Galactic Warlord (Last Legionary) [Import] [Hardcover]

Douglas Hill (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 127 pages
• Publisher: Gollancz (August 1979)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0575026634
• ISBN-13: 978-0575026636
• Shipping Weight: 8.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,067,525 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Non-stop fun, April 20, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Galactic Warlord (Mass Market Paperback)

I read this book about 10 years ago as a child, and for some reason it haunted me enough to remember it enough to read it again as an adult. Lo and behold, I found more books in the series! The story was great fun, full of adventure and derring-do. I think I loved it so much because I'm a big Star Wars fan, and hungered for more stories in the same vein. Here we have the central character, Keill Randor, a highly trained warrior (reminded me of a Jedi Knight-errant without the mystical powers)who is only survivor (so he thinks) of his race. His quest to find the responsible party who destroyed his home planet and any others left of his kind is the core story for the succeeding books. I recommend this series as a jump-start to young readers who like science fiction.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A superb book for any science fiction fan!!!, October 13, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Oregon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Galactic Warlord (Mass Market Paperback)

I first read this book when I was in 5th grade, and I couldn't wait to read the others. There are also other books in the series, and each and every one is a great work of sci-fi. A must read!!!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A refreshing masterpiece, rarely captured by other novels, January 17, 2005

By 

quinny "quinny" (Bournemouth, Dorset United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Galactic Warlord (An Argo Book) (Hardcover)

Every author hopes to write the golden novel - that is, a novel that transcends its number of words or the expectations of its author. Galactic Warlord is one such novel.

I first picked it up on the off-chance in a high-street bookstore when I was aged fourteen, attracted by its slim profile (it's not a large novel) and easy style, and was hooked before I finished the prologue. Galactic Warlord has all the right elements in all the right places and, to quote the recommendation on its rear-cover, Douglas Hill writes with the clarity of a master of the silver screen. Like all successful sci-fi stories, the story grows in gravity and scale as it unfolds and ends with everything hanging in the balance. I re-read Galactic Warlord more times than I can remember, and was shocked yet delighted to discover the second in the series in a bookstore elsewhere. Once I discovered there was a quartet, purchased the remaining three books and lapped them up within a week, inspired and awe-struck by the thrilling story, scintillating pace and Hill's awesome imagination.

But I believe the saying that every writer has one good novel in them is true in Douglas Hill's case, because I tried reading Warriors of the Wasteland and Young Legionary with the same expectant feeling, only to find myself deeply disappointed by the monosyllabic style and embarrassing storylines. Revealing Keill Randor's boyhood right-of-passage in Young Legionary was a mistaken attempt at expanding the series... some things are better left as mysteries.

Galactic Warlord and the entire Last Legionary series is an inspiring example of science fiction and space-fantasy at its best. Hill's mistake was continually trying to recapture the same dynamic in other stories, turning them into very pale imitations of this great novel.