Search Worlds Without End

ALIEN DUST relates the first thirty-five years of the colonization of Mars. It is a poignant story of Man against Nature. No individual hero or heroine marches steadily through its pages. There is no triumphal ending-only faint hope. Instead, against a background of the shifting red sands of a planet unfit for human habitation, emerges the grim picture of pioneer men and women pitting their courage, wits and even lives against the biggest enemy in the Solar System-an alien planet.

Rich and warm in human emotion, ALIEN DUST is one of those rare science fiction stories which presents Man in his true perspective-as the intruder.

Earth and its colonies on Mars and Venus are ruled by an authoritarian post-World War III world state which plans to take control of a new method of space travel when it has been perfected by a Martian scientist. When they fail to secure the invention, the world state's Coordinator decides to destroy the Mars colony with "radi-germ bombs.

Peaceful, happy, non-violent... the perfect society?

Or was it? As chief of Propaganda and Emotional Control, Joseph P. Lincoln had experience in coping with every potential threat to the system. But even he was ill-prepared to deal with the amazing woman from the past, whose arrival soon threw Lincoln's carefully ordered world into total chaos.

CENTURY OF THE MANIKIN is wise, witty and a unique treatment of the problems of cryogenesis.

The ship rose on a column of invisible, super-heated steam ejected at incredible velocity. The spread of the blast flattened everything in the immediate vicinity. The surrounding town was wiped out.

Immediately on blast off the automatic pilot engaged hi-drive to avoid the attacking missile. This put the ship into negative mass with relation to the normal universe. It was now in M-space.

The ship was self-contained. It could keep going till all her occupants died of old age. But where to? Proxima Centauri? Or maybe Alpha Centauri, Riga, perhaps, or Sirius! The universe is a big space.

They hurtled on through space and time until they saw the planet, a cloud-hidden ball, as it hung in space a hundred thousand miles below the orbiting vessel. It had seas and clouds, mountains and ice-caps, islands and continents, It had a moon and a yellow G-type sun.

Home? Was this their second chance?

On the airless surface of the Moon the 'cold war' continues, with the bases of the major world powers watching each other and waiting...

The dedicated personnel of Britain's Moon Base seemed well-adjusted to their peculiar existence despite a series of mysterious happenings. What bothers them most is the visit of a Royal Commission sent by an economically-worried British Government to investigate expenditure. Travelling with the Commission, but under separate and secret orders, is Felix Larsen, who's investigations are of quite a different nature.

Larsen, alive to the possibilities of espionage, soon finds himself faced with the inexplicable. Why should one man fall a thousand feet and escape with minor bruises while another dies after falling a mere eighteen inches? Why does a desperate man, bent on suicide and with all the means at hand, find it absolutely impossible to kill himself? What are the strange messages emanating from the Base - and from whence do they come? And what is the fantastic thing that has been conceived in the research department?

For Mark Carodyne, all of life was a gamble. For money, for sport, for knowledge, for danger. That's why he had come to Krait for the skimming races he knew would make him rich. Or broke.

Or dead.

Krait. It was dominated by the pulsing quivering kaleidoscopic Omphalos that filled the sky above. An unmeasurable mass that was said to have the power to swallow whole planets - even galaxies. Indeed, seven ships had been sent to explore its mysteries and none had returned.

Now there were those who believed that Krait was about to come into its path. And Mark Carodyne had agreed to gamble his life to obtain the scientific data that might save the planet from destruction. One man. In a single ship. Skimming the edge of the unknown...

Could Earth survive the terrors of instant youth and perpetual life?

The Kaltich invaders sell their Earthman serfs a rejuvenation process that cruelly prolongs life.

The Kaltichs also promise to share their secret for instantaneous space travel desperately needed by a barbaric, overpopulated Earth.

But decades pass and Earth is no closer to the stars. Yet the Kaltich continue to strip Earth of its riches and its pride.

Only the Secret Terran Armed Resistance movement opposes the Kaltich tyranny. And only Martin Preston, S.T.A.R. agent, can possibly steal their secrets. If he fails, Earth will become a planet of billions of starving people - with no place to go except to their graves!

Ships occasionally disappeared in hyperspace, regrettable sacrifices to the luxury of faster than light travel. But now one of the lost ships has been found and the wreckage is enough to terrify even the most cold-blooded witness.

