E.C. Tubb / Gregory Kern Books in Order

In a future where mercenary fleets fight wars without harming civilians, Gregg Harmond rises from farmer to commander. Building a formidable military force brings power, but keeping control of it becomes a challenge of its own.

An authoritarian world government seeks control of a Martian scientist’s new method of space travel. When it fails to secure the invention, its leader prepares to destroy the colony, turning technological independence into a fight for survival.

A spacecraft designed to withstand extreme heat approaches the Sun to study its energy. A cosmic accident instead carries the astronauts into a reversed universe, leaving them confronted by an environment that overturns their understanding of reality.

A discovery at the heart of hyperspace reveals hundreds of derelict starships, vessels that disappeared over many years. Wilner and his companions confront a vast graveyard in space and the mystery of its missing ships.

With starships grounded and civilization losing its power supplies, scientist Kleon seeks a way to release energy from dead matter. Condemned for wasting precious resources, he makes a desperate attempt to secure freedom and restore the universe’s future.

Ace rocketship pilot John Delmar makes a dangerous unauthorized journey to Mars. There he confronts the Lobants, an enemy with both human and robotic qualities, and must uncover the mystery behind the forces threatening the planet.

Planetoid Disposals Ltd clears dangerous debris from interstellar travel routes during an era of peace. When the Vendians neutralize the Galactic Patrol and launch an attack, the engineering company’s ships become the obstacle between their fleet and Earth.

After his wife is murdered, businessman Dell Weston is betrayed by his partner and loses his company. Surviving among society’s poorest people leads him to question civilization’s structure and the authority of the mysterious Arbitrators who influence it.

Nuclear war leaves a damaged Earth under female rulers who use assassination to preserve peace. When the Matriarch orders an apparently harmless young man killed, her secretary intervenes, setting in motion resistance against the state’s methods of control.

Three elderly businessmen pay the mysterious adventurer Brett for the secret of extending their lives. His bargain requires them to accompany him beyond the Wall at the galaxy’s center, on a journey that conceals dangers they never anticipated.

Venus promises vast mineral wealth and the chance to retire comfortably on Earth. For one unlucky adventurer, however, a succession of setbacks turns the search for fortune into the struggle to survive while stranded on an unfamiliar world.

Carmodine alone survives the first expedition to Pluto, but traumatic memories prevent him from explaining what happened. A second expedition needs him to return, forcing him toward the alien danger that killed his crew and shattered his mind.

Halmar, Lorna, and Smith defy authorities and hostile desert conditions to enter the forbidden Martian city of Klagan. Expecting legendary riches, they instead discover abandoned remnants of a civilization and become trapped by the city’s hidden nature.

Station commander Lee Correy ventures into Mercury’s frozen wastes to rescue his brother and retrieve a vital beam control component. Extreme conditions, strange life forms, and inexplicable failures complicate a mission upon which the station’s energy supply depends.

Stranded on Venus without money or proper papers, Verrill wants to reach a starbound ship on Mars. Securing passage draws him through smuggling, mutiny, and planetary dangers while powerful Brotherhoods threaten to prevent him from reaching his destination.

Human greed brings the danger of alien organisms into focus in this early space adventure. As humanity's technological reach grows, familiar appetites threaten to expose Earth to a menace beyond the world it already knows.

Stripped of his Martian business after entering a forbidden religious zone, Colin accepts financial backing for revenge against the priesthood. His expedition uncovers a danger far beyond his grievance, forcing him to confront a threat to Earth itself.

Captured during a galactic war, an Earth ship’s crew learns that chlorine breathing aliens possess a catalyst capable of transforming human worlds. An ultimatum gives the Terran Federation fifty days to make peace or face catastrophic environmental destruction.

A scientist spends everything developing protection against the voices that make mining the rich planet Vendor impossible. His expedition seeks fortune, but unforeseen hazards unleash the Metal Eater, an apparently indestructible force capable of threatening life across the universe.

