Tubb, E.C. - Dumarest 32 - The Return

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THE RETURN Dumarest

of Terra #32 by E.C.

Tubb

Acknowledgments:

Tubb

Dedication:

To Phil Harbottle, who has accompanied Dumarest all the

way.

Turner.

"Postscript to the Dumarest Saga," by Philip Harbottle.

Typesetting by Sean Alan Wallace.

Printing History:

Vaugirard (France): 1992 Gryphon: First English (Revised)

Edition: May 1997

ISBN: 0-936071-83-4 regular trade pb $20.00 ISBN:

0-936071-84-2 signed/* limited $40.00

A Gryphon Books Original!

This is the First English Language Edition and the First

American Edition!

Additional copies of this book can be ordered for $20.00 or

$40.00 each plus $2 per book from the publisher:

Gryphon Publications

PO Box 209

Brooklyn, N.Y. 11228-0209 USA

Introduction to The Return by E.C. Tubb

In a way it all started back in 1957 when I wrote a short story,

The Bells of Acheron , which dealt with a party of tourists

visiting a selection of worlds with unusual features. That of

Acheron was a deep, spacious valley filled with a mass of growths

each of varying size and all bearing a host of seed pods ranging

in size from small to enormous. The soil was loaded with silicon,

the pods were of glass and, at dawn and dusk when gentle winds

stirred the valley each pod responded to the impact of the seeds

it contained. The result was music which covered the entire

aural spectrum, 'white noise' which held every sound ever heard

and which could be shaped by the mind to form words, prayers,

songs, pleas — a threnody born in the subconscious and holding

a subtle attraction and a deadly threat.

A story, published, later anthologized, but relegated to the

stature of 'ghost' — a thing done and set aside in the face of other

work.

Ten years later that ghost rose again — and it was not alone.

When Earl Dumarest rose from the casket in which he'd lain

doped, frozen and ninety percent dead, he couldn't have known

what he had started, and neither did I. I was writing an

adventure novel and had created a character who would play a

prominent part. I had no suspicion, then, that we would travel

together in 32 books over the next eighteen years.

Like any strong character, Dumarest quickly developed a life

of his own. To be believable he had to be consistent in the way he

thought, behaved and evaluated data. The things which made

him, the attributes he had been given, the motives which drove

him, dictated the actions he took and his response to events in

which he became embroiled.

Much was made clear at the very beginning. Dumarest had

ridden as he had, a Low passage, risking the fifteen percent

death rate, for the sake of cheap travel. A traveler at the bottom

of the heap to whom poverty, while a perpetual danger, was no

stranger. An unexpected diversion had dumped him on the last

kind of world he had wanted to visit. Gath, a tourist attraction,

with a soaring range of mountains fretted, worn, shaped,

channeled, pierced and funneled into the resemblance of a

monstrous organ which, like the plants of Acheron, when

impacted by the wind, filled, the air with a mind-churning

medley of 'white noise'. But on Gath the storms were violent, the

sounds they produced strong enough to induce insanity and

death. A harsh world as savage as the society in which he found

himself. A bleak, dead-end world. One devoid of charity, offering

no employment, no hope. Without money it was impossible to

book passage and escape to another world. Without money he

would starve,

Dumarest had learned in the hard school of experience and he

came equipped with certain attributes. He had very fast reflexes,

he carried a knife and knew how to use it, he wore traveler's garb

which, because of the metal mesh buried within the thermal

plastic, gave him protection against the lash of a claw, the rip of

thorns, the cut and thrust of edged weapons. Most important of

all, he had an overriding determination to survive no matter

what the cost.

On Gath that wasn't easy, but he managed and the book sold

and was liked and…and…

Dumarest refused to be forgotten. A year later he was back in

another story, Derai, 1968, which tested him to the limit, costing

him love and security and leaving him alone to follow his own

path. To continue his search for the world on which he had been

born and from which he had run when little more than a child.

Earth, now a world of legend, its existence denied, derided, no

almanac carrying the all-important coordinates of its spacial

position.

Toyman , 1969, followed a year later followed by Kalin in

which Dumarest gained both love and a secret which was to

dominate his future years. One so powerful and important that it

made him the prey of the Cyclan who hunted him across the

galaxy with ruthless efficiency. The Jester At Scar, (1970),Lallia

(1971), Technos, (1972), and Veruchia, (1973), followed. Then

things changed.

