Scan barcode
sfian's review
5.0
One thing you can accuse Tubb of is not packing a lot of story into a relatively short number of pages. Here, in around nine-score, we get a forerunner to the modern day Purge, a disastrous spaceship hijacking, a beast-hunt and -swapping, alongside the usual standard fights and loves that percolate through this series (IIRC).
This is my favourite Dumarest book so far of this re-read. The twists of plot make it more enjoyable than the first three and I can even ignore the plothole that I suddenly realised existed - that travellers using quick-time while being searched for by planetbound relatives (and even enemies) rendered such searches almost impossible due to the different passages of time. These books were written in a period when such consequences, even if they had been thought about, were secondary to telling good tale. And that's what this book delivers.
It also, I believe sets up the reason for the Cyclan hunting Dumarest through the remainder of the series.
This is my favourite Dumarest book so far of this re-read. The twists of plot make it more enjoyable than the first three and I can even ignore the plothole that I suddenly realised existed - that travellers using quick-time while being searched for by planetbound relatives (and even enemies) rendered such searches almost impossible due to the different passages of time. These books were written in a period when such consequences, even if they had been thought about, were secondary to telling good tale. And that's what this book delivers.
It also, I believe sets up the reason for the Cyclan hunting Dumarest through the remainder of the series.
peterseanesq's review
5.0
Please give my Amazon review a helpful vote - https://www.amazon.com/review/R1Y84QHLRYQMPQ/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
I accidentally skipped this one in my re-read through the Dumarestiverse, but this is the seminal book that brings together the elements that will keep this series moving for the next 28 books.
The story opens with Bloodtime on Logis - basically, The Purge 50 years before the movie - where Dumarest rescues the witch Kalin. Kalin can see the future, sometimes to her pain. Then, the story moves on to shipwreck, rescues by slavers and marooning on the planet Chron, where the only hope of escape is to hunt zardles for zerds (and with that one, Tubb must have been having fun.) The mystery of Kalin deepens, particularly the interest that the evil cyber-cult of Cyclans are showing in her home.
Dumarestaphiles know that Dumarest gets the secret of the "affinity twin formula", but it will take him several books to figure out that he has this secret and what it means. The affinity twin formula puts into place the basic "pull-push" structure that moves the Dumarest series along. The "pull" is Dumarest's hunt for his home planet of Earth, while the "push" is the pursuity by the Cyclan of Dumarest. This was a very popular concept in the television shows of the 1960s whether it was the Fugitive looking for the one armed man while the police pursued him or Coronet Blue where the hero looked for the answer to the meaning of the mysterious phrase "Coronet Blue" while he was pursued by unknown assailants.
This book like series is cheesy - basically Mike Hammer in Space - but good and dependable cheese
I accidentally skipped this one in my re-read through the Dumarestiverse, but this is the seminal book that brings together the elements that will keep this series moving for the next 28 books.
The story opens with Bloodtime on Logis - basically, The Purge 50 years before the movie - where Dumarest rescues the witch Kalin. Kalin can see the future, sometimes to her pain. Then, the story moves on to shipwreck, rescues by slavers and marooning on the planet Chron, where the only hope of escape is to hunt zardles for zerds (and with that one, Tubb must have been having fun.) The mystery of Kalin deepens, particularly the interest that the evil cyber-cult of Cyclans are showing in her home.
Dumarestaphiles know that Dumarest gets the secret of the "affinity twin formula", but it will take him several books to figure out that he has this secret and what it means. The affinity twin formula puts into place the basic "pull-push" structure that moves the Dumarest series along. The "pull" is Dumarest's hunt for his home planet of Earth, while the "push" is the pursuity by the Cyclan of Dumarest. This was a very popular concept in the television shows of the 1960s whether it was the Fugitive looking for the one armed man while the police pursued him or Coronet Blue where the hero looked for the answer to the meaning of the mysterious phrase "Coronet Blue" while he was pursued by unknown assailants.