Revived five years after dying in space, Captain Baron returns to find his property and professional standing gone. Exploitation of his extraordinary survival drives him toward murder, while police pursue a fugitive whose resurrection has changed his human nature.

After forced labor and imprisonment, Wilson rises through the brutal Stellar Legion on a penal planet. Meanwhile, a Federation leader tries to dismantle the military force he helped establish, fearing its hardened soldiers could become a threat throughout the galaxy.

The first thirty five years of Martian settlement unfold through the lives of pioneers struggling against an inhospitable planet. With shifting sands and conditions hostile to habitation, the colonists must spend courage, ingenuity, and lives to sustain their foothold.

Before his detective agency becomes successful, Mike Lantry faces financial collapse in 1950s New York. The disappearance of a multimillionaire’s wife gives him a crucial early case, testing the persistence and toughness on which his future business depends.

Confederate prisoners accept a Union mission against the Comanches, secretly hoping to recover hidden gold for the South. An unexpected friendship forces Terrence to reconsider his loyalties as a growing threat endangers soldiers on both sides.

A generation ship approaches its destination after centuries carrying a tightly controlled population. Its inhabitants live under strict resource limits, while a computer and secretive enforcement system determine who must die to keep the enclosed society functioning.

World Police captain Sam Falkirk investigates a messenger’s unexplained death and discovers a stolen statue linked to a bacterial weapon. Political rivalries complicate his pursuit of the thief as the missing object threatens millions of people with a deadly plague.

A government commission visits Britain’s lunar base to examine its costs, while Felix Larsen carries separate secret orders. His investigation encounters inexplicable deaths, impossible survivals, and strange messages, suggesting the base’s research conceals something beyond ordinary espionage.

Wealthy Marcus King buys survival through other people’s bodies, then narrowly escapes a sophisticated assassination attempt. Security agent Steve Delmonte follows further murders toward the Moon, investigating the hidden interests behind an attack with consequences extending far beyond King.

Ten science fiction stories examine human weaknesses in imagined futures, from technological advances to unfamiliar societies. Tales including The Ming Vase, Vigil, and Last of the Morticians explore the consequences of people's ambitions and assumptions.

Brad Stevens enters suspended animation because future medicine offers his only hope of a cure. The procedure preserves him as promised, but awakening transforms that hope into a nightmare when he confronts circumstances he could never have expected.

Wandering gladiator Earl Dumarest arrives on Gath while searching for Earth, a world others dismiss as imaginary. Becoming the Matriarch of Kund’s reluctant champion requires a deadly contest during the storms, with a possible clue to home at stake.

Three explorers return from Proxima Centauri only to be permanently exiled in orbit by Earth’s authorities. Martian criminal interests employ the fearless Slade to uncover the secret behind their isolation, hoping to turn the forbidden crew into a profitable advantage.

Earl Dumarest agrees to protect Lady Derai on the feudal world of Hive while pursuing a witness who might confirm Earth’s existence. Disappearances and the Cyclans’ schemes draw them into a deadly contest from which they must escape together.

A spacecraft escaping an attacking missile enters an unfamiliar form of space, carrying occupants who could remain aboard for their lifetimes. The discovery of a world resembling Earth raises the possibility of refuge, but leaves their future uncertain.

Continuing his search for Earth, Dumarest forms a bond with Kalin, a mutant prophetess whose foresight has already protected him. On worlds marked by violence and superstition, her ability becomes crucial as greater threats endanger his journey toward home.

Alien rulers sell eternal youth to Earth’s people while withholding the space travel technology needed to relieve overcrowding. Resistance agent Martin Preston must uncover their secrets, knowing that failure could mean starvation for humanity as well as his own death.

Dumarest visits Toy to consult a giant computer that may know where Earth lies. To obtain its information, he must enter the Toy Games, where participants resemble soldiers in a nursery but face real wounds and death.

Rumors of a miraculous golden spore draw prospectors to Scar’s lethal jungles and volatile settlements. Dumarest arrives while continuing his search for Earth, sharing the dangerous world with the mocking Lord of Jest and others determined to find fortune.

