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Dumarest of Terra #7
Technos
"A dying man's last words brought Dumarest to Loame, 'the garden planet'. Its name was a mockery--Loame's gentle citizens could only watch in horror as their fields were ravaged by a mutated vine that destroyed all it touched. They were sure the acid-dripping vine was the work of their enemy world, Technos.
Technos was not a world open to outsiders--but Dumarest is not a man who takes no for an answer. As a fugitive, as a prisoner of war, as the captive bedmate of a queen, he continues his quest, seeking an answer to the question that his his life's obsesson: 'Have you ever heard of a planet called _Earth_?'"
Technos was not a world open to outsiders--but Dumarest is not a man who takes no for an answer. As a fugitive, as a prisoner of war, as the captive bedmate of a queen, he continues his quest, seeking an answer to the question that his his life's obsesson: 'Have you ever heard of a planet called _Earth_?'"
154 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1972
13 people are currently reading
80 people want to read
About the author
E.C. Tubb
382 books85 followersEdwin Charles Tubb was a writer of science fiction, fantasy and western novels. He published over 140 novels and 230 short stories and novellas, and is best known for The Dumarest Saga (US collective title: Dumarest of Terra) an epic science-fiction saga set in the far future.
Much of Tubb's work has been written under pseudonyms including Gregory Kern, Carl Maddox, Alan Guthrie, Eric Storm and George Holt. He has used 58 pen names over five decades of writing although some of these were publishers' house names also used by other writers: Volsted Gridban (along with John Russell Fearn), Gill Hunt (with John Brunner and Dennis Hughes), King Lang (with George Hay and John W Jennison), Roy Sheldon (with H. J. Campbell) and Brian Shaw. Tubb's Charles Grey alias was solely his own and acquired a big following in the early 1950s.
An avid reader of pulp science-fiction and fantasy in his youth, Tubb found that he had a particular talent as a writer of stories in that genre when his short story 'No Short Cuts' was published in New Worlds magazine in 1951. He opted for a full-time career as a writer and soon became renowned for the speed and diversity of his output.
Tubb contributed to many of the science fiction magazines of the 1950s including Futuristic Science Stories, Science Fantasy, Nebula and Galaxy Science Fiction. He contributed heavily to Authentic Science Fiction editing the magazine for nearly two years, from February 1956 until it folded in October 1957. During this time, he found it so difficult to find good writers to contribute to the magazine, that he often wrote most of the stories himself under a variety of pseudonyms: one issue of Authentic was written entirely by Tubb, including the letters column.
His main work in the science fiction genre, the Dumarest series, appeared from 1967 to 1985, with two final volumes in 1997 and 2008. His second major series, the Cap Kennedy series, was written from 1973 to 1983.
In recent years Tubb updated many of his 1950s science fiction novels for 21st century readers.
Tubb was one of the co-founders of the British Science Fiction Association.
Much of Tubb's work has been written under pseudonyms including Gregory Kern, Carl Maddox, Alan Guthrie, Eric Storm and George Holt. He has used 58 pen names over five decades of writing although some of these were publishers' house names also used by other writers: Volsted Gridban (along with John Russell Fearn), Gill Hunt (with John Brunner and Dennis Hughes), King Lang (with George Hay and John W Jennison), Roy Sheldon (with H. J. Campbell) and Brian Shaw. Tubb's Charles Grey alias was solely his own and acquired a big following in the early 1950s.
An avid reader of pulp science-fiction and fantasy in his youth, Tubb found that he had a particular talent as a writer of stories in that genre when his short story 'No Short Cuts' was published in New Worlds magazine in 1951. He opted for a full-time career as a writer and soon became renowned for the speed and diversity of his output.
Tubb contributed to many of the science fiction magazines of the 1950s including Futuristic Science Stories, Science Fantasy, Nebula and Galaxy Science Fiction. He contributed heavily to Authentic Science Fiction editing the magazine for nearly two years, from February 1956 until it folded in October 1957. During this time, he found it so difficult to find good writers to contribute to the magazine, that he often wrote most of the stories himself under a variety of pseudonyms: one issue of Authentic was written entirely by Tubb, including the letters column.
His main work in the science fiction genre, the Dumarest series, appeared from 1967 to 1985, with two final volumes in 1997 and 2008. His second major series, the Cap Kennedy series, was written from 1973 to 1983.
In recent years Tubb updated many of his 1950s science fiction novels for 21st century readers.
Tubb was one of the co-founders of the British Science Fiction Association.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
September 27, 2019
after taking a bit of a breather with the unusually moody and contemplative prior novel Lallia, Tubb and his protagonist Earl Dumarest are back at the fast-paced adventures full of action! action! action! with many asides on the hypocrisy and eventual downward trajectories of certain governmental systems. two worlds in particular are given critical scrutiny: the rural garden planet Loame, where territorial property owners provide work, happiness, and infantilization to their cheerful and none too bright workers; the secrecy-obsessed "meritocracy" Technos which demands increasing levels of education for any upwardly mobile citizen while carefully keeping its true masters in power. Earl and Tubb view both places with a certain degree of scorn, although with a bit of fondness for poor Loame, which sounds like a pleasant place to live if you are a dumbass. Earl himself is of course no dumbass, at one point bullying a scientist into starting a revolution on Technos while off-handedly making sure the same happens on Loame. Tubb's writing is brisk and sharp and competent, as always; Earl is pleasant and determined and constantly stripped of his clothes by various people hungry for that Dumarest bod, as always. overall another fun entry in this smart, swiftly-paced, and very lengthy series.
