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Image of the Beast #1
Image of the Beast
Private investigator Herald Childe watches a snuff movie of his partner being brutally murdered. The subsequent pursuit of his killers takes him through the LA smog and into a waking nightmare of sexual brutality and supernatural bestiality.
100 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1968
15 people are currently reading
687 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 61 reviews
March 28, 2023
Childe is a private dick. In a snuff movie at the police headquarters he can see how his partner Colben died. Who is the mysterious woman with the metallic teeth? His investigations lead him to a Dracula like baron and some very strange creatures. Are they human based or aliens? The author does a great job in blending all kind of horror motifs with a good shot of scifi. Love his references to other horror authors and works. The woman with the "special" vagina is absolutely haunting too and can easily cause nightmares. Be warned some explicit sexual scenes inside with all kinds of intercourse. Extreme horror before the genre extreme even was defined. An early extreme classic and really worth it. Recommended!
August 24, 2024
Completely mesmerising in its singleminded, over the top graphic sexuality. A weird weird book that’s successful because it completely refuses to compromise or be normal.
May 7, 2018
Ah so . . . to put it simply: some cases are better left uninvestigated.
A one-of-a-kind paranormal detective thriller, with all the sex, gore, and craziness you'll ever require.
A one-of-a-kind paranormal detective thriller, with all the sex, gore, and craziness you'll ever require.
March 29, 2020
Erótico-detectivesco-sobrenatural y sobre todo, raro.
El Sr Farmer me encandiló con su serie Mundo Río en mi juventud y con otras de sus obras (Relaciones extrañas, Dare, El hacedor de universos...) y como hacía siglos que no le leía y vi reseñado este por un amigo de GR pues le metí al "To read".
No voy a decir que fuese un error, pero no he acabado de disfrutar leyendo. Este mix de sexo explícito y seres sobrenaturales donde se ve metido un detective privado al investigar una desaparición no me ha enganchado a pesar de que original, vive Dios que ha sido para mí.
Sólo para nostálgicos del Sr Farmer, diría yo. O quien quiera leer algo raruno. (Conste que Farmer y las descripciones sexuales en sus novelas tienen una larga trayectoria, le va el rollo)
El Sr Farmer me encandiló con su serie Mundo Río en mi juventud y con otras de sus obras (Relaciones extrañas, Dare, El hacedor de universos...) y como hacía siglos que no le leía y vi reseñado este por un amigo de GR pues le metí al "To read".
No voy a decir que fuese un error, pero no he acabado de disfrutar leyendo. Este mix de sexo explícito y seres sobrenaturales donde se ve metido un detective privado al investigar una desaparición no me ha enganchado a pesar de que original, vive Dios que ha sido para mí.
Sólo para nostálgicos del Sr Farmer, diría yo. O quien quiera leer algo raruno. (Conste que Farmer y las descripciones sexuales en sus novelas tienen una larga trayectoria, le va el rollo)
May 25, 2018
This 100% Bullshit 100% disgusting 100% Pornographically & 1000000000000000000000000000000000000000% brilliant.!
It is a brown bag book like Lady Chatterley's lover in 1950s .This not what you expect from To Scatter your Bodies go & the sequal to This is called BLOW the title if get what sort of job it is sums it up.
This sex dective science fiction book that is so bad it's classic & wickedly funny.
It is a brown bag book like Lady Chatterley's lover in 1950s .This not what you expect from To Scatter your Bodies go & the sequal to This is called BLOW the title if get what sort of job it is sums it up.
This sex dective science fiction book that is so bad it's classic & wickedly funny.
April 1, 2012
An effective introduction to Farmer's work for the uninitiated in terms of his humour, subversiveness, experimentalism and his fondness of multi crossing genres. However it soon becomes apparent he had aimed Image of the Beast at a fairly narrow readership, originally for the publishers of pornography Essex House, so potentially interesting attempts at introducing transgressive themes and ideas degenerate into cynical and gratuitous smut. Suits me as I love explicit sex scenes and Farmer treats them with surprising (if uncalled for) realism, but other readers attracted by his reputation are likely to be unmoved, if not totally repelled by this brief stab at sci-fi sexploitation. However if you approach this from an appreciation for irreverent pastiches (in this case private dick pulp thrillers) and artifacts from the more frivolous areas of the counter-culture you may well be beguiled by Farmer's expansive and mischievous imagination.
February 5, 2020
Muchas cosas que decir de este libro, pero resumo: a mi me ha gustao xD.
Algo que no recordaba de Farmer es que le da más importancia a la descripción/contexto de la situación que a la construcción de personajes. Incluso hay veces que describe una conversación en vez de poner los diálogos. Asimilado esto, cuando comprendes que lo importante es la historia y que la caracterización de personajes va a ser muy superficial, te lo pasas pipa.
