Well, last night I restarted reading Dumarest 16: Haven of Darkness. I started it last year and got sidetracked, and now I’m coming back to it.
The Dumarest of Terra saga is what I’d call “pulp adventure science fiction.” The books are also probably the greatest influence on the Traveller roleplaying game. Many ideas from the novels made it right into the game.
The novels remind me somewhat of the Doc Savage novels that were my introduction to SF reading when I found Doc Savage #1 on my grandfather’s bookshelf when I was 11 years old. You can pick up any of the novels and have a good read, though they are really meant to be read in order.
I love high-minded/high-concept science fiction, but I also enjoy a good adventure with fun characters and cool ideas. And fighting. The Dumarest novels are old-fashioned. Earl Dumarest is the strong silent type surviving in a hostile galaxy. There aren’t many female characters of any consequence, which is a fault very common in science fiction before maybe 2000. The women characters in the novels who ARE of consequence for the most part are manipulative shrews, which is also a fault. They all fall in love with Earl, and thus far they all die. Loving Earl is not good for one’s life expectancy. Some might argue that the 1990s saw more important female characters in SF novels, and that might be fair. I’m not really sure. But when you go back and read even the masters like Asimov and Silverberg, they too suffer from everything being a sausage party. I’m sure this is probably off-putting to younger readers, which is also fair.
Anyway, I have enjoyed all the novels in the series so far, and will eventually read the whole thing.