The novel “Who Goes Here?” By Bob Shaw was published for the first time in 1977.

In the past there was the Foreign Legion, in the XXIV century there is the Space Legion that allows recruits to forget their past. This is to be taken literaly because a special equipment erases the recruits’ memories related to the reasons why they enrolled. Warren Peace seems one of the many who choose the Space Legion to run away from something or someone but all his memories get erased.

The training of the the Space Legion is very short and almost without even realizing Warren Peace finds himself along with other recruits fighting on an alien planet. Life expectancy in the Legion is limited and the only way out is to get back the memories erased at enrollment. For Warren Peace that seems a mission more difficult that surviving the battles he’s sent to fight.

Bob Shaw is famous in particular for scientific ideas and inventions he often developed in a masterly way in his stories. “Who Goes Here?” is a novel out of the ordinary in his production because for once the author chose to write a humorous story that revisits sometimes in a satirical way various classical science fiction themes. Other science fiction authors have written humorous stories choosing specific subjects sometimes to write a satire about, instead Shaw chose a wider reach science fiction comedy.

“Who Goes Here?” follows the misadventures of Warren Peace, who finds himself in the Space Legion having no memory of his past. He and the other recruits wonder what kind of monster he might be for all of his memories to have been erased but the time to think about it is really limited because very soon he’s risking his life in the Legion’s military operations.

The training is in fact little more than a formality so Warren Peace and the other recruits are quickly sent to the front. The tone of the novel is already clear here because the starships that transport them are basically large tin cans, equipment and weapons are unsuitable, the wars the Legion is involved in have far less than noble motives and the officers are complete fanatics worthy of the best anti-militarist satires. Trying to stay hidden during an attack isn’t possible because the recruits are conditioned to obey their officers’ orders.

That’s just the beginning and the only thing Warren Peace can try to have a way out is to find a way to rediscover his past. In this attempt, he ends up being traveling in time a number of times, having to deal with a scientist who’s a but of a nut and being chased by some Oscars, metallic creatures with a mysterious nature and origine that seem unstoppable.

“Who Goes Here?” is a short novel by today’s standards but normal length for Bob Shaw’s habits as he usually stayed under 200 pages. Also for the fact that Warren Peace is often chased by someone the pace is high. Despite the presence of time travel, the plot is pretty straightforward and consistent so it’s easily readable.

The characters are less developed than Bob Shaw did normally but that’s due to the fact that it’s a comedic novel. On the other hand, Warren Peace is the only character who appears throughout all the story so he’s the only one who could really be well developed.

“Who Goes Here?” is a funny example of sci-fi comedy that I recommend to all the readers who occasionally appreciate a novel that doesn’t take this genre seriously.