The Avon/Equinox Rediscovery Series #7--Inside Outside, by P. J. Farmer

Updated April 5th, 2018.  This page is now complete.  There are 18 books reviewed here.

This is the 2nd and final novel by Farmer included in the Rediscovery Series.  Refer to the first blog entry in this series for most of Farmer's other novels and short stories.  In addition to reviewing Inside Outside, I will use this entry to continue my explorations of many of Farmer's other novels.  Specifically, you will find here discussions on his World of Tiers series (7 novels), Riverworld (5 novels) and Dayworld (3 novels).  All other material by Farmer will be found underneath my review of his Strange Relations, which was #1 in the Rediscovery Series.  Check back often for updates to each page as I read the other novels.

 Cover Art by Jack Wyrs

From 1964, this is a pretty fascinating tale.  It is very short, and like many of Farmer's novels, is written as one long, continuous chapter.  Whenever an author attempts to explain away all of human religion and mythology, especially in such a short story, he had better get things mostly right.  Farmer does.

There are three distinct parts to the story.  The first part is the more normal part, though we and the inhabitants of the world being discussed are left mostly confused by the state of affairs.  People die and are brought back to life.  Strange earthquakes rumble across the world, bringing about catastrophic changes as the planet seems to expand afterwards, to accommodate new inhabitants.  Demons inhabit the landscape, which is mostly populated by Christian humans.  Buddhists and Hindus seem to live in a different area, and are never encountered by the current populace.  Our hero is Jack Cull, currently employed by the Exchange, a mysterious hierarchical organization that seeks knowledge and truth about where they all are and what is happening to them.  The world they live within is much like Burrough's Pellucidar, with a sun in the middle and the earth curving upwards.  I really liked this part of the story, as it was the most mysterious.  We are dropped in the middle of this strange world with its strange and befuddled inhabitants trying to live normally.  It reminds me of a PC game I played not long ago called "Next Life--Reprobates."  That was equally puzzling and mysterious.

The second part of the book is classic Farmer, as we head underground into the sewer system for some exploring.  Three humans undertake the expedition.  Fyodor is a Christian believer who is convinced that the Maker is behind all of it.  It seems that each time a person dies and an ambulance comes along to pick them up, a person looking exactly like Jesus accompanies them.  He even comes with a sermon!  Phyllis is a woman Jack Cull was once attracted to, but  had come to strongly dislike after she had abandoned him for a man who out-ranked him at the Exchange.  These three get into a wild adventure down below, even as the planet they are on undergoes the most severe earthquakes yet.

The final section tells of what became of them once the interior of the planet had virtually been destroyed, overstretched to the breaking point by a sudden influx of new inhabitants.  They are trapped floating high above it.  This is a fascinating account of a post-apocalyptic world, and the survivors floating and spinning above it.  Some of the imagery is absolutely wonderful!  They (and we) eventually get answers, though there is still a lot of mystery left over.  The final ending isn't totally satisfying, as Farmer never really explains why a new crop of inhabitants (alien to humans) cannot be told what is going on, nor why the original humans (and before them the demons) could never be told.  The answer he provides does not satisfy me.

Still, this is a very good read, and Farmer's imagination once again proves itself to be one of the finest in the literary world.  He is so versatile and so able to write well about what his mind conceives that he leaves most other writers in the dust.  His productivity is not only copious, but spacious.  He always has new ideas, and is always willing and able to share them.
*** 1/2 stars  Reviewed Nov. 28th, 2016
Mapman Mike 
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WORLD OF TIERS

There are seven books that fit into this series, though #6 is related in an indirect way.  Here are the titles of the books, and the years they were published.

Maker of Universes, 1965

Gates of Creation, 1966

A Private Cosmos, 1968

Behind the Walls of Terra, 1970

The Lavalite World, 1977

Red Orc's Rage, 1991

More Than Fire, 1993 

The tiers, or levels from Book 1, were all created by a very advanced race of "lords" eons ago.  There are literally different levels, from the lowest platform up to the highest, which is the castle of the lord.  Here are the different levels, all of them inhabited:  *

 Okeanos - watery, Garden of Eden, populated by people abducted from ancient Greece.

 Amerind - prehistoric North America, populated by people abducted from North and Central America. 

Dracheland - medieval/Arthurian, populated by people from medieval Germany. 

Atlantis - was a major civilization, now ruins and jungle. 

Palace of Jadawin.

And the monoliths on top of which the tiers are located are:

Thayaphaeawoed (surmounted by the Amerind tier)

Abharhploonta (surmounted by the Dracheland tier)

Doozvillnavava (surmounted by the Atlantis tier)

Idaquizzoorhruz (surmounted by the Palace of Jadawin)

*Taken from Wikipedia article on World of Tiers
 

There.  Is that clear enough?  Good.  Let's get started on the novels.  I only wish there was a good map of the places.

#1: THE MAKER OF UNIVERSES

 Cover and interior art by Jack Gaugham

I was thrilled to find a first edition of this novel in a local bookstore (John King Books), and for only $3.50.  It is a small, slim book of 191 pages, and feels wonderful in the hands.  The cover art correctly depicts the green sky, an eagle woman, and one of the monoliths.

Farmer has created a giant playground for himself, populated and run by different civilizations, landscapes, and critters.  Though the people inhabiting the levels were once humans from Earth, many of them have been experimented upon by the "lord", and many are not too pleased about it.  The main hero in this first story (no one knew at this point that there would be other novels) is Bob Wolff, and we join him on Earth stuck in an unhappy marriage and about to buy a new home in Arizona.  Wolff is in his mid-sixties and is overweight and woefully out of shape.

He finds a silver horn in a closet, thrown to him by a stranger through a temporary gate, or rift, between worlds.  This part reminded me a lot of Narnia.  By blowing the horn he is able to leave Earth through the reopened rift, appearing in a strange world which happens to be the lowest level, or tier, of his new universe.  And so the adventure begins in Okeanos, passing upwards through all levels until we eventually reach the highest point, the castle of the lord.

At this point, my criticism of the novel begins.  Farmer rushes through the four lower levels as if he had to cram everything in to as few pages as possible.  This is common in Farmer's works--the guy just has too many ideas and not enough space to expand them.  Ace books in particular were always pretty short, and Farmer is forced to show all his cards in this first act.  I doubt if he even knew a sequel was possible.  Maker of Universes is a complete story and does not leave us hanging.  However, I wish this first book had only taken place in Okeanos, perhaps leaving that level just near the end of the story.  The 2nd book might have resumed at Amerind and spent more time there.  And so on.  So we would have had five books altogether instead of just this one.  No doubt Farmer would have wished for this, too.  However, publishers did not think that way at the time.  Once Lord of the Rings came out and swept the world, then the idea of sequels and trilogies suddenly burst on the scene.  Authors were expected to write as if many more books in a series would be forthcoming.  Sometimes back then we wished that only one book had been written, instead of 20 or 30 (I think of John Norman).

