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Lord Tyger
Savage, heroic, and beautiful, Ras Tyger is master of the world. And he rules his kingdom with sex, savagery, and sublime innocence. Until one day, the insane reality of his existence begins to unfold.
289 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1970
15 people are currently reading
322 people want to read
About the author
Philip José Farmer
620 books882 followersPhilip 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
January 12, 2024
Well this always happens. I have a favorite writer so i collect everything they write and slowly start reading through it. Eventually the bad book comes up. As much as I have always loved Farmer's books this one was the bad one for me. Not recommended
November 14, 2018
Half the fun of this book is figuring out what is going on. Ras is raised in a unique way. Why? His world is bounded by cliff walls & he is unique within it. There are a couple of villages, but they think he is a ghost. His parents claim to be apes, but then they claim a lot of things that don't make much sense & he has only his senses & the odd education they give him to judge.
I read this with a group & had to laugh at the comments about his morals. It's pretty obvious that he's not a bad person, but his moral compass has been set by circumstances that are completely unlike our own. It's also Farmer's way of deflating the Tarzan myth & bringing it down to reality.
The first half of the book is all about his early life & then things change in his sheltered valley & the last quarter is nonstop action. Ras (lord) Tyger lives up to his name!
I read this with a group & had to laugh at the comments about his morals. It's pretty obvious that he's not a bad person, but his moral compass has been set by circumstances that are completely unlike our own. It's also Farmer's way of deflating the Tarzan myth & bringing it down to reality.
The first half of the book is all about his early life & then things change in his sheltered valley & the last quarter is nonstop action. Ras (lord) Tyger lives up to his name!
September 2, 2025
Philip Jose Farmer wrote a short story called The Jungle Rot Kid on the Nod that was published in the 200th issue of New Worlds magazine in April of 1970. It essentially asked the question, "What if William Burroughs, instead of Edgar Rice, wrote Tarzan?" It was the right length for such a speculation and was a pretty enjoyable story. (I also recommend Gene Wolfe's Tarzan of the Grapes.) Lord Tyger is pretty much the same thing, trying to update the societal concepts of Burroughs from 1910 to 1970 and adding lots and lots and lots of sex and violence and sexual violence. It's well written but is too long for the plot: it's more appropriate for John Norman than ERB fans.
May 23, 2017
Ras Tyger is a tarzan-like figure in Africa. He has a lot of sex with the people of a local tribe, who then turn on him. He also has the same questions Tarzan has about his upbringing. Essentially this book is writing Tarzan all over again with a focus on 70s new-wave "realism." Lots of transgressive sex, and a bit of meta-commentary.
Honestly, it sucks.
By making Tarzan realistic, you strip a lot of the fun and purpose of the character. As a commentary on Tarzan himself, it's incredibly weak, with most of it coming at the very end of the book, and the payout for most of it is that Tarzan would probably be more inclined to sleep with the natives (man or woman!) then fight them. The book doesn't really have any memorable villains, nor is the adventure aspect particularly good. Ras is unlikable because part of what makes Tarzan likable is innocence, and Ras is hardly innocent, and neither really feral.
It was a disappointing book, especially since so many authors praised in in the forwards. TBH it feels more like a Piers Anthony novel, except slightly better written.
Honestly, it sucks.
By making Tarzan realistic, you strip a lot of the fun and purpose of the character. As a commentary on Tarzan himself, it's incredibly weak, with most of it coming at the very end of the book, and the payout for most of it is that Tarzan would probably be more inclined to sleep with the natives (man or woman!) then fight them. The book doesn't really have any memorable villains, nor is the adventure aspect particularly good. Ras is unlikable because part of what makes Tarzan likable is innocence, and Ras is hardly innocent, and neither really feral.
It was a disappointing book, especially since so many authors praised in in the forwards. TBH it feels more like a Piers Anthony novel, except slightly better written.
August 15, 2020
An utterly superb jungle adventure novel that proved to be a perfect lockdown book. It is escapist and anti-escapist at the same time. Sort of like Tarzan meets The Truman Show.
The story concerns a very wealthy and insane white South African man who is obsessed with the Tarzan novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs. He decides to use his money to buy a secluded jungle valley where he can create a real Tarzan following the events in the first Tarzan book.
But the Tarzan books weren't very accurate or plausible and the boy chosen to be the real life Tarzan doesn’t follow the rules. For example he falls in love with a local black girl instead of the white 'Jane' who has been arranged for him. And eating raw meat makes him sick. Soon enough he discovers he is the guinea pig in an experiment and he decides to get revenge...
Farmer's best novel? I think it may well be.
The story concerns a very wealthy and insane white South African man who is obsessed with the Tarzan novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs. He decides to use his money to buy a secluded jungle valley where he can create a real Tarzan following the events in the first Tarzan book.
