El dios de piedra despierta

by Philip José Farmer

¿Cómo será el mundo dentro de millones de años? Esto era lo último que se hubiera imaginado averiguar el científico piel roja Ulises Singing Bear cuando estaba trabajando en un proyecto secreto referente al éstasis atómico. Pero fue lo que descubrió cuando le falló el experimento. Pues, convertido en su propio conejo de Indias, fue él quien se despertó a la vida en un lejano, muy lejano futuro. Esto es lo que nos ofrece aquí la fabulosa imaginación de Philip Jose Farmer, creador de universos, explorador del pasado y del presente, en una nueva novela de las épocas por venir… una novela llena de acción y aventuras, de luchas con espadas, de la brujería, de lo desconocido, y de las ciencias olvidadas en el tiempo y las civilizaciones que florecieron y murieron durante los milenios que aún han de trascurrir.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Fiction, Classics, Novels, Time Travel, Science Fiction Fantasy

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

Philip José Farmer was an American author, principally known for his science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories. He was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, but spent much of his life in Peoria, Illinois.

Farmer is best known for his Riverworld series and the earlier World of Tiers series. He is noted for his use of sexual and religious themes in his work, his fascination for and reworking of the lore of legendary pulp heroes, and occasional tongue-in-cheek pseudonymous works written as if by fictional characters.

Reviews

[Paul Stevenson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm pretty sure he was not a 1950's scientist as I recall when he first awakens and makes his way through the smoke of the burning lodge he opens his switchblade which he says to himself was illegal to carry but if a person was going to defend himself in 1985 New York then he had to do some illegal things.

I read this book when I was still in grammar school, it was one of the first novels I ever completed as a child aside from the Tarzan series along with Stephen Gilberts 'Ratmans Notebook' and Jack Londons 'Before Adam' and I was completely thrilled. I had been into my older brothers Tarzan series until they became repetitive to me and this book was just what the doctor ordered. I never forgot it.

I reread it as an adult and couldn't believe how short it actually had been. Farmer, I came to learn, had intended it as part of a trilogy he never completed. I would highly recommend this book to young boys capable of young adult level material; the action is great and though the lead character does muse on the idea of mating, it is done tastefully (especially by todays examples)

I could never slag this book or Phil Farmer except to say it was just too darn short, it'll always be a favorite memory.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the first book by science fiction author Philip Jose Farmer that I read. It was published in 1970 and I probably read it in '72 or '73. I thought I would revisit this story-- and I found out I still enjoyed it--no surprise! It's the story of Native American Ulysses Singing Bear, who works on a top-secret government project dealing with atomic stasis. Something goes terribly haywire and Ulysses becomes "frozen" in time--only to awaken in what turns out to be millions of years in the future. He wakes up to discover that he is the last human left alive on Earth. And the human race has been replaced by a catlike people and a raccoonlike people, both groups worshiping the human as their "stone god." They also fight wars with each other and their awakened "god" has the chance to bring peace to the warring tribes. And also confront an even more terrible enemy.. A good adventure story which I felt was in the tradition of THE great adventure writer, Edgar Rice Burroughs. But ERB's hero Tarzan never faced a situation like PJF's hero has to face...

[Wol-vriey Wol-vriey · Rating 5 out of 5]

My fave sci-fi novel ever, bar none. It does what I expect sci-fi to do, i.e. be pure escapism.

Guy wakes up a hundred million years in the future and weirdness ensues, mainly 'cos he's the only human being left alive and everyone else on the planet now is evolved from animals :-)

Not the modern, run-of-the-mill 'humans versus humans with aliens as the backdrop' sci-fi.

Along with 'The Wind Whales of Ishmael' and 'Image of the Beast,' one of my top 3 Philip Jose Farmer novels.

Nuff said.

[Minifig · Rating 1 out of 5]

El protagonista, Ulises, despierta en medio de un templo ardiendo rodeado por una batalla campal entre seres humanoides de aspecto felino unos, y de mapache otros. Lo último que recuerda es que trabajaba en un centro de investigación en la costa este. Cuando sale del templo y los combatientes le ven, la lucha se detiene y es adorado por los éstos. Pronto sabremos que ha sido víctima de un experimento científico y que ha permanecido petrificado quizá millones de años, y adorado como estatua por los seres que ahora se postran ante él.

