Child of Earth Paperback – November 30, 2008

"Child of Earth" by E.C. Tubb is subtitled "Dumarest of Terra #33". I will not discuss the details of this story since anything I may state could be considered a spoiler and, well, much of the pleasure of reading is self discovery, you know..."well, that's how it ends". These 33 novels were published over the period 1967-2008. Tubb died in 2010 so it is highly unlikely there will be an addition books in the series but who knows what may be locked away in file cabinet over in England. - We can only hope. (I pray we don't have any fake Dumarest novels by contract authors but publisher's greed known no bounds.) Certainly all issues have not been resolved but Earl Demarest's quest to reach Earth has been achieved. If Tubb had lived there is sufficient unresolved problems to continue the series. Nonetheless as a reader who has persevered thorough the entire series I will state that book 33 is a fitting ending and, alas, probably the only one we will ever have. Just in case you desire to begin a Dumarest reading odyssey I have added a few notes and observation for your information.HOW IT ALL BEGAN:About 2 years ago I purchased at auction some old Ace SF paperbacks. After setting aside the keepers for my collection and those to resell I had a few I was not sure what to do with. All were written by E.C. Tubb an author I knew by name but had never read any of his novels. The books were related in that they featured the same character, one Earl Dumarest, in a quest to find his home planet Earth. A check on ISFDB found that E.C. Tubb has written 33 books in the Dumarest series over the period 1967 - 2008. Most of the books have been out for print for over twenty years. At that point a wiser man would of set aside those books and moved on. Well, it didn't happen that way. I read the first book, and then the second and I was hooked.THE DUMAREST BOOK HUNT: Finding 33 out of print paperbacks by a relatively obscure British science-fiction author was a challenge. Honestly, without the Internet it would have been more than a challenge it would of been impossible. Even with the Internet it was "almost" impossible. Book 32 "The Return" was only published in a very limited edition. If you could find it for sale the cost was usually over $100 dollars. Well, a hundred bucks for a book was a budget buster but I nonetheless proceeded to acquire the other 32 volumes and would deal with volume 32 later. The science fiction publishing gods were smiling because in October 2011 volume 32 was released as an e-book for $7.98. It now sits within my Kindle where only I can read it.JUST WHAT IS IT ABOUT EARL DUMAREST:To be honest even the most die hard fans must admit that the Dumarest books are pure old school space opera escapist fiction - plain and simple. The series is an example of the most traditional of science fictional themes that has been used, and honestly overused, by way too many writers. Nonetheless space operas novels sell, writers loved to be published and, most importantly paid, so Tubb provided the marketplace a commodity that was in demand. Tubb, much to his credit and our reading delight, had a vivid imagination and in this series carefully developed his characters, his quest, and the numerous plot elements that kept the readers and the publishers asking for more.CAUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS:- You don't have to read all the novels to enjoy the series. Tubb and his published knew that most readers would never acquire all the books so many are quite frankly "stand alone" novels sharing a common background. As the series progresses there are references to events that took place in prior books but you can still enjoy that particular story without any prior knowledge.

The last book in the Earl Dumarest of Earth series. It gives about as clear picture of Earl Dumarest as was possible of the time. E.C. uses an interesting method to tell the story and then at the end he allows that character to die. thus protecting Earl and hiding him from supposed foes. The author left open the possibility of more books and stories to continue. But alas he has gone and unless there is someone who thinks they can do justice to the character and the story thread this will be all there is. I'm not as interested as I was in this saga as I was in the past, I also admit that I didn't read the whole novel just skimmed through some of the middle. But just wanted to see how E.C. Tubb tried to wrap it all up. By the way I have the whole collection from 1-31 if anyone is interested in acquiring them.

I started reading the Dumarest books in the 70s and enjoyed the series. I only read about the first 15 before I decided they had gotten too formalistic. I jumped to this book with the hope that it would bring some sort of conclusion to Earl's travels. I must say I was disappointed. The book is a look into some incidents of his early life and some rehashing of previous novels. The book left me totally unsatisfied and I did not like the ending. Maybe he intended to write more before died, but as it is the reader is left hanging. I gave it three stars based on the good feelings I had for the earlier books

Excellent progression of the extended plotline. While the narration varies in person, it is primarily, "first person."

rare book

After "The Return" I thought the saga was over and I was not very happy with that, as it was clear that Dumarest's quest was not over yet. So, I'm glad that I - just recently! - found out there was a another chapter written by Tubb. Since he died a couple of years ago, this must really have been the last in a series that spans over 30 years...

The last adventure of Dumarest.No need to describe him.I had to read it in english because there is no translation in french.

Leaves lot of loose ends with no real closure of the Cyclan, appears to have been written just to end the series.