But the Tarzan books weren't very accurate or plausible and the boy chosen to be the real life Tarzan doesn’t follow the rules. For example he falls in love with a local black girl instead of the white 'Jane' who has been arranged for him. And eating raw meat makes him sick. Soon enough he discovers he is the guinea pig in an experiment and he decides to get revenge...
Farmer's best novel? I think it may well be.
August 27, 2012
So I get a call from Pulp Fiction Bookshop letting me know that Lord Tyger had arrived. "It's a gorgeous cover" I'm told.
I cannot argue with that assessment - full credit to Titan books for such great package. Not only do we get a reprint of Lord Tyger but we also get an introduction by Joe Landsdale - the guy chosen to finish Edgar Rice Burrough's unfinished Tarzan novel and a foreword by Paul Spiteri. These extras add so much to the book (This isn't limited to Lord Tyger I'll be discussing more Farmer reissues by Titan soon)
Lord Tyger was initially published in 1970. I last read it in about 1997 so this reread was almost like reading the book fresh.
Where do I start? Lord Tyger owes a debt to Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan. Farmer reinvents Tarzan for the 1970s would be a simple pithy description of the book but Lord Tyger is more than an attempt to update the Tarzan archetype, it's Farmer's rumination on the whole Tarzan saga.
The title character Ras Tyger (Ras is Arabic for Lord) is the product of a madman's experiment to recreate Tarzan. Farmer brings his trademark realism to the story. Ras is the third attempt at this experiment. The first subject died, the second became intellectually impaired because real gorillas don't have a language. We see just how many concessions have to made to make Tarzan work in the "real" world.
Ras Tyger is raised by dwarves and not apes and he has to be tutored in reading and writing but Ras Tyger is a modern Tarzan. He is able to undertake feats that his inspiration would have undertaken, indeed the story of this novel would have been an exciting adventure for Tarzan.
Farmer is never one shy away from sexuality and Ras Tyger is quite sexually active, (not as graphically as his spiritual brother Lord James Cloamby The Tree Lord in A Feast Unknown due to be released be Titan also) but Farmer doesn't do this to for the sake of titillation but to show just how different a man like Ras Tyger would be from the so-called "civilized" man.
As I said Ras Tyger is the product of an experiment, one where concessions to reality had to be made. After Farmer establishes the world that Lord Tyger lives in, Farmer changes the rules and has an outsider discover the hidden valley where Ras Tyger lives. Landsdale in his introduction mentions that Farmer makes us follow the story asking "what happens next?" I was asking that question the whole way through this book and when I finished I was still asking what happens next.
Lord Tyger is a great adventure that explores the reality of the feral man and recreates it for the 1970s. I would recommend this book.
I cannot argue with that assessment - full credit to Titan books for such great package. Not only do we get a reprint of Lord Tyger but we also get an introduction by Joe Landsdale - the guy chosen to finish Edgar Rice Burrough's unfinished Tarzan novel and a foreword by Paul Spiteri. These extras add so much to the book (This isn't limited to Lord Tyger I'll be discussing more Farmer reissues by Titan soon)
Lord Tyger was initially published in 1970. I last read it in about 1997 so this reread was almost like reading the book fresh.
Where do I start? Lord Tyger owes a debt to Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan. Farmer reinvents Tarzan for the 1970s would be a simple pithy description of the book but Lord Tyger is more than an attempt to update the Tarzan archetype, it's Farmer's rumination on the whole Tarzan saga.
The title character Ras Tyger (Ras is Arabic for Lord) is the product of a madman's experiment to recreate Tarzan. Farmer brings his trademark realism to the story. Ras is the third attempt at this experiment. The first subject died, the second became intellectually impaired because real gorillas don't have a language. We see just how many concessions have to made to make Tarzan work in the "real" world.
Ras Tyger is raised by dwarves and not apes and he has to be tutored in reading and writing but Ras Tyger is a modern Tarzan. He is able to undertake feats that his inspiration would have undertaken, indeed the story of this novel would have been an exciting adventure for Tarzan.
Farmer is never one shy away from sexuality and Ras Tyger is quite sexually active, (not as graphically as his spiritual brother Lord James Cloamby The Tree Lord in A Feast Unknown due to be released be Titan also) but Farmer doesn't do this to for the sake of titillation but to show just how different a man like Ras Tyger would be from the so-called "civilized" man.
As I said Ras Tyger is the product of an experiment, one where concessions to reality had to be made. After Farmer establishes the world that Lord Tyger lives in, Farmer changes the rules and has an outsider discover the hidden valley where Ras Tyger lives. Landsdale in his introduction mentions that Farmer makes us follow the story asking "what happens next?" I was asking that question the whole way through this book and when I finished I was still asking what happens next.
Lord Tyger is a great adventure that explores the reality of the feral man and recreates it for the 1970s. I would recommend this book.