April 20, 2021
Dumarest has traced the lost planet of Earth to one remote corner of the galaxy, but he still lacks its precise coordinates.
Somewhere on the cyber-dominated police-world of Technos lives the mysterious woman who can help him. And the only way to find her is to become a slave . . .
Like most Earl Dumarest (the protagonist) stories this one is a self-contained adventure, but throughout the series, he picks up clues to the location of his home world, Earth.
The stories are set in a far future galactic culture that is fragmented and without any central government. Dumarest was born on Earth, but had stowed away on a spaceship when he was a young boy and was caught. Although a stowaway discovered on a spaceship was typically ejected to space, the captain took pity on the boy and allowed him to work and travel on the ship. When the story opens in The Winds of Gath, Dumarest has traveled so long and so far that he does not know how to return to his home planet and no-one has ever heard of it, other than as a myth or legend.
It becomes clear that someone or something has deliberately concealed Earth's location. The Cyclan, an organization of humans surgically altered to be emotionless (known as Cybers), and on occasion able to link with the brains of previously living Cybers (the better to think logically), seem determined to stop him from finding Earth. Additionally, the Cyclan seeks a scientific discovery that Dumarest possesses, stolen from them and passed to him by a dying thief, which would vastly increase their already considerable power.
Technos rattles along, following the well trodden Dumarest blueprint. Thoroughly enjoyable.
Somewhere on the cyber-dominated police-world of Technos lives the mysterious woman who can help him. And the only way to find her is to become a slave . . .
Like most Earl Dumarest (the protagonist) stories this one is a self-contained adventure, but throughout the series, he picks up clues to the location of his home world, Earth.
The stories are set in a far future galactic culture that is fragmented and without any central government. Dumarest was born on Earth, but had stowed away on a spaceship when he was a young boy and was caught. Although a stowaway discovered on a spaceship was typically ejected to space, the captain took pity on the boy and allowed him to work and travel on the ship. When the story opens in The Winds of Gath, Dumarest has traveled so long and so far that he does not know how to return to his home planet and no-one has ever heard of it, other than as a myth or legend.
It becomes clear that someone or something has deliberately concealed Earth's location. The Cyclan, an organization of humans surgically altered to be emotionless (known as Cybers), and on occasion able to link with the brains of previously living Cybers (the better to think logically), seem determined to stop him from finding Earth. Additionally, the Cyclan seeks a scientific discovery that Dumarest possesses, stolen from them and passed to him by a dying thief, which would vastly increase their already considerable power.
Technos rattles along, following the well trodden Dumarest blueprint. Thoroughly enjoyable.
July 6, 2017
Please give me a helpful vote on Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/review/R2AY0QO...
This is book 7 of the Dumarest series, and, by this time, Tubb has developed the formula that would enable him to turn out two Dumarest stories each year for fifteen years. Be assured that the fact that these stories are formulaic doesn' stop them from being great fun, in part because Tubb drops a tidbit of information at each step of the way.
As with all of these serial stories during this time period, the conflict of the story is premised around a "push/pull" motivation. The "pull" is that Earl Dumarest is looking for his long-lost birth planet of Earth. The "push" is the fact that he is being pursued by the emotionless, logical, scarlet-clad manipulating quasi-religious order of the Cyclan. The Cyclan are pursuing Dumarest because he was given the formula for the "Affinity Twin" secret in [[ASIN:B00H6SOV1S Kalin: The Dumarest Saga Book 4]] , three books back, and the Cyclan really, really want it, but we won't know why for about another ten to fifteen books.
This book opens on a planet that is there only for the purpose of setting the hook. The hook this time comes from a dying friend who tells Dumarest that someone on his home world may know something about Earth. So, off Dumarest goes to the second world, that is under biological attack by a third world named Technos. Dumarest is stymied on the second world but gets information that what he wants is on Technos, so off he goes, under cover, into what seems like a police state.
There is a crazy world-leader (the "Technarch) and a back-biting conspiring oligarchy and a Cyclan to stir the mix. Dumarest is nearly captured, but for the second time is saved by a rutting minx of a woman. Naturally he's pushed into life or death situations, which he can only survive because of his will to power and his amazing reflexes.
I've made the point in my previous reviews that the Dumarest series is basically Film Noir as science fiction. Dumarest is the man of integrity who never compromises himself in a world without values, where virtually everyone. particularly the comfortable at the top of the heap, are loathsome, self-seeking hypocrites. You get that in spades in this one with the female character of Mada Grist, who is a woman on the ruling council, who saves Dumarest from discovery, heals him when he nearly kills himself, beds him and then offers him the job of assassinating the Technarch, which Dumarest refuses.
The don't get more fatale, then the femmes in Dumarest's universe.
The tidbit this time that moves the series along a micrometer is that Dumarest learns the constellations of the Zodiac.
It is a long road to Book 29, but Dumarest is solidly on it.