A partir de aquí Ulises emprende un viaje de exploración del nuevo mundo.

[+] Reseña completa en Alt+64 wiki: http://alt64.org/wiki/index.php?title...

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

In high school I was a sucker for any book that took place after some horrible catastrophe or if it featured a regular earth man sent to the future, another planet etc.

This book is a little of both.
Scientist has an expieriment go wrong and is basically turned to stone. By the time he 'thaws out', roughly a ga-zillion years have passed, most animals have evolved into people and man is a long extinct legendary creature.
He then has to deal with culture shock, inter-tribe politics and a ( I'm not making this up) tree that is threatening to take over the planet.

It reminds me of the kind of sci-fi stuff Edgar Rice Burroughs did. Just with that added twist that Farmer gives to the cliches/archetypes of pulp sci-fi and fantasy.

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice solid SiFi story from the 1970s. Even though it's your basic man-transported-through-time story Farmer puts his usual interesting spin on it. Quick but entertaining read. You can always count on Farmer giving you a nice story. Recommended

[Manuel Moro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Escrito de forma trepidante, sin una división en capítulos, el libro te atrapa y no te suelta hasta el final (este libro lo tiene??). Creo que esto es una de las virtudes de la novela. Por contra hay algunas partes en las que esa velocidad hace que se agolpen frases y cueste un poco saber si sigue hablando de la escena anterior o ha empezado una nueva.
Sobre el argumento, 90% aventuras y 10% cifi. 3'5 estrellas.

[MissKitty · Rating 1 out of 5]

I mean I cannot even !!! Just log me out for anything sci fi.
Except Dune.

[Kevin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dull expository style. Sexy cat people. I'm not terribly impressed with this, to the extent that I don't know if I'll give Farmer another try, ever. This coming from a guy who has read more novels by Alan Dean Foster than, well, Alan Dean Foster, probably.

Homer's Odyssey is clearly something of an inspiration, but Ulysses Running Bear of "The Stone God Awakens" lacks the clear motivation of Odysseus, and this undermines both the construction of his character and the very plot of the book. Come to think of it, the comparison is not one that is bound to favor the cheap paperback over the classic epic, so we won't continue to harp on the fact that Farmer isn't on the level of Homer.

There are cool ideas here, but these ideas are few and far between in a jumble of grab-bag fantasia. More the loss, perhaps there's even a good story here, buried in the slog of a half-hearted epic. The story of a man lost in the far future, witnessing the extinction of any memory of humankind and trying to find meaning in a strange world... this seems compelling, and there are a few passages that capitalize on this. Usually, however, Ulysses Singing Bear ignores his existentialistic angst and pursues a series of routine plot points.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really enjoyed the first half of this book. But by the second half of the book, it became clear where Farmer was heading. It seemed pretty obvious from the start that he was following the Riverworld formula. Main character wakes up from a "long sleep", only instead of being dead, he had his body frozen for millions of years and a lightening strike brought him back. Now the earth is an unrecognizable place. Humans are no longer the dominant species. Instead a lot of different animals have evolved into almost human shape. Now so far, the story is OK. But then our protagonist Ullysses Singing Bear has decided on military conquest, and the story is now a lot less interesting. And while I don't want to give away the ending, I will say that it does not really feel finished. Farmer could have left it open for a sequel, but I don't think that ever happened. For me, it's just as well.

[Greig Beck · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this story the first time in the 80s and again just recently. I still found it a tale that was magical and magnificent.

A 20th century scientist, Ulysses Singing Bear, is frozen into a indestructible statue for 20million years. When he is finally thawed he finds a world that is long changed and populated by the evolved descendants of today's animals. Worshipped as a god, will Ulysses find what happened to the human race, will he be able to use his knowledge of the 20th century to save his new friends, and will he find a home in a world that is so alien to him?

There's action and adventure, love (okay, unrequited attraction then), suspense, betrayal and resolution. I loved this book, and will stick it back on the shelf for when i read it the next time!

Greig

[Milton · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book but I've read better by Mr. Farmer. It was full of action as well as some thoughtful musing on time and the state of Earth millions of years in the future. I was annoyed by the fact that the book was not divided into chapters. Also, I never really felt an emotional connection with the main character, Ulysses.

