Zenya: The Dumarest Saga Book 11

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Book 11 begins with Dumarest in a library. He's looking for clues to Earth when he is accosted by a beautiful blonde, who we learn is Zenya. Zenya is a member of one of the warring clans of the planet. She takes him to see her grandfather, the clan leader. As is typical of the Dumareverse, the members of the clan are inbred and insane.

Dumarest is compelled by the threat of being handed over to the Cyclan to travel to a different planet in search of the clan heir, who disappeared decades ago in search of myth and legend. He arrives to find the new planet engaged in a civil war between the resident humans and an earlier wave of humanity who are degraded and have a telepathic gift. The planetary rules are convinced that these people - the Ayutha - are destroying its villages.

Dumarest, who has done everything at one time or another, steps in as military leader to stiffen the backbone of the hesitant and dampen the spirit of the excitable. It seems that he doesn't accept the narrative that the Ayutha are the culprits, given the passive disposition fostered by their weak telepathic powers.

Will Dumarest find the heir?

Will he save the Ayutha?

Will he avoid the Cyclan?

Will he get closer to Earth?

To find out, you will have to read the book, but realize that there are twenty more books to go.

This book is pulp, but there were some gems. For example, Dumarest intuits that a mutation in the local cash crop is causing problems:

“They mutate. In this case, the mutation has resulted in a subtle alteration of the pollen. A freak—it couldn't happen again perhaps for a million years—but once was enough. Now, some of the pollen isn't harmless. It contains a hallucinogenic of a particularly horrible nature. It affects the brain, turns people insane, makes them kill, and then causes them to die in turn. You have seen the effects.”

Later, he reflects on the character of Zenya, who is more of a Bond girl than character:

“For a while, he thought, until the novelty wore off and her own restless compulsion drove her to seek fresh titivation. And then, in order to retain his pride, he would have to fight and kill—that or beat her into submissive obedience. Two things which, for him, held no attraction. A wanton, he thought, looking at her. Amoral, warped by the society in which she lived, the inbreeding which had accentuated weakness. A bitch in every sense of the word, yet beautiful, as all such women were.”

The Dumareverse is galaxy-wide but very small. Every planet seems insular and run by a tight, inbred, oligarchy.

Why that should be the case is not explained, but the result of this social model results in a galaxy run by inbred psychopaths.

Dumarest lives in a harsh world. In fact, it is a film noir world, with femmes fatale and a single hero whose self-imposed rules represent the only morality in this nihilistic universe.

Dumarest of Terra is a 33-volume series of science fiction novels by Edwin Charles Tubb. Each story is a self-contained adventure, but throughout the series, Earl Dumarest, the protagonist, searches for clues to the location of his home world, Earth. Production of a television version of the series is set to begin in 2018.

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.

Also appearing in many of the books is the humanitarian Church of Universal Brotherhood. Its monks are spread throughout many worlds as are the Cyclan, the two being arch-enemies - which does not make the Church Dumarest's ally, but in some instances they support each other.

In Zenya, the eleventh in the Dumarest series, it sees Dumarest on the planet Paiyar. There he meets a lady named Zenya. And fall into the schemes of her grandfather. One of the ruling elite of the planet. Who needs Dumarest to lead an army for him.

This is one of the weaker novels in the series. Several of the charcters aren't all that interesting in this somewhat convoluted plot, which take a while to kick in. It would have been better if Tubb focused on developing the Dumarest-Lisa-Zenya love triangle.

But Tubb keeps a few surprises back for the very end. A little underwhelming, bit readable nonetheless.