October 23, 2014
Farmer is great. He made Tarzan real. Excellent. It's been far too long since I read this & having recently re-read Tarzan of the Apes & The Return of Tarzan Tarzan Series #2 , it's time to read Philip José Farmer's take on it again.
If you were crazy & could find a big, closed off valley to raise your own
Tarzan in, what would he be like? Well, here's your chance to find out.
If you were crazy & could find a big, closed off valley to raise your own
Tarzan in, what would he be like? Well, here's your chance to find out.
September 28, 2021
Philip Jose Farmer definitely has his fans, but I've never really bought into the whole Wold-Newton Universe. I feel like Farmer's work is mostly derivative, and that he's the Otis Adelbert Kline of his time, but YMMV.
This story is about a kid forced by The Nine to grow up under the same rules as Tarzan in an isolated jungle valley. He becomes a perfect specimen in most aspects, but lacks any sort of real nobility of spirit.
Some might call this work misogynistic, and it may very well trigger some wokesters, but it's a pretty fair example of an NC-17 Jungle Lord adventure.
This story is about a kid forced by The Nine to grow up under the same rules as Tarzan in an isolated jungle valley. He becomes a perfect specimen in most aspects, but lacks any sort of real nobility of spirit.
Some might call this work misogynistic, and it may very well trigger some wokesters, but it's a pretty fair example of an NC-17 Jungle Lord adventure.
April 2, 2013
I had read PJ Farmer's two fictional biographies of Tarzan and Doc Savage and enjoyed them immensely, but was severely disappointed by his much lauded Adventure Of The Peerless Peer. I wrote off Farmer as a brilliant fictional biographer but sort of a hack writer.
I heard something about the central concept of Lord Tyger on some board somewhere though, and found it compelling, so decided to give the man another try.
Lord Tyger is a brilliant deconstruction or perhaps revisionist take on Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan, portraying what an actual superman raised in the wild might be like.
The premise of Lord Tyger is that a ridiculously wealthy and Tarzan obsessed man (perhaps standing in for Farmer himself) secures a hidden Ethiopian valley and uses it to enact his own jungle lord fantasy, kidnapping the infant son of an English lord (or rather three infants, as each early experiment fails) and placing him in the care of a pair of circus dwarves who convince the child they are apes.
Raised in and warped by this extreme environment, Ras Tyger, the protagonist, matures with no knowledge of the outside world, and a only vague understanding that he is watched over by 'God' in the form of the millionaire's fleet of helicopters, which not only document his every deed, but also step in and protect him when the odds go against him.
His faceless benefactor attempts to steer him along the path of "The Master's" "Book," going so far as to reconstruct the treehouse described in the original Tarzan novel and placing in it human and gorilla infant skeletons.
But Ras is a man and the valley is real, and so things don't often go as the millionaire plans. Ras' sexuality (graphically and insistently portrayed -even in the cover illustration) causes him to experiment with animals and tribesmen and girls his age, despite his unseen "God's" gentle discouragement.
When a Finnish female anthropologist named Eeva crashlands in the valley and is hunted by "The Birds of God," the millionaire steps up Ras' Tarzan cycle, assassinating his beloved foster mother and blaming it on the local tribesmen, whom Ras (as in the Tarzan novel) then slaughters. But at this point both their worlds are coming to a swift end.
It's not perfect. Though we come into the novel knowing nothing about Ras' situation, and its slow reveal is for the most part well-handled, but there are some revelations that come a bit late and in kind of a lazy fashion. Ras has an idiot brother running around that we don't learn about till midway through the book, for instance, and the sudden infusion of such important backstory feels almost as if Farmer said "Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you this...." The sex is sometimes a bit much and overly misogynistic, particularly the lingering descriptions of pre-pubescant sexuality and an off the wall scene where Ras apparently incites a woman's passion by cramming a still-beating crocodile heart into her vagina (!).
I was impressed with some of the philosophical questions raised, and the scenes between Ras and Gilluk, the king of the valley's requisite lost race, were well crafted.
This is a fascinating novel, generally well executed, with a plethora of intriguing ideas on how a real, artificially crafted Tarzan might react to his world. Some beautiful descriptive passages too. A thinking man's adventure novel.
I heard something about the central concept of Lord Tyger on some board somewhere though, and found it compelling, so decided to give the man another try.
Lord Tyger is a brilliant deconstruction or perhaps revisionist take on Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan, portraying what an actual superman raised in the wild might be like.
The premise of Lord Tyger is that a ridiculously wealthy and Tarzan obsessed man (perhaps standing in for Farmer himself) secures a hidden Ethiopian valley and uses it to enact his own jungle lord fantasy, kidnapping the infant son of an English lord (or rather three infants, as each early experiment fails) and placing him in the care of a pair of circus dwarves who convince the child they are apes.
