The Rambling Reviewer
The Legion Of Time, by Jack Williamson (Published with After World's End by
Jack Williamson in Magabook No. 2, Galaxy Publishing Co., 421 Hudson St., N.Y.,
N.Y., 50 cents.)
Magabook has resurrected two short novels from 1938 by Jack Williamson (the
first of which will be reviewed here) -- and the resurrection is, for this
reader, a welcome one. For here we have an exciting reading experience, quite
unlike anything you can find being written today, rare vintage writing which
has color, texture and sound to it, the words themselves weaving a tapestry of
wonder. The originality of The Legion Of Time is outstanding even now,
although numberless time travel stories have been written in the twenty-five
years since then; and if you've ever wondered about the qualities of time,
you'll find Williamson's concept an interesting one.
To understand his concept, start at the point of what has happened and call it
set reality; from that point radiates any number of possible future lines, any
number of possibilities -- one of which is a probability. At points along each
of the lines other lines of possibility radiate out -- and likewise along
these... to infinity. The thing which determines reality among all these
possibilities is an incomprehensible progression (although not really a
progresssion, for it is incomprehensible and can't be named) in the fifth
dimension.
The conflict of the story is between two possible time lines, each desiring
permanent existence whenever the fifth dimensional movement (or whatever it is)
creates reality down one of the possibility lines. One of these time lines has
the beautiful Lethonee and consists of the continual rise of the human race to
a glorious future of unimaginable heights; the other time line is dominated by
the evil -- yet just as beautiful -- warrior-maid, Sorainya, and her equally
cruel and tyrannical priests, a time line where all men are enslaved and kept
in servitude by Sorainya's mutational half-men, half-insect monstrosities, a
world line leading eventually to revolt and annihilation of the entire human
race. These two time lines can't affect each other because neither exist --
both are only possibilities; but men from behind the fringes of possibility,
men existing where the fifth dimensional something has brought about reality or
near-reality can contact any time line as long as its possibility isn't
nonexistent.
Then Wil McLan, a research mathematician, builds a device for looking into
possibility, and later, a machine for moving through it, and unwittingly tips
the scales from probability of Lethonee's world to that of nonexistence, and to
almost total probability for Sorainya's. It seems impossible that only a
handful of men brought back from the dead (they had to die before entering the
time ship or else disrupt the fabric of the universe) could save Lethonee's
world, especially when standing against them were Sorainya's monster hordes,
her own spellbinding beauty which none of them felt able to destroy, and the
inescapable fact that Lethonee's world no longer existed.
The framework I've outlined sounds melodramatic. It is. But the fascinating
detail of these other worlds, the colorful sweep of the story, the pulse-
pounding movement pick you up and overwhelmingly carry you along on an
unforgettable journey which ends far too soon. And the paradoxs which send
your mind reeling in bewildering circles is half the fun in Williamson's
extravaganza.
The Legion Of Time isn't great literature; it doesn't purport to be. But it IS
great entertainment. The characterization is meager; the heroes are all noble
and good; the villains are wholly wicked and black-hearted. But the story
leaves one with a sense of wonderment which is unforgettable, for Jack
Williamson has painted scenes of magic in these pages.
If realism is the only thing you can stand you won't like this story -- for it
is flamboyant improbabilia. But if your imagination is still alive, this
excursion by a truly imaginative mind is your passport to pure enjoyment.
Norman Masters
Escape Across The Cosmos, by Gardner Fox, 160 pp., Paperback Library, 50
cents.
Back in the '40's the name Gardner Fox appeared quite regularly on the contents
page of Planet Stories. Since then he has authored several historical novels
for Gold Medal, such as Madame Buccaneer, One Sword For Love, The Gentleman
Rogue, and Terror Over London. The latter novel is the only one I've read --
and it's a highly interesting treatment of Jack the Ripper.
Now Fox seems to be entering the science fiction field again with this Planet-
like novel, Escape Across The Cosmos. My feelings toward the story are mixed.
Short sections of it here and there evoked a certain amount of wonder -- but I
think it's largely because they trigger memories of other great stories which I
fondly recollect.
The image of the murdered genius, Hannes Stryker, who took Kael Carrick when he
was but pieces of flesh and broken bones and remade him into a new man, of
Hannes Stryker who'd discovered a gateway to a new universe, are one of the
portraits which brought -- well, I guess it's actually nostalgia, probably
drawing upon the wonder of those geniuses in Wilmar Shiras's great Children Of
The Atom and Isaac Asimov's Hari Seldon of the classic Foundation stories.
The picture of Dakkan Planet upon which Carrick was sentenced to die for the
murder of Stryker, the gradual unveiling of the superhuman powers Stryker had
put into Carrick when he'd remade him into a silicon superman were also
interest-arousing aspects of the story, as was the final battle with Ylth'yl,
an incomprehensible life force which eons before had nearly wiped out mankind,
had transposed itself to another universe (the one which Stryker had
discovered) for a new source of manlike creatures to sap life from, and which
now threatened mankind again.
But -- that's about it. These parts are but a very small portion of the whole
book, and none of them are fresh either. The rest of the book: space pirates
(echhk!), the outcast planet of wanted men and scum of the universe, and the
big-shot, luxuriously rich fellow who couldn't possess enough, so he had the
goose that laid the golden egg murdered to get the biggest golden egg of all.
It was really tough trying to figure out who really murdered Hannes Stryker.
And o yes -- the girl: strong-willed, individualistic and no man could touch
her if she didn't want him to -- except our hero, that is. She's a lapping
puppy dog when it comes to him.
The menace, Ylth'yl, resembles Khalk'ra in A. Merritt's exciting Dwellers In
The Mirage. But such a creature seems to be much more appropriate and
effective in a fantasy such as Merritt's. In addition, Merritt's prose and
imagination weave magic, as does Williamson's in masterpieces like The Legion
Of Time; Fox's doesn't.
You definitely ought to read the other four books mentioned in this review --
they're unforgettable; but the one on hand, although slightly entertaining
while being read -- is barely memorable.
Norman Masters
[pp. 14 - 18, THE NO EYED MONSTER #1, Winter 1964]
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