"E. C. Tubb - Dumarest 32 - The Return" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tubb E. C)

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