The lucky ones on the lost ship are dead. The others have been turned inside-out in gruesome parody of human beings and they are still alive. The disgraced Captain Kurt Varl is chosen to command a suicide mission to discover the cause of these disasters.

The enemy is unknown and the only way Varl can solve the mystery is to use himself as bait!

Trapped in the economic rat-race of the 21st century Kevin Blake had little going for him but an over-active imagination: an attribute which brought him to the notice of Paul Trevainen, who made Kevin an offer he couldn't resist. On the face of it the assignment was simple - to find the billionaire's daughter, bring her back to Earth and collect a dazzling reward. But Crystal was wilful, stubborn and hard to find. The quest forced Kevin to become an advocate in an alien court, turned him into a hunter, and made him the captive of giant, money-hungry frogs, a rebel against established authority, a fugitive, a criminal and in general one of the most harassed young men ever to have longed for adventure.

Marcus King, ruthless entrepreneur and commercial giant, was a man obsessed. His obsession-staying alive! He used his millions to buy life from the bodies of others. Then someone devised a highly scientific plan to kill him-only for King to survive the attack, and plan his revenge. But who was the mastermind behind the assassination attempt?

Dale Markham, chief of local police, is quickly on the crime scene. But the case is so bizarre, with far-reaching international implications, that Security is also called in and special agent Steve Delmonte is assigned to work with the police.

Delmonte's investigations uncover a tangled web of sadistic intrigue and he has to follows a trail of further murders all the way to the moon before the incredible truth behind the attack is revealed.

Leon Vardis' whole life was keyed to revenge.

If it couldn't be wreaked on the peasants who had burned his mother as a witch on the primitive planet of Rhome, then it could, most gloriously could, be let loose on the contemptuous sophisticates who rescued him from certain death, toyed with him for their own amusement and then, uncaring, cast him aside on the metropolitan planet of Joslen.

But first his apprenticeship - as peasant farmer on Pharos, as space mercenary on more planets then you'd care to name. Then independence, as a stellar trader. And at last an opportunity to act as Fate, slowly, and with ironically sophisticated enjoyment, For in the hypnotic jewels of far Shergol lay the seeds of a truly cosmic vengeance.

Leon's saga was complete. The ultimate leveller had been unleashed on the galaxy.

Far from Earth, on a ship carrying the 13th and 14th generations of descendants from the original crew, life is short. You are born, learn the tasks needed to keep the ship running, help breed and train the next crew - and your death is ordered by the computer in charge.

Gregson, chief of the psych-police, makes sure the computer's death-sentences are carried out quickly and painlessly. His duty is a sacred trust. He knows the intricacies of the system, how it works... and how it can be subverted.

He is growing old. Rebellious.

He also knows his name will soon come up in the computer for elimination.

And he has no intention of carrying out his own death-sentence!

England was starving when cheap power could have saved her... power that would have been available if atomic research had not been forbidden by the watchful League of Peace...

But two scientists chose to ignore this ban, and soon they launched an experiment-an experiment that succeeded too well, and got out of hand, spreading a tide of black death across the country, threatening the whole planet.

Neil Hammond, secret agent for the League of Peace, is sent to investigate, and uncovers a terrifying secret...

C.O.D. Mars

Three explorers returned to Earth after nine long years en route to Proxima Centauri and back. You would have supposed that they would have been greeted as the heroes of the century, feted, honored, rewarded. But Earth was rewarding the trio in a strange and terrible manner-with permanent exile in orbit, never to touch any planet's surface again.

If Earth wanted that crew isolated so badly, it ought to be worthg a lot for someone to learn the reeeason, because the powers that ruled the world were not talking.

The Scorfu -- the Martian equivalent of a Mafia -- had the idea that the three exiles might prove winning pieces in their endless competition with Earth. And therefore the somewhat unscrupulous but absolutely fearless operative, Slade, could be persuaded that the three from Centauri might mean a million for him-Cash on Delivery, Mars

Alien Sea

Venus and Earth contend - while Hydro's secrets wait for D-Day.

Computer War

The odds were right for victory. The problem with computer warfare is that the computer is always logical while the human enemy is not - or doesn't have to be. And that's what the Betastani enemy were doing - nothing that the Alphaland computers said they would. Those treacherous foemen were avoiding logic and using such unheard-of devices as surprise and sabotage, treason and trickery. They even had Alphaland's Deputy of Information believing Betastani propaganda without even realizing it. Of course he still thought he was being loyal to Alphaland, because he thought that one and one must logically add up to two. And that kind of thinking could make him the biggest traitor of them all.