Don Wollheim who had published the Dumarest books while

at Ace moved to set up his own company, DAW Books, and

wanted Dumarest to go with him. I was agreeable, I'd already

written the next adventure, Mayenne, but there was a minor

snag. DAW wanted to use a longer length than Ace had used, an

extra 10, 000 words a volume. This was a big advantage as it

permitted more freedom to expand and develop the plot. So

Mayenne had to be lengthened. I doubt if anyone could find just

where and how.

With DAW Dumarest gained new life and vigor and a new

element entered the scene. As the series grew longer many

readers began to show concern that Dumarest, despite finding

many clues, had yet to find Earth. I received many letters on the

subject and it was seriously suggested that I should write the

final book and put it safely by so that, should I die of accident or

whatever, the saga could be completed.

All were positive that, sooner or later, Dumarest would find

his home world. Well, almost all, as Don Wollheim later told me

he'd had a visitor in the early years of the series; an excitable

Russian who firmly announced that "Dumarest will never find

Earth!" An affirmation probably based on the popularity of

Dumarest and his adventures or his own hope that they would

never end. Unfortunately events decided otherwise.

In order to sustain interest and to maintain suspense Don

decided that Dumarest would find Earth — but not yet and only

in pretense. This was done in volume 27, Earth is Heaven,

(1982), in which the truth is only revealed at the very end of the

book. So Dumarest moved on for another 4 volumes until, in

1985, he finds the precious coordinates of Earth inscribed on the

walls in The Temple of Truth.

This was not intended to be the end of the series.

Dumarest was to find Earth and then continue his adventures

on a planet which, while his home world, would be strange and

terrible, monstrous and bizarre. Many questions needed to be

resolved — why had Earth been proscribed? By whom? Why had

its existence been denied? What dreadful threat did it harbor?

What mysteries lurked in its caverns, on its mountains, deep in

its valleys? Spurred by the lust for easy wealth others would

follow the coordinates Dumarest had found, eager to help

themselves to a mountain of legendary wealth. Their presence

would be resented by those who would combat the intrusion.

There would be battle, murder and sudden death. A host of

possibilities — now in limbo. The series did not continue. As far

as DAW Books were concerned The Temple of Truth ended the

adventures of Dumarest.

In all fairness I have to agree that, if the series had to end,

then that was as good a place as any. But I had already written

The Return and planned the beginning of the next volume. That

remains just a beginning, and The Return remained a 'lost book'

until 1992 when it, together with all other 31 volumes were

published in France. It seemed that it would stay 'lost' as far as

an English publication was concerned. Now, happily, three

decades since Dumarest rose from his casket, you can travel with

him to find his home.

I hope you will enjoy the journey.

— E.C. Tubb, London, July 1996

POSTSCRIPT TO THE DUMAREST

SAGA by Philip Harbottle

Edwin Charles Tubb ("E.C. Tubb") was one of a select group of

young British writers who emerged after the second world war

and helped establish science fiction in Great Britain. A prolific

novelist and contributor to the burgeoning sf magazines, he soon

became equally well established in America, appearing in such

magazines as Astounding/Analog, and Galaxy. In 1956 he began

a long association with American book editor Donald A.

Wollheim, who was to publish numerous novels by Tubb, most

notably those featuring "Earl Dumarest," and his quest to find

his home planet, Earth.

The Dumarest saga was Tubb's greatest commercial success.

The early novels in particular, were reprinted several times in

both the USA and the UK, and the series has been translated

around the world, from France to Japan.

Initially warmly received by even the most acerbic critics, as

the series continued the praise became qualified by a note of

exasperation as Dumarest failed to find Earth. The more sensible

end of the critical spectrum was typified by Thomas Easton,

Analog's regular book reviewer:

"…the Dumarest series is too blamed long. When it was new, I

looked forward to six or eight more books before a final answer.

Now that it is stretching toward two dozen, I am getting

impatient. Come on, Tubb! Give the man a break!"

