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angus_mckeogh's review against another edition
2.0
I’m not sure if this genre is considered “space opera” or what. But this is the short first novel in a series of 40-something plus books following a space traveler trying to return to Earth. The first chapter was in this vein, then a corny almost fantasy novel follows in all the successive chapters, excepting the final few paragraphs that refer to the initial narrative again. Much too hard boiled but doesn’t manage to pull it off. Just mediocre. I’m certainly not overly eager to delve into the next 40 odd books.
arthurbdd's review
3.0
Interesting setup for the long-running SF series, albeit with some somewhat dated aspects. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/2020/06/27/two-tubbs-of-dumarest-please/
hteph's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
A typical golden age SF, entertaining and quite shallow. Reminds me a lot of early Jack Vance, but without the peculiar prose.
badger2305's review
4.0
First of a long science fiction series; very influential on the origins and development of the SF RPG Traveller from GDW (published in 1977) - I've read the older Ace double and would be interested in seeing if the later Ace edition had more material. The UK original edition is said to have more to it, as I learned from staff at Uncle Hugo's Science Fiction Bookstore.
bookcrazylady45's review
3.0
I love this series and have collected the entire 31 books and read them over and over again. It has been close to twenty years since I last read the series, in fact I have not read the last three books that I purchased. I had always planned on reading it once more but never seemed in the mood for the genre. Finally started book one and at first thought it would not catch my imagination and that I would not get my wish of rereading Dumarest but it did grab me, as of old, and my pleasure was sure. I had originally given this book four stars but these days I mostly give three unless a book is really something special and good as it was and pleasurable...it is what it is. My copy is so old it is one of the Ace Double books and I am about to turn the book over and start book 2 Derai.
sexton_blake's review
4.0
The Dumarest novels were a fixture in the secondhand bookshops of my youth. I used to buy them for collecting’s sake and because I liked the covers, but I never actually read one. Four decades later, I’ve just finished the first of the 33-novel series, and to my considerable surprise, it’s not at all what I expected, which is to say, it’s actually rather good. There’s nothing mind-blowing here. We’re at the other end of the sci-fi spectrum from, for example, Philip K. Dick. However, where adventuring, political intrigues, and world-building are concerned, this is a pretty satisfying tale. I’ll definitely be reading the next one.
sfian's review against another edition
5.0
Five stars? Really? Yes, although perhaps more out of nostalgia than much else. The Dumarest saga has been part of my life for most of it. I first came across it when Starburst magazine printed a review of, I think, book 17, when it was first published. I was pre-teen and don't remember what about that review resonated with my, but I know I bought a copy of the book at my local WH Smith's shortly after and, for a time, I was hooked. I bought new volumes as they came out and hunted down past volumes in second hand bookshops.
I remember, on a school trip to the Lake District, browsing a spinner rack to see if this particular shop had anything I needed. An older couple were talking next to me, the man thinking he had read one of the volumes in the rack, recognising the title, but not the cover. I broke in, describing the cover of the copy I owned, which turned out to be the one he knew. One of them enthused that I must be a Dumarest expert...
I got excited a twenty-odd years back when The Return was published, bought it, read it and thought it was on Ok ending, happy that Earl's story had... well, spoilers. I hadn't read the originals for ages and probably didn't realise there were unanswered questions. Somehow I missed that one more book had been published.
I never completed the series and still need a handful of books to do so. But, in the age of the internet that shouldn't be difficult, should it? Yesterday, on a whim, I decided to re-read The Winds of Gath (partly as a way of getting 100 books logged this year - they are, after all, thin) expecting it to be a case of memory playing tricks. They couldn't possibly be as good as I remembered, right?
And yet, I thoroughly enjoyed it. So much SF from the 60s and 70s is, to me, dense and impenetrable. This is light and easy-going, but still replete with action, intrigue and character. We join Earl's story partway through, so you know that he has already travelled, fought, loved and lost. Dumarest himself is a sort of everyday superhero - not particularly trained better than those who become his adversaries, but more quick-witted - kind to his friends, respectful of his women and ruthless to his enemies. His universe is well drawn. There's nothing unique about the traveller visiting a new place, having and adventure and moving on (The Fugitive, The Incredible Hulk anybody?), but there doesn't really need to be when the places, the characters and the stories are enjoyable.