Death is a Dream

Suspended animation, the doctor had said, was a simple matter - now that the bugs were ironed out. "You'll be safe here until we wake you, with the know-how to cure what's wrong." Brad Stevens chose the long cold sleep: and, as the doctor predicted, it worked. For Brad, death had been a dream, but the awakening was an incredible nightmare...

Crisis on Cheiron

Carl Race and his mentor, Donovan Petry, have arrived on Cheiron. The two Federation ecologists have been called in to figure out what mysterious occurrence is causing Cheiron's local fauna to fail.

Ostensibly working as impartial observers, the ecologists were called in to protect the interests of Consolidated Enterprises as their competitors, Trans-Galactic, hover and wait. The slightest misstep, and T-G will swoop in and take over the trade. If things go bad enough, all humans (known as Terrans) will be banned from the planet altogether.

The planet's native and highly intelligent lifeforms, the centaur-like Cheironi, seem to be working in peace with the space-travelling Terrans, but tensions are rising as crops fail and insects begin to behave strangely. The local Terran school teacher, Marcy DeLaurent, is brought in as translator as Carl and Donovan work to solve the mystery of the failing crops.

However, someone is determined to stop Carl and company from unearthing the strange source of Cheiron's problems...

Things are about to take a violent turn, and the hunters are quickly becoming the hunted.

Carl is now faced with a life and death struggle--to find out the mystery behind the Cheiron problem while trying to save his own life.

The Winds of Gath

Mercenary. Galactic traveller. Survivor. Earl Dumarest is all those things--and more. For he claims to come from the mythical planet of Earth. And those claims have just attracted the attention of the sinister Cyclan...

Stranded on Gath with no way off, Dumarest becomes embroiled in the schemes of a sadistic prince and a dying matriarch. Plots within plots unfold--and Dumarest is the key to their success. For amid the schemes of prince and matriarch alike, all have come to experience the legendary Winds of Gath.

For when the star swarms come, when the music of the spheres rises over the the planet's valleys and mountains, the dead can speak to the living... and men go mad!

Derai

Still driven by his search for Man's fabled birthplace, Earl Dumrest accepts a commission to guard the Lady Derai, heiress to the proud House of Caldor, on the feudal world of Hive. On Derai's home planet, Dumarest had hoped to meet a living witness to Earth. But instead he finds himself in the lists of the deadly Contest on Folgone - with the Lady of Caldor as prize. And on Folgone, for the first time, Dumarest confronts the Cybers: ruthless, emotionless tools of a great Gestalt which holds the mighty of the universe in its grip - a power which may yet provide him with the key to his quest for Earth.

The Singing Stones

A planet has been enslaved... and he is the only person who can set them free.

Geoff Latimer works for the Ethnic Federation to protect peoples unable to defend themselves against others -- like Terrans, and Deliyans.

But when he finds himself in the eerie land of Pa-Liina, he encounters a strange power. What appear to be simple stones are in fact beacons of music, projecting sound and filling whoever encounters them with bizarre new sensations. The ethereal essence to these 'stones that sing' has caused an entire race of people to be enslaved.

Caught between the oppressor and the oppressed, Geoff is almost out of his depth.

With the aid of native Nedra, a priestess, Geoff finds himself solely responsible for the liberation of these burdened people. But he is not alone in this fight: Nedra speaks of a 'Goddess' who can offer Geoff and his companion Tahn guidance on their quest.

But can they complete their mission and break the people of Pa-Liina free from the control of their persecutors in time?

Fear that Man by Dean R. Koontz

The galaxy had forgotten war and evil-until the man without a past intervened.

Toyman by E.C. Tubb

They called their planet toy, but the games the toymen played involved the fate of worlds.

Kalin

Many times, Dumarest's dream of Earth has almost cost him his life. As he journeys from world to world, restlessly moving outwards towards the edge of the galaxy where his goal lies, Dumarest must be alert, watchful. For there are new dangers - forces more powerful than man - which threaten his dream. On a planet where violence and superstition hold sway, Dumarest forges a bond with the prophetess Kalin. And now, more than ever, he needs her. Kalin. The mutant girl whose mysterious talent for seeing into the future has already saved him from Bloodtime on Logis, from space-disaster, from slavery on desolate Chron. Kalin. Who can foretell the terrors yet to come.