So the first Tiers novel feels very rushed and breathless.  There is so much material to work with on each tier, and we only get a quick glance before we are off to somewhere completely new.  Many Farmer stories have this problem, as mentioned above.  Imagine if C. S. Lewis' Narnia series (7 books) were all crammed into one short novel.  That is how I felt when I had completed reading Maker of Universes.  Had this story been a simple one-off I would have always wondered why Farmer had never returned to this world.  Perhaps he had never planned to.  However, with the Ballantine release of Lord of the Rings in three giant (for its day) volumes, the fantasy and SF publishing world was about to be turned on its head.  Tolkien's works came out in 1965, exactly the same year as Maker of Universes.  Is this what enabled Farmer to return for a second look?  We may never know, but it seems a pretty good guess.  **** stars (for sheer concept and power of imagination, as well as the usual great storytelling and characters).  Reviewed Dec. 2nd, 2016

#2: THE GATES OF CREATION

 Cover art by Gray Morrow

One year after the publication of The Maker of Universes, we have publication of The Gates of Creation.  There is nothing on the cover to let on that this is a sequel.  Ace still mistrusted sequels as such, afraid that if readers hated the first book, or missed it altogether,  they would not buy the next one.  And though Wolff and Chryseis are in both books, all other characters are new to us, as is the geography.  Farmer already had established (roughly and quickly) the World of Tiers and its unique group of inhabitants, but wasn't satisfied with that.  Out came several brothers, a cousin, and a sister of his.  They had grown up as children in a loving environment, but all that had vanished as they grew into their Lordships.  Now they hate and mistrust one another, eager to kill each other for very little reason.

Urizen is the father/uncle to them, and is reportedly the cruelest and most murderous of them all.  He creates an elaborate scheme to trap and kill them all, including Jadawin/Wolff.  Only our hero has changed enough, thanks to his amnesia and then his earthbound experiences, to be different from them all, and he manages to hold them together (mostly) as they try to survive their father's elaborate traps and punishing worlds.  He is the only creative one of the bunch, too.  The others are too used to being Lords in their own realms, and don't really know how to do anything for themselves.

And so our second story does not take place on a world of tiers; instead, gates they are lured through take them to several different planets before they finally arrive at Urizen's castle.  Farmer has some wonderful alien landscapes to pass through, and strange creatures to meet along the way.  Some of these can hop back and forth in time!  At 159 pages this is a typical Ace-length book; that is, it is very short.  Still, Farmer crams a lot into these few pages.  It is high adventure from the get-go, and Farmer is in great form.  I especially liked how the planets were so barren, but Wolff was always able to fashion what he needed from the scant materials available.  Gathering material for explosives and building a rocket made for pretty fascinating reading, as was building some boats to float and paddle down a river.  The landscapes themselves were always unique, and I have yet to encounter anything similar in other writing.  C. J. Cherrhy seems to have borrowed Farmer's idea of the Gates, which is also a great one (see her Gate of Ivrel series).

It's not knowing what is coming next that makes Farmer's adventures so enticing and fun to read, along with almost non-stop action.  There is no second guessing what he has planned in the next chapter.  Nice surprises await around every corner, and especially near the end.  Great adventure in the tradition of Burroughs, but so different at the same time.  Farmer's imagination seems to go on overdrive in most of his books, and it must have kept him up at night as he wrote, as it does us as we read.

There is an error in my copy, which hopefully was caught in later editions.  On page 111 one of the Lords, Palamabron, dies.  Yet on page 123 he seems to be still running around with the others.  He is not mentioned again after this.  Strange.  Anyway, this is a fun, though very short read.  I am looking forward to Book 3 later this month.

**** stars  Reviewed Dec. 8th/16

 Cover art by Boris

This book club edition from 1979 (?) contains three of the World of Tiers stories: A Private Cosmos (#3), Behind the Walls of Terra (#4), and The Lavalite World (#5).  It was published by Doubleday through Ace Books.  I have been unable to find Vol. 1 of this particular set.  I found my Vol 2 copy at John King in Detroit, for $3.00.

#3: A PRIVATE COSMOS

Original 1968 copy. 

The SF world had to wait two years for a third instalment.  My copy has a wonderful introduction by Roger Zelazny, which reads as if it was part of the original publication back in 1968.  The story takes place entirely in the original World of Tiers location, plus a visit to its moon.  While Wolff/Jadawin was having his adventures in the second story, The Gates of Creation, we now learn how Kickaha the Trickster was keeping busy during this time.  The 3rd story has nearly everyone chasing after Kickaha, and the pressure does not let up on him until the final page.  We meet some old favourite characters, such as the harpy Podarge, the Half- Horse people, and we get a pretty good look inside one of the major cities.  Even though we have been to this world before, it is so vast (one level is larger than North and South America combined) that Farmer keeps showing us new things all the time.

Kickaha teams up with Anana, the other sister of Wolff, and they make a great team as they escape trap after trap.  Farmer is very good at putting his heroes in what seem to be inescapable circumstances.  And where most of us would finally give up and just die, Kickaha is always ready to try again and again, until some totally hare-brained scheme finally works.  

This time, the World is invaded by Bellers.  They remind me of something one might see on Doctor Who.  They are a form of life that lives in human bodies, essentially killing the host and occupying it with their mind, which is contained in a bell-shaped device that fits over the head.  They are nasty people, though they have no morals as such.  They do this to survive, not to willfully hurt and kill people.  Or so the story goes.  They are somewhat destructive, as Kickaha finds out when he returns home to his Bear Clan people.  Fifty of them have invaded, and must be destroyed.  They need Kickaha since Jadawin is away from his Palace, and only the Trickster knows how everything works way up top.

The novel is filled with high adventure from the get go.  One of the highlights is Kickaha's escape from the Half-Horses, who chase him into a stampeding buffalo herd.  At the same time, the Bellers are flying overhead trying to kill him with laser beams.  This is a very exciting part of the story, and affirms the bond between Kickaha and Anana.  Another great idea is born from Farmer's brain when Kickaha gets trapped in a transporting gate sequence, and keeps reappearing in a different spot every few seconds.  Nearly every time he re-emerges in one of the five or six gates he is looping through, someone is waiting there to kill him.  He is trapped in here, since if he leaps out he will burn up.  Fun times!

On the moon we learn of a direct connection to Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars novels!  This was a really fun idea, adding some unusual creatures and the unexpected connection to Barsoom.  And Farmer's use of "Spy Missiles" have a direct link to the SF novels of Iain M. Banks, one of my very favourite authors.  In his Culture novels (which are all astounding!) there are things called Knife Drones, about 10 cm long.  These are extremely powerful spy devices, as well as weapons of mass destruction.  To top it off, they are intelligent and can think for themselves.  They often accompany humans on assignments, and are also used as scouts for the (intelligent) space ships.  While Farmer's missiles aren't that advanced (they are used by remote control and look like nearly invisible paper airplanes), I have no doubt that Banks read these stories, too, gathering ideas.