Earl Dumarest searches primitive worlds and space routes for the nearly forgotten planet Earth. His encounter with the psychic Lallia draws him into a fight against a giant mutant, with her life and a possible clue to home at stake.

Ten speculative stories move between strange worlds, dangerous inventions and uneasy encounters with the supernatural. Telepathic punishment, a bargain with a demon and humanity’s last pilgrimage explore the places where science, belief and ordinary human desires collide.

Joseph P. Lincoln manages propaganda and emotional control in an apparently peaceful, orderly society. When a woman from the past arrives through cryogenic preservation, her presence disrupts his carefully managed world and exposes problems its controlling systems struggle to contain.

Dumarest narrows his search for Earth to a remote region, but still needs its exact location. A mysterious woman on Technos may provide the answer, forcing him to become a slave inside a world governed by cybernetic policing.

Earl Dumarest reaches Ourelle, where a boy named Jondelle may hold a clue to Earth's location. When the boy is kidnapped, rescuing him leads Dumarest into a city inhabited by dangerously violent killers.

Searching for Earth, Earl Dumarest and the singer Mayenne arrive on Tormyle, a sentient planet constantly remaking itself. Its immense intelligence understands little of human emotion, and escape depends on answering its seemingly impossible demands.

Still searching for Earth, Earl Dumarest becomes the servant of Veruchia, a mysterious mutant woman on Dradea. Helping her pursue a quest tied to her planet's future exposes him to dangers beyond the gladiatorial arena.

Earl Dumarest's search for Earth is diverted when he must lead an army for Zenya on Paiyar. Caught in the planet's deadly feuds and pursued by the Cyclan, he struggles to preserve his chance of returning home.

The Cyclan's vast intelligence network begins to fail, making Earl Dumarest vital to its survival. As agents hunt the traveler seeking Earth, their encounter with the seductive Eloise disrupts the logic on which their pursuit depends.

A traveler from a world called Nerth gives Earl Dumarest a possible clue to Earth's identity. Following it brings him to a mysterious planet where the Cyclan has already established a threatening presence.

Earl Dumarest's search for Earth takes an unexpected turn toward a ghost world in another galaxy. Rumors of a castle that grants every wish tempt him with the possibility of finally returning to his lost home.

Captured mercenary Earl Dumarest faces surrender to the Cyclan or a dangerous offer of freedom from Lady Delphine. A plague-stricken ship and its unstable captain complicate his effort to keep the search for Earth alive.

Earl Dumarest arrives on Zakym, where visions of the dead recur and an unseen species rules after dark. What seems a brief stop on his search for Earth becomes a trap governed by an unsettling pact.

On Zakym, tension between the night-rulers and the day people threatens war. Earl Dumarest risks remaining to pursue a possible clue to Earth's location while the Cyclan tries to capture him before the conflict erupts.

Driven by his mother's death and mistreatment by sophisticated rescuers, Leon Vardis builds a life as farmer, mercenary, and trader. Discovery of hypnotic jewels offers a disturbing opportunity to turn his resentment into vengeance on a cosmic scale.

A painting depicting Earth's moon gives Earl Dumarest a new lead in his search for home. Finding its artist takes him to Ath, where the Cyclan and other ominous forces stand between him and the truth.

The Cyclan recruits expert hunter Bochner to track Earl Dumarest, whose search for Earth continues to frustrate its agents. Their pursuit leads into the Quillian Sector, where abnormal space adds another danger to the relentless hunt.

After a slaver attack, Earl Dumarest bargains for freedom by agreeing to rescue the Matriarch's daughter. Following Iduna into a mental trap means facing monstrous fantasies before he can resume his search for Earth.

Kevin Blake accepts a lucrative assignment to retrieve a billionaire's daughter from her travels among the stars. Bringing the stubborn Crystal home draws him into alien courts, captivity, and increasingly difficult choices about authority and survival.

