A little less than a year ago I came across a twofer book by E. C. Tubb. Twofer means, in this case, that the book consists of two 150-page novels. Just flip the book over when you’re done, and read the second one. I thought it unique, something I’ve never come across before.
I read the first book, The Winds of Gath, last December. Here’s the review in case you’re interested. The author is a prolific man name of Tubb, who’s still alive well into his nineties and still writing. The book I bought is the first two episodes of Earl Dumarest’s quest to find the lost world of Earth in a populous, multi-planeted universe.
The only reason I’m reading the book is because my deceased father did, thirty-five years or so ago. Well, since the Dumarest saga has 34 novels (and counting), he was probably reading the seventh or eighth installment. Coming across this in a used book store last year, I had to pick it up to see what the deal was.
It is what it is. It’s solid SF entertainment. In my review of the first book, I noted it was like a good 22-minute episode of your favorite teevee show. It’s not going to improve you in any way. You won’t be on your deathbed bewailing the fact you hadn’t read more Dumarest novels. But it’s good, escapist science fiction. Derai took me four hours to read, and for those four hours, I forgot all my troubles.
Now, I liked Derai better than I liked The Winds of Gath. I didn’t grade that first book, but this one I’d give a solid B. It follows the same formula as the first one, but the details are a little different. All right, a lot. Whereas Gath was kind of Mad Max amidst palace machinations, Derai gave off a definite John Normanesque Gorian warrior stuck in a Danielle Steele romance.
Okay, I’m exaggerating, but the plot does hinge on romance. Derai is a young telepathic woman on the run; Dumarest is paid to bring her back home. And thus, like every book in this series, he gets involved in local planetary intrigue and backstabbing. There’s not one but two knifefights. Before long Dumarest is negotiating pangs of conscience as he trods dangerously among sinister men and agencies to save Derai.
Themes originating in the first book are continued, most importantly, the Cyclan empire, a hive-mind like group of Machiavellian Spocks who operate on a far-seeing ruthless logic quite different from ours. New in this book, very neat, are plants which provide the next-best-thing to immortality: a symbiotic relationship whereas you’re swallowed up in a pod, used for meat, but given in exchange the equivalent of a thousand years of pleasure. Also of note were nuclear-mutated beeswarms which prove thrillingly (and somewhat grossly) dangerous.
The first three-quarters were good and page-turning. The end lost a bit of steam, I thought, as suddenly we’re all off rocketing to another planet. But there’s a massive free-for-all fight at the end for redemption, of the type where there can only be a certain amount of winners. Then, the bad guy is unmasked, nefarious plots are brought to light, justice is done, the innocent victims are tenderly buried.
I read the first book, The Winds of Gath, last December. Here’s the review in case you’re interested. The author is a prolific man name of Tubb, who’s still alive well into his nineties and still writing. The book I bought is the first two episodes of Earl Dumarest’s quest to find the lost world of Earth in a populous, multi-planeted universe.
The only reason I’m reading the book is because my deceased father did, thirty-five years or so ago. Well, since the Dumarest saga has 34 novels (and counting), he was probably reading the seventh or eighth installment. Coming across this in a used book store last year, I had to pick it up to see what the deal was.
It is what it is. It’s solid SF entertainment. In my review of the first book, I noted it was like a good 22-minute episode of your favorite teevee show. It’s not going to improve you in any way. You won’t be on your deathbed bewailing the fact you hadn’t read more Dumarest novels. But it’s good, escapist science fiction. Derai took me four hours to read, and for those four hours, I forgot all my troubles.
Now, I liked Derai better than I liked The Winds of Gath. I didn’t grade that first book, but this one I’d give a solid B. It follows the same formula as the first one, but the details are a little different. All right, a lot. Whereas Gath was kind of Mad Max amidst palace machinations, Derai gave off a definite John Normanesque Gorian warrior stuck in a Danielle Steele romance.
Okay, I’m exaggerating, but the plot does hinge on romance. Derai is a young telepathic woman on the run; Dumarest is paid to bring her back home. And thus, like every book in this series, he gets involved in local planetary intrigue and backstabbing. There’s not one but two knifefights. Before long Dumarest is negotiating pangs of conscience as he trods dangerously among sinister men and agencies to save Derai.
Themes originating in the first book are continued, most importantly, the Cyclan empire, a hive-mind like group of Machiavellian Spocks who operate on a far-seeing ruthless logic quite different from ours. New in this book, very neat, are plants which provide the next-best-thing to immortality: a symbiotic relationship whereas you’re swallowed up in a pod, used for meat, but given in exchange the equivalent of a thousand years of pleasure. Also of note were nuclear-mutated beeswarms which prove thrillingly (and somewhat grossly) dangerous.
The first three-quarters were good and page-turning. The end lost a bit of steam, I thought, as suddenly we’re all off rocketing to another planet. But there’s a massive free-for-all fight at the end for redemption, of the type where there can only be a certain amount of winners. Then, the bad guy is unmasked, nefarious plots are brought to light, justice is done, the innocent victims are tenderly buried.
And Dumarest is left to continue his search for his lost homeworld, Earth.
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