SOJALS rating:

Awful (1/5)

Sadly, I can't remember when I read this book.

Legion is down on his luck and it doesn't get any better. Now he's picked up by the police as he's about to commit an armed robbery. To get out of that situation, he accepts a job with enigmatic and very wealthy, Mr Foster. Within days though, Foster has lost his memory, his possessions and his money. Worse, Legion is accused of murdering said Mr Foster.

It appears that Mr Foster is in the habit of losing his memory. He calls it the 'Change' and inexplicably, whenever this Change occurs, Mr Foster comes out of it rejuvenated and much younger than he was before.

This rather odd behaviour is all they need to catapult themselves out of the current dismal prospects into an interstellar adventure.

Meanwhile on the far-off planet Vallon, almost an entire population have lost not just the memory of their once-great civilisation but also their personal memories.

OK, it's sheer teenage escapism. Our hero follows in the footsteps of a superhuman and some of it rubs off on him. There's interstellar travel, evil dictators, Stonehenge, super-science and some fine fisticuffs.

Here are some names to trigger your recollection of the novel: Qulqlan, Rthr, Ommodurad and Ammaerin.

And it was only 5 shillings new but I got it second-hand plus it had an oddly psychedelic cover for 1963. So I call it a bargain, best I ever had (well maybe not the best I ever had, but it's a quote, dummy).