James Nicoll Reviews

E. C. Tubb’s Seetee Alert! is the sixth volume in his Cap Kennedy series, written under the penname Gregory Kern. It is the only Cap Kennedy book I’ve ever read.

At the height of a carnival on poverty-stricken planet Somope, a daring theft leaves a trail of bodies in its wake. The item stolen? A disgraced scientist’s seemingly valueless notebook.

Meanwhile Cap Kennedy and his crew are traveling through deep space in their starship Mordain, testing a cutting-edge force field. The test takes a deadly turn when the craft encounters something far more deadly than expected: a contraterrene (AKA Seetee or antimatter) storm! 

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1967’s The Winds of Gath is the first novel of thirty-three in E. C. Tubb’s Dumarest Saga.

The life of an itinerant stellar traveler is hard and dangerous. Earl Dumarest accepts the hazards; traveling is his only hope of finding his lost homeworld, Earth. He does try to minimize risk with due diligence and planning. His latest trip, for example, involves the usual 15% chance he won’t wake from cold sleep (or Low, as it is called in the argot of the starfarer) but if he does wake up, it will be on Broome. He should easily find employment there.

The best-laid plans, etc. Gloria, the Matriarch of Kund, hires the starship on which he was traveling, already in cold sleep. He cannot object when the ship is diverted to the planet Gath. Dumarest’s contract with the ship specified that he was to debark at the next world it touched. Was Broome, now Gath. 

Gath has no economy to speak off. No jobs. But unless Dumarest can somehow accumulate enough cash for a trip out, he is trapped on the planet.

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