Jack of Swords

For my money, the Dumarest Saga of E.C. Tubb ranks up there as one of the best science fiction series written in English.

Set in the far distant future, when mankind has spread across the galaxy, they feature the inimitable Earl Dumarest, a man with lightning fast reflexes who is forever trying to find the home world he fled as a child and has long since lost: Earth.

The galaxy he travels through is a hard, deadly place for a man with no affiliations and little money. Tubb pulls no punches in his depictions of the many harsh, hellish worlds and people whom Dumarest encounters, and invariably survives, if only just, during his quest.

Perhaps one of the best things about this series (which consists of some 32 books) is that each book is show more short, with no unnecessary padding; they're generally between 150 and 190 pages long. So they're a reasonably quick read, too.

I recommend reading all books in the series, preferably in the intended order. If you can, though, avoid the Arrow Books editions - the cover illustrations are, to put it simply, the pits. The artists clearly had never read the books, or if they did, didn't bother to note down a lot of details about the scenes they chose to portray in these illustrations, e.g. clothing, weaponry, etc. Shame on Arrow Books for using such second-class amateurs.

Did I mention? Unlike the seemingly interminable Wheel of Time series of Robert Jordan, or the never-ending Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen Donaldson - both of which I find way too verbose, i.e. a lot of words pass by without very much happening - the Dumarest Saga has an actual ending - in volume 32, The Return, Dumarest finds his way home! show less

Space wanderer Earl Dumarest’s search for the planet of his birth gets sidetracked as he’s coerced into joining an expedition to find a fabled Ghost Planet. The plot is predictable, the characters one dimensional, and yet it’s still a fun space-opera style adventure that provides a light entertaining read

The formula is beginning to get to me. It is not boredom exactly but it is possible after all these years that reading a series one right after another for 31 books is not as gripping as the first few times when there were fewer. He still finds new twists and characters but the groundwork of a friend who dies, a friend who betrays, a woman who is gorgeous who falls in love with him and either betrays him or begs him to stay but he moves on. The cybers and the monks and the description of Earth. I know these things must be placed because each book must be a stand alone but reading them one after another it can be annoying.