he 16th volume of Earl Dumarest’s seemingly never ending quest to find Earth takes him to the planet of Zakym plaqued by two phenomena, a daily recurrence of the dead returning as specters, and an unseen enemy that inhabits the land at night. Unfortunately neither of these aspects play any part in the plot, and it takes almost two thirds of the book for our hero to actually get there! This feels like Stubbs grabbed a handful of ideas from his note book and threw them on the page with no idea of how he actually wanted to use them. The weakest entry in this series I’ve read so far. ( )

One thing that can be said for these novels is..they are timeless. Not dated as contemporary novels can become dated. Some of the novels are better than others...this one was nothing special except for a new twist/problem associated with his method of escaping. What is new, seemingly, is the next novel takes place on the same world. ( )

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 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! ( )