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News
& What's New - April 2011 |
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Fourth
printing of UK omnibuses |
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26
Apr
2011
Sphere
Books published in the UK two volumes of the omnibus World
of Tiers. Only the first five books in the series were included
in these two volumes.
The omnibuses were published for the first time in November 1986, and
were reprinted in 1987 and 1988.
But Fred Fischer (Houston, US) found a copy of another reprint, the
fourth printing of 1989.
Penguin Books had bought Sphere Books, but other than the copyright
page with the information on the new parent publisher, and the new
price of the books, both volumes are the same as with the earlier
printings.
I have added this fourth printing on the book page. The
individual book pages of the World of Tiers books will be changed very
soon.
Thanks for this new information Fred!
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Mark Harrison |
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Le fleuve
de l'eternité |
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25
Apr
2011
'The
river of eternity' is the translation of the French title of a Riverworld omnibus. An
omnibus with the first two books in the Riverworld series, To
Your Scattered Bodies Go and The Fabulous Riverboat.
We had four different printings –1979, 1982, 1984 and
1988– of this omnibus in the PJF bibliography, but there was
still another one we missed.
Mich West (Australia) had found a copy with a printing date of January
5, 1981. In all my searches I had never come across this 1981
printing before. Even the known French bibliographies do not mention
all printings of this omnibus.
Thanks Mitch for the new addition!
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Good
& Great(heart) |
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23
Apr
2011
Another
four story pages are restyled now, of the poem "Good But Not Good Enough",
the mainstream short story "The
Good of the Land", and two parts of the Greatheart Silver
series, "Greatheart Silver
in Showdown at Shootout" and "Greatheart
Silver in the First Command".
The poem "Good But Not Good
Enough" was published in 1949 in Bradley Quarterly,
a magazine of the university Farmer was studying at at that time. It
has been reprinted in Pearls
from Peoria (2006).
The very short mainstream story "The
Good of the Land" got published thanks to Roger
Crombie. He asked Philip José Farmer's
permission at "The
Lovers - 50th Anniversary Celebration" in 2002, to print the
much earlier written but still unpublished story in a magazine on the
island Bermuda, RG
Magazine. Roger wrote an article about Phil
in the same issue.
In 1975 Byron Preiss asked Farmer to write stories about a new pulp
hero for the book series Weird
Heroes. Phil did write two very funny stories about
Greatheart Silver for the first and second volumes of Weird Heroes. The
first story is "Greatheart
Silver in Showdown at Shootout". A third story followed in
1977 with "Greatheart
Silver in the First Command". A fourth story was announced, but never
written and so never published.
The three Greatheart Silver stories were published in novel form, as Greatheart
Silver,
by Tor in 1982. It has never been reprinted, alas. This over the top
and very humorous hero story is in dire need of a reprint...
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Jim Steranko |
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Polytropical
Paramyths and others |
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18
Apr
2011
Again,
two story pages have been restyled, "Getting
Ready to Write" and "The
God Business".
You have to be a daring writer to write such absurd stories, that are
making no sense at all, as Farmer did with his six stories in the Polytropical Paramyths series.
You have to be an even more daring writer (or maybe plain stupid...?)
to try
to finish and polish such an unfinished Farmer story. But Paul Spiteri
did it with "Getting Ready to
Write", and he did a great job with that. A very funny story!
"The God
Business" is a
great novella of which Martin H. Greenberg once wrote, that it "...is
one of those stories that is much better read than discussed...".
How to become a God in the state of Illinois? Read the story.
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Scott
Templar |
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Ecstatic
Win! |
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13
Apr
2011
We
are talking about an excited Win Scott Eckert here, who announced in
his post
of April 11, 2011 on his blog that the upcoming edition of Philip
José Farmer's The Peerless Peer. will
have a new afterword.
Win: "Now, I'm very pleased (okay, ecstatic!) to announce that I've
been in touch with the kind folks at Titan, and that I'm contributing
an afterword to the new edition! I've just reviewed the proofs and it
looks great."
Great news, and even more reason to look forward to this new edition,
coming in June 2011 from Titan
Books.
See forthcoming books.
You can pre-order it also from: Amazon
or
B&N.
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Received:
Up the Bright River |
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10
Apr
2011
Subterranean
Press has finally shipped nearly all the pre-ordered copies
of the new Philip José Farmer collection Up
the Bright River. Nearly all, because my copy still hasn't
been delivered. There is yet another delay with some copies, the
publisher wrote me.
However, this last week I received the copy I ordered via Amazon.