Stranded on the desert world Harge, Earl Dumarest needs a valuable singing jewel to secure his escape. Finding one requires entering the burrows of the planet's deadliest predator, risking his life to continue the search for Earth.

Gambler Mark Carodyne comes to Krait for racing profits but accepts a far greater risk. With a vast cosmic phenomenon threatening the planet and earlier expeditions missing, he ventures alone to gather data that might save it.

Inventors build a machine to harness luck as a natural force, attracting good fortune at someone else's expense. When the device falls into dangerous hands, its creators face consequences far beyond the benefits they originally imagined.

Earl Dumarest learns that a dead man on Elysius possessed coordinates for Earth. His widow offers access to the information in exchange for a profitable mining expedition, making another promising lead depend on a dangerous bargain.

Earl Dumarest visits the university world Ascelius to search for records left by a group studying Earth. Recovering their discarded knowledge proves dangerous as the Cyclan gains influence and experiments in genetic engineering complicate his hunt for home.

Dumarest seeks travel money on a world dominated by speculative markets and a rare hallucinogenic drug. Finding the valuable substance or profiting from trade could fund his search, but Cyclan advisers work behind the scenes to turn the odds against him.

Dumarest reaches the secret religious sanctuary Zabul, whose inhabitants seek an idealized Earth. Their shared goal should make them allies, but the Terridae’s hostile guardians and strange beliefs force him to question what their search really conceals.

Earl Dumarest obtains coordinates that appear to point toward the Sun and its planets, bringing his search for Earth closer to success. The journey still presents dangerous obstacles, making the promise of home difficult to separate from another possible deception.

The Terridae travel through space searching for an Earth they believe is paradise. Dumarest wants their knowledge but remains unwelcome, while an approaching Cyclan ship threatens to end his search unless he can escape without surrendering his chance of finding home.

At Chen Wei’s circus, Dumarest encounters Melome, a girl whose singing can recover forgotten memories and reveal true visions. Her gift may unlock the next clue to Earth, but the circus conceals a deadly trap that threatens them both.

Ships vanish in hyperspace until the discovery of a wreck reveals evidence of something more sinister than navigational failure. Captain Kurt Varl leads an investigation and must make himself bait to uncover the unknown enemy behind the disaster.

Angado offers Earl Dumarest information about Earth in exchange for help in a brutal war. The bargain ties Dumarest’s hope of locating his lost home to another man’s conflict, forcing him to weigh a valuable clue against immediate danger.

Clues lead Dumarest to eccentric collector Tama Chenault on a world dominated by feuding nobles. Chenault promises Earth’s location in return for allegiance, drawing Dumarest into a hostile society where winning the promised information means surviving its internal struggles.

The Cyclan pursues Dumarest for a body-switching formula that could give it control over humanity. His search leads to the Guardians’ temple, where Earth’s coordinates may be recorded, placing the hope of home alongside a potentially decisive confrontation.

Human wrongdoing follows civilization into space in these science fiction mysteries. Six stories and the novella Inevitable Conflict bring murder, competing motives, and the challenge of detection into settings where new technology has failed to eliminate crime.

Dumarest gains an opportunity to travel aboard a ship toward the location he believes is Earth. Dealing with a raider society brings his long search closer to its destination, while the demands of securing passage still test his determination to survive.

Malkar loses his bearings when a blizzard arrives with unnatural speed and engulfs the landscape. Surrounded by relentless wind and snow, he faces a hostile wilderness whose eerie transformation leaves him unable to find his way.

Six science fiction stories bring together Kalgan the Golden, Tea Party, Confessional, Dear Ghost, Perac, and Into Thy Hands. Tubb's collection ranges across speculative settings through separate tales of unusual encounters and the people caught within them.

Mercenary Malkar assumes the throne of Dashkit and marries its queen, Ishma, only to face a magical threat to the city. When a spell suspends its inhabitants, he must seek the means to confront the power behind their captivity.

