Reception: Classic

The Dumarest Saga

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The Dumarest Saga
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Written from 1967 to 1986 by E.C. Tubb with a last book  published in 2008 2 year before the death of the author

The Dumarest saga was one of the inspiration for the Traveller (role-playing game)

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.

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.

This is the tale of Earl Dumarest. Space-wanderer, gladiator-for-hire, seeker of Man’s forgotten home.

Dumarest’s search begins on the ghost-world of Gath, where he becomes unwilling champion of the Matriarch of Kund, and must undergo a fight-to-the-death at stormtime.

Victory could give Dumarest his first clue to the whereabouts of the planet he fled from as a child – an obscure world scarred by ancient wars, which lies countless light years from the thickly populated centre of the galaxy; a world no-one else in the inhabited universe believed exists.

Earth, the birthplace of Man.

 

Hardwired

Hardwired
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There is also a little known novelette published 3 years after in the same universe available here

Hardwired, the acknowledged inspiration for the games Cyberpunk Red and Cyberpunk 2077, is now available in a deluxe edition for its thirtieth anniversary, with new content by the author.

Earth lies prostrate beneath the lash of the Orbital powers, and Earth’s Balkanized nations have no choice but to let the Orbitals plunder their remaining wealth. Below the zone of Orbital control, buttonheads, panzerjocks, dirtgirls, and hustlers scramble for their ticket out of the gravity well.

But now, if the criminal underworld and the guerrilla underground can join forces, there is a chance to shift the balance of power— in a war fought on the ground by hardwired commandos, in the air by high-flying deltajocks, and by genius hackers in the neural interface.

Wolf of the Steppes: The Complete Cossack Adventures

Wolf of the Steppes: The Complete Cossack Adventures
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Master of driving pace, exotic setting, and complex plotting, Harold Lamb was one of Robert E. Howard’s favorite writers. Here at last is every pulse-pounding, action-packed story of Lamb’s greatest hero, the wolf of the steppes, Khlit the Cossack. Journey now with the unsung grandfather of sword and sorcery in search of ancient tombs, gleaming treasure, and thrilling landscapes. Match wits with deadly swordsmen, scheming priests, and evil cults. Rescue lovely damsels, ride with bold comrades, and hazard everything on your brains and skill and a little luck.

Wolf of the Steppes is the first of a four-volume set that collects, for the first time, the complete Cossack stories of Harold Lamb and presents them in order: every adventure of Khlit the Cossack and those of his friends, allies, and fellow Cossacks, many of which have never before appeared between book covers. Compiled and edited by the Harold Lamb scholar Howard Andrew Jones, each volume features never-before reprinted essays Lamb wrote about his stories, informative introductions by popular authors, and a wealth of rare, exciting, swashbuckling fiction.

In this first volume, Khlit infiltrates a hidden fortress of assassins, tracks down the tomb of Genghis Khan, flees the vengeance of a dead emperor, leads the Mongol horde against impossible odds, accompanies the stunning Mogul queen safely through the land of her enemies, and much more. This is the stuff of grand adventure, from the pen of an American Dumas.

Psycho: A Novel by Robert Bloch

Psycho: A Novel by Robert Bloch
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““Icily terrifying!” —New York Times
“Psycho all came from Robert Bloch’s book.” —Alfred Hitchcock
“Robert Bloch is one of the all-time masters.” —Peter Straub

The story was all too real—indeed this classic was inspired by the real-life story of Ed Gein, a psychotic murderer who led a dual life. Alfred Hitchcock too was captivated, and, the year after it was released, he turned the book into one of the most-loved horror films of all time.

If you love to be scared, or are a fan of classic movies, then you know the story of Norman Bates, his mother, and the dark and frightening Bates Motel. Alfred Hitchcock’s taut, shocking scare-fest starring Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh is a classic movie, as scary today as it was in 1960 when it was first released. The shower scene may be the most famous scene in movie history.

Here is the 1959 novel upon which the movie is based. Robert Bloch based his taut psychological thriller on the all-too-real story of Ed Gein, a psychotic murderer who led a dual life. It was here that the legend of the Bates Motel was born.

Norman Bates loved his mother, though she has been dead for the past twenty years. Or is she dead? Norman knows better. He has lived with Mother ever since leaving the hospital in the old house up on the hill above the rundown Bates Motel. One night Norman welcomes a beautiful woman who checks into the motel, and spies on her as she undresses. Norman can’t help himself. Mother is there, though. She is there to protect Norman from his filthy thoughts. She is there to protect him with her butcher knife!

The story of Norman Bates and his mother has become one of the best known in the annals of horror. But if you only know the Hitchcock movie or The Bates Motel prequel television series starring Freddie Highmore as Norman Bates and Vera Farmiga as his mother, then you don’t know the whole story, because it was Robert Block who first brought their story to the world.

The Big Sleep (detective Philip Marlowe) by Raymond Chandler

The Big Sleep (detective Philip Marlowe) by Raymond Chandler
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The Big Sleep (1939) is a hardboiled crime novel by Raymond Chandler, the first to feature the detective Philip Marlowe. It has been adapted for film twice, in 1946 and again in 1978. The story is set in Los Angeles

The story is noted for its complexity, with characters double-crossing one another and secrets being exposed throughout the narrative. The title is a euphemism for death; the final pages of the book refer to a rumination about “sleeping the big sleep”.

In 1999, the book was voted 96th of Le Monde and #39;s “100 Books of the Century”. In 2005, it was included in Time magazine and #39;s “List of the 100 Best Novels”.

