The Worlds of Philip Jose Farmer 3: Portrait of a Trickster

The Worlds of Philip Jose Farmer #3

by Michael Croteau (Editor), Philip José Farmer (Contributor), Frederik Pohl (Contributor)

A third venture through the works of Philip José Farmer focusing on his penchant for literary tricksterism featuring essays by Frederik Pohl, Michael Bailey, Steven Connelly, Bruce Sterling, Chris Garcia, Tom Wode Bellman, Jonathan Swift Somers III, David M. Harris, Leo Queequeg Tincrowdor, and Rick Lai and fiction by Charlotte Corday-Marat, Win Scott Eckert, Heidi Ruby Miller, Octavio Aragão & Carlos Orsi, and S.M. Stirling as well as hard to find, and never before seen works by Philip José Farmer himself.

284 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2012

About the author

WIN SCOTT ECKERT is co-author (with Philip Jos Farmer) of the Wold Newton novel The Evil in Pemberley House, about Patricia Wildman, the daughter of a certain bronze-skinned pulp hero (Subterranean Press, 2009).

Win, a founding member of the New Pulp movement, also edited and contributed to Myths for the Modern Age: Philip Jos Farmers Wold Newton Universe (MonkeyBrain Books), a 2007 Locus Awards Finalist for Best Non-Fiction book. He has written tales featuring many adventurous & pulp hero characters, including Zorro, The Avenger, The Phantom, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Hareton Ironcastle, Captain Midnight, and Doc Ardan. He has co-edited and written tales for Moonstone Books' The Green Hornet Chronicles and The Green Hornet Casefiles, and has stories forthcoming in Moonstones Sherlock Holmes: The Crossovers Casebook and Honey West. Win also wrote the Foreword to the new edition of Farmers Tarzan Alive: A Definitive Biography of Lord Greystoke (Bison Books, 2006) and the Afterword to the reissue of Farmers Sherlockian crossover novel The Peerless Peer (Titan Books, 2011). He is a regular contributor to Black Coat Press' annual pulp anthology Tales of the Shadowmen, and Meteor House's annual anthology The Worlds of Philip Jos Farmer. Wins latest release is the critically acclaimed encyclopedic Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 1 and Volume 2 (Black Coat Press, 2010).
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Reviews

[Anthony · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Farmer Resurgence (if it isn't being called that yet, it should be!) started in part with Farmerphile magazine and then this anthology series, all spearheaded by Michael Croteau. In this volume, as the description says, the focus is on the literary (and real-life) tricks that Farmer played throughout his career. There's a heavy focus on his "fictional author" period (in which he wrote as Kilgore Trout, Cordwainer Bird, and others; I'll admit I'm still not sure whether Tom Wode Bellman is a real person or not.) The essays about Farmer are appropriately worshipful of the man and his talents; Farmer's letters and speeches reprinted herein (including the one in which he outlined "Wild Weird Clime," his proposed 'expose' of the SF/F community of the time) show of just how playful he could be. Even the Farmer stories reprinted ("Osiris on Crutches," :"The Long Wet Dream of Rip Van Winkle" and "Up, Out, Over, Roger") are whimsical at the same time they have points to make. Of the four new stories that round out the book, I can say that each captures the sense and style of Farmer and does credit to his memory. Win Eckert takes on the seminal Wold-Newton meteor strike; Heidi Ruby Miller gives us a new adventure of Roger Two Hawks; Octavio Aragao & Carlos Orsi bring immortal John Gribardsun into the South America of the 1600s, and S.M. Stirling unveils an unknown chapter in the life of Kickaha of the World of Tiers. All of the stories play with the trickster nature inherent in Farmer and his work.

Slightly more detailed thoughts on each essay and story can be found at http://365shortstories.livejournal.co...