This is book 7 of the Dumarest series, and, by this time, Tubb has developed the formula that would enable him to turn out two Dumarest stories each year for fifteen years. Be assured that the fact that these stories are formulaic doesn' stop them from being great fun, in part because Tubb drops a tidbit of information at each step of the way.
As with all of these serial stories during this time period, the conflict of the story is premised around a "push/pull" motivation. The "pull" is that Earl Dumarest is looking for his long-lost birth planet of Earth. The "push" is the fact that he is being pursued by the emotionless, logical, scarlet-clad manipulating quasi-religious order of the Cyclan. The Cyclan are pursuing Dumarest because he was given the formula for the "Affinity Twin" secret in [[ASIN:B00H6SOV1S Kalin: The Dumarest Saga Book 4]] , three books back, and the Cyclan really, really want it, but we won't know why for about another ten to fifteen books.
This book opens on a planet that is there only for the purpose of setting the hook. The hook this time comes from a dying friend who tells Dumarest that someone on his home world may know something about Earth. So, off Dumarest goes to the second world, that is under biological attack by a third world named Technos. Dumarest is stymied on the second world but gets information that what he wants is on Technos, so off he goes, under cover, into what seems like a police state.
There is a crazy world-leader (the "Technarch) and a back-biting conspiring oligarchy and a Cyclan to stir the mix. Dumarest is nearly captured, but for the second time is saved by a rutting minx of a woman. Naturally he's pushed into life or death situations, which he can only survive because of his will to power and his amazing reflexes.
I've made the point in my previous reviews that the Dumarest series is basically Film Noir as science fiction. Dumarest is the man of integrity who never compromises himself in a world without values, where virtually everyone. particularly the comfortable at the top of the heap, are loathsome, self-seeking hypocrites. You get that in spades in this one with the female character of Mada Grist, who is a woman on the ruling council, who saves Dumarest from discovery, heals him when he nearly kills himself, beds him and then offers him the job of assassinating the Technarch, which Dumarest refuses.
The don't get more fatale, then the femmes in Dumarest's universe.
The tidbit this time that moves the series along a micrometer is that Dumarest learns the constellations of the Zodiac.
It is a long road to Book 29, but Dumarest is solidly on it.
January 3, 2015
In fulfilling a promise to a dying friend, Earl Dumarest ends up on the world of Technos.
This book had a few differences to many other of the Dumarest sage; there were no mines, no expeditions to deserted highly dangerous places on strange worlds and no isolated civilisations that must be reached by dint of great effort and escaped by even grater effort.
Instead, here Earl is fleeing the law in a densely settled world when he is trapped by the insane leader he is interrogated and eventually run through an experimental maze. That he triumphs in the end, goes without saying.
I was looking forward to seeing what Tubb made of a high tech world, the technology can make or break an older sci-fi novel. In fact the actual technology and science are never spelled out. There are coy mentions of the transport, communication, computing, medical and scientific details of the world but nothing explicit.
I think that was probably a wise move, knowing they are there we can apply our imagination to them, if they were spelled out the chance is higher that they could be badly dated. Anyhow, I liked this book for its differences to the rest of the series as much as I liked it for all the similarities.
This book had a few differences to many other of the Dumarest sage; there were no mines, no expeditions to deserted highly dangerous places on strange worlds and no isolated civilisations that must be reached by dint of great effort and escaped by even grater effort.
Instead, here Earl is fleeing the law in a densely settled world when he is trapped by the insane leader he is interrogated and eventually run through an experimental maze. That he triumphs in the end, goes without saying.
I was looking forward to seeing what Tubb made of a high tech world, the technology can make or break an older sci-fi novel. In fact the actual technology and science are never spelled out. There are coy mentions of the transport, communication, computing, medical and scientific details of the world but nothing explicit.
I think that was probably a wise move, knowing they are there we can apply our imagination to them, if they were spelled out the chance is higher that they could be badly dated. Anyhow, I liked this book for its differences to the rest of the series as much as I liked it for all the similarities.
February 4, 2021
I'm still enjoying these Dumarest novels, but Technos, unfortunately is the weakest one so far. As always, Earl Dumarest follows his single-minded pursuit for information regarding Earth and stumbles into the local planet's political intrigue. For several books, he's been traveling the backwaters of the galaxy, but for once he finds himself in "civilization" - the world Technos is an academic meritocracy with its own little empire of other vassal worlds. Unlike the previous books in the series, none of this volume's secondary characters are in any way sympathetic, and their stories come across as undercooked. What's worse, Dumarest's involvement in the story relies on a series of increasingly implausible coincidences.
Where the book does work is as a character study of Dumarest himself, as contrasted to the more weak-willed and venal characters he interacts with. The book paints a portrait of Dumarest as a cunning man for whom survival is a super-power, and it's for this very trait for which he is hunted.
Where the book does work is as a character study of Dumarest himself, as contrasted to the more weak-willed and venal characters he interacts with. The book paints a portrait of Dumarest as a cunning man for whom survival is a super-power, and it's for this very trait for which he is hunted.
April 7, 2025
Feudalistic Agriculture vs. Elite Science and Technology, with Kibitzing from the Cyborgs
The seventh Dumarest novel by E. C. Tubb, Technos (1972), starts with Earl Dumarest on yet another harsh dead-end planet, when a friend who’s been mortally wounded trying to steal money for passage off-world asks him to take his dying message to his brother on Loame. Earl agrees, partly because he’s loyal to his friends and partly because the man said that a man on Loame might have intel on Earth, and Earl’s life consists of traveling through the galaxy from planet to planet following one false lead after another in his never-ending quest for Earth (which almost nobody’s heard of or believes exists, because, after all, who’d name their world “Earth”?)