[Charles Daney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Philip Jose Farmer is best known for his Riverworld series, which is a real tour de force of imagination. He's also noteworthy among science fiction writers for other breakthroughs, such as the incorporation of sexual themes in science fiction. But as the prolific author of almost 60 novels (many of which were pretty successful) and over 100 short stories and novellas, probability almost guarantees that his oeuvre will include a few clunkers. The Stone God Awakens may be one instance.

It does include one very imaginative feature: a single tree so gargantuan that large rivers flow along some of its horizontal branches. However, that feature isn't an essential element of the plot, which is pedestrian (literally, most of the time) and could just as well have been set in a dense but ordinary primeval jungle. There's some suspense in the plot, but not much surprise. The protagonist/hero is an accidental human time traveler - from Syracuse, New York in the 1980s to an indeterminate era in Earth's far future (perhaps millions of years). He finds that humans share the planet with a variety of other species that compare in intelligence with modern humans (definitely nothing to brag about) but have evolved from various other mammals, such as raccoons, tigers, hippos, and elephants. By the creatures he finds himself among he is revered as a god, and in their language he takes the name Ulysses Singing Bear.

The significance of "Singing Bear" is not clear, but "Ulysses" foreshadows the plot: an epic journey in which Ulysses seeks to reunite with others very much of his own kind that are rumored to live somewhere to "the South". Having the status of a god just awakened from a petrified state, he manages to raise a small army to accompany him. The technological level of his companions is a few millennia less advanced than what he left behind, but he manages to augment their clubs and stone axes with bows and arrows, and eventually gunpowder bombs, and finally dirigibles (presaging their appearance in The Dark Design, from the Riverworld series). Almost all his companions eventually perish in the seemingly endless series of battles with a variety of distinctly unfriendly species met along the way. That's about the extent of the plot.

So what's the takeaway from this Odyssey? Farmer puts it in Ulysses' thoughts at several points in the story:

Corruption and treachery seemed to be inherent with sentiency. Humans had not had a monopoly on these.

Concerning the novel's title, perhaps this enlightenment is what "awakens" means.

Samuel Clemens seems to have had similar views, so it's not so surprising that he appeared as protagonist in the Riverworld books - which also portray an odyssey on a much larger scale.

Here's an example from (the real) Samuel Clemens:

The man who is a pessimist before forty-eight knows too much; if he is an optimist after it, he knows too little.

On a slightly different note, Ulysses muses:

It was the essence of life to disbelieve in death for one's self, to act as if life would continue forever. And life had to act also as if little issues were big ones. To take a realistic attitude toward life and death meant that one lapsed into unreality. Into insanity. It was ironic that the only way to keep one's sanity was to ignore that one was in an insane world or to act as if the world were sane.

This could be generalized (my opinion). It's quite possible that advanced civilizations - even ones far more advanced than Earth's pathetic example - are like individual living creatures. They imagine that they could persist indefinitely - but they never do. And if there are actually examples that still persist, it's merely too soon for a definitive conclusion.

[J. D. Román · Rating 4 out of 5]

Se trata sobre Ulises Singing Bear, un hombre de 1985 que después de un accidente en su trabajo despierta en el futuro, donde casi no hay humanos y existen varias comunidades como los wufeas, unos seres con apariencia de gatos antropomórficos que acogen a Ulises amablemente. Una vez que aprende el idioma de los wufeas, Ulises descubre la razón de este cariño de los wufeas hacia él: resulta que lleva petrificado millones de años y que hace cientos de años los wufeas hallaron su cuerpo y lo pusieron en un trono. A partir de entonces, varias generaciones de wufeas han vivido alabándolo como a un dios, lo llama Wurutana el dios de piedra e incluso tenían una profecía sobre el día en que Wurutana despertaría, cosa que ocurrió cuando un rayo alcanzó al templo donde se encontraba el cuerpo de Ulises. A partir de ahí, Ulises empieza a utilizar su autoridad divina para servir como líder de los wufeas y formar alianzas con las comunidades rivales.

Es una novela costumbrista por varios momentos, en donde se narra la vida diaria de los wufeas y cómo Ulises cumple su papel de dios. No es hasta la mitad que la trama se intensifica con varias batallas entre Ulises con otras comunidades.

