Looks like "A Dumbest Novel" at first. You can tell we're into the 80s, can't you? And we're none the better for it, art-wise.

The Dumarest novels were no small committment, pal - 33 novels altogether.

"The stories are set in a far future galactic culture that is fragmented and without any central government."

As if that's unusual. History:

Dumarest, was born on Earth, but had stowed away on a spaceship when he was a young boy and was caught. Typically, on a spaceship a discovered stowaway is ejected to space, but the captain takes pity on the boy and allows him to work and travel on the ship. When the story opens in The Winds of Gath, Dumarest has traveled so long and so far that he does not know how to return to the home planet and no-one has ever heard of it, other than as a myth or legend.

It becomes clear that someone or something has deliberately concealed Earth's location. The Cyclan, an organization of humans surgically altered to be emotionless, and on occasion able to link with the brains of previously living Cyclans (the better to think logically), seem determined to stop him from finding Earth. Additionally, the Cyclan seek a scientific discovery that Dumarest possesses, stolen from them and passed to him by a dying thief, which would vastly increase their already considerable power.

Also appearing in many of the books is the humanitarian Church of Universal Brotherhood. Its monks are spread throughout many worlds as are the Cyclan, the two being arch-enemies - which does not make the Church Dumarest's ally, but in some instances they support each other.

Is it just me, or does a terrible similarity run through all these books? Let's be honest: Cyclans, looking for Earth could be a paraphrase of Battlestar Galactica.

Oh, and Earth is also known as Terra.