Williamson, Jack. Legions of Space. 1934. Legions of Space No. 1. E-book ed., Gollancz, 2011.
In reviewing Jack Williamson’s Legions of Space, I cannot improve on Brian Aldiss’s snarky comment in The Trillion Year Spree: Williamson’s “greatest early success was with a serial in a 1934 Astounding, The Legion of Space, a Gosh-wow! epic that thundered along the cloven heels of Doc Smith.” Action trumps plausibility at every turn. But where would Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica be without such forebears? Gosh-wow! indeed. 3 stars. ( )

Not the most sophisticated or believable of Jack Williamson's novels. However it's an enjoyable example of pre-Golden Age space opera. Recommended for impressionable kids of all ages. ( )

Jack Williamson is one of the great Classic SF writers who formed the Golden Age of Science Fiction. He has been contributing good stories since the 1930s. He invented the terms "genetic engineering" and "terraforming" It's a surprise that he received no awards until the 1994.

World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement winner (1994)

Williamson, like all 1930s SF writers, began by writing space operas. His "Legion of Space" series is as fun and interesting as E. E. Doc Smith's Skylark series. They are great space adventures.

This is the first of the Legion books. It's style reflects the writing that was popular it the time. His world building is great and the story is interesting and exciting. The rest of the series is more serious and mature but this book is the place to start.

Is it great literature? No, it's fun and interesting ( )

This book makes my top 100 books of all time not so much because it's great literature, terrifically innovative, or even unique science fiction... but rather because I read it at a time in my life (as a youngster around the age of 9-10) and it absolutely hooked me on science fiction & fantasy stories. I've since reread it a number of times, and always manage to capture that feeling of amazement and wonder that the story engendered in me so many years ago. I handed my beatup old copy to my son a couple of years ago and told him to give it a try... he loved it as well. That's about as sound an endorsement for ANY story as one can imagine. ( )

Compré y leí esta novela porque el locutor y crítico de cine Carlos Pumares acostumbraba a señalar en su programa "Polvo de estrellas" que George Lucas había plagiado su argumento para la trilogía original de "Star Wars". Algo que todavía repite en su blog (http://blogs.hoycinema.com/pumares/post/2006/06/22/george-lucas-estafa-intolerable) y en el libro de entrevistas "Carlos Pumares: Un grito en la noche" de Iván Reguera y Juan José Aparicio (Ed. Club Universitario, 2007, pág. 41).

Veinte años después de leer la novela no recuerdo que la prometida afinidad con la saga galáctica me llamará especialmente la atención. Más bien al contrario: fue toda una decepción. No se puede considerar un enemigo digno a un ejército de medusas o babosas (o lo que fuera) cuando se tiene en mente a las aguerridas tropas de asalto lideradas por Darth Vader.

Los elementos del universo de Lucas que se presumen tomados de obras anteriores son tantos como las estrellas de la galaxia o los granos de arena del desierto de Tattooine (planeta que Frank Herbert consideró alguna vez como un plagio de su Arrakis). Así que prefiero quedarme con los reconocidos por el propio director: la saga de Flash Gordon del gran Alex Raymond y la película "La fortaleza escondida" de Akira Kurosawa. Ambos me dejaron mejor sabor de boca que "La legión del espacio" que, como novela, me pareció bastante floja.

Algún día tendré que probar a leer las obras de Leigh Brackett. Sus guiones para los western de Howard Hawks y "El imperio contraataca" prometen. ( )