Sin duda pienso que Philip José Farmer y Guillermo del Toro hubieran sido amix si se hubieran conocido, porque otro detalle por aclamar de esta novela es la variedad de bestias. Si bien hay animales normales como cabras y antílopes, Farmer saca a relucir su amor por las bestias de todas formas y tamaños: hay gusanos de varias formas, decenas de especies de peces, etc.

También hay que recalcar que la novela logra desarrollar las diferentes culturas que persisten y sus diferencias, como los wufeas que son más tradicionales y se destacan por sus creencias religiosas, o los nashgais, que son lo más parecido que existen al ser humano y se destacan por su avance tecnológico.

Pero el mejor personaje sin duda es Ulises Singing Bear. Ulises no es solo el medio por el cual conocemos este futuro sino que se toma su tiempo para superar lo que le ha pasado: ya no está con su familia, ha despertado millones de años en el futuro y todo el mundo lo trata como un dios. Pero lo que es admirable en él es que Ulises aprovecha la confusión de los wufeas de que él sea un dios para beneficio de ellos, sirviendo más como un líder que como una divinidad. Nunca intenta hacer milagros o controlar el clima, sino que se asegura de solucionar las problemáticas de la comunidad, como lo haría un buen político. De hecho él aprende los idiomas de los wufeas y de otras comunidades para acercarse a todos y consolidar alianzas de paz.

Constantemente se dan pistas de que quizá Ulises se está enamorando de Awina, una wufea que desde el inicio de la novela asume el cargo de ser su secretaria personal, además de que es ella quien le enseña el idioma wufea. Y también hay pistas de que Awina siente lo mismo por Ulises, como en una escena de celos que se forma cuando Ulises conoce a dos mujeres nashgais, osea mujeres que sí son humanas. Aun así nunca queda esclarecido del todo esos sentimientos románticos, cosa que me parece bien ya que como amigos tienen muy buena química.

En general, es una novela que recomiendo si buscan algo parecido a un isekai pero en vez de quedarte atrapado en un mundo mágico estás atrapado en un planeta Tierra del futuro donde los furros son reales. Es una novela con una narración fluida que se toma el tiempo de desarrollar varias comunidades con tradiciones y faunas distintas, para luego ofrecer batallas bien elaboradas.

[Phil Giunta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Encased in stone for millions of years as a result of a failed experiment, atomic scientist Ulysses Singing Bear is liberated from his imprisonment by a bolt of lightning during a battle between two races of bipedal creatures. One group appears to have evolved from cats while the other, raccoons. Ulysses soon learns that humans have long since become extinct and the earth populated by sentient beings evolved from familiar animals of the late 20th century.

As Ulysses acclimates to his new environment, the Wufea come to worship him as a god and ask for his help in defeating the Great Devourer known as Wurutana. To uphold his status as a deity, Ulysses has little choice but to agree and, along with an army of Wufea warriors, treks across the wilderness to do battle with what he understands to be an enormous tree that is spreading across the land. Along the way, he manages to form a truce between the Wufea and their enemy, the Wagarondit. He even recruits Wagarondit warriors to join the offensive.

All the while, they are guided by Ghlikh, a pygmy creature with batwings who offers Ulysses information about the land and peoples ahead of them, including a village of humans who live along the southern coast. In order to reach them, however, Ulysses and his armies must cross Wurutana. Yet, Ulysses senses that Ghlikh is withholding information and possibly leading them into a trap.

Will Ulysses and his troops survive their passage through Wurutana and their encounters with the treacherous denizens within its vast network of tangled branches, vines, trunks, and waterways?

At its core, The Stone God Awakens is a fish out of water adventure much like Farmer’s The Green Odyssey published 13 years earlier, or Jack Vance’s Planet of Adventure series, or even The Time Machine by H.G. Welles. In this case, Farmer adds a few imaginative twists including the evolution of various animal species, an uncommon antagonist, and the development of plant-based science and engineering. The fact that an atomic scientist displays such exceptional prowess in survival, military tactics, and political leadership is, at times, a stretch. Still, The Stone God Awakens is another outstanding tale from one of the giants of the genre.

