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News
& What's New - June 2012 |
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The
Worlds of Philip José Farmer 3 |
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28
Jun
2012
The
contents of The Worlds
of Philip José Farmer: Portraits of a Trickster
has been announced by Meteor
House. You can now preorder your copy of the anthology for
US$ 25.00. Have a look at the publisher's website.
The publisher: «As with the first two volumes, there is
fiction and nonfiction, new material and old, all by or about Philip
José Farmer and including new stories based on his works.
There is nonfiction by Frederik Pohl, Michael Bailey, Steven Connelly,
Bruce Sterling, Chris Garcia, Tom Wode Bellman, Jonathan Swift Somers
III, David M. Harris, Leo Queequeg Tincrowdor, and Rick Lai. There is
also fiction by Charlotte Corday-Marat, Win Scott Eckert, Heidi Ruby
Miller, Octavio Aragão & Carlos Orsi, and S.M.
Stirling. Finally, of course, there are stories, speeches, and letters,
most of it never published before, by Philip José Farmer
himself!»
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Keith Howell |
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Gods of
Opar nearly sold out |
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27
Jun
2012
Subterranean
Press has a news item about the Locus review (see
my entry of June 25th) of Gods of Opar: Tales of Lost
Khokarsa.
The limited edition was already sold out on publication, but the trade
edition is also nearly gone by now.
SubPress: «For those of you
who keep track of things, the trade edition of Opar is now 95%
sold out, scant weeks after publication. You might want to pick up a
copy soon if you’re interested.»
Buy your copy as fast as you can, before they are all gone! This
omnibus will be a real collector's item. I already saw the limited
edition offered for sale for more than five times the original price.
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Les
portes de la création |
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26
Jun
2012
Farmer's
second novel in the World
of Tiers series, The Gates of Creation, was
published in France as Les
portes de la création.
Publisher Pocket in Paris, published the novel in 1982, 1984, 1989,
1990, and 1998. French books do not give any printing
information, other than a new printing date. This date is
sometimes printed on one of the last pages in the book, or on the back
cover. So, it's not easy to discover if there are more printings of the
book. But now and then we do discover such a printing.
This time Fred Fischer (Houston, USA) discovered a till now unknown
printing of the novel from Pocket, the one of June 1995. I have added
this printing, that looks the same as the 1998 printing, on the book
page.
Thanks Fred!
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Wojtek Siudmak |
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Finally, the
third Opar / Khokarsa novel |
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25
Jun
2012
We
had to wait for more than thirty-five years before the third and final
novel in Phil
Farmer's Opar / Khokarsa series, The Song of Kwasin, got
published. But it was worth the wait, because Subterranean Press did a
great job publishing a really beautiful hardcover omnibus, Gods
of Opar: Tales of Lost Khokarsa, with all three novels
included. The omnibus comes with a stunning wrap around cover painting
by Bob Eggleton.
Of course, and not in the last place, we have to thank Christopher
Paul Carey for finishing the third novel, with Farmer's blessing. A job
well done!
Both editions, the trade and the limited one, are –as we
might expect
from Subterranean Press– excellent books. The limited edition
sold out
before publication. I expect that the trade edition will soon be sold
out, like the previous books from SubPress have done.
I haven't read the new novel yet. First I want to reread the first two
novels, Hadon of Ancient Opar and
Flight to Opar. So, I
cannot tell you right now how Carey did with the third novel, but I
have
high expectations because of his earlier Opar stories.
There already is an online review of the omnibus by Paul Di
Filippo, who writes this about The
Song of Kwasin: "Not knowing how much of this tale is
Farmer’s work and how much is Carey’s,
it’s still possible to say that the novel possesses an
organic, unified feel, and a high level of storytelling craft. The
legacy of the Khokarsa cycle is continued in honorable and entertaining
fashion."
Read the full review at Locus
Online.
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Bob Eggleton |
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A Wold
Newton Prehistory Novel |
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24
Jun
2012
Philip
José Farmer's time travel novel Time's
Last Gift was first published in 1972 by Ballantine Books.
Five years later the novel was revised, partly rewritten and expanded
with an Epilogue, and published again.
Strangely enough the revised text never came in a UK publication, till
this new 2012 edition from Titan Books.
