As many readers here know, the Dumarest saga is the tale of Earl Dumarest and his efforts to return to the planet of his birth, Earth. Although definitely leaning towards the 'pulp' side of SF, I have found them to be always nice light reads, occasionally sprinkled with insightful comments on human nature. And the various worlds that Dumarest visits in the course of his travels are all colourful, each with its attractions and its dangers. With all of the reprints, one has to think that it was also quite popular.
Years ago I had picked up in a library sale Technos which, once read, ended up in a storage box . At the time I didn't realize that it was part of a series. Then a while back, I came across a number of the Dumarest novels of various editions in a used book shop, and picked up half a dozen of the earlier stories. And ever since I have slowly been making my way through the entire saga, and recently read the last book, The Child of Earth.
Original Ace Double book; the second novel is A Scatter of Stardust, also by Tubb. Cover artist unknown.
<Probably many of us SF fans have fond memories of those Ace Doubles ... I remember our public library had quite a few of them back in the day>.
There was quite a variety of covers and at least three reprints of the Dumarest Saga, at least of the earlier novels. Daw was reprinting some editions in the late seventies, Ace reissued the early novels again in the early 1980s, and in Britain Arrow published the entire series.
Kelly Freas did the cover art for a few of the original Daw books including Jondelle.
Arrow Edition. Eloise looks slightly uncomfortable. Cover artist unknown.
I finished the saga with eBooks. With bland text-only covers
(probably a rights-issue).
In his introduction to The Return (1996), Tubb explains the change of publisher. Don Wollheim, who had published the Dumarest books for Ace set up his own company, DAW books, and Tubb kept writing for him. Mayenne (#9) was the first DAW novel, and also much longer than the previous books. This probably explains why the Ace 1980s reprints only apparently cover the first 8 novels.
As well, after Wollheim passed away, the new administration of DAW decided to go in a different direction, and no longer wanted to publish Tubb's novels. They felt that The Temple of Truth was a good place to stop the saga. Tubb had completed the manuscript for The Return (and had begun planning the next novel) but DAW wasn't interested. So it was 11 years before it finally was published in English (interestingly, it had been published in 1992 in French along with the entire saga).
Lots of interesting tidbits in the two introductions to The Return. Recommended if you are a fan of Tubb and the Dumarest Saga. Tubb also noted that he wanted to revise the Dumarest saga, and put them into ten large volumes, complete with new material. Unfortunately, this never happened.
There is an introduction to the saga in The Child of Earth that is also worth reading.
I'll drop into spoiler mode to continue my comments, as I discuss the ending to the saga.
The saga certainly speaks to the imagination. How many of those whose paths crossed that of Dumarest ... Captain Branchard of the Tophier...Eloise and Arbush now on their farm...mercenery Kors Gartok...Captain Egulus & Engineer Dilys...Shakira of the Circus...and so many others...how many looked up at the stars at night and wondered if Dumarest ever did find Earth?
Years ago I had picked up in a library sale Technos which, once read, ended up in a storage box . At the time I didn't realize that it was part of a series. Then a while back, I came across a number of the Dumarest novels of various editions in a used book shop, and picked up half a dozen of the earlier stories. And ever since I have slowly been making my way through the entire saga, and recently read the last book, The Child of Earth.
Original Ace Double book; the second novel is A Scatter of Stardust, also by Tubb. Cover artist unknown.
<Probably many of us SF fans have fond memories of those Ace Doubles ... I remember our public library had quite a few of them back in the day>.
There was quite a variety of covers and at least three reprints of the Dumarest Saga, at least of the earlier novels. Daw was reprinting some editions in the late seventies, Ace reissued the early novels again in the early 1980s, and in Britain Arrow published the entire series.
Kelly Freas did the cover art for a few of the original Daw books including Jondelle.
Arrow Edition. Eloise looks slightly uncomfortable. Cover artist unknown.
I finished the saga with eBooks. With bland text-only covers
(probably a rights-issue).In his introduction to The Return (1996), Tubb explains the change of publisher. Don Wollheim, who had published the Dumarest books for Ace set up his own company, DAW books, and Tubb kept writing for him. Mayenne (#9) was the first DAW novel, and also much longer than the previous books. This probably explains why the Ace 1980s reprints only apparently cover the first 8 novels.
As well, after Wollheim passed away, the new administration of DAW decided to go in a different direction, and no longer wanted to publish Tubb's novels. They felt that The Temple of Truth was a good place to stop the saga. Tubb had completed the manuscript for The Return (and had begun planning the next novel) but DAW wasn't interested. So it was 11 years before it finally was published in English (interestingly, it had been published in 1992 in French along with the entire saga).
Lots of interesting tidbits in the two introductions to The Return. Recommended if you are a fan of Tubb and the Dumarest Saga. Tubb also noted that he wanted to revise the Dumarest saga, and put them into ten large volumes, complete with new material. Unfortunately, this never happened.
There is an introduction to the saga in The Child of Earth that is also worth reading.
I'll drop into spoiler mode to continue my comments, as I discuss the ending to the saga.
While reading the Analog issues of 1996 for the thread Reading Around in Old SF Magazines, I came across a comment in Tom Easton's The Reference Library of June in which he wrote that that the Dumarest series ended without Dumarest reaching Earth. As I was up to around #30 at the time, I was somewhat miffed to read this. However what Easton did not realize was that in 1996 The Return was published. And of course in 2008 The Child of Earth (#33) was released, when Dumarest, now on Earth, discovers its secret.
We are left hanging as to the rest of the saga, but it appears that Dumarest is going to found a resistance movement to the Cyclan, and cut them off from their precious homochon elements (which, if I understand correctly, will prevent the cybers from preserving their minds after death). The raiders of Kaldar also have Earth's coordinates and sooner or later, another ship will probably show up seeking Earth's fabled treasures.
Unless I am mistaken, there are one or two plot threads that were never tidied up. One was the very serious problem of Cyber brains going insane on Cyber Prime, first mentioned in #22 - The Terra Data and mentioned again in following novels. IIRC, this kind of disappeared in the later books.
I guess there are also two odd things about the whole saga. First, you would have thought that Dumarest would at least change his name! And second, for all of their intelligence, the Cyclan kept sending single agents to apprehend Dumarest. I would have thought that after the first few failed attempts, they would have sent, oh, maybe a team of a dozen after him.
But then the books would not have been nearly as exciting....
We are left hanging as to the rest of the saga, but it appears that Dumarest is going to found a resistance movement to the Cyclan, and cut them off from their precious homochon elements (which, if I understand correctly, will prevent the cybers from preserving their minds after death). The raiders of Kaldar also have Earth's coordinates and sooner or later, another ship will probably show up seeking Earth's fabled treasures.
Unless I am mistaken, there are one or two plot threads that were never tidied up. One was the very serious problem of Cyber brains going insane on Cyber Prime, first mentioned in #22 - The Terra Data and mentioned again in following novels. IIRC, this kind of disappeared in the later books.
I guess there are also two odd things about the whole saga. First, you would have thought that Dumarest would at least change his name! And second, for all of their intelligence, the Cyclan kept sending single agents to apprehend Dumarest. I would have thought that after the first few failed attempts, they would have sent, oh, maybe a team of a dozen after him.
But then the books would not have been nearly as exciting....
The saga certainly speaks to the imagination. How many of those whose paths crossed that of Dumarest ... Captain Branchard of the Tophier...Eloise and Arbush now on their farm...mercenery Kors Gartok...Captain Egulus & Engineer Dilys...Shakira of the Circus...and so many others...how many looked up at the stars at night and wondered if Dumarest ever did find Earth?