[Jose Vidal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un aventurero contemporáneo fuera de su tiempo, pero extrañamente capaz de sobrevivir, se encuentra en un extraño entorno fantástico, con extrañas especies y tecnología primitiva, y guía un grupo de personajes diversos en una gran odisea en que se enfrenta a extrañas sociedades y grandes batallas. Suena tan similar a otras novelas de Farmer (con conceptos que a mi entender utiliza de forma más conseguida en la posterior serie de Mundorío, en Two-hawks from Earth o en Las ballenas volantes de Ismael) que casi parece un prototipo para estas.

Entre los ejemplos más notorios del patrón está la introducción del arco por parte de nuestro protagonista en una sociedad que lo desconoce (como en los libros de Khokarsa), el papel de una raza alienígena superpoderosa como responsable del retorno a una especie de edad de piedra (como en Mundorío), incluso un detalle muy menor como que el protagonista comente su escasa necesidad de afeitarse (como Tarzán y otros héroes "tarzánidos", como los personajes en Mundorío...)

Lo mejor son las descripciones del extraño Árbol gigante y sus habitantes, así como las conseguidas y dinámicas escenas de combates, especialmente las complejas escenas aéreas del final. Pero la historia queda sin un final definitivo, como un capítulo de una saga no continuada, con un final anticlimático.

La insistencia en la tensión sexual no resuelta entre el protagonista y su acompañante/adoradora mujer-gato parece el único rasgo de personalidad propia que intenta dar a un protagonista demasiado genérico y resulta un poco timorato en comparación con otras obras del autor.

Entretenida, con interesantes ideas sobre especies y culturas pero en definitiva una obra menor mucho menos interesante que otras con las que comparte el mismo patrón.

[Lukerik · Rating 3 out of 5]

An entertaining adventure story. Very imaginative. Lots of changes of scene and character, both the characters themselves and the character of the story. Owes a lot to Aldiss’ Hothouse, but not too much. It’s not perfect. It feels rushed at times. I suspect Farmer was contracted to write a certain number of words and he needed to get the story to a certain point to give some sense of completion as well as set things up for a sequel that was never written. It could easily be twice the length, though at the expense of the pace which is breakneck.

The emphasis is very much on story story story, but what it’s about really (I think) is the abuse of power which Farmer explores in a number of ways; most prominently in the behaviour of the protagonist himself. The protagonist (who glories in the name of Ulysses Singing Bear is petrified by Frankensciece. When he’s depetrified millions of years of passed and he’s being worshipped by catpeople as a god. They think he must know what he’s about but of course he’s totally clueless. He cements his position as a god by setting himself up as a modern Promethius and uses the catpeople’s religious beliefs to manipulate them to his own selfish ends, resulting in a lot of them getting killed. It’s not the only time Farmer explored this idea of unpunished moral corruption at the heart of power. Ulysses reminded me of the character of Wolff from the World of Tiers.

[Antoni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Com a novel·la juvenil d'aventures funciona. Ara bé, com a novel·la de ciència-ficció per a un lector avesat... Això ja són figues d'un altre paner. El concepte més interessant del llibre és aquesta fosca i enorme deïtat anomenada Wurutana de la qual, a mesura que llegim, anem descobrint nous matisos. I fins aquí l'interès de la novel·la.

La part com Ulises, el protagonista, desperta del seu tron de pedra i el món en el qual desperta (ple a vessar d'éssers antropomòrfics de trets felins, canins, d'elefant o de rat penat) no deixa de ser més aviat pobre, i l'autor tampoc s'escarrassa gaire a profunditzar-hi. El conflicte de la novel·la és simple i se sosté per si sol, però molts dels elements personals d'Ulises, sobretot els que fan referència a les seves companyes femenines o a la seva família anterior, són anodins i sovint irrellevants. L'aparició de la bioenginyeria com a Deus ex machina tampoc m'acaba d'encaixar i no fa sinó disminuir l'interès d'una novel·la que té el moment culminant en el trajecte que fa a peu Ulises a través del misteriós Wurutana.

Caldrà buscar altres obres de Philip Jose Farmer per dilucidar si la fama d'imaginatiu i transgressor és realment certa, perquè si ens hem de basar tan sols en aquesta obra, ja us puc avançar que no ho és pas.

