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News
& What's New - July 2012 |
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The
Princess of Terra |
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29
Jul 2012
Did
you see the movie John Carter? Based on a novel in the Mars series from
Edgar Rice Burroughs (ERB), who is best known as the author of the
many Tarzan novels.
We know that Phil Farmer loved the Tarzan books. He wrote a Tarzan
biography,
Tarzan Alive, and even his own Tarzan novel, The
Dark Heart of Time. Tarzan can be found in many more stories
of his.
But it seems he was not much taken with the Mars
series by
ERB. Farmer wrote a Martian (!) review, published in a Martian
magazine, Parallel,
about the novel The
Princess of Terra, written by Erb of Anazrat. The
protagonist, Noj Notrak (shouldn't it have been Noj Retrak?), is
transported from Mars to the third planet of the solar system,
Terra.
Read this fictional, critical 'review', "The
Princess of Terra", and have some fun.
The piece was never published, until it was found in Phil's archives
and included in the collection Pearls from Peoria. Farmer
had written it as
by Charlotte Corday-Marat,
an unknown and never used pseudonym of his. That is till in 2011, when
we discovered a published and till then completely unknown story
written under the same pseudonym. This story, "The
Many Dooms of Harold Hall" (1965), will be included in the
third volume of The
Worlds of Philip José Farmer. See the Forthcoming Books.
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Keith Howell
&
Charles Berlin |
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Review of
Time's Last Gift |
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27
Jul 2012
On
Facebook Christopher Paul Carey mentioned a new review of the Titan
Books edition of Time's Last Gift over at Wired:
«When you read Time’s
Last Gift you’re getting two stories at once.
The main story of what happens to John Gribardsun and how his actions
will affect all of history is what drives the novel. The secondary
story is unravelling who he is through clues a discerning reader will
delight in finding. It’s a mystery within a
mystery.»
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Dreamtime |
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A world
ripe and ready for the plucking |
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24
Jul
2012
"Some Fabulous Yonder"
was published in the Spring 1969 issue of the magazine Fantastic, Stories
of Imagination. It was partly 'rewritten' by cutting out several
pieces. The editor of Fantastic,
Cele Goldsmith, had done this without Farmer’s permission.
The story was
ruined according to Phil Farmer, and never to be reprinted.
However, editor Paul Spiteri of the unique collection Pearls
from Peoria wanted to include the story "Some
Fabulous Yonder". For that the story was restored to the text of
Farmer's original manuscript, which was found in his archives.
Also discovered in Farmer's archives was an early and uncompleted draft
of this story, called "Planet
Pickers". Maybe not finished, but still a very different and
interesting story. Reason for Paul Spiteri to include this one too in Pearls from Peoria.
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Keith Howell
&
Charles Berlin |
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The
wheelchair whore from Peoria |
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22
Jul
2012
The
publisher of Farmerphile, Michael
Croteau, found some great till then unpublished stories in Farmer's
archive. One of these is the very humorous story "A Peoria Night".
Two brothers, George and Joe, are looking for a woman, to help the
legless Joe at some relief. But the ladies all deny him the service,
because Joe smells like a pigsty. Then they meet 'the wheelchair whore'
Sally, who seems to be willing to help out...
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Keith Howell
&
Charles Berlin |
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Passing On |
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20
Jul
2012
The
fourth part of Stations of
the Nightmare, "Passing
On", concludes the story of the change of Paul Eyre, after a
meeting with an alien. He now
has control over his new life and he knows what he can do. For instance
he has the power to heal people.
First time published in the anthology series Continuum, edited by
Roger Elwood, in 1975. All four parts were published in novel form, as Stations
of the Nightmare, by Tor Books in 1982.
With this another short fiction page has been redone.
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Patrick
Woodroffe |
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Another
interview with Christopher Paul Carey |
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18
Jul
2012
In
November 2011 we had an interview with the coauthor of Farmer's third
Opar / Khokarsa novel, The
Song of Kwasin. See here
for the
interview with Christopher Paul Carey, if you haven't read it
already.
Chris was interviewed again about his collaboration on The Song of Kwasin,
and also about his other Khokarsa novella, Exiles of Kho, his
favorite writers, and more. The interesting interview was done by
Anthony R. Cardno, and published on his website.
See also the website of
Christopher Paul Carey.
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Bob Eggleton |
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Received:
Lord Tyger |
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17
Jul
2012
The
third reissue of Farmer's novels by Titan Books (UK) came
today: Lord
Tyger. Again a very beautiful trade paperback!
The exclusive bonus material consists of an introduction, "Farmer's
Tyger, Burning Bright", by well known horror and science
fiction writer
Joe R. Lansdale, and a foreword, "Lord
Tyger", by Paul Spiteri, editor
of Pearls
from Peoria.
Lansdale: «This book, Lord
Tyger,
is one of the best of his works. It combines the largest number of his
obsessions, while never losing that main and most important ingredient
of any work of fiction. The magical connection between writer and
reader: What happens next. It is one of his most beautifully and
cleverly written creations. It is engaging from beginning to end. It
may well be my favorite of his works.»
Spiteri: «Congratulations, you have a fantastic story to read
or
reread, one that Farmer himself rates amongst his best ... This book is
dedicated to Edgar Rice Burroughs and it really is a tribute to him
despite what some may see as parody. Lord Tyger
pays homage to Farmer's favourite hero and whereas it demonstrates the
fundamental impossibility of that character as conceived by Burroughs,
it shows how literary ingenuity could lead to physical
possibility.»
