assigns Star with the task of protecting a girl named Aladoree Anthar, who holds a secret of vital importance. Legion membership runs in the Ulnar family: the Legion’s Commander is one Adam Ulnar, while John Star’s new commanding officer is Captain Eric Ulnar. Star/Ulnar is a new graduate of the Legion Academy, ready to begin his life as a full-fledged member of the Legion. The main character of this thirtieth-century story is John Ulnar he is referred to as John Star in the narrative, although as far as the actual plot is concerned he does not receive that title of distinction until later on. Closer to the present, however, John Delmar also foresaw his own death later in 1945 – and duly perished of influenza, leaving his written account of the future in the hands of Williamson’s narrator. During the course of all this, the family’s name changed from Delmar to Ulnar. Delmar’s visions include his son becoming the pilot of the first manned atomic reocket in 1956, and subsequent descendants taking part in the colonisation of the Moon, atomic wars in the 1990s, battles with Martians, and the eventual conquest of the entire solar system. The novel opens with a prologue set in 1945, where a character named John Delmar describes his premonitions of the far-flung future – a framing device recalling Olaf Stapledon’s work.

I’m basing this post on the 1947 version, which Williamson had clearly revised - as evidenced by a reference to Pearl Harbour near the start.

But what I’m interested in here is his early work: namely, The Legion of Space, which was serialised in Astounding Stories in 1934 before being collected as a novel in 1947. Williamson, who lived to be 98, had an impressive career as an author and was still having work published into the twenty-first century. The next name on my tour of pre-1950s space opera is Jack Williamson. “Doc” Smith, Philip Francis Nowlan, Ray Cummings, various short stories and John W.

The Legion of Space by Jack Williamson