Philip José Farmer's short story "They Twinkled Like Jewels" has been published again. This time in a 764 pages thick anthology, Science Fiction Super Pack #1.


The book is from the same publisher, Positronic Publishing, that published this story by Farmer solo in a chapbook in 2013 (see book page).
The anthology is a Print-on-Demand book.

Dan Getz (USA) alerted me to this anthology, and he sent me an internet link with information about it. Strange thing is that the linked webpage showed a different cover –as you can see at right–, has a different ISBN (9781627550918), and a different publication date, (June 2013) than the one I could order at Amazon.
I could find no proof however that the earlier version has actually been published. Maybe it was only an early announcement.

Guy Haley edited the recently published reference work Sci-Fi Chronicles (subtitled: A Visual History of the Galaxy's Greatest Science Fiction).
According to the cover text of the UK edition: «From Frankenstein to Avatar, this comprehensive guide to science fiction combines expert commentary, stunning archive imagery, and colour-coded infographic timelines to explore the complex real-world (and in-world) development of over two hundred essential sci-fi characters, creators, series and mythologies.»


The book promises a lot, and to be honest it shows a lot in the 576 pages. But while the era 1950-1970 mentions the authors Philip K. Dick, Alfred Bester, James Blish, Jack Arnold, Brian Aldiss, Robert Silverberg, Harlan Ellison, and several others, not a word about Philip José Farmer.

But wait, there is a page with a very incomplete timeline about the Riverworld series. Accompanied with some words about Farmer and his first sf story, about Riverworld, and about the World of Tiers series. To call this "expert commentary" is too much credit for the Riverworld entry, written by Damien G. Walter.
None of the so called side-stream Riverworld stories by Farmer, other than "Riverworld", or written by other authors are mentioned.

Farmer's novel The Other Log of Phileas Fogg is included in the timeline of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
But Farmer's Tarzan additions are not mentioned in the Tarzan chronicle. Nor is any of Farmer's Wold Newton Family stories included anywhere.

It is a nice book with many (small) pictures, but it cannot be complete. Which is confirmed by the editor in his introduction to the book: «We cannot possibly cover it all. ... Any omissions are necessarily somewhat subjective, but sadly unavoidable.»
Phil is in the book, barely...

Thanks Fred Fischer (USA) for bringing this publication to my attention!

Ten years ago the small publisher Ramble House had two books by Philip José Farmer. New editions of The Green Odyssey and of Love Song, both in 2004.
It looks like that you still can order copies of these editions from Ramble House, see here and here.

It seems that Ramble House also had plans to publish an edition of A Feast Unknown. The cover was made, but the book was never published.

This time Farmer collector Lee Barrie (USA) checked some of his books with the information in the bibliography and discovered a few omissions.

The story "The King of the Beasts" was published in the anthology Science Fact/Fiction in 1974. The book had a second printing in 1976. Of both printings also exist a slightly different version. The books were printed in the USA with a USA copyright. But the other versions have beside the USA copyright also a Philippines copyright. I have no idea why this was done.

Lee Barrie found three more printings of the anthology The Hugo Winners, Volume One and Two. This anthology was published as a Book Club Edition by Nelson Doubleday, Inc. and contains Farmer's story "Riders of the Purple Wage".
Lee added the books with date codes N40, P16 and Q22.

He also checked his copies of the Book Club Edition of To Your Scattered Bodies Go, and found one with no date code, and book number 02676.
Many thanks Lee for the additions!