[Damian Herde · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sci-fi adventure from 1970. Has a vibe of ‘The Time Machine’ meets ‘Island of Doctor Moreau’ meets ‘Journey to the Centre of the Earth’ in this deep-time, post-human setting of sentient furries. A lab accident in 1985 freezes a physicist for 20 million years. He’s thought to be a god by the locals, and he abuses this to drag them along on his self-important quests.
It hasn’t aged well, with its casual, colonial racism and the passing comment of the protagonist about how he failed to impregnate slaves he was given to work for him!
So much unrealised potential.

[Rubén Lorenzo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aceptable novela ambientada en un futuro donde animales humanizados dominan la Tierra. El protagonista es un científico del pasado que va forjando alianzas y peleando con las diversas razas.

Me parece que se queda a medias, con algún momento de acción destacable y cierta dosis de imaginación, pero nada especialmente brillante.

Se puede leer si te gustan las aventuras sencillas en futuros improbables, aunque seguro que encuentras una lectura mejor.

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half of the book I would have rated 5 stars but it drags a bit and the ending really doesn't supply closure. Perhaps Farmer was going to add follow-on stories (or perhaps there are ones out there that I don't know of) but it felt like the story left me hanging.

[Michael Channing · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a futuristic take on the “Rip Van Winkle” story. The idea shows up often in science fiction and fantasy. Examples include Woody Allen’s Sleepers, Stephen King’s The Dead Zone, and Captain America’s survival from World War II to the modern world. Usually the sleeper dozes for twenty years or so as a way to comment, often satirically, on the foibles of current life. Leave it up to Farmer to install a brand-new knob on a well-used trope and crank that sucker up to eleven billion.

Ulysses Singing Bear, a scientist from the 20th century awakens in the way-too-distant future as the only remaining human on Earth. The beings around him all seem to have descended from cats. They walk on two legs (not on four), use tools, have tails, and speak a strange language. It's Impossible to wrap your head around the amount of time that must pass for an entire species to evolve into something completely new. Ulysses doesn’t wake up just to find a new president in office. All the cities have crumbled to literal dust, the earth itself has been reshaped by geologic events too vast in scale for any single civilization to document, and even the stars have realigned into alien constellations. He survived all that by accident. Experimenting with atomic stasis, he was petrified at a molecular level, then reanimated by a freak lightning strike. It’s all SF mumbo jumbo to separate him from humankind and drop him into a strange land to explore. Instead of traveling by rocket, he sits in a desk chair and the universe shifts around him. At one point, he ponders the possibility that while he was in stasis, the sun exploded according to its expected timeline, sending him careening through the void for eons till he landed on this other planet of super Jellicle cats. Like I said, when Farmer picks up a trope, he bends it out of shape.

After a brief episode of action, Ulysses settles among the cat people to learn their ways and language. The cats, having reached the human equivalent of the stone age, have been worshiping the petrified protagonist as a god for generations. He quickly accepts the role of godhead and leads his chosen people to war against other cat tribes, putting his knowledge of past-future technology to use creating bombs and rockets out of bamboo and other ingredients commonly found around the hut. The cat tribes unite, and Ulysses learns there are other dominant species on the Earth, some that look like boars, others with bat wings, and some that look like him. He asks for directions and help in reaching the far-away land where the humans still dwell, and the cat people ask him to defeat the Tree.

The long section involving the Tree is the best part of the book and one of Farmer’s finest creations. It’s a tree hundreds of miles wide, reaching above the clouds. It contains whole ecosystems in its branches. The water it draws from the ground flows in literal rivers from the trunk along limbs the size of freeways. Ulysses and his crew build boats from the tree and navigate these waterways, catching fish to eat along the way, then leave the rivers just before they cascade to the ground in the form of enormous waterfalls. As the cats and their god journey to and then away from the massive trunk, they battle other species, are taken captive (in a brutal and disturbing scene I cannot shake from my head), and learn the Tree is far more than just an overgrown plant.

When they finally find the lost tribe of humans, things get more complicated, and Farmer leans on a theme he uses extensively in his Riverworld books: technology out of place in an agrarian society. To say more would be to spoil too much.

The final third isn’t as good to me as the first two, but it does ramp up the action. Farmer delivers a better ending than some of his other books, while leaving lots of room for a sequel he never got around to writing. It’s a wild ride with plenty of danger and titillation, no actual sex but boy does the tension build between Ulysses and his special lady cat friend.