Rex Willard struggles to hold a failing ranch while his brother is missing and his father drinks away his usefulness. Predatory cattle barons and a hostile rival foreman surround him, threatening both his inheritance and the remnants of his family.

Former Confederate captain Mark Young guides a wagon train toward California’s gold country. Rivalry with the wagon boss, dwindling water, and attacks along the route threaten his effort to bring the families through desert and mountain country before winter.

This selection brings together E. C. Tubb’s shorter science fiction, ranging through death, time and unsettling encounters. The stories showcase the speculative ideas and human dilemmas of a writer whose work developed across British and American science-fiction magazines.

Dumarest’s voyage reaches the world he has sought throughout his travels, but discovery does not end the struggle. A powerful being’s strange entrapment stands between him and the truth about Earth, testing the purpose of his lifelong search.

Secret agent Crispin de Corville uncovers a plan to unite desert tribes and seize weapons from the French Foreign Legion. Crossing hostile terrain, he must discover the conspirators’ intentions before their campaign threatens the settlements the Legion protects.

Alien raiders devastate settlements across the Earth Confederation, and Captain Kurt Varl is summoned because he has survived such an encounter. Leading another crew into combat means facing both enemy vessels and terrifying beings lurking within hyperspace.

Don Thorpe accepts a Union mission to find a missing gold train before its cargo funds Confederate weapons. Rescuing travelers from an attack leaves him a Comanche prisoner, forcing him to escape captivity before he can resume the search.

Five stories combine science fiction, horror and suspense, beginning with an urgent search for a hidden atomic bomb. An enemy agent cannot be made to reveal its location, leaving security officials racing to prevent a town’s destruction.

Max Feyman controls an invention enabling ultrafast space travel until his daughter develops a mysterious disabling illness. As similar cases spread through the solar system, he searches for a cure that could save both Celia and the wider human population.

Stephen and Diana seek shelter in an apparently deserted mansion, unaware of the secret waiting inside. Their ordeal anchors a collection of ten supernatural stories in which familiar surroundings give way to dark fantasy and horror.

A fugitive escapes a secret military project in the title story, while colonists disappear from an apparently ideal planet in Star Haven. Five science fiction tales combine dangerous discoveries, concealed motives, and threats beyond ordinary experience.

Captain Tom Mason investigates a series of decapitations, but the murders continue after a suspect is taken into custody. That mystery joins three other science fiction crime stories involving assassination, dangerous wishes, and legal maneuvering.

United Nations law enforcement officer Ralph Mancini fights the international drug trade when a new substance offers users visions of godlike power and heaven. Its extraordinary appeal presents another challenge to his campaign against the spread of narcotics.

Thieves steal a formula controlling atomic fission, leaving murdered guards and one distinctive identifying mark behind. Investigator Jim Carter takes the case at the risk of his own life in this collection of six science fiction mysteries.

Six science fiction stories place people on Earth and in space before decisions with far-reaching consequences. Individual lives, distant settlements and humanity’s future hang on choices made under pressure, including in a world scarred by catastrophic destruction.

Two criminals hijack a space liner, but their plan begins to unravel and the surviving partners must consider escape. The promise of stolen wealth breeds mistrust in a collection of four future crime stories and Tubb's convention speech.

This short science fiction tale ventures into the cold spaces separating the planets. Its characters face the dangers of an environment where isolation and the many possible forms of death make survival far from certain.

Space policemen pursue a criminal whose unusually fast ship keeps him beyond their reach. As the younger officer grows frustrated, his captain reflects on the fugitive’s clever planning and the limits of imagination when trying to escape justice.

An accident in space leaves John Hammond with devastating injuries, and a doctor offers the possibility of continued life. Hammond's own wishes complicate that rescue, raising a painful question about what it means to save someone.

Venus offers extraordinary riches to anyone able to survive its hostile environment. In the dangerous Hotlands, discovering a valuable secret is only part of the challenge, because escaping alive may prove harder than finding it.