Raised in and warped by this extreme environment, Ras Tyger, the protagonist, matures with no knowledge of the outside world, and a only vague understanding that he is watched over by 'God' in the form of the millionaire's fleet of helicopters, which not only document his every deed, but also step in and protect him when the odds go against him.
His faceless benefactor attempts to steer him along the path of "The Master's" "Book," going so far as to reconstruct the treehouse described in the original Tarzan novel and placing in it human and gorilla infant skeletons.
But Ras is a man and the valley is real, and so things don't often go as the millionaire plans. Ras' sexuality (graphically and insistently portrayed -even in the cover illustration) causes him to experiment with animals and tribesmen and girls his age, despite his unseen "God's" gentle discouragement.
When a Finnish female anthropologist named Eeva crashlands in the valley and is hunted by "The Birds of God," the millionaire steps up Ras' Tarzan cycle, assassinating his beloved foster mother and blaming it on the local tribesmen, whom Ras (as in the Tarzan novel) then slaughters. But at this point both their worlds are coming to a swift end.
It's not perfect. Though we come into the novel knowing nothing about Ras' situation, and its slow reveal is for the most part well-handled, but there are some revelations that come a bit late and in kind of a lazy fashion. Ras has an idiot brother running around that we don't learn about till midway through the book, for instance, and the sudden infusion of such important backstory feels almost as if Farmer said "Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you this...." The sex is sometimes a bit much and overly misogynistic, particularly the lingering descriptions of pre-pubescant sexuality and an off the wall scene where Ras apparently incites a woman's passion by cramming a still-beating crocodile heart into her vagina (!).
I was impressed with some of the philosophical questions raised, and the scenes between Ras and Gilluk, the king of the valley's requisite lost race, were well crafted.
This is a fascinating novel, generally well executed, with a plethora of intriguing ideas on how a real, artificially crafted Tarzan might react to his world. Some beautiful descriptive passages too. A thinking man's adventure novel.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 14, 2018
Apparently the author has a fascination with Tarzan. This is a "what would happen if someone really fell into the situation that Tarzan did?" type of story. It is rude, crude, funny and lots of fun to read.
April 18, 2022
A highly entertaining read!
April 28, 2021
I found Lord Tyger by Philip Jose Farmer a very difficult and extremely frustrating book to review. It is so simply complex and yet so unnecessarily lewd, it irritates the senses. I can’t rate this book what it probably deserves. Let me explain.
Lord Tyger is the savage and sexualized re-telling of the Tarzan legend. I have not read any of the Edgar Rice Burroughs originals but Farmer apparently was a big fan. Ras Tyger is no Johnny Weismueller.
Ras is primitive and lives in a small jungle world with his parents who he believed were apes until they were not. He is raised in the company of animals, including clans of gorillas, monkeys and a lion. He mingles with the local Wantso tribe who think him a ghost because of his white complexion.
Secretly, Ras, as a child, learns ways to spend time with a few Wantso children, developing a strong bond with them. They play. They talk. They wrestle. And they become sexually involved. They all act as if there are no boundaries despite all of them being taught by their parents and cultures to have boundaries. We also learn during this time that there is beastiality involved. A lot of experimenting going on etc…
I don’t usually have a problem with this kind of thing BUT it’s children and it continues as they grow and mature. The boys, who have been intimate with Ras, start to become jealous of Ras’ supposedly superior manliness which his parents made him start covering up with a leopard loin cloth after he started expressing an interest in being intimate with his mother, who he later learns isn’t his mother.
Ras begins to sneak into the Wantso fortress and take advantage of the Wantso women. The men, including his former friends, want to kill him. He mocks them and their attempts. They are superstitious and far less adventurous than he is. Ras is apparently superior in many ways to the natives which was off-putting. And the Wantso women, so overwhelmed by his abilities and/or sexual prowess, don’t seem to mind being molested and taken advantage of by him because he is a ghost man.
This overt sexuality serves to break up relationships and create friction but it is still excessive. And that is the negative part.
The rest of the book is magical. The storytelling is amazing. The words and sentence structures are simple but powerful, containing tons of information, placing the reader squarely in the story. The reader just drifts along effortlessly on this current, living in each scene. So much happens and it happens quickly.
And for a book with such savagery and primitive themes, there is a lot that focuses on religion, customs and beliefs. Ras thinks he is the son of the bird god, Igziyabher. But much of his faith in this god are questioned as he watches the bird god, with angels inside its skin, battle another bird, lighting on fire and falling to earth. A golden-haired angel falls out as well. Sifting through the burnt remains he comes to learn that the god’s skin was metal. Eventually he must concede with his awakening, that what he believed were gods, angels and demons, are helicopters and planes.