The Bane of Kanthos

Deep in the dark heart of the Amazon, adventurer Robert Lansing is hurled into an alternate world, a primitive place where Vikings rove the seas, magic abounds and wizards toil to release an ancient curse upon the inhabitants. Armed only with sword and shield, Lansing must defend the beautiful Princess Ilyana and battle a nightmare horror from another dimension. If he fails, all will be lost...

Recoil

The more the aliens tampered, the more inexplicable the human reaction.

Lallia

Dumarest continues his restless wandering - combing the spaceways for an ancient and almost forgotten planet called Earth. Then, on a primitive world, he fights a giant mutant for the life of the lovely psychic Lallia - and wins a vital clue that could lead him to the end of his quest...

Technos

Dumarest has traced the lost planet of Earth to one 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...

A Scatter of Stardust

Collection containing:

• The Bells of Acheron - (1957) - shortstory
• Anne - (1966) - shortstory
• Return Visit - (1958) - shortstory
• The Shrine - (1960) - shortstory
• Survival Demands! - (1972) - shortstory
• Little Girl Lost - (1955) - shortstory
• The Eyes of Silence - (1957) - shortstory
• Enchanter's Encounter - (1959) - novelette

The Man Who Japed

The Man Who Japed is Dick's mesmerizing and terrifying tale of a society so eager for order that it will sacrifice anything, including its freedom. Newer York is a post-holocaust city governed by the laws of an oppressively rigid morality. Highly mobile and miniature robots monitor the behavior of every citizen, and the slightest transgression can spell personal doom. Allen Purcell is one of the few people who has the capacity to literally change the way of the world, and once he's offered a high-profile job that acts as guardian of public ethics, he sets out to do precisely that. But first he must deal with the head in his closet.

The Space-Born

Far from Earth, on a ship carrying the 13th and 14th generations of descendants from the original crew, life is short. You are born, learn the tasks needed to keep the ship running, help breed and train the next crew - and your death is ordered by the computer in charge.

Gregson, chief of the psych-police, makes sure the computer's death-sentences are carried out quickly and painlessly. His duty is a sacred trust. He knows the intricacies of the system, how it works... and how it can be subverted.

He is growing old. Rebellious.

He also knows his name will soon come up in the computer for elimination.

And he has no intention of carrying out his own death-sentence!

The Mechanical Monarch

One extra man could unbalance the regulated world.

Twice Upon a Time

With one moment to live, he still had a lifetime to spare.

The Winds of Gath

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.

Derai

Still driven by his search for Man's fabled birthplace, Earl Dumrest accepts a commission to guard the Lady Derai, heiress to the proud House of Caldor, on the feudal world of Hive. On Derai's home planet, Dumarest had hoped to meet a living witness to Earth. But instead he finds himself in the lists of the deadly Contest on Folgone - with the Lady of Caldor as prize. And on Folgone, for the first time, Dumarest confronts the Cybers: ruthless, emotionless tools of a great Gestalt which holds the mighty of the universe in its grip - a power which may yet provide him with the key to his quest for Earth.

To Venus! To Venus!

S.O.S. from an analogue of hell.

The Jester at Scar

Scar: a harsh, inhospitable world with a vicious and shifting population of prospectors, drawn from every corner of the galaxy by rumours of a miraculous golden spore. To this violent planet come two more travellers, ready to try their luck among its lethal jungles: the cruel, mocking Lord of Jest - and Dumarest, driven by destiny on his endless search for Lost Earth...

Originally appeared in Ace Double H-27 (1967) and later in Ace Doube #89301 (1973). Published in 1968 as Gath, thereafter as The Winds of Gath.

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.

Originally appeared in Ace Double H-77 (1968), with The Singing Stones by Juanita Coulson, and later in Ace Doube #89301 (1973).

Still driven by his search for Man's fabled birthplace, Earl Dumrest accepts a commission to guard the Lady Derai, heiress to the proud House of Caldor, on the feudal world of Hive. On Derai's home planet, Dumarest had hoped to meet a living witness to Earth. But instead he finds himself in the lists of the deadly Contest on Folgone - with the Lady of Caldor as prize. And on Folgone, for the first time, Dumarest confronts the Cybers: ruthless, emotionless tools of a great Gestalt which holds the mighty of the universe in its grip - a power which may yet provide him with the key to his quest for Earth.

