Williamson began writing in Gernsback's Amazing and never looked back. He was much influenced by Abe Merritt, and managed to assimilate Merritt's sense of colour and movement without taking over the fairies as well. His output was fairly prolific, as outputs needed to be if one was to live by writing sf in a field where Amazing and Wonder were paying half a cent a word on publication. His greatest early success was with a serial in a 1934 Astounding, The Legion of Space, a Goshwow! epic which thundered along on the cloven heels of Doc Smith. But there are three later novels of Williamson's which have more to offer, and which—unlike some of the so-called "classics" of the field—have not been reprinted as often as they might be.

The Legion of Time was a serial in a 1938 Astounding. Its plot, while being philosophically meaningless, is a...