The gods that have been monitoring him from the sky all this time, are limiting his contact with anything beyond the valley. And the education he could receive from his parents, who say that metal knives appear after lightning occurs, which they do but only to them, refuse to share what they know. They constantly refer to writings in a book they don’t seem to grasp or understand themselves.
When Ras’ parents are killed, Ras attacks the Wantso tribe, believing them responsible. And this is only half the book. There is so much more. In the process of seeking revenge, he kills his friends, meets the golden-haired angel, Eeva, and is captured by Gilluk, King of the Sharrikt, another tribe that worships a crocodile god – and feeds prisoners to the crocodile.
The end was not surprising. It was evident pretty early on that this was not a normal jungle story with lost explorers and unexplored terrain but I’ll not say more about that.
The writing and the story are first class and probably deserve 5 stars – but with all the unnecessary sexual tendencies of the molester in a loin cloth through the first half of the book, it gets 4 stars. Read at your own risk.
Lord Tyger is the savage and sexualized re-telling of the Tarzan legend. I have not read any of the Edgar Rice Burroughs originals but Farmer apparently was a big fan. Ras Tyger is no Johnny Weismueller.
Ras is primitive and lives in a small jungle world with his parents who he believed were apes until they were not. He is raised in the company of animals, including clans of gorillas, monkeys and a lion. He mingles with the local Wantso tribe who think him a ghost because of his white complexion.
Secretly, Ras, as a child, learns ways to spend time with a few Wantso children, developing a strong bond with them. They play. They talk. They wrestle. And they become sexually involved. They all act as if there are no boundaries despite all of them being taught by their parents and cultures to have boundaries. We also learn during this time that there is beastiality involved. A lot of experimenting going on etc…
I don’t usually have a problem with this kind of thing BUT it’s children and it continues as they grow and mature. The boys, who have been intimate with Ras, start to become jealous of Ras’ supposedly superior manliness which his parents made him start covering up with a leopard loin cloth after he started expressing an interest in being intimate with his mother, who he later learns isn’t his mother.
Ras begins to sneak into the Wantso fortress and take advantage of the Wantso women. The men, including his former friends, want to kill him. He mocks them and their attempts. They are superstitious and far less adventurous than he is. Ras is apparently superior in many ways to the natives which was off-putting. And the Wantso women, so overwhelmed by his abilities and/or sexual prowess, don’t seem to mind being molested and taken advantage of by him because he is a ghost man.
This overt sexuality serves to break up relationships and create friction but it is still excessive. And that is the negative part.
The rest of the book is magical. The storytelling is amazing. The words and sentence structures are simple but powerful, containing tons of information, placing the reader squarely in the story. The reader just drifts along effortlessly on this current, living in each scene. So much happens and it happens quickly.
And for a book with such savagery and primitive themes, there is a lot that focuses on religion, customs and beliefs. Ras thinks he is the son of the bird god, Igziyabher. But much of his faith in this god are questioned as he watches the bird god, with angels inside its skin, battle another bird, lighting on fire and falling to earth. A golden-haired angel falls out as well. Sifting through the burnt remains he comes to learn that the god’s skin was metal. Eventually he must concede with his awakening, that what he believed were gods, angels and demons, are helicopters and planes.
The gods that have been monitoring him from the sky all this time, are limiting his contact with anything beyond the valley. And the education he could receive from his parents, who say that metal knives appear after lightning occurs, which they do but only to them, refuse to share what they know. They constantly refer to writings in a book they don’t seem to grasp or understand themselves.
When Ras’ parents are killed, Ras attacks the Wantso tribe, believing them responsible. And this is only half the book. There is so much more. In the process of seeking revenge, he kills his friends, meets the golden-haired angel, Eeva, and is captured by Gilluk, King of the Sharrikt, another tribe that worships a crocodile god – and feeds prisoners to the crocodile.
The end was not surprising. It was evident pretty early on that this was not a normal jungle story with lost explorers and unexplored terrain but I’ll not say more about that.
The writing and the story are first class and probably deserve 5 stars – but with all the unnecessary sexual tendencies of the molester in a loin cloth through the first half of the book, it gets 4 stars. Read at your own risk.
April 4, 2025
My first time reading a book by science fiction and fantasy author Philip José Farmer and I found this to be a fascinating yet in a lot of ways challenging at times read!
I will warn anyone going into this book that Philip José Farmer's reputation of having wild sexual themes/moments in his books is warranted for sure in this! The first half in particular is rather intense and spicy so be forewarned!
The basic premise of this, a clearly loving yet honest meta deconstruction of Edgar Rice Burroughs Tarzan novels, in which a mad South African billionaire tycoon tries to make/raise a child to be a real Tarzan, is a real slam dunk of a concept that feels like the bridge between the adventurous pulp era of SF & the self-reflective new wave of science fiction in a lot of ways!