The only book that Farmer wrote between World of Tiers 2 and 3 was an expanded version of Night of Light, which I have now read and reviewed.  My short story review of this fabulous story is on my first Farmer page.  However, before Book 4 of Tiers came along (which seems as if it will take place on Earth!), he wrote 3 porno books, including Image of the Beast, A Feast Unknown, and Blown.  Those are also reviewed on the first Farmer page of this blog.

Like the first two adventures in this series, A Private Cosmos is very short and can be read easily in a day or two.  It is hard to put down.  I enjoyed it thoroughly and look forward to part 4 soon!  
**** stars.   Reviewed December 10th, 2016

#4: BEHIND THE WALLS OF TERRA

Original copy of book 4.

Behind the Walls of Terra came out two years after the 3rd book in the series.  Kickaha and Anana visit Earth.  Kickaha (Paul J. Finnegan) was originally from Earth, but he hasn't been back since his sudden departure in 1946.  Now, in swinging 1970 LA, he finds things have changed somewhat.  They have run-ins with a biker gang, police, hippies, a rock band with a god-like leader, and Red Orc, the chief villain of the next several stories.

In between A Private Cosmos and Behind the Walls of Terra, Farmer wrote three pornographic SF/Fantasy novels.  Two of these were set in LA.  In Image of the Beast, LA is shrouded in deadly smog.  In Blown (both books reviewed on page one of this blog) the city is besieged with rain.  In the present novel, it's just your average, ordinary LA, but with way more police cars.  No matter which flea bag motel that Kickaha and Anana visit, they always seem to be located quickly by either Red Orc or the police.  It happens too many times for my liking.  There are exciting moments, but the novel reads like a tamed down version of Image and Blown.  We are repeating territory that was actually covered better in the two porno books, especially Image.

Of course Farmer was writing for a completely different audience in Terra; teenage boys for the adventure series versus dirty old men in the porno books.  But having just read and reviewed the two porno books, I found Terra not very original.  We do find out some fascinating (and laughable) things about Earth, and Farmer seems to enjoy pulling our legs.  And we find out some fun things about Kickaha, too.   

One of the best things about the entire series is the concept of "pocket universes," and the strange landscapes, people, and critters than inhabit them.  Though we do spend a long time in everyday LA, Farmer does not disappoint us, and we get to travel through gates within gates.  Near the end, when Kickaha is searching for Anana, Wolf, and Chryseis, we get to see once again what the series is all about.  The writing becomes superb again, and even more fast-paced.  

With the creation of the character Kickaha, Farmer had hit gold, and likely could have written a hundred stories featuring him and they all would have been best sellers.  However, Farmer eventually began to really suffer from writer's block, and had a difficult time of it in the years ahead.  It would be seven long years before the tale would continue.
*** stars  Reviewed Dec. 17th/16  

#5: THE LAVALITE WORLD

Original printing of book 5.  It looks like a Boris cover to me.

The 5th book of the World of Tiers series is the final one in my Vol. 2 hardcover edition (see image by Boris, way above), which also contains the 3rd and 4th volumes.  Farmer does a good job of sticking to his guns in this story.  Though written in 1977, it is a direct continuation of Vol. 4, written in 1970.  The same characters are in it, and the whole novel takes place on the said lavalite world.  In other words, Farmer does what he does best; tells a coherent story, amazing us with a new, continuously changing environment, introduces new tribes of people, and describes animals and plants that have to adapt to a very unique and dangerous lifestyle.

This world was created by Urthona, the cruelest of the Lords, and we get a pretty good look at the devious decadence of his mind through his creation.  Farmer is best when he sticks to a straight forward narrative, and he mostly does here.  At one point Anna and Kickaha (this is another all-Kickaha story) become separated, and for a few chapters we get to read about what happened to each of them while separated.  This is handled very well.  

Every time we visit a new pocket universe, I feel that it is stranger than the one before.  This is certainly a strange, though life-filled planet, with the ground heaving and constantly reshaping itself, to the peril of any and all lifeforms.  Farmer's descriptions are vivid enough to give us a good idea of what it would be like to be there.

Once again Kickaha has to find a way out of some pretty dire predicaments, using only what is available to him.  This time, however, he is ably assisted by Anna, the one Lord who was able to overcome her cruel instincts, and who is probably the best female heroine Farmer ever came up with (a fitting companion to his greatest male hero, Kickaha).  She is strong, smarter than the men, but still feminine and in some ways vulnerable.  They come to depend on each other, and the two of them together add up to much more than just "two heads are better than one."  They feed off one another, listen to each others' criticisms, and genuinely have an equal relationship.

It may not be Farmer's best story in the series.  I should have some thoughts on that topic when I have finished the other two books.  But it is fun to read and difficult to put down, and there is always something interesting going on.  One downside is near the end of the book, when the character of McKay just drops from the picture.  He was there from the beginning, and then he is gone.  A nicer touch is the old woman they meet near the end, who helps them with their final big project.  I wish that more could have been seen of the floating palace, finally encountered near the end of the story, after being pursued for dozens of pages (the novel is 195 pages long, a good length for a Farmer story.)  We don't visit it for long, or see much of it.

The fact that this novel was published the same year as Dark Design, the 3rd Riverworld novel, is astounding to me.  While the World of Tiers series continues as if written by a master, with no interruption between books, Riverworld has turned into a massive mess and huge disappointment.  I am not looking forward to its 4th book, also 400 pages, like #3.  I am looking forward to the next World of Tiers book, however.  Even after 7 years, Farmer manages to keep up the pace and general feel of the original stories.  A fan couldn't be happier.

*** 1/2 stars.  Reviewed Mar. 01/17

#6: RED ORC'S RAGE

Cover art by Doug Beekman 

It's been eight months since I have visited the pocket universe worlds of Farmer.  Rather than take a standard approach to returning here, this 282-page book from 1991, which includes a short afterward by a psychiatrist, follows the life of a mixed-up teen who is sent to an institution after he has a total meltdown.  Jim Grimson is a high school senior who is close to dropping out.  His abusive father is driving the boy insane, and his anger is building day by day.  The first part of the book details his life in a once-booming steel town, where nearly everyone is now out of a job.  I really liked the hard-hitting drama that involves Jim and his high school friends.  The realism is tinged with humour and pathos, as we feel Jim's struggles with himself and his environment.

After his meltdown, the story moves to within the walls of the institution, where Jim is accepted into a radical treatment group that uses Farmer's "World of Tiers" as actual therapy.  Strange as it may seem, this part is true to life, as there actually was such a therapy in use.  Once Farmer found out about it, I imagine the wheels began to turn pretty fast in that great mind of his.  Though the work is complete fiction, it does mirror what might have actually happened (see the afterword).

Jim learns to mentally hop into and out of the World of Tiers, specifically into the character of Red Orc, the main bad guy in the 5-book series to date.  Jim eventually learns about himself and his problems by being inside Red Orc's head.  However, another layer is added; this is a Farmer story, after all.  Though no one believes Jim actually goes there (except Jim himself), the evidence quickly mounts that he is, indeed, in a pocket universe and going through gates.  Thus the reader gets all sorts of new Tier adventures, extending the series mostly by looking back at Red Orc's youth and the problems he had to face, especially with his father.