First published as Ace Double #23140 with Fear That Man by Dean R Koontz.

Space-wanderer Earl Dumarest is on the planet Toy to consult the giant computer which may contain information on the whereabouts of Earth, his lost home-world. But soon he realises Toy is a place that gives away nothing for free. Before Dumarest can gain the information he needs, he must take part in the Toy Games - must fight like a tin soldier in a vast nursery. And there is nothing playful about the Games on Toy. The pain is real enough; the wounds, the blood - and death. (First published 1969)

First published as an Ace Double #42800 (1969) with The Bane of Kanthos by Alex Dain.

Many times, Dumarest's dream of Earth has almost cost him his life. As he journeys from world to world, restlessly moving outwards towards the edge of the galaxy where his goal lies, Dumarest must be alert, watchful. For there are new dangers - forces more powerful than man - which threaten his dream. On a planet where violence and superstition hold sway, Dumarest forges a bond with the prophetess Kalin. And now, more than ever, he needs her. Kalin. The mutant girl whose mysterious talent for seeing into the future has already saved him from Bloodtime on Logis, from space-disaster, from slavery on desolate Chron. Kalin. Who can foretell the terrors yet to come.

First published as an Ace Double #81610 (1970) with To Venus! To Venus! by David Grinnell

Scar: a harsh, inhospitable world with a vicious and shifting population of prospectors, drawn from every corner of the galaxy by rumours of a miraculous golden spore. To this violent planet come two more travellers, ready to try their luck among its lethal jungles: the cruel, mocking Lord of Jest - and Dumarest, driven by destiny on his endless search for Lost Earth...

First published as Ace Double #71082 (1971) with Recoil by Claude and Rhoda Nunes.

Dumarest continues his restless wandering - combing the spaceways for an ancient and almost forgotten planet called Earth. Then, on a primitive world, he fights a giant mutant for the life of the lovely psychic Lallia - and wins a vital clue that could lead him to the end of his quest...

First published as Ace Double #79975 (1972) with Tubb's own collection A Scatter of Stardust.

Dumarest has traced the lost planet of Earth to one 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...

Earl Dumarest, trans-galactic soldier of fortune, is still seeking his birthplace, the fabled planet Earth. On the distant, decadent planet Dradea, he meets the mysterious, mutant woman Veruchia. She selected him from the gladiators' arena to become her servant... and more. Soon, Dumarest discovers that she too is engaged in a quest - and that the fate of her planet hangs in the balance. Fascinated, compelled, he agrees to help her. But then he must face bizarre perils which make the gladiatorial arena seem a haven of safety...

Earl Dumarest still seeks the mythical planet Earth... still roams alien and violent worlds. With him goes Mayenne, whose songs create joy and passion - or forgetfulness. Together they are cast up on Tormyle, a planet from another galaxy; a planet unique throughout the Universe. For Tormyle is sentient - the most powerful intelligence in the Cosmos, constantly recreating itself. Tormyle can be Paradise or Hell. Tormyle can manifest as a dragon or a knight on horseback, faceless behind the helmet. Tormyle understands nothing of humanity, of men and women, of emotion. And Tormyle will let no-one escape who cannot answer the unanswerable.

'Earth is real,' Dumarest insisted. 'A world old and scarred by ancient wars. The stars are few and there is a great single moon which hangs like a pale sun in the night sky.' In the quest for his legendary birthplace, Earl Dumarest has traversed galaxies. Now, at least, he reaches Ourelle, a planet close to Earth - out along a far arm of the Milky Way. There he finds Jondelle, a boy who may hold the key to Earl's search. But then Jondelle is kidnapped. And Dumarest's pursuit of the imperilled boy leads him to a city of paranoiac killers - madmen whose terrible violence is always on a hair-trigger!

Earl Dumarest's quest for his homeland - the legendary planet Earth - had been long and dangerous. Trekking across the galactic wastelands of the Milky Way, he had been pursued and hindered at every step by the deadly Cyclan. Now, just as his search seems to be nearing its close, Dumarest is once again side-tracked - forced to lead an army for Zenya in the deadly feuds of the alien planet of Paiyar . . .

Cyber Prime surveyed the domains of his vast scattered empire with trepidation. Central Intelligence had ruled the empire in the past. Now he knew that this gigantic computer was degenerating, breaking up after years of use. Only one man could save them: Earl Dumarest, a lonely space traveller engaged on a long quest to find his birth planet, Earth. The Cybers must find and intercept him. But before the Cybers discover Dumarest, they encounter Eloise, a beautiful seductress who drives logic from their minds . . .

