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I just finished reading Maker of Universes, by Philip Jose Farmer, which is the first book in the World of Tiers series. Anyone else read it? How do you like it?
I found the first book was deeply rooted in the pulp tradition, and very much indebted to the pioneers of science fiction, like Robert E. Howard and Edgar R. Burroughs. The book reads like it's much older than it actually is. I don't know if this was intentional or if it was PJF trying to sneak in as much plot as he could or something else, but it does seem like he had too much stuff to tell, and very little time either to write it or to fully develop it. From that results a lack of dialogue and way too much telling instead of showing. That makes the 150 pages seem like 300, since there's very little character development other than what's seen in the unraveling of the action, and the amount of action itself is already overwhelming.
Way too much of the book is devoted to travelling followed by fighting and general clubbering. I wish he could have devoted more time to establishing motivations, building up tension for the big suprise moments and tying loose ends in the plot.
Be it as it may, PJF does have an amazing imagination, and the whole concept of the world of tiers is interesting enough to warrant at least one reading.
Since I'm lazy, I'll cut and paste from elsewhere a couple of plot summaries so you have an idea what it's like:
Many millennia ago, the Lords were a humanoid race on an incredibly advanced level of science and technology, allowing them to achieve virtual immortality and to create artifical "pocket universes" full of strange worlds populated by even stranger beings, created as subjects and slaves to the Lords. Through a history of wars with other races and among themselves, the Lords have been reduced in number and knowledge. The remaining Lords find themselves heirs to a technology they know how to use but no longer understand, incestuously related degenerates who revel in acting as gods in the face of the inhabitants of the worlds they consider their own. Their main sport is killing fellow Lords and taking over their universes.
The series depicts the adventures of the earthlings Robert Wolff and Paul Janus Finnigan alias Kickaha, who find themselves displaced to the World of Tiers, a ziggurat-shaped planet which gives the series its name, the Lords Jadawin, Anana, Rec Orc and many more, on chases leading through "gates" to many pocket universes and many perils.
Plot and characterization are second to the presentation of many marvelous worlds, some of them breathtakingly absurd and all of them very dangerous. Especially the first two novels are little more than episodes of wonder and action strung together with a plot that barely escapes inconsistency. The hackwork of a man writing for his living, I guess. Later on PJF's financial situation seems to have improved, as he takes more time to develop a story, but the basic style remains. I found The Lavalite World, entirely set on an incredible shape-shifting planet, to be the best book of the series, but I'm sure there is no lack of readers who will have a different favorite.
It is a matter of opinion whether Red Orc's Rage is part of the series. Actually, the book deals with troubled adolescents and their treatment through a psychiatric therapy based on characters from the World of TiersMore Than Fire, which claims to be the final wrap-up volume, refers to those events. series. However, part of the book is set in the imaginary(?) universes of the Lords and we learn the childhood history of Red Orc, the most prominent villain of the series.
Warped characters that are a Freudian's delight, action, adventure, and a wealth of highly imaginative settings. It's escapist, it might be trashy, but it's certainly fun.
from here.
From Wikipedia
The World of Tiers novels are a series of connected science fiction/fantasy novels by Philip José Farmer. These are set within a series of artificially-constructed universes, created and ruled by decadent beings (who are genetically identical to humans, but who regard themselves as superior), who are the inheritors of an advanced technology they no longer understand. This technology enables the "Lords" (or Thoans, in their own language) to create novel lifeforms, and also to prevent ageing or disease, making them effectively immortal. Their technology also allows them to create small artificial universes, and the planets and stars within them, and modify the physical laws (e.g. changing the behaviour of gravity) to create unusual or interesting phenomena within these universes. Instantaneous travel within and between these universes is achieved by the use of gatesteleportation devices, or as a means of creating wormholes between different regions of spacetime. which seem to function as
The overall series title comes from the main 'pocket universe' featured in the books. This consists of a single planet with a green sky, shaped in the form of a huge stepped pyramid on five stages, with each stage being a disk or squat cylinder. A small sun and a single moon orbit around this planet. There are no other stars or astronomical bodies. This world was created by a Lord named Jadawin.
The overall storyline of the series follows the adventures of two people from Earth who independently discover gates into the World of Tiers. The earlier books focus on the character of Robert Wolff as he explores this world and tries to discover its secrets. From the third book onwards the action shifts to Paul Janus Finnegan (known as Kickaha, along with many other aliases), who is drawn into a battle between an ancient enemy of the Thoans, and ultimately into the feuds between rival Thoans as they try to take over each other's universes.
A French-language roleplaying game inspired by the World of Tiers has been released.