The book certainly has faults. Ulysses uses torture abundantly in dealing with his enemies, making it hard to root for the guy at times. Sure he’s a nuclear scientist, but why would he know how to create gunpowder or the other constructs he puts to use in his battle with the Tree? How, in addition to his knowledge of atomic structure, gunpowder, military science, and wilderness survival, is he such an absolute master of language that he can fluently speak elephant in less than a week? He’s just too good at everything he attempts, and that threatens to undercut the book’s suspense.

But, man, that Tree. It’s a place I wish I could visit, if there wasn’t the constant fear of being captured and cannibalized. And we actually do get some kind of explanation of what happened to the planet between Ulysses’ unfortunate stoning and the current occupation by human-like, once-domesticated animals. Its arrival is a bit of a stretch but I believe the reader is willing to let Farmer get away with it. It’s a wonderful reveal that doesn’t suck all the mystery out of the story, as Farmer is wont to do. (See The Magic Labyrinth for an example.) Maybe it's good there was never a sequel.

[Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read back in the 70s

[Lars Dradrach · Rating 2 out of 5]

Barely 3 stars.

Interesting but clearly aged and as usual with Farmer a little 2 dimensional.

[Nylar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love it

[Steef · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not very well written, but very imaginative.

[aquila · Rating 3 out of 5]

this guy has fun ideas

[Justin Couchot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Felt like John Carter meets Tarzan.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked how this one started out. A scientist in the 1950s is rendered frozen at the molecular level, and is reanimated millennia later by a freak accident to a strange world populated by sentient, anthropomorphic animals, who take his awakening to be the fulfillment of prophecy. He accepts the mantle of godhood and sets about discovering this brave new world, hoping to find clues to the past while finding his place as the last human... or is he? To find the answers he must lead his tribe of feline worshippers to the heart of a rival god- a great tree spanning half a continent.

There are some really fantastic ideas presented here, if you can pardon a little bit of mostly benevolent '70s chauvinism. Farmer doesn't waste too much time explaining things or dwelling on the technology, and neither does the protagonist- he's a man of action and he keeps moving forward despite setbacks.

Unfortunately, the leaves you with a trite sort of "maybe we can all learn to live together" aphoristic nonsense ending that doesn't really resolve anything, which cost it that fourth star on my rating.

As an afterthought, although I like Farmer, I think Octavia Butler could have made something even more spectacular of this setting, by focusing more on the relationships, which are where the real heart of this tale should lie- like with the technology, Farmer just touches on the nature of the protagonists' relationship to his worshippers and then pushes forward with the action. Makes for a quick read, which is not a bad thing, but a little more depth might not have been terrible.

So, a trifle disappointing in the end, but this was still a pretty rousing adventure.

***

Edited to say that the book description for this is pretty misleading- the "stoning" is not presented as technology at all- just a freak mishap. In fact the past of the protagonist is barely touched on at all, and the transition between the "present day" of the 1950s and the future he finds himself in is never completely explained.

I may utilize my librarian privileges to replace it with my own description from this review.

[Willow Redd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Question: What would you do if you were minding your business in 1985 Syracuse, working on a ray to freeze atoms, when something goes horribly wrong and the next thing you know, you're in the middle of a war zone between two primitive alien species? That's exactly the situation Ulysses Singing Bear finds himself in. Add to that, the stone-like petrification caused by the ray has left him as a statue for an untold number of years and the war he wakes up to is over him, the "Stone God" of the two warring tribes.

Of course, this is just the beginning of Singing Bear's problems. He's in a strange world, with strange people who think he's a god, and now there's a prophecy involving his coming battle with ANOTHER god. Good morning, indeed.

What I love about Farmer is that he creates such fascinating worlds. Here, a twentieth century man finds himself surrounded by sentient humanoids that appear to be descended from common cats, raccoons, elephants, and leopards of our day. They have their own language, and there has clearly been some sort of gap in the knowledge obtained by man during his time on the planet... if this IS Earth, which the newly revived Ulysses can't say for sure, though he does suspect as much. Also, from the moment Ulysses is awake, the events take off at a lightning pace. There is very little downtime either for our hero or for the reader because now that the "Stone God" is awake, so many things are set in motion. These events lead to a pretty action-packed climax that makes the book hard to put down.