In the course of a continuing quest for his legendary birthplace, Earl Dumarest befriends a young man who says his home world was called Nerth.

New Earth, perhaps? Or even the original planet Dumarest seeks? He must find out.

And so Dumarest comes to Nerth - to discover that the Cyclan, his prime enemy in the cosmos, is already there... together with mysteries and terror that defy the imagination!

Earl Dumarest continues his desperate search for his birthplace, and seems to be coming close to the mythical planet Earth.

But his attention is temporarily diverted, as he is unexpectedly involved in a hunt for a nebulous ghost world in another galaxy.

It is rumoured that in this fabulous land lies the mysterious Castle of Heart's Desire, where every wish is fulfilled. If Dumarest can find it, then maybe - just maybe - he will be able to return to the planet of his birth.

Earl Dumarest, now a vanquished and captive mercenary, is offered the choice of surrender to the fearsome Cyclan or the chance of freedom by the beautiful and ruthless Lady Delphine. The risks are terrifying - but has Dumarest a choice?

Intent on finding the legendary world of Terra - Earth - the planet of his birth; pursued by the brilliant and ruthless megalomaniac race, the Cyclan, whose secret key to Galactic domination only he possesses; trapped on a plague ship hurtling through a universe determined to destroy it, and captained by a madman - Earl Dumarest is tempted by the irresistible but fatal promise of Delphine.

The choice is simple - to abandon his dreams or perish by them, just as they promise fulfilment.

As guardian of the Universe's freedom from the domination by the Cyclan, Earl Dumarest is ruthlessly hunted by their agent, Cyber Broge, as he searches for the fortune necessary to finance his epic quest for Terra - the planet of his birth. Hunter and fugitive, predator and victim, Earl Dumarest lands on the planet Zakym.

ZAKYM - a cadaverous, twin-sunned world where the spectres of the dead daily claim the lives of the living; a decadent world that threatens to explode with the unparalleled violence of civil war and broken taboos.

ZAKYM - home of the beautiful, haunted Lavinia whose soul is claimed and condemned by a power-crazed madman.

Both Lavinia and her planet are doomed until a man appears who promises to be their saviour. Dumarest is the only person capable of challenging the terrifying menace of the Cyclan and the terrors of Zakym. But can even he triumph against such foes?

ZAKYM: World of the night-rulers and the day people. A world teetering on the edge of nightmare.

The Cyclan orders were clear - 'Find Dumarest. Find him before war erupts on ZAKYM.' But Zakym could hold the key to Dumarest's search for his lost home planet - and for that he would risk everything.

The Painting was dramatic, passionate, a work of genius. But Earl Dumarest was blind to its power.

For there, in the background, were the features of cratered Luna, satellite of Earth, the fabled planet that Dumarest had sought through countless galaxies.

Dumarest had to find the artist, had to talk to him. His trail led to Ath - and to the ominous forces of the Cyclan.

The Cyclan was the greatest concentration of intelligence in a thousand worlds - and yet Earl Dumarest continued to elude it. For too long.

Bochner was the greatest hunter of a hundred worlds - a man more than wise to the wiles of beasts and men. And now he was on the trail of the most dangerous and most challenging quarry of his career: Earl Dumarest.

While Dumarest searched for lost Terra, the Cyclan and Bochner searched for him. Of all the nightmare worlds of the universe, the hunt this time was to lead to the Quillian Sector.

The Quillian Sector: the place where space goes mad...

There was only one way out of Harge: to find a singing jewel, the greatest prize on that world of sand dunes. But the jewels were hidden deep in the burrows of Harge's most vicious predator.

Earl Dumarest could fight humans, could match wits with the implacable Cyclan. But now, in his galaxy-spanning quest for the lost planet Earth, he must face the WEB OF SAND.

It was touch and go for Earl Dumarest when the slavers of the Matriarchy of Onorldi struck his work camp. Had he not captured the Matriarch herself during the fight, it might have spelled his doom when the slavers triumphed.

Because, even though the odds had turned heavily against him, he was able to strike a bargain. The Matriarch's child daughter Iduna had disappeared into the mind-trap of the Tau. If he could follow, find her, and return with her, he would have his freedom and a chance to locate the lost Earth he sought.