Like the previous six Dumarest novels, this one is compact, fast-paced, political, pulpy space opera, as Earl learns firsthand about Loame and the world that has enslaved it, Technos. Loame has an agricultural-based feudal society under the sway of the education (science and technology)-based dictatorship of Technos (names can be obvious in Tubb novels). Technos does have a Council, but the Technarch is grabbing more and more power while forcing Councilors to resign.
When Loame refused to help Technos in its war of expansion against another world, Technos released a plague of super weeds (“thorge”) onto the tributary world, overrunning farm after farm and ruining the world’s economy. Technos has also imposed a tribute of thousands and thousands of Loame’s healthy young men and women, whose fate on Technos is unknown. The cover story is that they’re given good educations and useful work, but that smells funny. Are they used as servants or laborers or janissaries or experimental subjects?
As in other Dumarest novels, in addition to Earl (who is not SO much fun to spend time with, being such a serious, practical, laconic, and single-minded guy), Tubb here introduces various point of view characters. The most interesting of these is Mada Grist, a woman on the Council of Technos who longingly remembers the romances of her younger university days, when she took the monotrain with the riffraff to save money while she studied hard to increase her career prospects. When she gazes lovingly on her luscious, youthful body in the mirror, while musing that a lover from her youth must have grandkids now, we sense a disjunction: something unpleasant on Technos. And were she to meet Earl, loose on Technos without the proper paperwork, what might she or he do?
The story’s themes concern some negative examples for human society, one a paternalistic feudal system that produces healthy but sheep-like ignorant people, the other a hyper-educated elite society that has forgotten how to enjoy life, create meaningful art, and be humane. Then there are the Cyclan Cybers advising and manipulating human societies, their ultimate goal being to become brains disencumbered by bodies and belonging to a vast gestalt hive-mind that would run the galaxy much better than imperfect humans ever could. Nowhere do we find an example of a society wherein people can be free and independent and healthy and educated and happy and healthy. One senses that Tubb was not a happy man…
The novel has plenty of action scenes (Earl is extraordinarily fast and efficient in hand-to-hand combat), but they don’t add up somehow. Certain motifs or situations repeat from previous novels, too, like the malevolent Cyclan antagonists, trap-filled mazes, expendable friends, and a touch of intimate female companionship here and there (while Earl never forgets his lost true love, Kalin, ever with him in the form of the red ring she gave him).
There is plenty of sexist writing, too. Tubb regularly describes women from a hetero male gaze in which voluptuous female body parts press seductively against sheer gowns, and women are rarely power players in his science fictional societies.
Another thing occurred to me while reading this short novel: Tubb is not into children! I think he has not written a single scene from a child’s point of view so far in his series, and maybe no child characters at all.
This entry was a diverting but not especially fulfilling or memorable read. The themes don’t punch as much as in earlier books; Earl’s plight isn’t as grueling; the emotional force is less potent than in, say, Kalin.
And yet I will surely continue Earl’s journey in the eighth novel in the series, partly because the books are short and unpredictable (well, except for Earl always ending up alone and ready to go to the next world on his never-ending quest for Earth) and because they always feature some vivid descriptions, like--
“Massed vines, inextricably interwoven, rioted in savage fecundity in an unbroken carpet toward the northern horizon, the sickly color blotched with the scarlet of blooms, the puffing white of fruiting pods, the whole bristling with thorns.”
And some cool bleak lines, like—
“Give a man a uniform … give him a gun and you create a monster.”
The seventh Dumarest novel by E. C. Tubb, Technos (1972), starts with Earl Dumarest on yet another harsh dead-end planet, when a friend who’s been mortally wounded trying to steal money for passage off-world asks him to take his dying message to his brother on Loame. Earl agrees, partly because he’s loyal to his friends and partly because the man said that a man on Loame might have intel on Earth, and Earl’s life consists of traveling through the galaxy from planet to planet following one false lead after another in his never-ending quest for Earth (which almost nobody’s heard of or believes exists, because, after all, who’d name their world “Earth”?)
Like the previous six Dumarest novels, this one is compact, fast-paced, political, pulpy space opera, as Earl learns firsthand about Loame and the world that has enslaved it, Technos. Loame has an agricultural-based feudal society under the sway of the education (science and technology)-based dictatorship of Technos (names can be obvious in Tubb novels). Technos does have a Council, but the Technarch is grabbing more and more power while forcing Councilors to resign.
When Loame refused to help Technos in its war of expansion against another world, Technos released a plague of super weeds (“thorge”) onto the tributary world, overrunning farm after farm and ruining the world’s economy. Technos has also imposed a tribute of thousands and thousands of Loame’s healthy young men and women, whose fate on Technos is unknown. The cover story is that they’re given good educations and useful work, but that smells funny. Are they used as servants or laborers or janissaries or experimental subjects?
