Dumarest Books In Order

Publication Order of Dumarest of Terra Books

Dumarest is a series of science fiction books by Edwin Charles Tubb. Each book in the series is a self-contained story, but throughout the books, Earl Dumarest, the main character searches for the location of his lost home planet, Earth. E.C. Tubb published more than 100 science fiction books and many short stories both under his name and several pseudonyms. One of his probably best known names was Gregory Kern, under which he published Cap Kennedy series in the early 1970s. However, he’s best known for his Dumarest series featuring Earl Dumarest and his relentless search for his lost home planet.

The series is set in a far future and features a galactic culture that’s divided without any central government. The main character was born on Earth but boarded a spaceship when he was a young boy and was caught. Although the stowaway that was discovered on any spaceship would often be ejected to space, the ship’s captain allowed Earl to work for him and travel on the ship. When the first book in the series opens up, we soon find out that Dumarest has travelled far from his home that he doesn’t know how to return to his home planet and no person has ever heard of it. Soon it becomes clear that someone or probably something has deliberately hidden Earth’s location. The Cyclan, a group of human-altered to be emotionless (Cybers) and in some instances able to link with brains of previous Cybers are determined to stop him from finding Earth’s location. In addition, they also want the scientific discovery that Earl possesses that was stolen from them and passed to Dumarest.

The 33 sci-fi series was published in more than four decades starting in 1967 and concluding in 2008 with Child of Earth.

The Winds of Gath

The first book in the series opens with Dumarest, a strong loner about 40 years old. (His age is never mentioned and doesn’t change. However, a rigorous implied time travels timeline of the books and mentions of Dumarest’s past would reveal his age.) Dumarest is revived from travelling in suspended animation with a 15% risk of death. It’s to be noted that he defies death countless times in this series. He discovers that the ship already changed course and no longer headed to the planet he intended to reach. This is bad news to him because he’s no cash with him and Gath offers no good money for making enough for passage to another planet.

The powerful matriarch of Kund has visited Gath to list to the powerful winds blowing across a rock formation during a periodic storm. It’s alleged that the rock formation enables the hearers to hear anything that they desire. The Matriarch is accompanied by her ward, Seena Thoth who she may choose as a successor as well as by Cyber Dyne a castrated cyber with great analytical abilities.

After some death-defying moments, Dumarest finds himself entangled in an arranged boxing with another nobleman’s professional assassin, and due to his highly effective reflexes and his articulate tactics, he wins the fight and gains the notice of the Matriarch. Dumarest and Seena form a doomed relationship because once Seena becomes a matriarch; she must get rid o her lovers and forget the possibility of bearing children. He fights off an attempt on Seena’s life by an envious rival for the Matriarch’s position, and then he escorts them to rock formation. During the storm, several plots and counterplots are born, and Dumarest is fortunate in a position to fight the goals of the Cyber and also fight off any other person with bad intentions.

The Winds of Gath introduces the reader to a number of ongoing tropes and themes of the series. For examples, there is a passage that describes the Cyber linking the bigger cybernetic mind through Homochon elements- a passage that is much repeated in the other books in the series.

Derai

Derai is the second book in Dumarest series by E.C. Tubb. Still driven by his search for his planet, Dumarest accepts an assignment to guard the Lady Derai at all costs. On Derai’s home planet, Dumarest hoped to meet a witness to Earth. However he finds himself enlisted to participate in the deadly Contest of Folgone and for the first time, Dumarest confronts the Cybers which hold the mighty of the universe in its grip- a power which may be the only passage for him to Earth.

Apart from Perry Rhodan’s series, the Dumarest series could as well be classified as the longest Space Opera of the 20th century at once both generally underrated and unrecognized; the series comprises of 33 published at intervals of six months 1967-1985 and other two volumes published in 1997-2008. The main character, Dumarest is a seasoned fighter with swift reflexes, workings his way across the galaxy of thousands planets in attempt to return to the planet he escaped from when he was a child. However, everyone in the planets he’s visited believes that Earth is a myth, but he picks up clues along the way and some secrets that could put the Cyclan in total control of the Galaxy.

The societies and environments are controlled by feudal regimes or exploitative corporate. The books are episodic, and Dumarest is in most cases romantically pursued by beautiful women and also pursued a number of different reasons by the agents of Cyclan who are often dispatched efficiently at the end of each novel. And thus Dumarest is driven by both the pursuit by his enemies and the object of his search. The Cyclan is dedicated to facts, statistics, deduction, analysis and prediction and that how in most cases, they are able to determine Dumarest’s location at any given time. You can call the wicked Sherlock Holmes of space, and it doesn’t take long for the reader to deduce that the secret home for the Cyclan is Earth. Dumarest book series has been optioned for adaptation into a television series which began production in 2018.