That was written in 1981. Two years and five books later,

Easton wrote:

"All his search to date has been fruitless. All his apparent

progress futile. He has to do it all over again. The tale will go on,

and on. How does the reader react? There's a certain wry

appreciation for being had well. But that doesn't last nearly as

long as my irritated, impatient, 'Oh, no! There's more!' Yet the

series sells — so many people seem to love reliable repetition.

Perhaps we should call the Dumarest saga the soap opera of

science fiction and be done with it."

Easton clearly shared the general critical opinion that

Dumarest had to reach Earth. But was this necessarily true?

Tubb, like many another freelance writer, had battled for

years with the problem of finding a steady market. There is

nothing more soul-destroying (and economically

life-threatening) than for a writer to labor on a novel which does

not sell. The science fiction market has always been a precarious

one, in that a relative handful of individuals control the destinies

of magazines and publishing houses — and, by extension,

authors. Writers who personally fall foul of an editor can find

their market withdrawn; others who curry mutual favors and

scratch a few backs can see their careers secured or helped

along. Most literary production has to be tailored to individual

editorial tastes, or else aimed at a guaranteed waiting market, as

perceived by the publisher. All of which vagaries are cheerfully

accepted by most journeymen writers who regard it as 'writing

for the market.'

John Russell Fearn spent years trying to find a reliable

publisher, writing for literally dozens of editors, in dozens of

styles, under dozens of names. All proved to be shifting sand,

until Fearn achieved avast personal following with readers of the

Toronto Star Weekly (with a regular readership in excess of

900,000) for his Golden Amazon series. The Star Weekly

published 52 weekly novels a year, of all types: mysteries,

detectives, adventure, and romance; it had a large female

readership. Until Fearn began contributing they rarely used sf.

At first, Fearn managed to sell to them mysteries and westerns,

and a number of straight sf novels, but sold three times as many

Amazon stories. An examination of Fearn's correspondence with

the editor of the Star Weekly highlights a dilemma facing all

writers. In 1959, along with his latest Amazon story, Fearn had

submitted a superb straight sf novel, Land's End-Labrador.

Despite the quality of the latter story, it was rejected, but the

editor's letter continued, regarding the Amazon novel:

"I feel sure that this will be all right as it is an Amazon story

and there is a big readership for those."

All of Fearn's subsequent published novels with the Star

Weekly were Amazon stories, in which the Amazon traveled

through interstellar space, from planet to planet —just like

Dumarest!

A prolific writer, Tubb had published dozens of novels in his

early career, but with almost as many publishers. He had to

battle with a fickle and fraught market place. As his Dumarest

series progressed, its background became more and more solid,

and real. Tubb realized that it could be used as a template for all

kinds of science fiction situations. The underlying concept of

Dumarest traveling from world to world offered tremendous

scope. It offered a means to explore and invent different

ecologies and cultures. As a traveler, he could meet a vast range

of varied and interesting characters —scientists, idealists,

peasants, princes, criminals, fanatics, beggars, philosophers,

cripples, children, soldiers, saints and sinners, villains and

heroes, and an endless variety of fascinating women. The

character of Dumarest himself grew and deepened from book to

book, until he became a character of considerable depth: he

could be a ruthless killer (but only if his life or that of a loved one

depended on it), but he could also be compassionate to others,

and a champion of children and those less fortunate than

himself. Dumarest, in fact, grew into the composite of all Tubb's

earlier heroes — a galactic Every man, but with a convincing

logical consistency. He never did anything out of character, but

new facets were added with each novel. There was hardly a plot,

character, or situation Tubb could conceive that could not be

incorporated into a Dumarest novel.

Tubb had a choice. He could end the Dumarest series in favor

of a succession of one-off novels, and try to sell them, or he could

write them as a Dumarest and be reasonably sure of a sale and

worldwide subsidiary sales.

Tubb, in fact, did both continue to write Dumarest and to

create non-Dumarest novels (he even created other character

series). Dumarest continued for eighteen years, settling at two

novels per year. In an interview about DAW Books in the early

1980's, Donald A. Wollheim was asked how long the Dumarest

series was to continue. Wollheim's reply was revealing:

"Obviously, as long as I'll buy them and as long as people will

keep buying them. I'm sure that E.C. Tubb is not planning to end

it, because it's too profitable.they have a nice following. As far as

I'm concerned, they can go on indefinitely… You know, Tubb, if

he's in his right mind, will never have this man [Dumarest] find

Earth…"

—(Sense of Wonder, Oryx Press 1985)

Wollheim, always the shrewdest of operators in the sf market

place, was happy for Tubb to continue writing Dumarest

adventures, and indeed actively encouraged him to do so.