As in other Dumarest novels, in addition to Earl (who is not SO much fun to spend time with, being such a serious, practical, laconic, and single-minded guy), Tubb here introduces various point of view characters. The most interesting of these is Mada Grist, a woman on the Council of Technos who longingly remembers the romances of her younger university days, when she took the monotrain with the riffraff to save money while she studied hard to increase her career prospects. When she gazes lovingly on her luscious, youthful body in the mirror, while musing that a lover from her youth must have grandkids now, we sense a disjunction: something unpleasant on Technos. And were she to meet Earl, loose on Technos without the proper paperwork, what might she or he do?
The story’s themes concern some negative examples for human society, one a paternalistic feudal system that produces healthy but sheep-like ignorant people, the other a hyper-educated elite society that has forgotten how to enjoy life, create meaningful art, and be humane. Then there are the Cyclan Cybers advising and manipulating human societies, their ultimate goal being to become brains disencumbered by bodies and belonging to a vast gestalt hive-mind that would run the galaxy much better than imperfect humans ever could. Nowhere do we find an example of a society wherein people can be free and independent and healthy and educated and happy and healthy. One senses that Tubb was not a happy man…
The novel has plenty of action scenes (Earl is extraordinarily fast and efficient in hand-to-hand combat), but they don’t add up somehow. Certain motifs or situations repeat from previous novels, too, like the malevolent Cyclan antagonists, trap-filled mazes, expendable friends, and a touch of intimate female companionship here and there (while Earl never forgets his lost true love, Kalin, ever with him in the form of the red ring she gave him).
There is plenty of sexist writing, too. Tubb regularly describes women from a hetero male gaze in which voluptuous female body parts press seductively against sheer gowns, and women are rarely power players in his science fictional societies.
Another thing occurred to me while reading this short novel: Tubb is not into children! I think he has not written a single scene from a child’s point of view so far in his series, and maybe no child characters at all.
This entry was a diverting but not especially fulfilling or memorable read. The themes don’t punch as much as in earlier books; Earl’s plight isn’t as grueling; the emotional force is less potent than in, say, Kalin.
And yet I will surely continue Earl’s journey in the eighth novel in the series, partly because the books are short and unpredictable (well, except for Earl always ending up alone and ready to go to the next world on his never-ending quest for Earth) and because they always feature some vivid descriptions, like--
“Massed vines, inextricably interwoven, rioted in savage fecundity in an unbroken carpet toward the northern horizon, the sickly color blotched with the scarlet of blooms, the puffing white of fruiting pods, the whole bristling with thorns.”
And some cool bleak lines, like—
“Give a man a uniform … give him a gun and you create a monster.”
December 17, 2025
review of
E.C. Tubb's Technos
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - December 16, 2025
O. K. This is the 3rd bk by Tubb I've read, I've enjoyed them all. This was copyrighted 1972. I was born in 1953. I wonder if Tubb's work somehow exemplifies the imagination & ethos of my formative yrs. I was raised a Christinane & rejected that & became an atheist when I was 15. I discovered rock'n'roll when I was 13, especially psychedelic & other more complex versions of rock such as Frank Zappa's music. I started becoming politically aware when I was 16 & ran across the word anarchy or some derivation thereof & realized that I was a natural-born anarchist. I became opposed to the Vietnam War when I was a teenager & refused to register for the draft when I turned 18. I started hitchhiking around North America when I was 17. This bk features Dumarest as an ongoing protagonist, a person w/ ethics who travels around outer space trying to find his planet of birth, Earth. His character appeals to me, I wonder if there was a special emphasis on such characters at the time & that that's partially why he resonates w/ me. I imagine there've always been such heros but, somehow, he seems of MY time & place & era, an era where blind obedience had shuttled off a large number of young men my age to murder the Vietnamese.
""Blind obedience is never good," said Dumarest flatly. "Always a man must ask himself why he should obey. Because the one giving the order is older? Has greater wealth? Is in a position of authority? Commands respect because of his greater knowledge and experience? Unless these questions are asked the habit of obedience leads inevitably to mental slavery."" - p 9
Dumarest delivers a message to a man on a farming planet. There, he learns that a genetically modified plant has been introduced on the planet by imperialists from the planet Technos where the rulers want to subjugate the farmers. The plant is basically unconquerable & kills everything in its path. It's called "Thorge".
""We can't get rid of it," said Quendis as Dumarest straightened. "The third year stems are as thick as a man and the speed of growth is phenomenal. It seeds throughout the year aside from four months in winter and leeches the soil where it grows. It can be cut but the acid eats into the blades. If we burn it the flames release a poisonous vapor which sears the lungs and blisters the flesh. We can drag it out by the roots but if a fragment is left it grows again. It's a weed," he explained. "A mutated pest. Against it cultivated plants haven't a chance."" - p 26
Technos is closed off to immigration but they force immigration from people on other planets that they have plans for. Dumarest takes the place of one of those & smuggles himself on Technos that way. Once he gets there he discovers one aspect of the indoctrination used:
"Technos is a wonderful planet, its rulers wise, kind and understanding. It is a great thing to be able to serve Technos. Those who are chosen to do so are fortunate. You are fortunate. You are very . . .
"Dumarest rolled from his bunk and stood, head tilted, listening. The insidious voice came from all directions carried on the diffused light which illuminated the dormitory or transmitted by the metal supports of the bunks themselves. Its purpose was obvious; more conditioning to make the new arrivals obedient." - p 48
Naturally, Dumarest fights his way out of the situation & manages to burrow deeper into the capital itself where he discovers the more insidious side of Technos. &, yes, he's lucky to escape capture.