This is a pretty fascinating book, and Jim is a believable and heroic character well worth encountering.  Certainly short of a masterpiece of literature (not what most of us are looking for here, anyway), it does take a new direction for Farmer.  However, the writing and style of the work are assuredly Farmer, though a somewhat less wordy version of him.  Perhaps weary of writing his standard type of adventure story, this provided much needed therapy for the author, too.  At any rate, I recommend the book highly.  Though it is not necessary to have read the 5 previous books, you will probably want to if you liked this book.

*** 1/2 stars.  reviewed Oct. 25th/17

#7: MORE THAN FIRE

Cover art by Boris Vallejo 

From 1993 comes the 304-page adventurous conclusion to the series.  The cover art pretty much sums up the story.  Red Orc knows everything and can do everything and can outsmart everyone, but he loses the ridiculous hand-to-hand fight to Kickaha at the very end.  I am so sick of invincible villains who always lose at the very end.  Sorry for spoiling the ending, as if you didn't know what was going to happen.  Still, I won't tell you the twists at the end, which include at least two surprises.

I feel as if I am beyond this type of action-only writing from Farmer at this stage, having read almost all of his works, including his three main series reviewed on this page.   And I have yet to figure out what the title has to do with anything in this book.  Despite everything I don't like, it is a good entry in the series.  I really wish the fight between Red Orc and Kickaha at the end had not been so expected and so unnecessary.  It doesn't matter who is smarter; the guy with the best muscles is the best man.  Yawn.  What a revelation from an otherwise admired adventure writer.  

 As if to confirm it's a man's world out there, Anana does not play much of a role here, other than to spur Kickaha on to greater and more violent deeds.  The few women in the story soon disappear, except for the Mother of All, someone very powerful who also plays a supporting role in the proceedings.  If it all feels a  bit "used", as in I've read it all before, it is.  At one point we are introduced to another human who got into the gates in the 1700s.  He knew William Blake, and in fact, one of the main creatures in the story derives from Blake's unsettling image called "Ghost of a Flea."  I thought Farmer was on to something pretty cool there, but then he just drops the Blake theme like a lead balloon, along with the Earth man.  And Blake's alien simply becomes another bad guy who wants to take over all the universes, and, like Red Orc, will stop at nothing to get his way.  Yawn again.  So we have two evil guys wanting the whole universe.  That must make things twice as exciting.  Well no, actually.

Another big letdown is that two main characters from previous books, who Anana and Kickaha have been seeking for a long time, are simply dropped from the narrative and never heard from again.  Wow.  That is a pretty sloppy way of tying up loose ends.  Wolff and Chryseis are mentioned once or twice, but that is all.  Considering he was the main hero of the first novel and had important roles in some of the other books, readers deserve a bit of an answer to his demise or survival.

Farmer was obviously falling back on his usual action formula when he wrote this book.  He used up a lot of creativity writing #6, Red Orc's Rage.  When it came to finalizing the series, he did not try anything new, but simply allowed the story to continue on in a usual, expected way.  This might have pleased some fans, but not this one.  An older, much more experienced writer should not be trying to recreate his earlier works.  It makes it seem as if there was little growth in his writing from the first novel in 1965 to this one 28 years later.  All in all it is a fairly good novel, but a very poor conclusion to the overall series.  Not recommended.

** 1/2 stars.  Reviewed Nov. 10th/17 
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RIVERWORLD SERIES

Cover art by Don Ivan Punchatz

To Your Scattered Bodies Go: The first of the Riverworld books came out in 1971, a very creative period for Farmer.  My edition was the 26th printing, from 1986.  This is a popular story, probably Farmer's biggest commercial and public success.  The title comes from a John Donne sonnet (#7):

At the round earth's imagin'd corners, blow
Your trumpets, angels, and arise, arise
From death, you numberless infinities
Of souls, and to your scattered bodies go. 

     The book won Farmer a Hugo award in 1972 for best novel.  Over its 222 pages is one of the strangest stories ever told.  In a nutshell, all of Earth's people who have ever lived are resurrected at the same time on an alien planet.  They arrive hairless and naked on the banks of a river, with their previous memories intact.  A mile or so of plains lie on each side of the river, but high mountains rise steeply after this.  The people are fed and eventually clothed by mysterious means.  There are no infants, and women cannot become pregnant.  There is bamboo, but no precious metals or iron.  Eventually hair grows back, but not on faces for men.

      The main character is Sir Richard Burton, the great English explorer.  As he slowly discovers what is going on, we also learn along with him.  The mystery is far from solved by the end of the novel, but we know enough to discover that some giant experiment is in place by a highly advanced civilization, and that the humans are mostly powerless to stop it.  Burton tries anyway, searching for the northern source of the river, which is over a million miles long.  Here, he believes, lies the answers he seeks.

     If you manage to die here, you are resurrected 24 hours later, with all your memories intact, but at a completely different and random place along the river.  A less competent or unlucky writer could easily have written himself up against a wall with this premise.  People soon band together into separate states, and fighting becomes ubiquitous.  Burton's plan is to build a boat and sail upriver.  At first the going is fine, but soon there are so many defences and aggressive states encountered that he can get no further.  He tries suicide a number of times, hoping to awaken randomly at the source of the river.  Fellow travellers come and go (Alice, P. J. Farmer), but Burton and Hermann Goring seem somehow bonded together, reappearing alongside one another whenever they die.  We don't find out why.

     This totally absurd and very bizarre story should not work, but it does.  Farmer is at the height of his powers here, and his broad knowledge of history, language, and humanity in general comes in very handy.  We are kept very curious by it all, forced to read on in the hopes of discovering something important.  Again, thanks to the publication and great success of Lord of the Rings, authors were now strongly encouraged by their publishers to write series of novels instead of single ones.  Farmer many times wrote single stories that could easily have been turned into series, but the times did not allow for it.  With the great River and all of mankind to call upon, Farmer has hit upon an ingenious scheme, and pulls it off magnificently.  A page turner if there ever was one.

**** stars.  Reviewed Jan. 20th, 2017.

THE FABULOUS RIVERBOAT

 Cover art by Vincent Di Fate

     Farmer can be very infuriating at times, and in the second Riverworld book he is at his most obnoxious.  I really feel for Sam Clemens, a more than decent human being who is constantly thwarted by "the bad guys".  The finale is a crushing defeat that, for the hundredth time in the novel, destroys him and grinds his spirit into the mud.  I've always considered Charles Schulz a hater of children, especially downtrodden ones.  Not once is Charlie Brown ever allowed to speak to the little red haired girl, and not once is he ever allowed to kick the football.  Or get a valentine.  Or have a friend.  This stuff is supposed to be funny.

