tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3852401976091776228.post5532152029067335906..comments2024-03-28T16:39:46.847-04:00Comments on Tellers of Weird Tales: More Authors of the Golden Age of Science Fiction-E.C. TubbTerence E. Hanleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08268641371264950572noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3852401976091776228.post-51131316075467013552013-06-29T18:08:11.410-04:002013-06-29T18:08:11.410-04:00The Cyclans in the 'Dumarest' books bear c...The Cyclans in the 'Dumarest' books bear certain similarities to the Jesuits - a religious order adopting an outward appearance of poverty while being secretly power-hungry and expansionist. They prioritise reason over emotion - one of the conditions of becoming a full member is a form of emotional lobotomy and this proves their undoing in their quest to locate Dumarest as he acts on his instincts. <br /><br />There is an interesting corollory with the BSG (the second, and far superior version of the series) in that each Cyclan's brain is removed before his body fails. These brains are all kept on an unspecified planet (very similar to the resurrection ships in BSG which stores each Cylon consciousness) acting as a sort of hive-mind that directs Cyclan activity throughout the galaxy.Aonghus Fallonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09434527113873901741noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3852401976091776228.post-51525010725112069152013-06-29T17:37:48.597-04:002013-06-29T17:37:48.597-04:00Aonghus,
I should thank you for bringing E.C. Tub...Aonghus,<br /><br />I should thank you for bringing E.C. Tubb to my attention. When you first mentioned the Dumarest Saga, I speculated that it had inspired the creators of Battlestar Galactica. In reading up on the show, I found that Glen Larson, the creator, first came up with the idea of Battlestar Galactica in the late 1960s. The first Dumarest book came out in 1967. The bad guys in Battlestar Galactica are of course the Cylons. You would know more than I about the Dumarest Saga, but it sounds like there is a group of antagonists called the Cyclans in the series. Battlestar Galactica is also related to Mormonism in one way or another. Maybe Glen Larson drew from several sources for inspiration. Star Trek and Star Wars are most obvious.<br /><br />TH Terence E. Hanleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08268641371264950572noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3852401976091776228.post-17581634405631336782013-06-29T13:36:29.047-04:002013-06-29T13:36:29.047-04:00I read a dozen or so of the Dumarest saga in my te...I read a dozen or so of the Dumarest saga in my teens. I really enjoyed them - they were typical pulp of the day. Like a lot of the books written around then (Moorcock being another case in point) they were comparatively short, rarely clearing the 200 page mark. The covers were very representative of their time without - in retrospect - being very representative of the mc, who was depicted with flowing blond locks and a moustache (rather like some Seventies porn star) neither of which were ever mentioned in the books.Aonghus Fallonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09434527113873901741noreply@blogger.com