Dumarest of Terra Omnibus 1: Gath, Derai, Toyman, Kalin

e.c. tubb

nigmatic man, grim, dressed in gray clothing with a buried metal mesh to protect against the lash of a claw, the rip of thorns, or the thrust of edged weapons. A man with lightning reflexes and carrying a knife he knows how to use. A man prepared to kill unhesitatingly to defend himself and to achieve his goal-to return to Earth. Earth The planet of his birth, from which he had been forced to flee when little more than a child. A world so ancient that it has passed into legend, its very existence denied, derided, expunged from all stellar almanacs. But how can a man find a myth? Moving outward from the Galactic Center, along a spiral arm of stars, Dumarest moves through a hostile universe. His quest takes him to strange and harsh worlds, as savage as the people who inhabit them. Sometimes he finds friends, sometimes only enemies, and sometimes lush and exotic women who desire him. And everywhere he goes, he is being pursued by an implacable, inhuman enemy-the Cyclan The Cyclan, with its legion of agents, the Cybers, cold zealots whose emotions have been surgically removed, and who are psychically linked to a gigantic organic computer of a million disembodied brains. The Cyclan seek to exert control over the thousands of inhabited planets, but to do that they must first capture Dumarest, who alone possesses the secret they need. Inhuman monsters looking for a human target. But Dumarest is determined to survive, no matter what the cost. For somewhere in the vastness of the teeming galaxy, he hopes to find the one person who could answer his question. 'Have you ever heard of a planet called Earth?'-and answer 'Yes'

Genres science fiction

492 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,2005

Series

Dumarest of Terra

This edition

Format: 492 pages, Paperback
Published: January 1, 2005 by Cosmos Books
ISBN: 9780809544912
ASIN: 0809544911
Language: English

About the author

e.c. tubb

Edwin Charles Tubb was a writer of science fiction, fantasy and western novels. He published over 140 novels and 230 short stories and novellas, and is best known for The Dumarest Saga (US collective title: Dumarest of Terra) an epic science-fiction saga set in the far future.

Much of Tubb's work has been written under pseudonyms including Gregory Kern, Carl Maddox, Alan Guthrie, Eric Storm and George Holt. He has used 58 pen names over five decades of writing although some of these were publishers' house names also used by other writers: Volsted Gridban (along with John Russell Fearn), Gill Hunt (with John Brunner and Dennis Hughes), King Lang (with George Hay and John W Jennison), Roy Sheldon (with H. J. Campbell) and Brian Shaw. Tubb's Charles Grey alias was solely his own and acquired a big following in the early 1950s.

An avid reader of pulp science-fiction and fantasy in his youth, Tubb found that he had a particular talent as a writer of stories in that genre when his short story 'No Short Cuts' was published in New Worlds magazine in 1951. He opted for a full-time career as a writer and soon became renowned for the speed and diversity of his output.

Tubb contributed to many of the science fiction magazines of the 1950s including Futuristic Science Stories, Science Fantasy, Nebula and Galaxy Science Fiction. He contributed heavily to Authentic Science Fiction editing the magazine for nearly two years, from February 1956 until it folded in October 1957. During this time, he found it so difficult to find good writers to contribute to the magazine, that he often wrote most of the stories himself under a variety of pseudonyms: one issue of Authentic was written entirely by Tubb, including the letters column.

His main work in the science fiction genre, the Dumarest series, appeared from 1967 to 1985, with two final volumes in 1997 and 2008. His second major series, the Cap Kennedy series, was written from 1973 to 1983.

In recent years Tubb updated many of his 1950s science fiction novels for 21st century readers.

Tubb was one of the co-founders of the British Science Fiction Association.