Recent Reads

A Trace of Memory, by Keith Laumer
An early work by Laumer, better known for his satirical Retief books, involving a spacegoing diplomat, and his military SF about Bolos, or self-aware tanks. This one falls into the category described by the current Wikipedia entry as "fast-paced, straight adventures in time and space, with an emphasis on lone-wolf, latent superman protagonists, self-sacrifice and transcendence".

The protagonist, a small time criminal inexplicably named "Legion", meets up with Foster, a wealthy eccentric who, as the plot develops, turns out to be a nearly immortal refugee from a fantastically advanced alien culture. (No spoilers here; that's pretty clearly signalled in the introduction). Foster regenerates into a young and amnesiac form of himself at one point in the story. I wonder if any of the early scriptwriters of Doctor Who read this book?