|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
News
& What's New - February 2014 |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Gateway
Omnibus |
|
|
|
|
27
Feb
2014
British
publisher Gollancz/Gateway
is, since 2013, publishing a series of omnibuses with two or three
novels by
well know writers. For instance with novels by Robert Silverberg,
Clifford D. Simak, Joe Haldeman, Bob Shaw, Jack Vance and many others.
See the list at ISFDB.
In July 2014 Gateway will publish an omnibus with three novels by
Philip José Farmer: The Maker of Universes, To
Your Scattered Bodies Go, and The
Unreasoning Mask.
The omnibus was earlier announced with three first novels in a series,
with Dayworld
as the third novel. That one has been replaced with the stand alone
novel The Unreasoning
Mask.
List price is £18.99; see Amazon.co.uk.

|
|


- |
|
|
 |
|
|
Table
of Contents |
|
|
|
|
23
Feb
2014
Publisher
Meteor House
announced which stories and essays will be included in their fourth
volume of work by and about Farmer.
The Table of Contents for The
Worlds of Philip José Farmer 4: Voyages to Strange Days:
- Foreword by Robert Silverberg
Peoria-Colored
Worlds
- The Case of the Curious
Contradiction by Terry Bibo
- Eleven Days in Springtime by
François Mottier
- Philip José
Farmer Conquiert L’Univers Postface by Philip José
Farmer
- Pekon 2 Guest of Honor
Speech by Philip José Farmer
Expanded
Worlds
- Samdroo and the Grassman by
Martin Gately
- Whiteness of the Whale by
Danny Adams
- Ite, Missa Est by Paul
Spiteri
- Antlers of Flesh by E. C.
Lisic
- The Goddess Equation by
Christopher Paul Carey
Classic Worlds
- A Carmody-Raspold Chronology
by Christopher Paul Carey
- Letter of Discord by Philip
José Farmer
- For Where Your Treasure Is
by Art Sippo
- Moth and Rust by Philip
José Farmer
The book will be published this spring.
I already ordered my copy of the book.
Do not wait too long to preorder your copy. Preorders save $5 off the
$25 list price!

|
|


Laura
Givens |
|
|
 |
|
|
Two
essays in Science Fiction Times |
|
|
|
|
21
Feb
2014
The
German critical magazine Science
Fiction Times published in 1990 two essays by
Jörg Kastner, both about Philip José Farmer and his
work.
The first of these, "Wider
die Etikettierer"
(Against the Labelers) in the August 1990 issue, is about the
self-censorship of the German publishers. Reason why they did not dare
to publish translations of The Image of the Beast
and Blown.
The earlier translation of Flesh, as Der
Sonnenheld in 1971, was pretty much censored.
This changed with the publication of the German omnibus Fleisch
in 1989, with all three novels. But still some censorship was used with
the novels.
In the second essay, "Neues
aus Peoria" (News from Peoria) in the September 1990 issue,
Kastner reviews the German publications, four books (other than Fleisch)
from the past five years. Kastner: "Als Fazit ergibt sich,
daß
die in lezter Zeit bei uns erchienenen Bücher Philip
José
Farmers - bis auf den Durchhänger Ironcastle - sehr
lesenswert sind."
I had been looking for some years for copies of these two magazines,
but didn't find any. Two years ago I received photocopies of the essays
from Ronald M. Hahn (still many thanks!). Read them but forgot to
include the information in the bibliography. Many magazines, fanzines
and books were piled on the two essays. While cleaning out my desk I
found them again, and searching the internet also found the two issues
for sale. Time to correct my omission.

|
|


Gabriele Berndt

Kowalski |
|
|
 |
|
|
They
Twinkled Like Jewels |
|
|
|
|
18
Feb
2014
Phil
Farmer wrote this story, "They
Twinkled Like Jewels",
back in 1954. The story was inspired by the way stinger wasps catch and
poison their prey, the caterpillars, and attach an egg at the still
living worm. It will stay alive until the egg hatches and the young
wasp starts eating.
Phil speculates what if we, the humans, had such enemies?
For me its not one of Farmer's best stories. It is is hardly believable
as things go with the undetected aliens.
The story was published 11 times worldwide in magazines and
collections. Since 2009 it is also published in solo publications
in a chapbook, all of them as, often too expensive, Print-on-Demand
books. The story is available on the internet for free, in eBook and
Audio Book.