""Luck has an important part to play in survival," admitted the physician. "But it is too intangible for us to be able to isolate. If a man lives he is lucky because he has lived. But it takes more than luck to pass through the tests I have devised." He grunted as a red light flashed from the screen. "Six and a quarter minutes. Failure."" - p 94
Luck was an important factor in Tubb's Moon Base too. It pleases me that Tubb is exploring it again. Hearkening back to what I wrote at the beginning here about Tubb's hero seeming to be of "MY time & place & era" there's a part here where Dumarest escapes, temporarily, by ducking into a disposal chute. The 1st short story I wrote (when I was 13 in 1966 or 1967) was about a character trying to escape from a mental institiution by sliding down a laundry chute. See what I mean? It's like a zeitgeist to me.
E.C. Tubb's Technos
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - December 16, 2025
O. K. This is the 3rd bk by Tubb I've read, I've enjoyed them all. This was copyrighted 1972. I was born in 1953. I wonder if Tubb's work somehow exemplifies the imagination & ethos of my formative yrs. I was raised a Christinane & rejected that & became an atheist when I was 15. I discovered rock'n'roll when I was 13, especially psychedelic & other more complex versions of rock such as Frank Zappa's music. I started becoming politically aware when I was 16 & ran across the word anarchy or some derivation thereof & realized that I was a natural-born anarchist. I became opposed to the Vietnam War when I was a teenager & refused to register for the draft when I turned 18. I started hitchhiking around North America when I was 17. This bk features Dumarest as an ongoing protagonist, a person w/ ethics who travels around outer space trying to find his planet of birth, Earth. His character appeals to me, I wonder if there was a special emphasis on such characters at the time & that that's partially why he resonates w/ me. I imagine there've always been such heros but, somehow, he seems of MY time & place & era, an era where blind obedience had shuttled off a large number of young men my age to murder the Vietnamese.
""Blind obedience is never good," said Dumarest flatly. "Always a man must ask himself why he should obey. Because the one giving the order is older? Has greater wealth? Is in a position of authority? Commands respect because of his greater knowledge and experience? Unless these questions are asked the habit of obedience leads inevitably to mental slavery."" - p 9
Dumarest delivers a message to a man on a farming planet. There, he learns that a genetically modified plant has been introduced on the planet by imperialists from the planet Technos where the rulers want to subjugate the farmers. The plant is basically unconquerable & kills everything in its path. It's called "Thorge".
""We can't get rid of it," said Quendis as Dumarest straightened. "The third year stems are as thick as a man and the speed of growth is phenomenal. It seeds throughout the year aside from four months in winter and leeches the soil where it grows. It can be cut but the acid eats into the blades. If we burn it the flames release a poisonous vapor which sears the lungs and blisters the flesh. We can drag it out by the roots but if a fragment is left it grows again. It's a weed," he explained. "A mutated pest. Against it cultivated plants haven't a chance."" - p 26
Technos is closed off to immigration but they force immigration from people on other planets that they have plans for. Dumarest takes the place of one of those & smuggles himself on Technos that way. Once he gets there he discovers one aspect of the indoctrination used:
"Technos is a wonderful planet, its rulers wise, kind and understanding. It is a great thing to be able to serve Technos. Those who are chosen to do so are fortunate. You are fortunate. You are very . . .
"Dumarest rolled from his bunk and stood, head tilted, listening. The insidious voice came from all directions carried on the diffused light which illuminated the dormitory or transmitted by the metal supports of the bunks themselves. Its purpose was obvious; more conditioning to make the new arrivals obedient." - p 48
Naturally, Dumarest fights his way out of the situation & manages to burrow deeper into the capital itself where he discovers the more insidious side of Technos. &, yes, he's lucky to escape capture.
""Luck has an important part to play in survival," admitted the physician. "But it is too intangible for us to be able to isolate. If a man lives he is lucky because he has lived. But it takes more than luck to pass through the tests I have devised." He grunted as a red light flashed from the screen. "Six and a quarter minutes. Failure."" - p 94
Luck was an important factor in Tubb's Moon Base too. It pleases me that Tubb is exploring it again. Hearkening back to what I wrote at the beginning here about Tubb's hero seeming to be of "MY time & place & era" there's a part here where Dumarest escapes, temporarily, by ducking into a disposal chute. The 1st short story I wrote (when I was 13 in 1966 or 1967) was about a character trying to escape from a mental institiution by sliding down a laundry chute. See what I mean? It's like a zeitgeist to me.
April 4, 2023
Dumarest books continue hovering around 3 star mark. Sometimes worse--usually when a love interest is involved, and women are objectified a little bit more or when some paranormal mcguffin gets thrown into the plot--and sometimes better, when interesting ecologies are presented and smart political allusions are made. Overall, it is all quite entertaining if you can get over the dated premises and a universe in which science and development had apparently stopped with the invention of space travel and nobody had ever heard of basic evolutionary biology. A product of its times, it definitely is.