     Sam Clemens endures far worse than Charlie Brown ever did.  I won't go into details, but the things that happen as he tries to get his riverboat built (the entire story is about the building of it, not the trip it is to undertake) would be enough to drive any man mad.  He pines for his former Earth wife, too, and finally does get to see her.  The first time she dies before his eyes in the midst of a catastrophe.  The second time he meets her, she does not want him back, but takes up with Cyrano.  Of course many married women would not likely wish for their husbands back in the next life, but do we have to have this rubbed in our faces again and again?  Sheesh.  Talk about feelings of insecurity.  

     Of course there is always the invincible bad guy.  We have one of the worst in King John.  He knows everything, runs everything, ruins everything, and never dies.  He spoils Sam's plans, and the end of Book 2 is one of the most unsatisfying endings of any book I have ever read.  Why does Farmer do this?

     The main reason is that he completely understands humans and how they function.  The strong and the forceful will always rule over the meek and the peace-loving.  Sam Clemens is done in from the start by his own morals and ideals.  He hates killing, especially murder.  Yet had he killed John near the beginning, things may have turned out better.  Or if he had listened to John's advice and attacked the enemy before they attacked him, things might have turned out better. Or if... and on and on.  However, Sam is Sam, and he can't help it, just like he can't help giving up hope that Livy, his one-time wife, will come back to his bed.

     Of course Sam isn't the only one mistreated and abused.  Women seem to have drawn a pretty short stick, too.  Unless they have a strong protector (Livy has Cyrano), they are under constant threat of slavery, rape, and utter domination.  21st C. women may not like the look of things in Farmer's novel, but stop and think about it for a minute.  Could it not happen that way?  This book is a white male wet dream, with cigars, booze, and women who can't get pregnant.  And there's no kids running around spoiling things.

     All things said and done, this is an okay book.  Just because I sometimes hate what happens does not mean I do not like some of the book.  Many people will not understand this.  I only hate the book because all of it is probably true, and most of it would happen exactly the way Farmer describes it.  Wars, killing, treachery, rape, murder, intrigue, endless violence, slavery, abuse of power of every kind--it is the human way.  I just wish there was another way, especially in a work of fiction.  Does it have to be so accurate?  I love the character of Joe Miller--he is a very special creation and one of Farmer's best characters ever.

     Clemens himself is responsible for some of the worst air pollution and mining atrocities ever committed, and his dream of building a steamboat becomes the symbol for the ultimate human obsession.  He will stop at almost nothing (short of killing John) to get it built.  He wants to be the captain of a riverboat, and by Gum he is going to be a captain of one, even though his achievement is very short lived.

     At least I don't have to wait 6 long years for the third book in the series to appear, as people had to in the 1970s.  I imagine many copies of this novel were thrown against the wall upon completion--I nearly threw mine.  Farmer is a powerful writer when he so chooses, and if you don't have a strong reaction to this book, you may want to really examine yourself from top to bottom.  In the meantime, consider what it means to be human, even under horrendous conditions, and try to live according to your values and beliefs.  And good luck with it!

** stars.  Reviewed Jan. 23rd/17

THE DARK DESIGN

 Cover art by Vincent Di Fate

     This book is pretty much a big, messy, disaster.  Readers waited until 1977 for the next book of the Riverworld series, and they must have been very confused when it came out.  Next to some of his porno books, this is the novel I least like by Farmer, so far.  For one thing, it is too long.  Did Lord of the Rings affect the length?  Did everyone now think they had to a) write a long, complicated series; b) have so many plot and character threads going on?  It is obvious that Farmer cannot handle writing very long books with multiple plots.  He doesn't know how to keep all of the plots going, at least enough for us to care.  Farmer is a genius at writing short, action-packed narratives with limited characters and a very focused plot.  No one can do better than he in that game.  However, he has really over reached his talents with Riverworld.  It is a bold, original concept, and during Book 1 I thought he could pull it off.  During Book 2 it became evident he could not.

     Book Three is so bad on so many levels.  At least eight times during the story we completely change plot, set, characters, and location, usually leaving off just when we are starting to get interested in what is happening.  The rug is pulled out from under us so many times that it becomes laughable.  Half of the time we don't even remember who is travelling with whom, as it really does get very confusing.  And after a while you don't even care.  And no, I am not going to reread it and try to find out if that helps clarify things.  Farmer should have written two or more books here, at least, to help things along, giving one book over to Sam, another to Burton, another to Firebrass, and perhaps another to Frigate.  Instead, he overloads this book, forgets about the action much of the time (which is his main writing strength), and bores us with endless cloak and dagger stuff with the aliens who run the planet, never once letting us in on what is happening.  I don't like not knowing what is going on after reading 800 pages of a story!

     Another very annoying feature of the third book is Farmer's sudden interest in using metric measurements.  It's not that he uses metric; he gives us both measurements every single time, boring us with over 100 measurements times two!!  An example:  "Frigate took over the pilot's post at 4877 meters or a little over 16,000 feet of altitude."  Choose one or the other, but not both!!  And round off the metric!!  After a while this becomes infuriating.

     I am also utterly sick of cigars and booze.  I know, it's a manly man's world out there and I must be gay or something if I don't enjoy a good cigar, but really, it gets beyond ridiculous.  I won't even get into how many of the "chosen" people are white, and male, in the story, or how sick I am of King John, even though he is barely in this novel.  Enough with John as a character in Riverworld--move along and choose someone else!  When Farmer finally does introduce a lead female character, she is a rabid feminist and not likable in the least.  She is also made to be homely, small-breasted, and a hater of all men.  A perfect role model.  Why could Farmer do so well with Anna in the World of Tiers, and not here?

     A few times the old Farmer comes through in the writing, for example near the beginning when Frigate is trying to describe what science fiction is to Burton.  This is very funny, and classic Farmer.  Another time, the character Frigate longs to get a banana and peanut butter at the same in his grail meal.  A nice touch.  Sadly, there are far too few of these.

   This is a very disappointing book.  It took Farmer years to write it, no doubt a little bit at a time.  He had great struggles with it.  Why did he not break it down into several shorter books?  Did he think he was Tolkien?  (actually, Tolkien wrote Lord of the Rings as six shorter novels--the publisher crammed it all into three giant volumes).  Was he trying to "upgrade" his writing?  To what end?   What a mess.

    If I was not committed to reading all of Farmer's novels, I would not read the next Riverworld novel.  I would not have even finished Dark Design, either.  I had to force myself to read 40 pages a day, getting through it in ten days.  If people took a month or longer to read this, they would be even more hopelessly lost than I was.  Not recommended.

* 1/2 stars.  Reviewed Feb. 23rd/17

RIVERWORLD AND OTHER STORIES

Cover art by Don Ivan Punchatz

Riverworld: (this novella is reviewed here; for the remainder of the short stories please see the 1st blog in this series, also devoted to Farmer).

P. J. Farmer and Riverworld constitute a very convoluted history.  However, I think I can simplify things.  Farmer initially wrote the first part of it for a writing contest, which he won.  However, the company folded before the story got published, and he received no prize money.  Afterwards, he wrote a very long single book, which he sent to Frederic Pohl for review.  Pohl published several SF magazines at the time.  He told Farmer that one book, even a long one, would not do for the Riverworld concept.  Here is what happened next.