|
|


Joe
Richards |
|
|
 |
|
|
Escape
from Loki in Million |
|
|
|
|
12
Feb
2014
I
finally found and bought a copy of Million,
'The Magazine About Popular Fiction', issue number 9 (May/June 1992).
Graham Andrews wrote a critical essay and review, "Doc Biggles Drummond
Templar—When He Was a Boy", about Farmer's Doc
Savage novel, Escape from Loki,
published in 1991 by Bantam Falcon, and calls the novel
«...one
of the best sequels-by-other-hands yet written...».
Andrews would have liked if Farmer had written more Doc Savage novels,
and hoped he had some answers for his questions about Biggles and Simon
Templar.

|
|


- |
|
|
 |
|
|
Three
essays in Proxima |
|
|
|
|
11
Feb
2014
Ludovic
Nowak wrote a three part essay, "Lorsque
José ose", about Philip José Farmer and
his work for the French quarterly published magazine Proxima. The three parts
were published in 1985, in the issues number 5, 6 and 7.
 |
 |
 |
Benoît
Bonte |
Patrick Marcel |
Séverin |
In two of the issues, the essays were accompanied by Farmer's stories.
Nº 6 published a translation of "The
Henry Miller Dawn Patrol" ("Patrouille de l'aube"), and
Nº 7 published "The
Leaser of Two Evils" ("Le Moindre des deux maux").
Both stories had first been published in the American Playboy.

|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Interview
in Antares 2 |
|
|
|
|
7
Feb
2014
The
French fanzine Antares
n° 2, (1981) published Farmer's story "Le Vocan" ("The Volcano"). We
already had this publication in the bibliography.
What we didn't know till now, just received a copy of this issue, is
that there also is an interview
with Philip José Famer in the same issue, "Rencontre avec
l'auteur: Philip José Farmer", conducted by Martine Blond
&
Jean-Pierre Moumon.
The interview took place at the 38th World Science Fiction Convention
(Noreascon 2) in Boston, September 1980.
Many topics were spoken of, like the great idea of a sequel to The
Lovers, Children
of the Lovers.

|
|


Pierre
D. Lacroix |
|
|
 |
|
|
Planète
à vendre! |
|
|
|
|
6
Feb
2014
Slide
Neurox wrote a long and interesting essay,
six pages, for the dossier about Philip José Farmer in the
French fanzine Planète
à Vendre! n° 9R/033, of February-March
1992.
The essay is about Farmer's ideas and themes in most of his work, of
which Neurox gives many examples around these themes. Many novels,
series and stories by Farmer are mentioned in this essay.
The scan isn't missing its top right cover, the fanzine was cut this
way.

|
|


J.
Toni |
|
|
 |
|
|
More
Green in the UK |
|
|
|
|
6
Feb
2014
William
Taylor (Canada) discovered a 1976 reprint of the British edition of The
Green Odyssey
from Sphere Books. This one isn't mentioned in the 1983 printing of
the book from Sphere, so it was assumed that to be the second
printing, till now.
I added and corrected the information about the British printings on
the book page.
Many thanks Bill.

|
|


Angus
McKie |
|
|
 |
|
|
Ernest(o) |
|
|
|
|
3
Feb
2014
Philip
José Farmer loved the works by Ernest Hemingway. The story "That Great Spanish Author,
Ernesto"
is a kind of a hommage to Hemingway's writing. Or "...a pastiche of
sorts..." and "...one of the finest examples illustrating just how
artful and diverse Phil's writing can be...", according to the editor
Christopher Paul Carey.
Written in the early 1940s but only published in 2006 after its
discovery in Farmer's archives.

|
|


Charles
Berlin |
|
|
 |
|
|

Added
Books |
One new addition on the book
pages this month.
The
Green Odyssey
A reprint of the British edition from Sphere Books, 1976.
|
 |
Statistics |
These are the
numbers for the book pages this month.
1806
publications
1180 different
covers
|
 |
|
|