Product Description

For the first time ever, the first five books in the Saga of Dray Prescot of Earth and of Kregen are brought together in this omnibus edition. Together, these five books make up the Delian Cycle, in which Dray Prescot comes to terms with finding himself on the alien world of Kregen. Here he tries to make sense of his situation: the Star Lords, the Savanti, the marvelous places, strange beasts and stranger people. And here he pursues his greatest love of two worlds, Delia of the Blue Mountains.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #756348 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 676 pages

Customer Reviews

The Saga of Dray Prescot: The Delian Cycle
This a sword adventure of a planet circling Antares. The hero is a Nelson deckhand who has the grim determination to survive and prosper against huge odds and a host of fantastic enemies and predators. The writer , Ken Bulmer, writes a fast adventure to adventure style which keeps you entertained and involved. Personally, I do not want to be the hero, it usually would be much safer to be his friend and battle companion. I find it most compelling because of the incredible detail that is uniquely of the planet. It compels one to achieve and become the most one could be. The highly detailed action is not offensive nor does it become overly mushy. This is the place where you can slip into the world and have a fantastic adventure. This is the D&D world that others dream of and yet can not achieve. This is a most have for those who have learned to love the writing of Kenneth Bulmer aka Alan Burt Akers.

A lot of Good Reading
Since the Dray Prescot books were a big influence on my Taleran books ("Swords of Talera," "Wings Over Talera") I can't help but give this collection of the first five Prescot books a five-star rating. For those who don't know much about the genre these books are written in, I call it Sword and Planet fiction, although another common name is Interplanetary Romance. This subgenre of fantasy began with Edgar Rice Burroughs and his "John Carter of Mars" books, the first of which was "A Princess of Mars." Other early writers who wrote in this genre were Otis Adelbert Kline, and Robert E. Howard (with "Almuric").

British author Kenneth Bulmer, writing as Alan Burt Akers, began his series about Prescot in the early 1970s and it became the longest running Sword and Planet series ever, eventually extending to over fifty books, although only the first thirty-seven were published in English. The hero of the series, Dray Prescot, was born in 1775 and grew up to be a sailor in the brutal British navy. In "Transit to Scorpio," Prescot is transported mysteriously to the world of Kregen, which circles the twin stars of Antares. He finds himself quickly thrown into life and death action. In fact, action/adventure is the single phrase that probably best describes the Prescot series. If you like sword-fights, daring rescues, and desperate escapes then you should enjoy these books. But I enjoyed them just as much for the incredibly detailed world of Kregen that Bulmer invented, a world that continued to become more real as the series progressed.

"Transit to Scorpio" is not the fastest moving of the Prescot books because it had to set up the character of Dray and get him to Kregen where the tales take place. The pace of the series speeds up considerably with the second book, "The Suns of Scorpio," and Bulmer really hits his stride with #3 "Warrior of Scorpio" and #4 "Swordships of Scorpio." All of these are included in this "Delian Cycle" collection.

Although the price here seems a bit high for this collection, remember that you're actually getting five books in one, each book of which is probably in the 70,000-75,000 word range. That's a lot of good reading, and I certainly recommend it. After all, it made me want to write my own sword and planet series, which I finally did with the books about Talera.

The saga begins
I have been a fan of Dray Prescot for many years now. I was thrilled to get a hardback volume of the first 5 books together. The title character is a sailor from the time of Nelson, transported to the world of Kregen where he battles various types of sentient creatures to become a leading figure in the world. There's alot of derring do and swordplay to keep the reader engrossed. Over the course of the entire series, the character changes and grows. This is what I believe makes it a better series then most in this type of genre. A superior version of planetary adventure compared to the Gor series.