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Dreamtime |
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Titan
Books reissues with changed covers |
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16
Jul
2012
Win
Scott Eckert revealed on his blog, see
here, the new covers of the Titan Books reissues of A
Feast Unknown and of The Wind Whales of Ishmael.
Both covers look a bit different than the ones we saw announced earlier.
At left the old ones, at right the new covers.
With A Feast Unknown
the picture of the fighting men has changed. Changed for the better,
there is more action in the picture now.
The only change with The
Wind Whales of Ishmael is in the name of the series, it
changed from 'A Wold Newton Novel' in 'A Grand Master Novel'.
Win also gives the complete publishing schedule of all Titan Books
publications of Farmer's books. See his
blog, or the information with the Forthcoming Books.
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Gods of
Opar - another review |
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10
Jul
2012
David
Brzeski reviewed the new omnibus, Gods of Opar: Tales of Lost
Khokarsa, for The British Fantasy Society, and starts with:
«This is a huge and beautiful book. I suspect a good number
of people who buy it will be doing so, despite the fact that they
already have two thirds of it in paperback. For any who
don’t, frankly it’s a bargain.»
David describes the three included novels and concludes that he wants
more: «Farmer and Carey tell a realistically complex tale of
a religious war in which whichever side ultimately wins, countless
people lose and their world is left devastated. While the trilogy is
brought to a satisfying conclusion, we are left with many questions and
much scope for future books ... What of Sahhindar, the time traveller?
...»
Another proof –like the previous two reviews– that
Christopher Paul Carey, co-author of the third novel, did a great job
in finishing the novel!
Read the full review here
online.
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Bob Eggleton |
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Gateway
eBooks and omnibus |
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10
Jul
2012
Amazon.de
(Germany) shows a new Farmer omnibus, Philip Jose Farmer SF Gateway
Omnibus: The Maker of Universes, To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Dayworld,
scheduled for publication in April 2013.
The omnibus will be published in paperback by Gollancz (UK) in their
Gateway series of books. It will count 800 pages en the price will be
€ 22,99.
Although the book is in English, there is no information yet on the US
or UK sites of Amazon about this book.
Lately Gollancz publishes a whole lot of Farmer's novels –I
counted thirteen– as eBooks in their Gateway series, check
them out at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk (search for Kindle editions of
Philip Jose Farmer).
Strange thing is you will not find these eBooks on the website of Gateway...
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One of the
Gateway ebooks. |
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New cover
revealed |
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9 Jul
2012
Amazon
now shows the cover of the Titan Books (UK) reissue of The
Wind Whales of Ishmael. The book is scheduled for publication
in March 2013.
The
Wind Whales of Ishmael is labeled as 'A Wold Newton
Novel', see here for the
Wold Newton series.
Like the other reissues from Titan Books the novel will have exclusive
new material, but it is not yet known what this will be. We will have
to wait till Titan Books or Win Scott Eckert (on his blog)
announces this.
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Dreamtime |
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Le Bateau
Fabuleux |
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8
Jul
2012
French
publisher Laffont / Le Livre de Poche reprinted The
Fabulous Riverboat, or Le
Bateau Fabuleux, in July 2011 for its eight printing.
I had not seen this earlier, so could not order a copy sooner. The book
has a new cover layout, like the other Riverworld novels had in France.
The only one not seen yet with this new cover layout is the translation
of The
Magic Labyrinth (Le
labyrinthe magique).
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Manchu |
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Osiris
myth |
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7
Jul
2012
One
of the old Egyptian gods, Osiris, meets Leo Queequeg Tincrowdor, in a
very humorous story, "Osiris
on Crutches". The story has been written by Philip
José Farmer in collaboration with his friend Leo Queequeg Tincrowdor,
who is thus also a character in the story.
"Osiris on Crutches" is their version of the 'Osiris myth',
including the murder of Osiris by his brother Set, the resurrection of
Osiris, and the posthumously conceiving of a son by his wife Isis.
Christopher Paul Carey in his foreword to the story: «After
reading the following story one might wonder if Tincrowdor is on the
gods' hit list. Then again, perhaps Tincrowdor sees more clearly than
the rest of us an it is the gods who must be afraid of him.»
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Irving Freeman |
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The
cherub with his flaming sword |
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6
Jul
2012
Wikipedia:
«Roger Elwood
was an American science fiction writer and
editor, perhaps best known for having edited a large number of
anthologies and collections for a variety of publishers in the early
1970s.»
Farmer also wrote some stories for anthologies edited by Elwood. Like "Opening the Door" for Children of Infinity,
an anthology with 'Original Science Fiction Stories for Young Readers'.
This story has only been reprinted in the collection Pearls
from Peoria. Paul Spiteri, the editor, in his introduction:
«On plate 14 of William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell,
Blake talks of 'The cherub with his flaming sword' and 'the doors of
perception,' both strong influences on this story.This story was part
of a collection aimed specifically at young adults with the intention
of showcasing science fiction. Phil's story does much more and maturely
treats such themes as impending adulthood, death, loss, rejection and
familial responsibilities.»
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Jacqui Morgan |
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| Added
Books |
Two new additions on the book
pages this month.
 The Fabulous Riverboat
The French reissue (Le
Bateau Fabuleux) of 2011.
Lord
Tyger
The reissue of this novel by Titan Books (UK), 2012.
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| Statistics |
These are the
numbers for the book pages this month.
1764
publications
1154 different
covers
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