Farmer wrote two novellas, each published by Pohl.  These would eventually become the first volume of the Riverworld series, entitled To Your Scattered Bodies Go.  Farmer then wrote a 3rd novella, and this became Riverworld, published here in 1979.  Originally written in 1966, Farmer reworked and enlarged it for this volume, published in 1981.    The story is about Tom Mix, Jesus, and a Jewish girl named Bithniah.  Chronologically, it occurs just after the first novel and before the second.  Mix comes back during the third volume,  The Dark Design.

The story begins as an interesting but run-of-the-mill early tale of life along the great river.  Jesus, Tom, and Bithniah (who lived about 400 AD) are fleeing from a cruel warlord, who also happened to be a bishop from the Spanish Inquisition.  We don't "know" it's Jesus, but you would have to be deaf, dumb, and blind not to realize it.  Anyway, Farmer has some fun with his interpretation of early Christianity (actually, it is mostly accurate, or at least far more so than those who believe in the Bible would ever admit).

Farmer has always had more than a passing interest in religion and those who believe in God.  In fact, this is a minor theme throughout the Riverworld series, and never, in my opinion, explored quite enough.  I don't mind the ending (spoiler alert!), where Tom and Jesus are burned at the stake.  However, I really take exception to passing comments about Bithniah being brutally gang raped and murdered.  This was not really necessary, and just shows Farmer, who likely thought otherwise, as being almost rabidly anti-feminist.  Her story could have ended brutally, but with more sensitivity to the person involved.  Or it could have ended a bit more optimistically.  This is fiction, Mr. Farmer.  Brutal reality does not always have to intrude so violently.

Anyway, the entire series might have been more successful if Farmer had continued writing shorter stories rather than trying his hand at overlong novels.  He just can't do it properly.  He is not Tolkien.  In Dark Design, he likely had done this, then very clumsily jammed three or more novellas together, breaking the story lines unforgivably apart in the doing.  Someday, given time, I might even go back to that book and suggest a reading order than maintains the story continuity of each tale.

In many ways it is most unfortunate that Farmer's most successful books were the Riverworld ones.  They are also the most frustrating to read.  While this story isn't a bad one, it adds nothing to what was already written, except the fact that Jesus was likely the most frustrating character to ever appear in literature.  That kind of story, in publishing terms, is known as a pot boiler.

** 1/2 stars.  Reviewed March 5th, 2017

THE MAGIC LABYRINTH

 Cover art by Don Ivan Punchatz

Published in 1980, it was with great dread and foreboding that I embarked on my latest Riverworld adventure.  The Dark Design had turned out to be a disaster of a book, and I had to force myself to read 40 pages a day to finish it in 10 days.  With the same strong self-determination and discipline, I set out to read this next book in the series.  It only took me five days to finish.  That could only mean one thing--this book is much better than Dark Design.  However, it is not the best one Farmer ever wrote.

In several earlier reviews of single novels by Farmer, I lamented the fact that his stories were too short.  Longer novels and a few sequels to some of them would be nice.  With Farmer's Riverworld series I find myself wishing for the opposite--shorter stories and fewer sequels.  There are two main things that make Labyrinth a better story than Dark Design.  The first thing is that Farmer has remembered how to write fun stories.  During Dark Design he had completely lost his way and could not find his way out.  It is a badly written novel.  The second thing is that material is organized much better in Labyrinth, specifically the sections having titles.  It helps the reader to know what is coming, and what has been passed by already.

Even though this book is infinitely better than Dark Design, it still is dealing with a concept (Riverworld) that this reader is sick of.  And Sam Clemens and King John?  Yup, lots more about them.  The most ridiculous part of the book has to be the battles.  Despite not needing to, Farmer goes ahead with them anyway.  The WW1 dogfight is absolutely stupid, allowing Farmer to kill off innocent people as well as a few who are crazy about fighting to the death.  So is the sword fight between Burton and Cyrano.  Then comes the riverboat battle.  Yay!  Destruction and death!  Then Sam finally gets John at his mercy.  After everything he has done to him, Sam still can't kill him.  He offers him a trial.  My god, what idiocy!

By the end of the book Farmer has killed off every likable character except one--Alice.  This is where we truly notice that there are virtually no likable characters in this series.  No wonder Farmer kills so many of them.  In fact, the only character I really liked was Joe Miller.  He remains one of the best characters in any form of literature. 

We finally get inside the dark tower (I suppose this is the Magic Labyrinth?  It isn't magic and it isn't a labyrinth, so I don't really know).  And the mystery of Riverworld is explained, sort of.  It's a really lame-brained scheme, way too complicated, and is explained in such detail that after a while the reader doesn't really care anymore.  Just push the button, Frank!

While Farmer's writing style is back, it was a nearly impossible task to have something really good follow the machinations of  The Dark Design.  He almost pulled it off, but by focusing too much (again) on Clemens and John, the story just more or less piddles along.  I did like a lot of this book, but Farmer remains too single-minded.  I'm sure he could have found a better way to get to the tower again, but he had trapped himself with the idiotic rivalry between the two men.  And after (nearly) everyone dies, it's hard to keep reading.  But I did.  Because of you, dear readers.  Recommended only for those who might have given up after Dark Design.  This one is better.  A lot better.  But not my cup of tea.

**1/2 stars.  Reviewed April 17th/17

GODS OF RIVERWORLD

 Cover art by Don Ivan Punchatz

     From 1983, this is the 5th and final book in the Riverworld series, though more short stories follow it, ones that take place during events of the 5 main books.  The series comes to a definitive end here, though Farmer left himself open to begin another series based on Burton's further exploits, which he never wrote.  Riverworld is a very uneven series, though it ends very strongly with this novel.  I did not care for two of the earlier stories, though the first book was very good, and the 4th also readable.  However, it must be said that Farmer totally mangled books 2 and 3, and did a good job of turning me away from reading any more Riverworld.

     This final book is classic Farmer, with adventure, intrigue, mystery, and plenty of action.  It all takes place within the tower, hundreds of feet high and also sunk deep into the sea.  The tower is still mysterious, run by a central computer, which is powered by the hot core of the planet.  There are enough twists and turns in the plot to keep the reader interested.  At 330 pages, it is a long novel, but I gobbled it down in 3 1/2 (busy) days.

     Farmer added two things to this novel that I approve of, and he must have realized some of his many mistakes from his earlier Riverworld novels.  Firstly, he adds a list of important characters, and a bit about them.  One of the really fun things Farmer gets to do with Riverworld is resurrect some interesting people that many of us knew nothing about.  He explores their previous background on Earth in depth, and we find out as much about Farmer's interests as anything else.  The fact that he is one of the remaining main characters till the very end (as P. J. Frigate) gives us a lot of insight into the author, as well as the other main characters.

     The second thing he adds (as an afterword) is a summary of the plot so far.  Badly needed, and this should have been included with every book from #2 onward, along with the main character summaries.  Well done.  Someone needs to reprint the earlier books and include these two things in them as well.