But Dumarest had to outwit her monster playthings, outfight her hideous horrors, and outdream her satanic fantasies...

Only Earl Dumarest himself believed that there was ever a planet called Earth. He had been seeking it a long time - but nobody else at the crowded galactic centre believed in it. During his quest he had acquired some bits of information - a Terrestrial zodiac, and authentic painting of Luna, a general series of hints that he was getting closer.

The he learned of a man on Elysius who knew where Earth was, and who had the special coordinates that would take a starship directly to it. Though the man was dead, his widow knew where the data lay. But she demanded a price from Dumarest - a chore that involved a mining expedition which would bring her back a fortune... and for him the information he sought.

But the Terra Data would not be so easily come by!

Ascelius was an academic world, whose primary business was teaching the knowledge of the thousands of worlds, and housing great universities and colleges, populated by students and scholars from all over the galaxy.

Such a world was surely the place to learn of the legendary planet called Earth. And Dumarest discovered that there had once indeed been a study-group of Earth lore. But to find the remnants of it was not easy. Not when the dreaded Cyber already had a toe-hold on Ascelius - and genetic engineering of man and monster was the latest fad.

But Dumarest was not a quitter. Whatever the tests might demand, he would not give up... although it might mean death for others - or even for himself.

The planet had two unique elements. One was that it produced the galaxy's most desirable hallucinatory drug. The other was that it was a stock broker's paradise.

The world was split into rich men's holdings - and every hour, every minute these were being traded on a continuous stock-market. Up and down went values as men conspired to seize others' properties, to push prices down and costs up. Their money game controlled everything else - the common people, workers, farmers, homes, lives, poverty and luxury...

Earl Dumarest went there to find his next stake. Find the drug-gem or manipulate the market - two possibilities. But behind the scenes stood the advisors of the inhuman Cyclan, determined to fix the odds against Dumarest...

Zabul was no ordinary world. It was a private religious sanctuary - location secret, visitors unwelcome. It was a world fanatically dedicated to one belief and to one goal. The belief that mankind originated on a single world... the goal was to find it.

To find Earth was a goal that Earl Dumarest shared. But how much did he really have in common with the zealot Terridae, who slept in caskets decorated with the zodiacs and dreamed of soaring towers of crystal and floating cities? And what were their despotic Guardians really after?

The Terridae believed the lost Earth was heaven and utopia combined. In their artificial planet, they moved slowly through the universe in search of it. And in their eyes, the rediscovery of Earth was to be the Event.

Now they said the Event was coming! Earl Dumarest - who was born on Earth and knew the truth - was an unwelcome visitor among them. If they knew of Earth's whereabouts, they were not telling him.

But another Event was already on its way. A Cyclan ship was rapidly approaching the Terridae's world, confident that this time Dumarest would fall into their heartless clutches.

Dumarest was not ready to flee - but if he stayed there would be no Earth for him, only a long, lingering doom.

All the signals seemed set at "go." For Earl Dumarest had found people who believed in the legendary Earth. He had found the coordinates of the Sun and its attendant planets. And he would have the starship with a faithful crew of colonists for whom Earth was the paradise of their dreams.

But before he could reach that ideal moment, Dumarest would have to fight his way out of a demonic Cyclan trap as well as unravel a very tricky web of planetary conspiracy.

Only if he could achieve those desperate goals would he be able to set out on what he hoped would be the final lap of his long galactic trek...

"Welcome to the circus of Chen Wei! A spectacle of marvels culled from a thousand worlds! Things that will fill you with rapture!"

There could be little to surprise Dumarest. But Chen Wei's circus was special. It held Melome - the girl-child whose song could bring back forgotten data from the logs of lost spaceships and true visions of mythical Terra. She was surely the key to Dumarest's next step - but that circus was more than an entertainment. It was a deadly trap...

On Angado's planet, there was a man who knew the whereabouts of the lost Earth. Earl Dumarest, born on Earth, longed to find the way home. Because they were comrades in arms, Angado would help Earl find that man - for a price.

For Angado was returning to a complex of high-tech cunning and high-wealth power... the prodigal son against whom all would plot. The Cyclan, who had put a fabulous price on Dumarest's head, were also closing in. But Dumarest was willing to stay to the bitter end - for the priceless reward of forgotten Terra.

Clues from Angado, clues from the lady Govinda, all leading Dumarest on in his search for the lost Planet Earth. But first they lead him to a collector of ancient wisdom called Tama Chenault.

