Space: 1999 #9-Rogue Planet

Space: 1999 #9

by E.C. Tubb

144pages. 17x11x1cm. Broché.

Genres: Science Fiction

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Edwin Charles Tubb was a writer of science fiction, fantasy and western novels. He published over 140 novels and 230 short stories and novellas, and is best known for The Dumarest Saga (US collective title: Dumarest of Terra) an epic science-fiction saga set in the far future.

Much of Tubb's work has been written under pseudonyms including Gregory Kern, Carl Maddox, Alan Guthrie, Eric Storm and George Holt. He has used 58 pen names over five decades of writing although some of these were publishers' house names also used by other writers: Volsted Gridban (along with John Russell Fearn), Gill Hunt (with John Brunner and Dennis Hughes), King Lang (with George Hay and John W Jennison), Roy Sheldon (with H. J. Campbell) and Brian Shaw. Tubb's Charles Grey alias was solely his own and acquired a big following in the early 1950s.

An avid reader of pulp science-fiction and fantasy in his youth, Tubb found that he had a particular talent as a writer of stories in that genre when his short story 'No Short Cuts' was published in New Worlds magazine in 1951. He opted for a full-time career as a writer and soon became renowned for the speed and diversity of his output.

Tubb contributed to many of the science fiction magazines of the 1950s including Futuristic Science Stories, Science Fantasy, Nebula and Galaxy Science Fiction. He contributed heavily to Authentic Science Fiction editing the magazine for nearly two years, from February 1956 until it folded in October 1957. During this time, he found it so difficult to find good writers to contribute to the magazine, that he often wrote most of the stories himself under a variety of pseudonyms: one issue of Authentic was written entirely by Tubb, including the letters column.

His main work in the science fiction genre, the Dumarest series, appeared from 1967 to 1985, with two final volumes in 1997 and 2008. His second major series, the Cap Kennedy series, was written from 1973 to 1983.

In recent years Tubb updated many of his 1950s science fiction novels for 21st century readers.

Tubb was one of the co-founders of the British Science Fiction Association.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Space 1999 was a not-really-very-good television series fifty or so years ago; it was on for two years, and the first season was better than the first. We watched it because there was little other sf on television then, and it often looked cool, even if it was silly at times. The Moon takes off on a cosmic pinball jaunt through the cosmos, hi-ho! A variety of authors of the time did novelizations of the first season, along with some original stories, in ten volumes, and Michael Butterworth wrote adaptations for 23 of the 24 second season episodes in a six-volume series. There's nothing especially noteworthy about most of them; they vary in quality as did the scripts upon which they were based. The first season seemed to borrow heavily from Star Trek ideas. This ninth book from the first season was written by E.C. Tubb, a science fiction writer who was very prolific and best known for his Dumarest series. It was the penultimate novel done for the U.S. Pocket Books series, but Tubb was to write one more, Earthfall, which for unknown reasons was never published in the U.S. It supposedly brings the series to a conclusion and sees the Alphans' descendants return to Earth. However, this one is another monster-of-the-week tale, with a giant green space brain found floating in the Aether and up to no good. One can but imagine the cheesy special effects if they'd've filmed it. The book title is an error, obviously, since it's not a planet...but never mind.... It's a psychic war, and ageless against the stars stands Omphalos! Well, he doesn't really -stand, - but you know... but the good guys prevail and it all works out and everyone's ready for next week's outing. It's a kind of simple and silly story, and the characters are kind of simple and stiff, so that's why I say he did a good job of fitting it in with the episodes. On the other hand, since it's a single long tale rather than a compendium of four episodes, there's a bit more in depth background and character. It's a fast, fun read, although we might have been better off if Tubb had spent the time in getting Earl one step closer to home. Anyway, Space 1999... this one is another brief nostalgic visit to near-forgotten television.

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent book, reads like one of the better episodes of the TV show.

Space:1999 always worked best, when it did stories that were almost the kind of things Star Trek did, and they show us how different they are from Star Trek.

Moonbase Alpha is generally in over its head, when dealing with the universe. It was never built to explore the universe.
It should feel more NASA than Enterprise and this book does it.

It nicely captures the feel of the show and the personalities of the characters.
It also captures the 'we are taking this VERY seriously' vibe that the show could have.
Which means, it's a small, well-written book, but not nessicarily, a fun read.

[Rich Meyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another excellent Space 1999 original from E.C. Tubb. It would've been quite easy to see this one as an episode, full of Gerry Anderson's special effects and a lot of goofy make-up jobs. The title is a tad off, though. It wasn't so much a rogue planet as a ... well, go ahead and read it for yourself.

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

Space: 1999 Rogue Planet is one of the better novels in the series that I have read so far. The title is very misleading for the Alphans encounter a giant green pulsating brain that they call Omphalos. The first half of the book is actually the best when people start hallucinating but then it gets depressing in the second half. Overall, I give Space: 1999 Rogue Planet a C+

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is getting worse.