Jack Williamson – Schlock Value

The Humanoids by Jack Williamson
Spectrum Literary Agency, 2011
Originally published by Simon and Schuster, 1949
Originally serialized in Astounding, March-May 1948
Price I paid: $5.99 (eBook)

Clay Forester is a scientist working in a weapons laboratory on a distant planet, when a vast army of robotic “humanoids” land and, as they have done on countless other worlds, take control of every aspect of human society. The official line is to “guard men from harm”, but in fact the humanoids deny any meaningful freedom to their human victims. Forester tries to fight back, with the help of a vagabond band of “psychophysical” adepts with amazing transphysical powers. Forester’s long fight against the strictures and despotic “protections” offered by the humanoids makes a fascinating tale, which Damon Knight called “without a doubt, one of the most important science-fantasy books of its decade.”
Author’s self-revealing Afterword, “Me And My Humanoids”, also included.

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The Legion of Space by Jack Williamson
Pocket Books, 1977 (Originally published 1947)
Price I paid: 75¢

They were the Legion, the small body of fighting men that had been chosen to defend the new democracy after the overthrow of the despotic interplanetary Empire.

Now, in the 30th century, an alien solar system is about to invade the human planets and the golden age ends abruptly in an outbreak of terror, suffering, and—worst of all—deadly treason that has allied itself with the dreaded monsters of Barnard’s Planet.

Sworn to protect mankind, John Star and his band of legionnaires must find AKKA, the mysterious weapon that guards the solar system, and rescue the beautiful young woman who keeps the weapon’s secret inscribed on her flesh. To succeed, they will have to brave the dangers of the sinister Medusa World, the black spider-ship, and the Belt of Peril where death and madness lurk.

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