Ras Tyger, the titular "lord Tyger" of the novel is tarzan of the apes by way of the Frankenstein monster and is a brilliantly tragic protagonist that I really felt for throughout the story!
I will admit that parts of this book can drag a bit but I was very much satisfied by the time I got to the end of this book and think it might be a bit of a unheralded masterpiece of its time and type!
"Tarzan" meets the "Truman show" with a bit of "Zardoz" towards the end of it!
I will warn anyone going into this book that Philip José Farmer's reputation of having wild sexual themes/moments in his books is warranted for sure in this! The first half in particular is rather intense and spicy so be forewarned!
The basic premise of this, a clearly loving yet honest meta deconstruction of Edgar Rice Burroughs Tarzan novels, in which a mad South African billionaire tycoon tries to make/raise a child to be a real Tarzan, is a real slam dunk of a concept that feels like the bridge between the adventurous pulp era of SF & the self-reflective new wave of science fiction in a lot of ways!
Ras Tyger, the titular "lord Tyger" of the novel is tarzan of the apes by way of the Frankenstein monster and is a brilliantly tragic protagonist that I really felt for throughout the story!
I will admit that parts of this book can drag a bit but I was very much satisfied by the time I got to the end of this book and think it might be a bit of a unheralded masterpiece of its time and type!
"Tarzan" meets the "Truman show" with a bit of "Zardoz" towards the end of it!
May 24, 2020
The story is flat. The author wants to be original and transgressive but the story is horribly passed and Ras is at times really elemental but at others he´s a philosopher. I don´t buy it and to presume that men in their savage state are rapists is really sad to read. It´s the author take and I respect it but what I don´t get is how a crocodile´s heart into a woman´s vagina is relevant to the story. And said woman to love Ras after he raped her is beyond words. We don´t really get to know Eeva but it just seemed out of character.
Don´t waste your time with this.
Don´t waste your time with this.
June 4, 2016
This book scatters concepts like: Does the "Noble Savage" exist? How does nature vs. nurture stack up? Is the destruction of individuals justified in the quest for the perfect being? All this and lots of sex. Mr. Farmer is one of my very favorite authors from way back and I was delighted to find that I had never read this novel. Grand adventure in the old pulp style, with a fine helping of ethics, and the wicked humor that nearly always marks the novels of PJF. Read! Enjoy!
June 14, 2008
Typical high-concept fare from Philip Jose Farmer, spoilt rather by a very nasty sexual assault towards the end, which of course frees the grateful victim from her frigidity, in a very 1970s isn't-rape-kinky kind of way.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 5, 2011
It's rather amazing this book hasn't been made into a movie yet. In the meantime, if you recall the original Tarzan and don't mind representations of sexual excess, this will likely amuse you.
August 28, 2021
DNF.. and after several attempts to get into this award winning author..now giving up. As always a very intriguing concept. It is a mashup of the Truman show and Tarzan. A megalomaniac billionaire has become obsessed with the idea of recreating the fictional creation of Edgar Rice Burroughs.
Again, great opening idea and concept and some great descriptive world and atmosphere building..but his characters are just not likable and are stuck in a strictly patriarchal white male world view of the author.
The experiment first involves our off stage mad scientist buying up an isolated valley somewhere in the jungles of Africa, complete with two warring tribes of ‘ savages’ and gorillas to raise his experiment.
We quickly find out that our protagonist is the third try on this. The first one died ( children die easily in the jungle). The second one raised entirely by gorillas is unable to speak or read and comes out effectively autistic. Our protagonist, Ras Tyger, is raised instead by a group of captive/hired little people who just present themselves as “ apes” to the young would-be Tarzan. This part didn’t make a lot of sense..but I went with the flow. Evidently the “ raised by gorillas” “ King of the Apes” part of the experiment was a failure so they just went with folks with dwarfism??
The racism inherent in the original Tarzan ( black savages vs the Noble White Savage) is still very much here. Ras Tyger while still in touch with his animalistic feral condition is still presented as being much more thoughtful, creative, and empathetic than the black savages he reaches out to for companionship during his rebellious teen years.
Throughout Farmer’s work we get his take on sexuality that reeks of the male viewpoint of an older generation to what came to be called ‘ the sexual revolution’.
From one viewpoint, the sexual revolution was women freeing themselves from having their individual expressions of sexuality ,economic future, and humanity chained to pregnancy and a strict 1950s ideal of housewife.
BUT for a lot of males, this only meant ‘ free love’ and women allowed to be ‘ sluts’ and be available for men whenever men wanted them. All women now had lost all reasons for refusing sex on demand in the eyes of these folks..after all no fear of pregnancy. When women refuse sex, they are just being ‘ frigid prudes’ for artificial cultural reasons.