Paul
Spiteri once called Times
Last Gift "...the best, most exciting, time travel story
ever written...". Spiteri loves time travel stories but is usually
disappointed. Not with this novel however.
The reissue of Time's
Last Gift from Titan Books comes with unique bonus
material. An afterword, "Gribardsun
and the Prehistoric Wold Newton Family", by Christopher Paul
Carey, plus an afterword, "Gribardsun
through the Ages: A Chronology of Major Events Pertinent to
Time’s Last Gift", by Win Scott Eckert &
Dennis E. Power.
Both afterwords are great additions in the book!
The timing of this novel's publication is perfect. Time's
Last Gift is called a prequel in the Opar / Khokarsa series. It
came nearly at the same time as the new omnibus Gods
of Opar: Tales of Lost Khokarsa, from Subterranean Press.
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Dreamtime |
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The
Strange Birth of My Sister's Brother |
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14
Jun
2012
Phil
Farmer sold a story to editor Leo Margulies in 1959. It would have been
published in the June 1959 issue of the magazine Satellite as "The
Strange Birth", but alas, the magazine folded before any issues were
printed.
The story was sold again to Robert P. Mills for publication in The Magazine of Fantasy and
Science Fiction, where it appeared in the May 1960 issue
as "Open to Me, My Sister".
The story was nominated for a Hugo Award in 1961.
In the past 50 years it saw 59 known publications around the world,
check the new story page
for this. Most of the publications appeared with yet another title, "My
Sister's Brother", under which title the story is probably best known.
"Open to Me, My Sister" was one of Farmer's favorite stories. Phil:
«This story is a hardcore science fiction tale, but it is
also
about an Earthman's hangups, extraterrestrial ecosystems,
sexobiological structures, and religion.»
I read the story again, and it impressed me now even more than it did
the first time, many years ago.
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Mel Hunter |
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Italian
publications traced |
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4
Jun
2012
Two
items in the Italian Farmer bibliography, published in the fanzine La
Spada Spezzata No. 9 (Winter 1983-1984) have been traced.
See the previous entry.
One is an article, "Philip
José Farmer: Gli amanti proibiti", about Phil by
Gianni Montanari.
The second is a translation of Farmer's "Religion and Myths".
Both were published in the series Grande Enciclopedia della
Fantascienza
by publisher Del Drago. At first the series appeared in very
large magazines, for a total 64
issues. The
series also appeared in hardcover format. Each book contained eight
issues of the 'magazines'.
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Newly
found items |
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3
Jun
2012
Regular
contributor Fred Fischer (US) donated two items to the bibliography,
the
Italian fanzine La
Spada Spezzata No. 9 (Winter 1983-1984) and the US
media magazine The Week,
Issue 403 (March 13, 2009).
The latter one contains an Obituary
of
Philip José Farmer, written by an uncredited editor.
La
Spada Spezzata contains a 'Biobibliografie' of
Phil, with every Italian publication till 1982 compiled by Silvio
Sosio. Fred alerted me on four items in his bibliography that aren't in
my International Bibliography. One of these items, a translation of the
story "Father's in the
Basement" –as "Il libro"– in
another Italian fanzine, SF...ere,
has now been added.
I'm still looking for more information on three
Italian articles about Farmer and his work, before I can include these
items in my bibliography.
Thank you very much Fred for the new items!
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Alessandro Bani |
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| Added
Books |
Ten new additions on the book
pages this month.
 Flight
to Opar
Included in the omnibus Gods
of Opar by Subterranean Press, 2012
The
Gates of Creation
The French reissue (Les
portes de la création) of this novel in 1995 by
Pocket.
Gods
of Opar: Tales
of Lost Khokarsa
Omnibus with the three Opar/Khokarsa novels, from Subterranean Press
(2012). A trade and a limited edition.
Hadon
of Ancient
Opar
Included in the omnibus Gods
of Opar, Subterranean Press (2012).
The
Song of Kwasin
The third and completely new novel in the Opar/Khokarsa series.
Included in the omnibus Gods
of Opar.
Time's Last Gift
The reissue by Titan Books (UK), 2012.
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| Statistics |
These are the
numbers for the book pages this month.
1762
publications
1152 different
covers
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