Legacy

James Schmitz's novel, about a young woman who finds herself as the center of interstellar intrigue, is very much a work of its times. The plot itself is a fairly typical adventure tale, with the best ideas squeezed in at the end. While the main character, Trigger Agee, is supposedly as strong and capable, the rape scene involving her and the primary male protagonist reveals the misogynistic beliefs that date the book so badly. Together it makes the book a dated and disappointing read, one that can be bypassed in favor of its many better counterparts in the genre.

This title is a little difficult to review. I found myself enjoying it, and then suddenly feeling it was tediuous, and then getting absorbed again. Firstly, the storytelling itself is quite go0d, and the female protagonist is very likeable. The original book, A Tale of Two Clocks, was written in 1962, and was reissued as Legacy in 1979. The story holds up quite well considering that it was written more than half a century ago. Of course, there are attitudes which reflect the time in which it was written, mainly sexist ones, which would not go down so well today. But that is part of the fascination with reading vintage novels. So although the main character is a strong-willed and independent girl, gender roles are very traditional. What show more I found a little irksome was that the plot moves along too slowly. I think there is a lot of dialogue in the book which could have been omitted or condensed to make the pacing more brisk. Also, although we are introduced to the Plasmoids which have been left over from a vanished ancient galactic civilization, no serious attempt is made to evoke a sense of wonder about what they are and what secrets they may conceal. In some ways Legacy reminded me of Charles Sheffield's Heritage Universe series, but Sheffield created that sense of wonder very successfully. Legacy was an interesting read, and there were some imaginative ideas and technologies described in it. It is however essentially a rather two-dimensional action novel which includes little of an introspective nature in its narrative. show less

A somewhat annoying story - lots of very sexist bits which are mildly useful in setting Trigger's attitudes towards those individuals - but that's about all. Other than that, neat story - a lot more about the Hub, in passing, and a fascinating adventure.

Fairly standard scifi work with two-dimensional characters. There were some interesting plot twists, and a strong female lead. Entertaining.

Another brilliant genre-bending SF; also maybe one of the first works of the bio-fi subgenre (cf. his Greenface in the 1940s).

Trigger Argee, a student is doing graduate work with the Pre-colonization team on a new planet. The hot news is that the Old Galactics, who seem to be gone, have left some semi-live biochemical processing units behind. The bad news is, everyone wants one!

Dnf. Couldn’t get into this.