It is this secondary view of the sexual revolution that seems to permeate this book and others of Farmer’s. I can only speculate that a man born in 1918 had trouble seeing it any other way possibly?..and that is a thin excuse for his rape apologetics throughout the book. Ras Tyger’s empathy ends whenever his animalistic feral hormones take over..oh and all women are enthralled with his huge penis and secretly desire it.
While I was able to give him a pass for the opening of the Riverworld series ( after all that story is set in a world dominated by patriarchal societies and told through the eyes of a 19th century white male.) this one just reeked of too much sexism and racism.
The first rape scene seemed implausible and a bit weird but is presented as somehow consensual.
After the second graphic rape scene told through the eyes of our anti hero main character rapist I had to just put down the book in disgust. Maybe the author is just saying, all men are animals and need women in charge of a society with strict rules to shape them into likable human beings?. ( an almost equally offensive viewpoint but more understandable)
I wasn’t able to finish to see if that where he was going with this. From other reviews, this rape scene creepily frees the ‘ Jane’ from her frigid prudishness and lets her relax and fall in love with Farmer’s Tarzan? Just yuck.
Again, great opening idea and concept and some great descriptive world and atmosphere building..but his characters are just not likable and are stuck in a strictly patriarchal white male world view of the author.
The experiment first involves our off stage mad scientist buying up an isolated valley somewhere in the jungles of Africa, complete with two warring tribes of ‘ savages’ and gorillas to raise his experiment.
We quickly find out that our protagonist is the third try on this. The first one died ( children die easily in the jungle). The second one raised entirely by gorillas is unable to speak or read and comes out effectively autistic. Our protagonist, Ras Tyger, is raised instead by a group of captive/hired little people who just present themselves as “ apes” to the young would-be Tarzan. This part didn’t make a lot of sense..but I went with the flow. Evidently the “ raised by gorillas” “ King of the Apes” part of the experiment was a failure so they just went with folks with dwarfism??
The racism inherent in the original Tarzan ( black savages vs the Noble White Savage) is still very much here. Ras Tyger while still in touch with his animalistic feral condition is still presented as being much more thoughtful, creative, and empathetic than the black savages he reaches out to for companionship during his rebellious teen years.
Throughout Farmer’s work we get his take on sexuality that reeks of the male viewpoint of an older generation to what came to be called ‘ the sexual revolution’.
From one viewpoint, the sexual revolution was women freeing themselves from having their individual expressions of sexuality ,economic future, and humanity chained to pregnancy and a strict 1950s ideal of housewife.
BUT for a lot of males, this only meant ‘ free love’ and women allowed to be ‘ sluts’ and be available for men whenever men wanted them. All women now had lost all reasons for refusing sex on demand in the eyes of these folks..after all no fear of pregnancy. When women refuse sex, they are just being ‘ frigid prudes’ for artificial cultural reasons.
It is this secondary view of the sexual revolution that seems to permeate this book and others of Farmer’s. I can only speculate that a man born in 1918 had trouble seeing it any other way possibly?..and that is a thin excuse for his rape apologetics throughout the book. Ras Tyger’s empathy ends whenever his animalistic feral hormones take over..oh and all women are enthralled with his huge penis and secretly desire it.
While I was able to give him a pass for the opening of the Riverworld series ( after all that story is set in a world dominated by patriarchal societies and told through the eyes of a 19th century white male.) this one just reeked of too much sexism and racism.
The first rape scene seemed implausible and a bit weird but is presented as somehow consensual.
After the second graphic rape scene told through the eyes of our anti hero main character rapist I had to just put down the book in disgust. Maybe the author is just saying, all men are animals and need women in charge of a society with strict rules to shape them into likable human beings?. ( an almost equally offensive viewpoint but more understandable)
I wasn’t able to finish to see if that where he was going with this. From other reviews, this rape scene creepily frees the ‘ Jane’ from her frigid prudishness and lets her relax and fall in love with Farmer’s Tarzan? Just yuck.
November 11, 2023
Sometimes a writer holds back too much of the story that the reader feels frustrated. Such is the case with "Lord Tyger". This mystery is simply too mysterious and the lackluster prose did not help.
I'm partly to blame why I didn't like this novel. And that is because I came to it with expectations. I had just come from reading the first two Tarzan novels - which I enjoyed immensely - and I expected Farmer to give something just like it - albeit, with some raunchy sex, this being Farmer. The fact that my expectations were not fulfilled should not be blamed on the author.
That said I did not like this novel. I was unable to finish it.
Instead of an Adventure this novel is a Mystery. Instead of a Fantasy this novel is Science Fiction.
That would have been fine but the mystery is so, well, mysterious, that I spent the first few chapters in a state of bafflement and frustration - a very uncomfortable reading experience.
A third of the way through, a character was introduced - a blond woman. This character came in with some explanations that started to clear things up. Then she died and much was still unclear.