But Chenault is not all that he seems, and Dumarest is forced to bargain for the information he seeks. In return he must pledge allegiance to Chenault's deadly plan...

In relentless pursuit of Earl Dumarest come the emotionless minions of the Cyclan. Seeking the body-switching formula which would make them masters of the universe, they must seize Dumarest alive to gain his secret.

It all comes together on the world of the Guardians, where in the great temple of their fanatical faith, the true co-ordinates of Earth are listed. There Dumarest will battle the Cyclan... while the fate of all humanity hangs in the balance.

Dumarest had learned in the hard school of experience and he came equipped with certain attributes. He had very fast reflexes, he carried a knife and knew how to use it, he wore travellers garb which, because of the metal mesh buried within the thermal plastic, gave him protection against the lash of a claw, the rip of thorns, the cut and thrust of edged weapons. Most important of all, he had an overriding determination to survive no matter what the cost.

On Gath this wasn't easy...

There should have been soft breezes scented with entrancing perfumes, the soothing warmth of a golden sun, lakes of wine and mountains of grain, trees adorned with fruit and bud and flower, shrubs bearing a profusion of glittering gems. Herbs and spices to provide freedom from pain, a return to youthful zest, an end of aging and decay. Salves and ointments and natural fungi to cure all physical ills. . .

For this was Earth, that planet of legend, the paradise for which all yearned and hungered to find. The world of joy and beauty and riches beyond the wildest dreams.

Instead Earl Dumarest found a landscape of unremitting hostility. Could this really be the fabled home world for which he had spent his entire life searching...?

Moonbase Alpha is Earth's supreme achievement. The dark side of the moon, once so mysterious, now stores containers of smoldering radioactive waste, refuse from Earth. Then, in 1999, the serene satellite is ripped apart by a thermonuclear explosion and the 311 inhabitants of Alpha whirl through space on a runaway moon where survival is a game of chance with the life forces of the universe.

A large asteroid hurtles through space on a collision course with the Moon. As Moonbase Alpha is located within the impact area, the staff quickly formulates a plan to avert disaster. To guarantee the asteroid's destruction, twelve nuclear charges will be planted at strategic locations.

But then a mysterious alien appears to Commander Koenig and says that their two worlds must collide for her race to be saved. Can Koenig believe her? Will anyone on Moonbase Alpha believe him?

Following the mind-staggering nuclear explosion which has sent the moon and its research station, Alpha, deep into space, Commander Koenig and his dedicated group of scientists have kept the base going and survived crisis after crisis.

Now a huge, mysterious object crashes into the moon a few miles from the research base. A search party goes out to investigate, and almost at once there starts a series of terrifying events which may put an end to the moon base's incredible odyssey.

Many and strange have been the adventures of Moon Base Alpha and its crew since the atomic waste pits on the dark side of the Moon exploded and sent them careering out of Earth orbit, deep into unexplored space.

Always they have managed to overcome their perils and continue their strange Odyssey. Now, at last they seem to have reached the end of the road, as caught in a weird cone of force emanating from a sentient planet, they find themselves ageing at an incredible rate and powerless to break free.

This alternate version of Space: 1999 has the moon being knocked into an alternate dimension, speeding away from Earth. Twenty years later, the Alphans have become their own culture, with their own history.

Excavation on the moon reveals a spaceship half a million years old, filled with mummies of being so close to humans that a deadly disease is passed on to the Alphans. While battling they disease, they are learning how the alien starship drive works and attempting to employ it for themselves, but their experiments trap the moon in the event horizon of a black hole. They manage to escape -- barely -- and suddenly find themselves back in orbit around Earth.

But is this devastated planet really Earth?

Blasted from Earth orbit by the explosion of radioactive waste pits on the lunar surface, the Moon has passed through a black sun into a strange, distant universe where few of the accepted laws of astrophysics apply. The stranded inhabitants of Moonbase Alpha have become interstellar wanderers, facing many hostile alien forces in their search for a new home.

The arrival of aliens from a dying planet offers the chance for one Alphan to travel with them to their final destination -- Earth... Planet Eden promises to bring the Alphans' long journey to an end, but the members of a survey team are stranded when their paradise suddenly becomes a living hell... A pair of alien exiles plan to use Moonbase Alpha as a platform from which to launch an invasion of their homeworld.