Critics brought to the later Dumarest novels a built-in

prejudice based on their own belief that Dumarest had to find

Earth. But anyone who reads them objectively will find that the

novels have a range of themes and ideas that can be enjoyed as a

one-off novel, and whether Dumarest goes forwards, backwards,

or sideways in his quest to find Earth does not particularly

matter.

Not sufficiently acknowledged is the fact that even within the

Dumarest mythos itself, there was considerable development and

advancement of the underlying plot, as in, for example, the

mysterious degeneration of the cyber brains. The discovery of the

Original People credo, and the ingenious explorations of myths

and legends, exemplified in the angels and demons in Earth Is

Heaven. And there was also a gradual tightening of the

underlying strands of mystery as to the relationship of the Cyclan

to the Earth, and the conspiracy to remove all clues to Earth's

location from official data banks. Earth is proscribed — a pariah

planet. Why? Herein lies the answer to those bone-headed

smartass critics who wondered why the Cyclan didn't just lay a

trail to Earth in order to find and trap Dumarest. There

obviously had to be a reason, and the critics put their feet in

their mouths by their temerity in suggesting that Tubb had

simply slipped up, or was too stupid to realize his obvious

mistake. As usual, he was way ahead of them.

But it would appear that an enlightened outlook was beyond

most critics, and it may have been their whinings and snipings

that abruptly prompted Wollheim to ask Tubb to bring the series

to a conclusion. And therein lies the rub, and considerable irony.

Originally, Tubb had never intended the search for Earth to

continue indefinitely. That came about because of commercial

considerations and editorial directives. As I conjectured in 1979,

writing in The Science Fiction Collector (No. 8), once Dumarest

reached Earth, "then arising out of the revelations that follow

will come a new quest for Dumarest, and a new cycle of

adventures (on Earth) will begin all over again." Tubb has

recently confirmed this. So that, when Wollheim asked for the

series to come to a final conclusion in a single climactic novel, he

was asking the impossible. The logical unraveling of the strands

of mystery Tubb had carefully laid out required several novels at

least. And why should he kill off his most successful character

when there was logically no need for him to do so?

Sadly, the impasse with DAW Books was never resolved, and

the subsequent illness of Wollheim in 1985, put paid to any

possibility that it might be. With the transfer of control and

power that year, Wollheim's heirs then took DAW Books into

radical new feminist directions, eschewing macho male heroes

completely. In the UK, Arrow/Legend, who had always been a

few years behind with the reprinting of the Dumarest canon, had

the perfect opportunity to continue the series when they

eventually published numbers 30 and 31 as a double volume in

1989. They could, and should, have published no. 32, and

commissioned the concluding part of the cycle, Dumarest on

Earth. That they failed to do so is as regrettable as it is

inexplicable. The suspicion has to be of editorial and/or

corporate changes, with a personal editorial agenda switch that

has so bedeviled science fiction authorship. The 32nd novel did

eventually appear in print in 1992 —but in the French language.

French critics have always been independently minded, and they

recognized the true quality of the Dumarest series. This

prompted Gerard de Villiers (Plon/ GECP Publishing) to begin

printing the entire series from number one, in 1986. Their

beautiful uniform editions were issued under the banner L

'Aventurier des Etoiles , with high quality translations by

Richard F. Nolane and others. They were a great success.

In the sizzling summer of 1995,I went on holiday to New York,

where the daily temperature hovered above 90 degrees

Fahrenheit. Whilst drinking cool root beer in a Brooklyn diner

with publisher Gary Lovisi and dealer Chris Eckhoff, I narrated

the above events, with more than a few colorful expletives.

Deploring the non-publication of The Return in English, I urged

them to spread the word of its existence to New York publishers.

Whether it was the heat, the effect of root beer, my impassioned

oratory, or Gary's own shrewd publishing instinct, or a mixture

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