This book like series is cheesy - basically Mike Hammer in Space - but good and dependable cheese
sirchutney's review
4.0
Dumarest of Terra is a 33-volume series of science fiction novels by Edwin Charles Tubb. Each story is a self-contained adventure, but throughout the series, Earl Dumarest, the protagonist, searches for clues to the location of his home world, Earth. Production of a television version of the series is set to begin in 2018.
The stories are set in a far future galactic culture that is fragmented and without any central government. Dumarest was born on Earth, but had stowed away on a spaceship when he was a young boy and was caught. Although a stowaway discovered on a spaceship was typically ejected to space, the captain took pity on the boy and allowed him to work and travel on the ship. When the story opens in The Winds of Gath, Dumarest has traveled so long and so far that he does not know how to return to his home planet and no-one has ever heard of it, other than as a myth or legend.
It becomes clear that someone or something has deliberately concealed Earth's location. The Cyclan, an organization of humans surgically altered to be emotionless (known as Cybers), and on occasion able to link with the brains of previously living Cybers (the better to think logically), seem determined to stop him from finding Earth. Additionally, the Cyclan seeks a scientific discovery that Dumarest possesses, stolen from them and passed to him by a dying thief, which would vastly increase their already considerable power.
Also appearing in many of the books is the humanitarian Church of Universal Brotherhood. Its monks are spread throughout many worlds as are the Cyclan, the two being arch-enemies - which does not make the Church Dumarest's ally, but in some instances they support each other.
In Kalin, Earl Dumarest manages to forget the lost of his first love Derai when he meets a troubled woman named Kalin, who has the ability to see into the future. Lost in a life bubble after surviving a botched hijacking attempt that destroys the ship they were travelling on, Dumarest and Kalin are rescued by a slaver. Though Dumarest has enough money to keep them from being sold on the auction block, they instead find themselves dropped on the planet Chron; a miserable mining planet where the mines run on slave labour and there is no other way to earn a living. Dumarest must find a way to keep both himself and his new love alive while finding a way off the planet. Meanwhile, on another planet, the Cyclan sends one of their order to offer his services to a local noble, despite the fact that their world is too poor to afford their services. What is it that they seek there?
The fourth book in the Dumarest Saga, this is where the series settles down into the pattern it will maintain from now on.
The stories are set in a far future galactic culture that is fragmented and without any central government. Dumarest was born on Earth, but had stowed away on a spaceship when he was a young boy and was caught. Although a stowaway discovered on a spaceship was typically ejected to space, the captain took pity on the boy and allowed him to work and travel on the ship. When the story opens in The Winds of Gath, Dumarest has traveled so long and so far that he does not know how to return to his home planet and no-one has ever heard of it, other than as a myth or legend.
It becomes clear that someone or something has deliberately concealed Earth's location. The Cyclan, an organization of humans surgically altered to be emotionless (known as Cybers), and on occasion able to link with the brains of previously living Cybers (the better to think logically), seem determined to stop him from finding Earth. Additionally, the Cyclan seeks a scientific discovery that Dumarest possesses, stolen from them and passed to him by a dying thief, which would vastly increase their already considerable power.
Also appearing in many of the books is the humanitarian Church of Universal Brotherhood. Its monks are spread throughout many worlds as are the Cyclan, the two being arch-enemies - which does not make the Church Dumarest's ally, but in some instances they support each other.
In Kalin, Earl Dumarest manages to forget the lost of his first love Derai when he meets a troubled woman named Kalin, who has the ability to see into the future. Lost in a life bubble after surviving a botched hijacking attempt that destroys the ship they were travelling on, Dumarest and Kalin are rescued by a slaver. Though Dumarest has enough money to keep them from being sold on the auction block, they instead find themselves dropped on the planet Chron; a miserable mining planet where the mines run on slave labour and there is no other way to earn a living. Dumarest must find a way to keep both himself and his new love alive while finding a way off the planet. Meanwhile, on another planet, the Cyclan sends one of their order to offer his services to a local noble, despite the fact that their world is too poor to afford their services. What is it that they seek there?
The fourth book in the Dumarest Saga, this is where the series settles down into the pattern it will maintain from now on.
More...