In 1983 Peter Heck wrote an essay in the Waldenbooks Otherworlds Club magazine, Xignals Vol. II, with the title "The Riverworld Series Reconsidered".

It gives an enthusiastic impression of the Riverworld series, on the occasion of the release of the fifth novel in the series, Gods of Riverworld.

Peter Heck: «Each volume gradually moved closer to the secret plan behind the resurrection, stripping away veils from the mystery. ... Everything was resolved, tied up, and put in order — or so Farmer claimed — by the end of the fourth volume. ... It was so much fun that you can hardly blame him for leaving a loophole open for a return trip. That, of course, is Gods of Riverworld ... a book few readers will want to put down unfinished.».

I received the information of this essay's publication from Dan Getz (USA). Many thanks Dan!

While I loved to lurk in the second hand book stores, nowadays the lurking is mostly on the internet. Finding unknown Farmer items this way is just as satisfying, as it was in the book shops or book markets. Only the shipping cost...

This time I found six new publications of Die Liebenden, the German translation of The Lovers.
And I found a Korean publication, the second in this country that I know of, of 가라, 흩어진 너희 몸들로 (To Your Scattered Bodies Go).


First the 4th printing of the Knaur edition of Die Liebenden (1982). Of the German omnibus Exotische Welten, also from publisher Knaur, I found the 2nd till 6th printing (1985-1994). The omnibus also includes Die Liebenden by Farmer.

And finally a new Korean publication, published by Firebird in 2015. While I could buy the newly discovered German books, the Korean one was sold out. Now I have to search for both Korean books to buy for my collection.

The staff of the fanzine The Bronze Gazette had some personal problems this past period, alas. Reason why it took a little longer before Issue 82, Fall 2018, got published.

Of the contents are two essays of interest to us, the Farmerphiles.
First is a reprinted essay by Christopher Paul Carey, "Through the Seventh Gate: Pursuing Farmer's Sources in Savageology". This essay tries to answer the question if Farmer met the Man of Bronze.

The second is an essay by Will Murray, "Escape From Loki Revisited". Murray was clearly disappointed with Farmer's Escape From Loki: «I told Phil that given his reputation in the science fiction field, and his imaginative powers, were I his editor, I would not have let him do a mere World War I prisoner escape story. I would have insisted that he set it in the 1930s and go full-blown SF—even if that meant the Man of Bronze fighting off an alien invasion. Phil did not appreciate my opinion.»

Murray's essay also gives the story that Farmer had lost his first draft of the novel, because of a computer crash. He had already written about eighty percent of the novel, and had to write it all over again.

In March 2016 Mnémos in France published the first hardcover edition of an omnibus with all five novels in the Riverworld series, and also the novella "Riverworld". The omnibus was published with the French title Le Monde du Fleuve.
The book was probably a success in France, for this month, October, Mnémos released a second edition of the omnibus. This time not a hardcover with a dustjacket, but a hardcover with pictorial boards. Again a huge and beautiful book with 1261 pages.
The price of it is € 37,00.

It contains these five novels and one novella:
- Le Monde du fleuve (To Your Scattered Bodies Go),
- Le Bateau fabuleux (The Fabulous Riverboat),
- Le Noir Dessein (The Dark Design),
- Le Labyrinthe magique (The Magic Labyrinth),
- "Ainsi meurt toute chair" ("Riverworld"),
- Les Dieux du Fleuve (Gods of Riverworld).

The Philip José Farmer Centennial Collection in the limited deluxe, lettered and signed edition, was received today. There are only 52 lettered copies of this collection, lettered A-Z and AA-ZZ. All of the five contributors, of which I'm one, have signed the books.

It is a very beautiful edition. Both end papers have a two page color illustration, the front end pages with the cover of the trade paperback and the back end pages with the cover of the trade hardcover.
I have entered it on the book page and the contents on their own pages.

One of the stories in the book is "The Last Rise of Nick Adams".
I had to check it if the previous missing piece is inserted in the text. It is this time!

There now are four different versions of the story:
- "The Impotency of Bad Karma", the original publication;
- "The Last Rise of Nick Adams", a somewhat rewritten version that misses a piece of the original text;
- "Up, Out and Over, Roger", an early, previously unpublished, version;
- "The Last Rise of Nick Adams", the somewhat rewritten version that includes the previous missing piece.
See the story page and this entry in 2011 for more information.

It was puzzling for a while. I searched for issue #41 of the SFWA Forum, but found conflicting information. As it turned out, there are two issues that come with number 41. One of July 1975 and one of October 1975.

There would be a letter by Phil Farmer in issue #41, but in which one? Earlier I found the issue of October, but that one only had an open letter by Philip K. Dick addressed at Philip José Farmer.
See also the entry of August 12th this year.

Finally I found the correct issue #41 for sale, the one of July 1975. Much to my surprise it contains not only one letter by Farmer, but two. And also two letters by Farmer as Kilgore Trout.

The first letter by Trout is addressed at the editor of F&SF, Edward L. Ferman: «I wish to protest the publication of a badly mutilated version of my novel, Venus on the Half-Shell, in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.» Trout goes on ranting, nearly two pages, about this and other mutilations of his work.
Farmer's first letter is to withdraw his earlier done nomination of Trout's Venus for the Nebula Award, because of Trout's wishes.

Then again an angry letter by Kilgore Trout, where he himself withdraws —for several reasons— his novel Venus on the Half-Shell from the Nebula Awards.
Trout: «I just read in the new Forum where that dunderhead, Farmer, recommended my Venus on the Half-Shell for the Nebula Award. Everybody knows he ain't got no taste, and his recommendation is no recommendation as far as I'm concerned.»
Both letters by Trout are very funny.

Lastly the second letter by Farmer, that starts with: «Who in hell invited Lem to be an honorary member of SFWA? This man has consistently expressed nothing but intense scorn, disgust, and contempt for almost all American s-f writers.»
Again, see also the entry of August 12th this year, about the dispute between Farmer and Lem.