As prose the action sequences have a great immediacy: combat seems at all times dangerous since the emergent chaos of battle is no respecter of persons. In Riverworld, the quest to solve the mystery of the resurrection and the river involves lots of vividly-described action adventure. (Several of his other works, such as The Other Log Of Phileas Fogg are pastiches, pulling in characters and other elements from several genres-making him a 'meta' writer long before it became popular.

Historical figures such as Richard Burton, Samuel Clemens and Herman Goering appear as flesh and blood people and Farmer had the nerve to describe what he thought would happen when their paths collided. The series has an extraordinarily fertile conceit: in the distant future we are all ( all) resurrected by the banks of a river. The Riverworld series is a good place to start reading. He wanted to get the reader thinking and entertain them, not caring who he offended along the way. More generally, Farmer's approach to sex was the same as his approach to religion, government, politics, gender, everything: get it all out in the open and then make challenging statements about it. The controversy over these works stuck in the minds of reviewers and eulogy writers. Readers who are only familiar with his later, more moderate, work may find his early work challenging in places-particularly Lord Tyger and A Feast Unknown. That said, farmer's graphic descriptions of truly out-there sex acts do not pull any punches. Farmer's works had a generous helping both with plenty of edgy politics too. He worked in a steel mill, in a powerline crew and as a technical writer, only becoming a full-time writer again in 1969.ĭuring his early writing career, science fiction publishers had an aversion to controversial subjects: sex and religion were out. He suffered financial insecurity and had to retreat from full-time writing.

His novella The Lovers (featuring a man who falls in love with an insectoid alien) won a Hugo as 'most promising new writer' but was rejected by leading editors as 'nauseating'. His early writing career was tough: he was defrauded of substantial prize money. He tried and failed to become a fighter pilot in WWII. His marriage produced two kids and lasted until he died. He won three Hugo awards and had many nominations.įarmer was born in 1918 in North Terre Haute, Indiana and grew up in Peoria, Illinois. Farmer is best known for the World of Tiers and Riverworld series. Philip José Farmer (Janu– February 25, 2009) was a ground-breaking science fiction and fantasy writer.

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