The mystery was good enough that it served as a hook to reading. That was the only thing that kept me going. I found Farmer's prose to be uninspired - short sentences strung together that effectively told the story but had no flow whatsoever; the prose came across as clunky and amateurish.
Eventually I had to admit that I was just forcing myself to finish a book I was no longer interested in so I dropped it.
Find books that you might love in my book review site
I'm partly to blame why I didn't like this novel. And that is because I came to it with expectations. I had just come from reading the first two Tarzan novels - which I enjoyed immensely - and I expected Farmer to give something just like it - albeit, with some raunchy sex, this being Farmer. The fact that my expectations were not fulfilled should not be blamed on the author.
That said I did not like this novel. I was unable to finish it.
Instead of an Adventure this novel is a Mystery. Instead of a Fantasy this novel is Science Fiction.
That would have been fine but the mystery is so, well, mysterious, that I spent the first few chapters in a state of bafflement and frustration - a very uncomfortable reading experience.
A third of the way through, a character was introduced - a blond woman. This character came in with some explanations that started to clear things up. Then she died and much was still unclear.
The mystery was good enough that it served as a hook to reading. That was the only thing that kept me going. I found Farmer's prose to be uninspired - short sentences strung together that effectively told the story but had no flow whatsoever; the prose came across as clunky and amateurish.
Eventually I had to admit that I was just forcing myself to finish a book I was no longer interested in so I dropped it.
Find books that you might love in my book review site
August 22, 2023
The Truman Show starring Tarzan, with realism inserts on the development of language and sexuality.
Half the book rolls quickly, grabbed by the wonderous look on the world through the eyes of Ras. The fluency is occasionally broken by Farmer's cranky explanations of complex machinery or scene setups.
Things precipitate in the second part, the idyllic jungle life ends while B-movie action takes over: gory massacres, get-the-girl, kill-the-villain.
The conclusion is unsatisfactory: in gaming terms, our hero completes the quest to be then thrust into the next one with stats reset to zero and almost no character continuity.
Half the book rolls quickly, grabbed by the wonderous look on the world through the eyes of Ras. The fluency is occasionally broken by Farmer's cranky explanations of complex machinery or scene setups.
Things precipitate in the second part, the idyllic jungle life ends while B-movie action takes over: gory massacres, get-the-girl, kill-the-villain.
The conclusion is unsatisfactory: in gaming terms, our hero completes the quest to be then thrust into the next one with stats reset to zero and almost no character continuity.
May 9, 2022
Science Fiction - Farmer updates the Tarzan myth with a LOT more sex and violence. Ras Tyger is the result of an insane South African trying to recreate Burrough's character. An entire tribe is wiped out, Ras "seduces" every woman around him and the basis of the story is quite shaky. It is written in the 1970's so I can almost forgive how chauvinistic the male characters are. I stress almost.
No Canadian or pharmacy references.
No Canadian or pharmacy references.
April 3, 2024
Tarzán en el mundo moderno sería la descripción reduccionista de esta novela, pero Farmer no se queda tan sólo en el pastiche sino que desarrolla un argumento que vale por mérito propio, dónde genera una aventura arrolladora que sorprende siempre, hiper sexuada, hiper violenta, tremendamente entretenida.
February 19, 2025
Read this one straight after reading ERB`s Tarzan of the Apes for the first time. This is different to that one. Tarzan is the noble savage. Lord/Ras Tyger is a evil ponce. Not all his fault-he is a Frankenstein monster. A terrible failed experiment to create a real life Tarzan. A cautionary tale and a sad/mad read.
December 5, 2019
Perhaps my expectations were too high. But this pulpy novel seemed to be a very unenergetic attempt of the authors to be realistic and literary. In the end, except for a few well written action sequences and a strange exploration of primitive sexuality, the novel really just fell flat.
August 12, 2021
Far more than a pastiche, this is Farmer's take on what happens if the real world creates a man devoid of any morals and guided only by the law of the jungle. Honestly, sequels should have made Tyger into a villain beyond law enforcement.
Find it. Buy it. Read it.
Find it. Buy it. Read it.
March 31, 2018
Very much a homage and absolute deconstruction of the Tarzan mythos and archetypes...what if the Tarzan stories actually were played out in real life?
December 26, 2018
Kuvitettu arvio Philip José Farmerin verrattomasta Lordi Tygeristä luettavissa blogissani: anttisorri.wordpress.com/2018/12/26/v...
March 20, 2019
Long-held and finally read somewhat irreverent take on Tarzan. The final chapters were masterful although hardly surprising. Admirably suitable writing style for this setting.
February 15, 2021
PJF at his most sci-fi pulp self.
December 4, 2023
Herregud, vad var det här för bok? En Tarzan skriven av Bukowski. Rasistisk porr, blandat med djungelaction och massmord och ett stänk av pedofili för att dryga ut soppan.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews