Rish Performs "Mayenne" by E.C. Tubb at Audible.com

"Mayenne" is the ninth book in E.C. Tubb's "Dumarest of Terra" series, and may well have been the longest in coming (it was certainly the latest, though not quite two years past the deadline*).  But it's available now.

In this tale, Earl Dumarest is on another starship, with another odd assortment of crew and passengers, when disaster strikes.  The vessel is almost certainly doomed, but is saved at the last moment by a mysterious being, Tormyle, that turns out to be a living planet that is fascinated with humanity, death, fear, courage, and love.

It's a story that would have been right at home on "Star Trek" (as several of these have been), and I found this to be the strongest book in the series up to this point.  The titular Mayenne is a sort of musical diva, who has an almost supernatural singing talent, and who immediately falls in love with Dumarest, as literally every other female character in these books has done.

Tormyle, the planetary intelligence, designs various trials and experiments to test Dumarest and the others, to evaluate strength, speed, intelligence, honor, and that old stand-by of forcing people to choose which of their companions will be killed and which will be spared.

Of all the books so far, I think this was the most pleasurable to perform, and the least problem-laden (though I did have to re-record one chapter, and there was a part early on where I fell asleep during the narration, and had even created a blog post talking about it, which I never published.

I only have one more of these to do.  You can find "Mayenne" at this LINK.

*That particular "honor" will go to "Jondelle," the tenth (and last) book on my contract.