Philip José Farmer

[The Wanderer]

I'm just reading, 'The Unreasoning Mask', great read

Never read, 'To Your Scattered Bodies Go', would like to though

Any Opinions?

[steve12553]

Very interesting book although it will drag you into a whole series. The concept is a wonderful "what if?".

[The Wanderer]

Thanks

What do you guys think of Farmer in general, great Author?

[Ragnar]

I got as far as the second Riverworld book before giving up. Highly over-rated IMO.

[j. d. worthington]

My take on Farmer is mixed. Stylistically he goes between being absolutely brilliant and rather pedestrian. Wonderful ideas a great deal of the time, and his playing with myth (both ancient and modern) appeals to me greatly. Overall, I'd say Farmer is a damned good writer, but works on more subtle levels than most sf... so much so that repeated readings of a lot of his work may be necessary to truly appreciate the different levels he's working on.

This is not to say that I like everything by the man. I don't, for instance, care for his venture in Doc Savage's early life, Escape from Loki, all that much, though it has some very nice things in it. On the other hand, "Riders of the Purple Wage" I still consider to be a magnificent piece of work that just grows in meaty complexity the more often I've read it, and Strange Relations and The Lovers are two of the groundbreaking sf novels of their time... and remain very good reads today. Strange Relations, indeed, can still be a bit disturbing on different levels. As for the Riverworld books... I've not read them since they came out, so my memory of them is somewhat vague, but I felt that, though it occasionally was a bit plodding stylistically, there was so much going on with different layers of thought that I didn't find it at all disappointing.... He also has a wicked sense of humor and a taste for the most egregious puns.....

[The Wanderer]

Did you like the 'World of Tiers' it's exciting and funny - I seem to remember a Sea Lion type creature, sqealing and knocking one of the main charcters flying, I think the creature was actually a Man IIRC, who'd been turned into the creature and he had a grudge

I remember I nearly split my sides laughing, I'll have to read that again

[Gav]

He also wrote Doc Savage (if memory serves...) which some people seem to think is ace but I ... don't.

I liked the Riverworld books and I've read the lot. Well worth the effort. If you can get hold of the related short Story "Riverworld". it's also worth a read and quite thought provoking.

[chrispenycate]

Farmer was, for me, the first author who brought "sex" as opposed to "gender" into science fiction, and I was of an age when this was interesting (previous to him, science fiction heroes reproduced orally, and even marauding BEMs never got to do anything with their helpless victims)
I enjoyed the Riverworld, but found it went downhill after it's first splendid appearance (logical for a river, I suppose) but I suppose the sheer range of characters available was suffocating for the story line.
And he doesn't lack humour, at times, either, something I've always appreciated.

[GOLLUM]

I've got the entire Riverworld series but am yet to read it.

[gully_foyle]

I remember reading Riverworld, The Lovers and Jesus on Mars. The latter stuck in my mind cause I probably wouldn't mind reading it again. It was a good 20+ years ago that I read any of them.

[The Ace]

I read the 'Riverworld,' series. I can always remember that an accquaintance once suggested to me that a sequence of more than three books was worthless.

I cited Lewis, Susan Cooper and then Farmer before conceding that he had a point on that one. Vastly overrated.

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by Gav

He also wrote Doc Savage (if memory serves...) which some people seem to think is ace but I ... don't.

Ummm... how do you mean, he wrote Doc Savage? He wrote a tongue-in-cheek biography of the Man of Bronze, titled Doc Savage, His Apocalyptic Life, and he wrote a novel featuring the character to head off the new Doc Savage adventures in the 1980s (the rest were written by Will Murray, as I recall, under the old Kenneth Robeson house name), and he wrote a Doc Savage/Tarzan (sort of) novel or two (A Feast Unknown, and a double: Lord of the Trees/The Mad Goblin); but the original Doc Savage was written in the 1930s/1940s, chiefly by Lester Dent -- though with several other writers doing some of the stories now and again (as was common with the pulp adventure heroes), all under the house name of Kenneth Robeson... with one exception, as I recall, where the printer slipped up, and Dent's name went out on the issue....

[The Wanderer]

I Must say that 'The Unreasoning Mask' 1981, is an eccentric, Colorful, off the wall, Vivid and memorable book

I read the recently published paperback reprint

[Gav]

Originally Posted by j. d. worthington

Ummm... how do you mean, he wrote Doc Savage? He wrote a tongue-in-cheek biography of the Man of Bronze, titled Doc Savage, His Apocalyptic Life, and he wrote a novel featuring the character to head off the new Doc Savage adventures in the 1980s (the rest were written by Will Murray, as I recall, under the old Kenneth Robeson house name), and he wrote a Doc Savage/Tarzan (sort of) novel or two (A Feast Unknown, and a double: Lord of the Trees/The Mad Goblin); but the original Doc Savage was written in the 1930s/1940s, chiefly by Lester Dent -- though with several other writers doing some of the stories now and again (as was common with the pulp adventure heroes), all under the house name of Kenneth Robeson... with one exception, as I recall, where the printer slipped up, and Dent's name went out on the issue....

Really?

I must have him mixed up. It was so long ago that I don't actually remember who wrote. It's entirely possible that I got the mix up because of "his apocalyptic life".

Author mix-up aside...

I don't rate Doc Savage at all.

[rai]

I liked the Riverworld books, but probably after a while they went on too long. Too much of a good thing etc..

If you haven't read any, I think "To Your Scatterd Bodies Go" is the first? and well worth reading, but I guess it's like one of those series that maybe it's too much to get to the final end.