With that in mind, so far my least favourites are the aforementioned love stories in Kalin and Lallia and my favourite is The Jester at Scar for its nifty planetary ecology. This one could have been one of the 3.5 star selections as well, were it not for lazy reliance on coincidences and more blase approach to the deaths of bystanders than usual. But considering that these books are only a couple of hours of easy entertainment, it still beats watching some idiotic Hollywood attempt at science fiction.
With that in mind, so far my least favourites are the aforementioned love stories in Kalin and Lallia and my favourite is The Jester at Scar for its nifty planetary ecology. This one could have been one of the 3.5 star selections as well, were it not for lazy reliance on coincidences and more blase approach to the deaths of bystanders than usual. But considering that these books are only a couple of hours of easy entertainment, it still beats watching some idiotic Hollywood attempt at science fiction.
March 22, 2021
"Coincidence," she said calmly. "Well, it happens."
This is the first time I've read Technos (and the first of my missing volumes that I have bought to complete the series) and Elaine Delmayer's words on page 111 sum up how I feel about this book. There's just too much coincidence. Dumarest, looking for a single person on a teeming planet finds her just a short walk from where he starts looking, having already bumped into one of the book's major players. It's all a bit too easy. Although, to be fair, these books are very thin compared to today's doorstep volumes and Tubb did churn out around two a year.
Elsewhere, Earl's quest continues and he gains a major clue, the Cyclan up their search for him and the Church goes missing (breaking the formula slightly). Oh, and the Dumarest-related death of an innocent is brushed over very quickly.
Not bad, just not very substantial. And I may find myself thinking that again as my re-read continues.
This is the first time I've read Technos (and the first of my missing volumes that I have bought to complete the series) and Elaine Delmayer's words on page 111 sum up how I feel about this book. There's just too much coincidence. Dumarest, looking for a single person on a teeming planet finds her just a short walk from where he starts looking, having already bumped into one of the book's major players. It's all a bit too easy. Although, to be fair, these books are very thin compared to today's doorstep volumes and Tubb did churn out around two a year.
Elsewhere, Earl's quest continues and he gains a major clue, the Cyclan up their search for him and the Church goes missing (breaking the formula slightly). Oh, and the Dumarest-related death of an innocent is brushed over very quickly.
Not bad, just not very substantial. And I may find myself thinking that again as my re-read continues.
September 11, 2024
If you like the others in the series, you'll like this one.
At this point in the series, it finally seems that E. C. Tubb is comfortable with his readers.
The story is willing to jump over previously established themes and facts, and just roll with flow.
This books strong suits is the titular planet Technos specifically it's infrastructure and society.
As a fugitive Dumarest has to navigate this unknown world and until now we really haven't seen a high-technology world explored this much.
Reading about Dumarest visiting a cafe, the library, apartment complexes, was a nice change of pace.
There is some mystery, a lot of intrigue and politics, and a lot of running and luck. But all in all, another great read, that promises more to come.
At this point in the series, it finally seems that E. C. Tubb is comfortable with his readers.
The story is willing to jump over previously established themes and facts, and just roll with flow.
This books strong suits is the titular planet Technos specifically it's infrastructure and society.
As a fugitive Dumarest has to navigate this unknown world and until now we really haven't seen a high-technology world explored this much.
Reading about Dumarest visiting a cafe, the library, apartment complexes, was a nice change of pace.
There is some mystery, a lot of intrigue and politics, and a lot of running and luck. But all in all, another great read, that promises more to come.
April 13, 2021
I love that you just don't know where things are going to go when you start reading one of these. I mean, yeah, there's some elements that appear in each. Earl is looking for Earth. He goes to a new world (or 2 or 3 or...) Those danged Cyclans are after him. But how it all plays out? Each one is pretty wild and different. It's too bad the TV show seems to have petered out. This could make a pretty badass series. Of course, it would be an expensive one, too.
If you absolutely needed to start with this book instead of going back to the beginning (why would you do that?!), then it might make for a good jumping-on point in the series.
If you absolutely needed to start with this book instead of going back to the beginning (why would you do that?!), then it might make for a good jumping-on point in the series.
May 10, 2020
My favorite write is Vance. Especially his stories about space-travelers are enjoyed. But Tubb also has a good knack of writing in this genre. This series is about Dumarest, a space traveler going from planet to planet to find his original home, planet Earth. I like the descriptions of the planets, cultures and habits he encounters. All imaginations of Tubb.
In #7 (of 32) he ends up in Techno via Loame searching for information on planet Earth. As always it is a dead end and as always a cyber dies. But the good thing is that most of the women get to live.
In #7 (of 32) he ends up in Techno via Loame searching for information on planet Earth. As always it is a dead end and as always a cyber dies. But the good thing is that most of the women get to live.
March 28, 2024
Traveller basis
A pivotal novel in the Dumarest series and important to Traveller game players as well. A perfect world ruled by those with multiple degrees?
A pivotal novel in the Dumarest series and important to Traveller game players as well. A perfect world ruled by those with multiple degrees?
May 5, 2024
Good Solid EC Tubb
September 13, 2025
One of the better early Dumarest books.
September 25, 2014
‘Dumarest had traced the lost planet of Earth to a remote corner of the galaxy – but he still lacks its precise co-ordinates.