I'm going to go through this series, for the first time, in order. Maybe as an adult I'll pick up nuances that I missed before. One thing is certain, after a certain amount of trepidation before re-reading the first book, I'm looking forward to the rest.
I remember, on a school trip to the Lake District, browsing a spinner rack to see if this particular shop had anything I needed. An older couple were talking next to me, the man thinking he had read one of the volumes in the rack, recognising the title, but not the cover. I broke in, describing the cover of the copy I owned, which turned out to be the one he knew. One of them enthused that I must be a Dumarest expert...
I got excited a twenty-odd years back when The Return was published, bought it, read it and thought it was on Ok ending, happy that Earl's story had... well, spoilers. I hadn't read the originals for ages and probably didn't realise there were unanswered questions. Somehow I missed that one more book had been published.
I never completed the series and still need a handful of books to do so. But, in the age of the internet that shouldn't be difficult, should it? Yesterday, on a whim, I decided to re-read The Winds of Gath (partly as a way of getting 100 books logged this year - they are, after all, thin) expecting it to be a case of memory playing tricks. They couldn't possibly be as good as I remembered, right?
And yet, I thoroughly enjoyed it. So much SF from the 60s and 70s is, to me, dense and impenetrable. This is light and easy-going, but still replete with action, intrigue and character. We join Earl's story partway through, so you know that he has already travelled, fought, loved and lost. Dumarest himself is a sort of everyday superhero - not particularly trained better than those who become his adversaries, but more quick-witted - kind to his friends, respectful of his women and ruthless to his enemies. His universe is well drawn. There's nothing unique about the traveller visiting a new place, having and adventure and moving on (The Fugitive, The Incredible Hulk anybody?), but there doesn't really need to be when the places, the characters and the stories are enjoyable.
I'm going to go through this series, for the first time, in order. Maybe as an adult I'll pick up nuances that I missed before. One thing is certain, after a certain amount of trepidation before re-reading the first book, I'm looking forward to the rest.
nicdafis's review
4.0
Opera gofod clasurol o'r 60au hwyr. Cyfrol gyntaf mewn cyfres o dair ar ddeg ar hugain, ie, tri deg a thri o lyfrau bach gwyddoniasol gwych (siwr o fod; dim ond dau dw i wedi darllen hyd yn hyn).
indrabar's review
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Strong character development? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
4.75
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. Dumarest is a galactic adventurer, sometime bodyguard, mercenary, gladiator, prospector, hunter, gambler and starship jack of all trades. Dumarest, as he is most often referred to in the books, is on a quest to return to the lost planet of his birth amongst the diverse and disparate worlds of the milky way galaxy. His home planet is Earth. In all of the books the notion of there being a planet called Earth is laughable to most of the people he meets, and for those who have heard the name, it is only as a myth from the deep past
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 this first book we are on Gath, a world with a unique tourist attraction. A mountain sized white noise amplifier. With no indigenous economy other than the tourist slave labor trade Dumarest struggles to break free from this dead end world. Dumarest becomes attached to the retinue of the Matriarch of Kund and unwittingly finds himself embroiled in the vicious and complex political intrigues of the Matriarch's court. After some keen detective work from Dumarest and the ensuing deadly battle with the Cyclan, Dumarest prevails and escapes from the Backwater planet.
A quick and exciting read, and while all of the 'rules' of the rest of the series are not quite in place, this first novel sets up the remainder of series nicely.
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 this first book we are on Gath, a world with a unique tourist attraction. A mountain sized white noise amplifier. With no indigenous economy other than the tourist slave labor trade Dumarest struggles to break free from this dead end world. Dumarest becomes attached to the retinue of the Matriarch of Kund and unwittingly finds himself embroiled in the vicious and complex political intrigues of the Matriarch's court. After some keen detective work from Dumarest and the ensuing deadly battle with the Cyclan, Dumarest prevails and escapes from the Backwater planet.
A quick and exciting read, and while all of the 'rules' of the rest of the series are not quite in place, this first novel sets up the remainder of series nicely.
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