     I really liked this final book, despite it being very odd.  Farmer is nothing if not unique.  The extended cover illustration is quite fantastic (back half not shown), though readers will have to wait till near the end of the story to see this Wonderland segment.  Highly recommended, and a must for serious Farmer fans. 
**** stars.  Reviewed June 19th/17

TALES OF RIVERWORLD

 Cover art by Don Ivan Punchatz

From 1992 comes this collection of 11 Riverworld stories, including 3 by Farmer.  The book is 326 pages long, and also includes a short unpaged introduction by Farmer.  8 other authors are represented by the remaining stories.  All stories are copyright 1992, and were written especially for this volume.  One of the things I find alarming is the total lack of female writers included.  Were women offered the chance to contribute and refused, on the grounds that Riverworld is basically sexist?  Not even an Amazon society.  Really?

Crossing The Dark River is 64 pages long, and introduces some new characters in familiar situations.  Farmer seems trapped, even after so many years, into writing about yet another usurper and his slave kingdom, and the inevitable war that results in its downfall.  However, there are a few differences in this one.  The hero is a religious and moral nutcase, eschewing women, smoking, and drinking.  He was an osteopath back on Earth, and is now chief physician to the Nordic bully who currently rules the roost in this particular neighbourhood.  Not only that, but as we learn in a very short afterword by Farmer, the man was a distant relative of his.  So were all the other main characters in the story.  What fun that must have been!  Research your ancestors, and then incorporate them into a Riverworld story.  If you liked Riverworld, you will like this story.

*** stars.  Reread April 5th/18

Up The Bright River is from 1993, and is 32 pages long.  I read it in the collection entitled Up The Bright River.  All of the non-Riverworld stories in that volume are reviewed on the first Farmer page.  This story is a direct continuation of Crossing The Dark River, and continues to follow the same four major characters.  Farmer seems to have mellowed a bit, and now talks of characters (some of them) making spiritual progress in yet another mess of human-derived suffering.  I liked this story, and it made me reread the previous one.  Farmer seems to finally get his concept of Riverworld under control, and perhaps what he originally wanted to do with it.  Recommended.
*** 1/2 stars.  Reviewed April 5th/18

Coda is from 1993, and is 12 pages long.  I read it in the collection entitled Up The Bright River.  All of the non-Riverworld stories in that volume are reviewed on the first Farmer page.  This story is a direct continuation of Crossing The Dark River and Up The Bright River, and brings this mini-series to a conclusion.  It is not a conclusion that I particularly like, but then I wasn't the person writing the story, or creating this amazing Riverworld concept.  As far as I know, this is the last word from Farmer about Riverworld.
*** stars.  Reviewed April 5th/18 

A Hole In Hell is by Dane Helstrom, and is 8 pages long.  This is a nasty bit of fiction about the Riverworld fate of Dante, Beatrice, and the much-hated Pope Boniface VIII.  Stories like this remind me of how glad I am that it was Farmer who wrote the series.
*1/2 stars.

Graceland is by Alan Steele, and is 28 pages long.  It features Elvis as a concert promoter, and two rock bands, one from the USA and one from England.  Keith Moon, John Lennon, Sid Vicious, and Brian Jones make up the Mersey Zombies, the American Band includes Lowell George, Dwane Allman, Berry Oakley, Rod McKuen, Dennis Wilson, and, when she was sober, Janis Joplin.  Also making a special but unwelcome guest appearance is Jim Morrison.  With a cast like this, an author could have a lot of fun with his story.  And so Mr. Steele does.  Hurrah for some humour in Riverworld!
***1/2 stars.  

Every Man A God was co-authored by Barry N. Malzberg and Mike Resnick, and is 40 pages long.  Some more dubious humour is brought to bear, as we meet up with Frederick Selous, big game hunter, Caligula, Beethoven, and Huey Long.  Now that is a pretty strange line up, even for Riverworld.  But the cast delivers, in this piquant story of actors in search of a city.  You won't forget Caligula after reading this, if you ever have in the first place.
*** stars.

Blandings On Riverworld is by Phillip C. Jennings, and is 30 pages long.  Writer P. G. Wodehouse and educator Maria Montessori team up to bring summer personalities to Riverworld, and banish those winter ones.  Quite readable and even enjoyable.
*** stars.

Two Thieves is by Harry Turtledove, and is 33 pages long.  Mayor Richard Daley gets outfoxed by two Byzantine brothers, ruling a kingdom upstream from him.  A good and solid riverworld story, much in the tradition of Farmer.
*** stars.  

Fool's Paradise is by Ed Gorman, and is 29 pages long.  Dashiel Hammett gets a private eye case on Riverworld.  Hired by Edgar Allen Poe to find out who is trying to kill his young girlfriend, the mystery writer soon untangles a complicated plot, with more than meets the eye.  Fun stuff!
*** stars.

The Merry Men of Riverworld is by John Gregory Betancourt, and is 45 pages long.  Robin Hood, or at least an actor who has assumed the roll, and his merry men (including Abe Lincoln as Little John), join forces with Jules Verne to overthrow the tyrant Al Capone.  The best stories in this collection seem to closely follow the pattern set by Farmer, and this one does that and more.  A good adventure tale!
***1/2 stars.

Unfinished Business is by Robert Weinberg, and is 53 pages long.  Jim Bowie, Davy Crockett, and Socrates head downriver in a long ship.  At first some have revenge on their minds, from past deeds on Earth.  By the end of the voyage everyone is there for the journey itself.  Another good story that follows Farmer's style and ideas rather well.
*** stars.  Reviews completed Dec. 2nd/17

Some Concluding Thoughts on Riverworld

     This was a huge series for its time.  To date, I have read about 1700 pages, with one Riverworld novella by Farmer to go, plus his reconstruction of the original story, of which the manuscript was lost.  After Tolkien, everyone wanted to write a long series, and the nonsense hasn't let up even in 2017.

     The main point Farmer tries to make in his Riverworld series is that people, if given a second chance, should really take and try to improve themselves.  In fact, they should even try to do that the first time around.   Sam Clemens makes no improvement in his life, still struggling at unimportant things, like stripping the planet to make enormous riverboats.  Most bad people continue to be bad, and most good people continue trying to be good.  In fact, there isn't a whole lot of progress seen in humanity from the day the resurrections begin until the day Burton announces his next project.  I don't think Farmer quite makes a good case for it being possible for humans to improve, no matter how much time they are given to do so.  

     We meet some truly nasty characters, with one of them, near the end, raping a woman who has finally endured the last straw.  She cracks, and appears to take the rest of humanity down with her.  One of the nastiest men (most of the really bad ones seem to be men; no big surprise here) turns out to be the rogue Ethical, the one who threw a monkey wrench into the whole alien project at the very start.  However, his idea was to give people more time to improve themselves and mend their murderous and treacherous ways.  The original alien experimenters were only giving 100 years to the project, after which those who did not aspire to much greater things would be permanently eliminated.  Try to imagine a person who would not or could not change for the better after 100 years.  Would you give them more time?  I don't think I would.