Somewhere on the cyber-dominated police-world of Technos lives the mysterious woman who can help him. And the only way to find her is to become a slave…’
Blurb from the 1977 Arrow paperback edition
Dumarest carries a dead man’s message to his brother on the planet Loame, an agricultural world, annexed by the Planet Technos and in the grip of invasion by a genetically engineered weed.
Hearing that Technos may have information on the whereabouts of Earth, Dumarest takes the place of a young man destined to be conscripted from Loame into the army of Technos.
The Cyclan are of course on Dumarest’s trail and he must once more use his intelligence and reflexes to stay one step ahead.
There is a direct contrast between the rural – almost Amish – society of Loame and the machine dependant society of Technos. The people of Loame are, on the whole, moral and law abiding and not prone to violence while Technos society appears to be venal and corrupt. Complicating this view is the ex-patriot of Loame, Ms Belinger, who does not miss the patriarchal rules of Loame where a woman exists only to bear children.
The Technosians also present an interesting view of Loame as being a pristine environment where the humans are perfect physical specimens, but from a society which has been invaded by the viral concept of war, a concept to which they have no social immunity and therefore did little to resist the invasion. It is an early and interesting example of social memes mentioned in an SF novel.
Somewhere on the cyber-dominated police-world of Technos lives the mysterious woman who can help him. And the only way to find her is to become a slave…’
Blurb from the 1977 Arrow paperback edition
Dumarest carries a dead man’s message to his brother on the planet Loame, an agricultural world, annexed by the Planet Technos and in the grip of invasion by a genetically engineered weed.
Hearing that Technos may have information on the whereabouts of Earth, Dumarest takes the place of a young man destined to be conscripted from Loame into the army of Technos.
The Cyclan are of course on Dumarest’s trail and he must once more use his intelligence and reflexes to stay one step ahead.
There is a direct contrast between the rural – almost Amish – society of Loame and the machine dependant society of Technos. The people of Loame are, on the whole, moral and law abiding and not prone to violence while Technos society appears to be venal and corrupt. Complicating this view is the ex-patriot of Loame, Ms Belinger, who does not miss the patriarchal rules of Loame where a woman exists only to bear children.
The Technosians also present an interesting view of Loame as being a pristine environment where the humans are perfect physical specimens, but from a society which has been invaded by the viral concept of war, a concept to which they have no social immunity and therefore did little to resist the invasion. It is an early and interesting example of social memes mentioned in an SF novel.
December 27, 2010
Earl Dumarest is still looking for clues about Earth's loccation. He lefet there as a small child and kept moving further out into the galaxy. he's visited so many worlds that he has no idea where home might be. It's so far into the future that Earth, if known at all, is believed to be a myth. How could the human race have originated on one world? Absurd!
A promise to a dying man brought Earl to the planet Loame. There he learns of a man who might know of Earth. Once there, he find the estate overrun by a creeping plant life, the man dead, the place in ruins. His daughter now lived on Technos, the planet responsible for the plant ruining Loame's lands. She has an edetic memory and would remember anything her father showed her.
Earl goes to technos.
But those human computers, the Cyclans, are there as well and still after Dumarest. They know he's on the planet and will stop at nothing to get the information he harbors.
A promise to a dying man brought Earl to the planet Loame. There he learns of a man who might know of Earth. Once there, he find the estate overrun by a creeping plant life, the man dead, the place in ruins. His daughter now lived on Technos, the planet responsible for the plant ruining Loame's lands. She has an edetic memory and would remember anything her father showed her.
Earl goes to technos.
But those human computers, the Cyclans, are there as well and still after Dumarest. They know he's on the planet and will stop at nothing to get the information he harbors.
November 17, 2009
The angle of planet Loame was a feint, as the action moves to Technos rather quickly and becomes a fairly typical chase story as Dumarest is pursued by the planetary authorities as he in turn pursues information about planet Earth. Tubb draws in some sociology in painting Technos's out-of-control and detached-from-reality meritocracy.
While adventurous, the chasing-around is not terribly original, and the dark secret of Technos and its relationship to its servitor planets is underplayed.
While adventurous, the chasing-around is not terribly original, and the dark secret of Technos and its relationship to its servitor planets is underplayed.
August 10, 2013
Earl travels to Loame to fulfill a dying man's last wish towards his family and the promise that there he might find an answer to his quest for Earth.
Loame is under the thumb of Technos a much more advanced planet. The one person that might have an answer has moved to Technos so Earl schemes his way there and find a very unsettling truth.
I found this a very immersive story with a good plot and lots of suspense.
Loame is under the thumb of Technos a much more advanced planet. The one person that might have an answer has moved to Technos so Earl schemes his way there and find a very unsettling truth.
I found this a very immersive story with a good plot and lots of suspense.
June 4, 2012
Carrying a message for a dead man, Dumarest follows a new lead on the location of Earth that plunges him into a political coup attempt that ends up at a literal maze of death.
Read more
Read more
October 14, 2019
The seventh adventure of Earl Dumarest. On his quest he lets himself be taken to the world of Technos. There lives a woman with perfect memory who just might be able to give him information about Earth. There is, of course, a cyber on his heels and a woman trying to hire him as an assassin.
Brilliant as always.
Brilliant as always.
June 10, 2013
Another fine Dumarest story, with great action, good characters, and interesting worlds.
March 28, 2016
Some are better than others but still a quick and easy read.
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