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

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,