When a dying millionaire hires Philip Marlowe to handle the blackmailer of one of his two troublesome daughters, Marlowe finds himself involved with more than extortion. Kidnapping, pornography, seduction, and murder are just a few of the complications he gets caught up in.

Casino Royale: A James Bond Novel

Casino Royale: A James Bond Novel
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Casino Royale

Casino Royale is the first novel by the British author Ian Fleming. It is the first James Bond book, and it paved the way for a further eleven novels and two short story collections by Fleming, followed by numerous continuation Bond novels by other authors.

Ian Lancaster Fleming was a British writer, journalist and naval intelligence officer who is best known for his James Bond series of spy novels.

“Le Chiffre” is a ruthless operative and the accountant for a soviet SMERSH cell in France, but he’s on the verge of disaster after gambling away his client’s money. Taking the last of his stash, he lures a dozen wealthy players to a high-stakes baccarat game, hoping to hustle his way whole.

The British Secret Service would like to see this red thorn plucked from the hide of Europe, and sends their best card sharp, James Bond, to bankrupt Le Chiffre for good.

With the cards running against him and SMERSH operatives threatening to kill him and his beautiful ally, Vesper Lynd, 007 needs his luck to turn before he wagers away their lives.

Warbots by G. Harry Stine

Warbots by G. Harry Stine
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In the high-tech laboratories of tomorrow a new breed of super-soldier is born! 

The brutal face of warfare has been dramatically altered. Armored giants now roam the explosive fields of battle. Massive instruments of devastation with computer minds inseparably linked with the brainwaves of their human masters. They are the Warbots. Men and machines combined to create the most lethal warriors in the history of armed conflict.

But a monstrous challenge emerges for the mechanical gladiators emanating from a country that technology forgot. As Captain Curt Carson leads his robot infantry in a daring attempt to rescue 105 hostages from the sadistic clutches of a bloodthirsty terrorist army, the soldiers of tomorrow face the butchers of yesterday in a battle for the future of the free world.

The first book in a 12-part series that has been out of print for many years is now back!

Joe Haldemann – The Forever War

Joe Haldemann - The Forever War
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Winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards: A futuristic masterpiece, “perhaps the most important war novel written since Vietnam” (Junot Díaz).

In this novel, a landmark of science fiction that began as an MFA thesis for the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and went on to become an award-winning classic—inspiring a play, a graphic novel, and most recently an in-development film—man has taken to the stars, and soldiers fighting the wars of the future return to Earth forever alienated from their home.

Conscripted into service for the United Nations Exploratory Force, a highly trained unit built for revenge, physics student William Mandella fights for his planet light years away against the alien force known as the Taurans. “Mandella’s attempt to survive and remain human in the face of an absurd, almost endless war is harrowing, hilarious, heartbreaking, and true,” says Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist Junot Díaz—and because of the relative passage of time when one travels at incredibly high speed, the Earth Mandella returns to after his two-year experience has progressed decades and is foreign to him in disturbing ways.

Based in part on the author’s experiences in Vietnam, The Forever War is regarded as one of the greatest military science fiction novels ever written, capturing the alienation that servicemen and women experience even now upon returning home from battle. It shines a light not only on the culture of the 1970s in which it was written, but also on our potential future. “To say that The Forever War is the best science fiction war novel ever written is to damn it with faint praise. It is . . . as fine and woundingly genuine a war story as any I’ve read” (William Gibson).

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Joe Haldeman including rare images from the author’s personal collection

The Quiller Memorandum

The Quiller Memorandum
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The classic tale of espionage that started it all! In this first book in the QUILLER series, undercover agent Quiller is asked to take the place of a fellow spy who has recently been murdered in Berlin, in identifying the headquarters of an underground but powerful Nazi organization, Phönix, twenty years after World War II. But when Quiller gets too close, he becomes the hunted and must outsmart Phönix against all odds to both uncover their secrets and stay alive.

Winner of the 1966 Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best Novel, 1966 Grand Prix de Littérature Policière for Best International Crime Novel.

Adapted into a major motion picture in 1966, starring George Segal, with a screenplay by Harold Pinter.

“One of the small handful of truly distinguished spy novels of the 1960’s.”
– Anthony Boucher, The New York Times Book Review

The Richard Hannay Collection: The 39 Steps, Greenmantle, Mr. Standfast

The Richard Hannay Collection: The 39 Steps, Greenmantle, Mr. Standfast
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In this classic created in 1915 by John Buchan Richard Hannay hero of Thirty-Nine Steps is one of the earliest examples of the ‘”man-on-the-run” thriller archetype

The story was a great success with the men in the First World War trenches. One soldier wrote to Buchan, “The story is greatly appreciated in the midst of mud and rain and shells, and all that could make trench life depressing

Major General Sir Richard Hannay is the fictional secret agent created by writer and diplomat John Buchan, who was himself an Intelligence officer during the First World War. The strong and silent type, combining the dour temperament of the Scot with the stiff upper lip of the Englishman, Hannay is pre-eminent among early spy-thriller heroes. Caught up in the first of these five gripping adventures just before the outbreak of war in 1914, he manages to thwart the enemy’s evil plan and solve the mystery of the ‘thirty-nine steps’.

In Greenmantle, he undertakes a vital mission to prevent jihad in the Islamic Near East. Mr Standfast, set in the decisive months of 1917-18, is the novel in which Hannay, after a life lived ‘wholly among men’, finally falls in love; later, in The Three Hostages, he finds himself unravelling a kidnapping mystery with his wife’s help. In the last adventure, The Island of Sheep, he is called upon to honour an old oath. A shrewd judge of men, he never dehumanises his enemy, and despite sharing some of the racial prejudices of his day, Richard Hannay is a worthy prototype hero of espionage fiction.