     So what is the point of this 1700 page adventure?  I don't think even Farmer knows for sure.  Tolkien was much simpler--Good versus Evil.  In a sense, this is also what the Farmer story is about, but with too many blurry plot lines.  Farmer cannot seem to make up his mind one way or another what should happen.  He tries harder in the final book, and it appears at first that he may have come to some kind of understanding with his ideals and motives.  But a second look proves that the remaining group now in the tower, certainly made up of good people, are still in search of something like a decent life, with some comforts, pursuit of knowledge, and a chance to begin again.  But why?  What is it all for?  We are never given much light on that topic.

     I think the project began as a lark, a way for Farmer to introduce historical characters that he liked and was fond of.  He had always wanted to write a biography of Burton, but once one was published before he really got going on his own attempt, he gave it up.  He knew about many other equally fascinating characters, both good and evil, and he seemed to have fun bringing them into the story.  Alice turns into a pretty interesting character, though not the most colourful one.  Sam Clemens is both interesting and colourful, but his story, like so many others in Riverworld, seems to reach a dead end.  After starting out, Farmer found himself continuing on with a series that probably should have ended after two medium-length books.  However, like the great river itself, the story goes on and on and on.  To what end?  Like the river itself, it just seems to begin again.

     There are enough likable characters and plot lines to keep some readers interested.  However, had I not chosen to read and review all of Farmer's works I likely would have dropped out after Dark Design, one of Farmer's worst creations.  I'm glad I did stick with it, because things improved in The Magic Labyrinth, and vastly so in Gods.  Overall, it is a fairly good series, but one with some extreme low points.  If you decide to undertake reading it, then by all means stick it out to the end.  Recommended, but with stiff reservations.

*** stars overall rating.

                                                                                                       _____________________________

DAYWORLD

Cover art by Don Ivan Punchatz

I have reprinted a short review to Farmer's first Dayworld story from 1971, which I discussed on my first Farmer page (see the short story section of Page One, under The Grand Adventure).  Reading it first will help explain what is going on in the main series.

The Sliced-Crosswise Only-On-Tuesday World is from 1971, and is 38 pages long.  It is our introduction to Farmer's Dayworld Trilogy, to be reviewed soon on the other Farmer page (#7 in the Equinox series).  Humans, due to overcrowding, are allowed to live for one day each week, over and over.  We follow a man who lives on Tuesdays.  He falls in love with a woman he sees in her stasis chamber.  She is from Wednesday, so they can never meet.  He begins the very long, involved process of changing his day over to Wednesday.  The story is filled with irony, and is actually very cruel.  Good stuff from Farmer, with more to come in Dayworld.

(*** stars.  Reviewed July 18th/17)

Dayworld was first published in 1985, 14 years after the first concept was published.  My edition was 258 pages long.  I will quote from the back cover of my Berkley edition, from 1986:

"Just one day.  That's all you get.  The world's crowded, and the government appreciates your cooperation.  You're allowed one day each week to live your life.  The rest of the week you're 'stoned'--frozen solid.  Unless, of course, you're a daybreaker.  Then you can live every day of the week.  You can assume seven different personalities and work seven different jobs...."

You get the idea.  With a concept so ridiculous you could shoot holes all through it, Farmer is off on another thrilling adventure, and he continuously comes up with the strangest and most original excuses for stories that one could ever imagine.  It's best to leave your critical thinking skills behind and just enjoy the bizarre ride.  At its core, it is your basic small guy against the entire system.  Err, make that seven men against the system.  The novel takes place over eight days, so we get to meet the multiple personalities and learn how it all came about, and why.  I didn't really care much.  I did enjoy the book, though.  Just have some fun with it.  I'm not certain anyone was hollering for a sequel, but it was touted as a trilogy (of course!) right from the beginning.  So I guess I'll be back here soon writing about more Dayworld madness.
*** stars.  Reviewed Aug. 6th/17 

DAYWORLD REBEL

Cover art by Don Ivan Punchatz 

From 1987 comes the sequel we all had not been waiting for.  At 314 pages, there are even more thrills and spills than in the first book.  Never a dull moment when Farmer is on the ball and writing for fun.  Coming across almost like a James Bond meets Robin Hood adventure, our intrepid hero has come up with an eighth personality, but he designed it so he could subdue all the other inner voices.  Picking up where Vol. 1 left off, we are back in the wilds of Central Park for a time, then underground for a long time (a Farmer specialty), then leaving New Jersey and heading for Los Angeles.  Along comes his Friar Tuck and Marion, and the three of them get into more hot water and suppressed state secrets than any normal writer could fit into one book.

Resembling something like an epic roller coaster ride, I enjoyed the book immensely.  Farmer delves more into the society and the government system, and finally chooses a side to fight for--The People (insert fist pump here!).  Seriously, though, it is a great tongue-in-cheek adventure, and the excitement and tension is non-stop.  This would have made an excellent TV series, with nearly unlimited opportunities for plot and character enhancement.  Good stuff if you just relax and enjoy the ride.  I did.

*** stars.  Reviewed August 25th/17 

DAYWORLD BREAKUP

 Cover art by Vincent Di Fate

The final segment of Dayworld was published in 1990.  My edition runs to over 370 pages, including a forward by Caird's daughter.  It continues directly from the 2nd novel, Rebel, and seems as if it were written at that time.  There is the same clipped style, with very short sentences and staccato dialogue.  It reads like a pulp novel, especially Doc Savage.  However, as the climax approaches the style changes completely.  Instead of a man and woman frantically trying to create as much dysfunction as possible to society, it slows down several paces and changes direction.  It is as if Farmer three years later used the parts he had written earlier, then settled down to try and end the series differently than readers might have expected.

This reader was expecting a major showdown with the government, with riots and more major upheavals, until at last the government conceded defeat and a new system was established.  Well, to my surprise, this series (which had been an action adventure one all the way) suddenly became quiet, as Caird looked inward at himself, trying to solve the mystery of his past.  When he and Snick are captured and brought to Zurich, it's as if we have entered a different dimension.  No more action.  Is this a different writer?  In some ways, yes.  The part written later is much more interested in psychology, and we slowly learn all about Caird and his childhood.

Though the furious action scenes were almost becoming routine, as Caird and Snick escaped from one dangerous situation after another, the last thing I expected was this ending.  It was fun to learn about what makes Caird tick, and why he is so different from anyone else before him.  Though still an adventure story, the adventure now turns inward, into Caird's past and into his mind.  I didn't mind that, though I think others would have.  At any rate, Caird finds himself and discovers who and what he is, and has somehow got his newest enterprise up and running deep in the Rocky Mountains.  The government is still searching for him, as he is even more a thorn in their side now.  It is as happy an ending as one could hope for.  People are back to living seven days a week, but the government oppression and surveillance continues.  But Caird is watching out for us.  A likable concluding story, with a sudden u-turn in style halfway through.

*** stars.  Reviewed Sept. 18th/17

 

Mapman Mike