The Wikipedia entry is much larger than that and actually quite interesting. Here's a link.
I found the first book was deeply rooted in the pulp tradition, and very much indebted to the pioneers of science fiction, like Robert E. Howard and Edgar R. Burroughs. The book reads like it's much older than it actually is. I don't know if this was intentional or if it was PJF trying to sneak in as much plot as he could or something else, but it does seem like he had too much stuff to tell, and very little time either to write it or to fully develop it. From that results a lack of dialogue and way too much telling instead of showing. That makes the 150 pages seem like 300, since there's very little character development other than what's seen in the unraveling of the action, and the amount of action itself is already overwhelming.
Way too much of the book is devoted to travelling followed by fighting and general clubbering. I wish he could have devoted more time to establishing motivations, building up tension for the big suprise moments and tying loose ends in the plot.
Be it as it may, PJF does have an amazing imagination, and the whole concept of the world of tiers is interesting enough to warrant at least one reading.
Since I'm lazy, I'll cut and paste from elsewhere a couple of plot summaries so you have an idea what it's like:
Many millennia ago, the Lords were a humanoid race on an incredibly advanced level of science and technology, allowing them to achieve virtual immortality and to create artifical "pocket universes" full of strange worlds populated by even stranger beings, created as subjects and slaves to the Lords. Through a history of wars with other races and among themselves, the Lords have been reduced in number and knowledge. The remaining Lords find themselves heirs to a technology they know how to use but no longer understand, incestuously related degenerates who revel in acting as gods in the face of the inhabitants of the worlds they consider their own. Their main sport is killing fellow Lords and taking over their universes.
The series depicts the adventures of the earthlings Robert Wolff and Paul Janus Finnigan alias Kickaha, who find themselves displaced to the World of Tiers, a ziggurat-shaped planet which gives the series its name, the Lords Jadawin, Anana, Rec Orc and many more, on chases leading through "gates" to many pocket universes and many perils.
Plot and characterization are second to the presentation of many marvelous worlds, some of them breathtakingly absurd and all of them very dangerous. Especially the first two novels are little more than episodes of wonder and action strung together with a plot that barely escapes inconsistency. The hackwork of a man writing for his living, I guess. Later on PJF's financial situation seems to have improved, as he takes more time to develop a story, but the basic style remains. I found The Lavalite World, entirely set on an incredible shape-shifting planet, to be the best book of the series, but I'm sure there is no lack of readers who will have a different favorite.
It is a matter of opinion whether Red Orc's Rage is part of the series. Actually, the book deals with troubled adolescents and their treatment through a psychiatric therapy based on characters from the World of TiersMore Than Fire, which claims to be the final wrap-up volume, refers to those events. series. However, part of the book is set in the imaginary(?) universes of the Lords and we learn the childhood history of Red Orc, the most prominent villain of the series.
Warped characters that are a Freudian's delight, action, adventure, and a wealth of highly imaginative settings. It's escapist, it might be trashy, but it's certainly fun.
from here.
From Wikipedia
The World of Tiers novels are a series of connected science fiction/fantasy novels by Philip José Farmer. These are set within a series of artificially-constructed universes, created and ruled by decadent beings (who are genetically identical to humans, but who regard themselves as superior), who are the inheritors of an advanced technology they no longer understand. This technology enables the "Lords" (or Thoans, in their own language) to create novel lifeforms, and also to prevent ageing or disease, making them effectively immortal. Their technology also allows them to create small artificial universes, and the planets and stars within them, and modify the physical laws (e.g. changing the behaviour of gravity) to create unusual or interesting phenomena within these universes. Instantaneous travel within and between these universes is achieved by the use of gatesteleportation devices, or as a means of creating wormholes between different regions of spacetime. which seem to function as
The overall series title comes from the main 'pocket universe' featured in the books. This consists of a single planet with a green sky, shaped in the form of a huge stepped pyramid on five stages, with each stage being a disk or squat cylinder. A small sun and a single moon orbit around this planet. There are no other stars or astronomical bodies. This world was created by a Lord named Jadawin.
The overall storyline of the series follows the adventures of two people from Earth who independently discover gates into the World of Tiers. The earlier books focus on the character of Robert Wolff as he explores this world and tries to discover its secrets. From the third book onwards the action shifts to Paul Janus Finnegan (known as Kickaha, along with many other aliases), who is drawn into a battle between an ancient enemy of the Thoans, and ultimately into the feuds between rival Thoans as they try to take over each other's universes.
A French-language roleplaying game inspired by the World of Tiers has been released.
The Wikipedia entry is much larger than that and actually quite interesting. Here's a link.