The collection is dated in 2010, but only shipped by SubPress in March
2011.
There are sixteen interesting, wonderful, amusing, terrifying stories,
covering a period of 40 years –from 1953 till 1993–
in Farmer's writing career. Starting with one of the Father Carmody
stories, "Attitudes",
till three stories in his famous Riverworld
series, "Crossing the Dark
River", "Up the
Bright River", and "Coda".
The editor of the book, Gary K. Wolfe, writes in his introduction
about why Farmer is called a "Daring Science Fiction
Writer" ("...risk-taking had been his trademark..."), about
the
different kinds
of Farmer readers he met at the Farmercons ("...not all of them are
fans of the same Philip José Farmer..."), and of course
about the stories included in the book: "...Farmer always meant to tell
a good tale, but he nearly always meant to provoke as well...".
You can buy a copy at Subterranean
Press.
Read the reviews at:
- SF
Crowsnest ,
- Strange
Horizons
- SF
Site
- in Locus
#601, February 2011 (website).
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Bob Eggleton |
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The
Freshman and Fundamental Issue |
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5
Apr
2011
Philip
José Farmer has written stories in many genres or subgenres,
he didn't write 'pure' science fiction stories only.
Like the Cthulhu story "The
Freshman"
(1979), based on one of his dreams. It has been reprinted in several
great Cthulhu anthologies, but only once in a collection of Farmer
stories.
In another story, science fiction this time, a Supreme Court Justice
has to deal with a "Fundamental
Issue" (1976). The fictional science fiction author Leo Queequeg Tincrowdor
is also mentioned in this story.
It took thirty years to get the story reprinted, in the collection Pearls
from Peoria.
Both story pages have been restyled.
Story illustration by Richard Olsen in Amazing Science Fiction.
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Barber |
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SF Site
reviews Up the Bright River |
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3
Apr
2011
D.
Douglas Fratz reviews for SF Site Philip
José Farmer's newest collection, Up
the Bright River.
Fratz concludes his nice review with: "This is a valuable collection,
and must reading for all fans of Philip José Farmer's
brilliant
fictional oeuvre. It is, however, only a sampling, and as such can
prove somewhat frustratingly incomplete in some instances. Some of
these stories are the start of a series, and might have been better
left to separate volumes where all of the stories could be included.
(This is especially true for "The Two-Edged Gift," which ends
mid-plot.) Although Wolfe provides an insightful introduction to the
volume, it would have been useful to have introductions to each story
to put each in the proper context.
But for Farmer fans who can afford all of these beautiful but expensive
Subterranean Press editions, these books are providing a more permanent
source for the brilliant and varied work of one of the finest science
fiction authors of the 20th century."
Read the full review here.
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Bob Eggleton |
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More
Green Odyssey |
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3
Apr
2011
In
2007 Wildside
Press published a print-on-demand edition of Farmer's The
Green Odyssey. You could order it as a hardcover copy ($
24.95) or a trade
paperback ($ 9.99).
The exact same editions now have been presented again with a new cover
design, with an "almighty eye" in the picture. This painting by Antonis
Papantoniou has nothing to do with the contents of the novel however.
The price for both editions is still the same, but you can have the
text of this novel, that is in the public domain, for free. See the
page Audio Books &
eBooks.
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Antonis
Papantoniou |
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| Added
Books |
Thirteen publications were
added
on the book pages in April.
 Behind
the Walls of Terra
The 1989 reprinted publication in the UK omnibus World of Tiers 2.
The
Fabulous Riverboat
The 1981 reprinted publication in the French omnibus Le fleuve de l'eternité.
The
Gates of Creation
The 1989 reprinted publication in the UK omnibus World of Tiers 1.
The
Green Odyssey
Two new publications, hardcover and trade paperback, from Wilside Press
(2011).
The
Lavalite World
The 1989 reprinted publication in the UK omnibus World of Tiers 2.
The
Maker of Universes
The 1989 reprinted publication in the UK omnibus World of Tiers 1.
A
Private Cosmos
The 1989 reprinted publication in the UK omnibus World of Tiers 1.
Riverworld
The second printing of the French omnibus, Le fleuve de l'eternité,
from Robert Laffont, 1981.
To
Your Scattered Bodies Go
The 1981 reprinted publication in the French omnibus Le fleuve de l'eternité.
Up
the Bright River
The new collection from Subterranean Press (2011).
World
of Tiers
The fourth printings (1989) of both UK omnibuses from Sphere Books.
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| Statistics |
These are the
numbers for the book pages in April.
1724
publications
1134 different
covers
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