Young Legionary

Last Legionary #5

by Douglas Arthur Hill

Keill Randor, at the plateau of years between childhood and manhood, faces the Ordeal. As a symbol of the hardships and struggles to come in the years ahead, the Ordeal requires him to travel, unarmed and unequipped, through som eof the roughest terrain on the harsh planet of Moros. He has to pass this test to enter advanced training with the Young Legionaries.

Keill has been told that, during the two-day Ordeal, he will face the most deadly danger known to Legionaries - but what form it will take he cannot guess. Throughout the trek, Keill encounters vicious, merciless creatures of that wild region, But he learns - through the Ordeal and his subsequent training as a Young Legionary - that deadly dangers can come from within himself as from without.

Genres: Science Fiction, Young Adult, Fiction, Childrens

128 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 11, 1982

About the author

Douglas Arthur Hill (6 April 1935 – 21 June 2007) was a Canadian science fiction author, editor and reviewer. He was born in Brandon, Manitoba, the son of a railroad engineer, and was raised in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. An avid science fiction reader from an early age, he studied English at the University of Saskatchewan (where he earned an Honours B.A. in 1957) and at the University of Toronto. He married fellow writer and U. of S. alumna Gail Robinson in 1958; they moved to Britain in 1959, where he worked as a freelance writer and editor for Aldus Books. In 1967–1968 he served as Assistant Editor of the controversial New Worlds science fiction magazine under Michael Moorcock.

A lifetime leftist, he served from 1971 to 1984 as the Literary Editor of the socialist weekly Tribune (a position once held by George Orwell), where he regularly reviewed science fiction despite the continued refusal of the literary world to take it seriously. Before starting to write fiction in 1978, he wrote many books on history, science and folklore. Using the pseudonym Martin Hillman, he also worked as an editor of several anthologies, among them Window on the Future (1966), The Shape of Sex to Come (1978), Out of Time (1984), and Hidden Turnings (1988). He is probably best known for The Last Legionary quartet of novels, supposedly produced as the result of a challenge by a publisher to Hill's complaints about the lack of good science fiction for younger readers.

Hill and his wife had one child, a son. They were divorced in 1978. He lived in Wood Green, London, and died in London after being struck by a bus at a zebra crossing. His death occurred one day after he completed his last trilogy, Demon Stalkers.

Reviews

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book in my early teens, and somehow remembered it every time I came across anything that sparked my interest in sci-fi, however I could never remember the title, or character names well enough to find it. What I could remember, were bits and pieces of the story that I have been repeatedly describing to people or googling to try and find this story again. Needless to say, the story was memorable! Now that I've found it, I discover it was actually a prequel. To those of you who have read the series, is it worth reading now that I'm not technically a young adult?

[Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite series as a young adult, and rereading it, I love it just as much. This prequel is a set of stories showing how Keill Randor grows up to be the man he is in the Last Legionary quartet... a man guided by self-control and determination to do his part.

[Derelict Space Sheep · Rating 4 out of 5]

Serving as a prequel to Hill’s Last Legionary quartet, this fix-up novel follows a young Keill Randor (aged 12, 14, 16 & 18) through four challenges on his way to becoming a Legionary of Moros. Easy SF action escapism for middle-grade readers.

[Jacey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm trying to get round to a number of books that have been sitting on my bookshelf for years making me feel guilty. This is one such. I read one or two of Hill's Last Legionary Quartet many years ago and enjoyed them. This is a 1982 prequel collection of stories about the training of the legionary who was to become the last of his kind, published by Piccolo, a junior imprint of Gollancz..

There are four stories, each taking a snapshot of Keill Randor's life, one age 12 as he takes the dangerous right-of-passage test that shunts him into the Young Legionary Programme. The second is Keill at the age of 14 trapped with his fellow trainees in a dangerous desert situation with deadly spine-eels swarming. The third is Keill aged 16, assigned to give a trio of potentially hostile customers a tour of the Legion's mercenary facility, and dealing with things when the situation goes pear-shaped. And lastly there's Keill aged 18, facing his last test before being assigned to adult responsibilities as a full legionary.

The stories are slight and as a prequel you know that Keill is going to survive whatever the book throws at him (always the problem with prequels) and you know that all the other characters are eventually going to be killed off between the end of this book and the beginning of Galactic Warlord, the first of the Last Legionary books, so it's difficult to get invested in characters such as Oni, Keill's longtime (girl) friend, though she's well written.

If anything Keill and Oni are a little too perfect and competent, but each story develops the characters a little further. I found this fairly bland by today's standards and probably for completists only, though as the intended audience is a young readership (and bearing in mind the time it was written) it stands up quite well to other SF children's books of the period.

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book reminded me of some of Andre Norton's books for young adults. It is a fun read about an adolescent on a harsh planet who raise their children to be able to protect themselves. The goal of most is to young the Legion and serve as a mercenary to bring in income for the planet. The story is written in episodes taken along the journey to become a cadet.

[Matthew Sampson · Rating 5 out of 5]

My dad has often talked about a series of books from his childhood which have stuck with him throughout his life, and I've always wanted to read it—but he couldn't remember the series titles. Recently he recalled the word "legionnaire"; I found the series with a Google search and bought the ebooks straight away.

Young Legionary is a prequel to the Last Legionary series.

[G.M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my all time favorite authors and one of my Top 10 Book Series! Love this book!