Puede que la nota real sean 3 estrellas en vez de 4, pero como soy fan del autor, pues 4.
Lo dicho, historia entretenida, rara de narices y con una segunda parte que ya he encargado (mientras me llega, me pondré con "Antes de que los cuelguen", que le tengo ganazas)
PD (casi que spoiler): Farmer es un poco cochinote xD. Hay porno.
Algo que no recordaba de Farmer es que le da más importancia a la descripción/contexto de la situación que a la construcción de personajes. Incluso hay veces que describe una conversación en vez de poner los diálogos. Asimilado esto, cuando comprendes que lo importante es la historia y que la caracterización de personajes va a ser muy superficial, te lo pasas pipa.
Puede que la nota real sean 3 estrellas en vez de 4, pero como soy fan del autor, pues 4.
Lo dicho, historia entretenida, rara de narices y con una segunda parte que ya he encargado (mientras me llega, me pondré con "Antes de que los cuelguen", que le tengo ganazas)
PD (casi que spoiler): Farmer es un poco cochinote xD. Hay porno.
May 3, 2023
What it lacks in horror it makes up for in very graphic sex scenes. There's more sexual shenanigans in this than Fifty shades of grey. So I can imagine anyway. Because I have not read that book. Honest.
April 30, 2025
After reading Inside Outside—arguably the worst science fiction novel I’ve ever encountered—I told myself I’d give Farmer one final chance. This is... better.
Farmer is surprisingly effective as a stylist of pornography, but my god, was he a terrible writer. Still, like Inside Outside, this falls into that curious category of a truly awful novel that is somehow amusing and memorably deranged.
I will never read Farmer again, and I am the better off for it.
Farmer is surprisingly effective as a stylist of pornography, but my god, was he a terrible writer. Still, like Inside Outside, this falls into that curious category of a truly awful novel that is somehow amusing and memorably deranged.
I will never read Farmer again, and I am the better off for it.
August 25, 2016
Shall we start with a warning for those of a tender mental disposition? This has substantial sections of pretty hard core pornography, much of it of a very Sadean quality. So that's that!
The crime that starts the tale is of exceptional nastiness and will have any male squirming in their chairs ... and the tantric covertings of alien creatures leave nothing to the imagination.
But it is also a rather curious quasi-satire, mostly well written, on the American imagination. Put the sex to one side (hard though that is to do) and it might be seen as an unusual literary experiment in pulp.
The book is divided into two broadly equal halves - two novellae - which mirror each other in multiple ways. As so often with Farmer, the cultural references come as thick and fast as his hero's 'jism'.
The second half is weaker with some of Farmer's failings too obvious - dull autistic accounts of sets of events that do not need such detail - but it does continue the ironic theme and should be persevered with.
What he is doing is pulling the pulp world of his literary peers into line as a science fiction story (though this is not clear until the second half) with a myth of sexual energy as space travel.
The first half plays with motifs from Chandleresque private eye literature (the 'private dick'), Lovecraftian horror and the cult of the monster as envisaged by Universal Studios.
In fact, Farmer has worked hard to make his universe, where vampires, werewolves, ghosts and warring aliens are real, as plausible as could be possible and does surprisingly well.
The second half weaves in a science fiction fantasy of the Golden Age ... as if Gersback and Campbell were no longer sexually neutered nerds but had allowed sexual transgression into their repertoire.
There is also a mirrored apocalyptic strand that speaks indirectly to the sociological SF of the period in which the book was written (1968) - polluted fog rules part one and floods and mud slides part 2.
Do we take this book of sexual violence and perversion seriously? Half so. It was written for cash for a porn publisher but Farmer was too intense not to try to give the work some high camp meaning.
Theodore Sturgeon rightly produced a quizzical short introduction and urges it not be dismissed for what it appears to be and perhaps he is right.
The work stands as an unusual contribution to SF (and to pornography) but it does raise an interesting issue - the ability of science fiction and the horror genre to avoid sexuality at every turn.
This is, of course, derivative of both the era (from the 1930s to 1950s) and of the audience, mostly young adolescents, but it is also a response to the Californian and maturing SF audience of the day.
Farmer is about 50 when he writes this - observing the new sexual freedom as someone probably too late to benefit from it yet open-minded enough to deal with it.
He had broken the taboo on sex in sex fiction in his mid-30s with the 'The Lovers' and influenced Heinlein. He was part of a maturing of the literary form that we now take for granted.
Farmer picks up on the sexual theme and then adds an interesting twist by linking sex and violence to the 'energetics' of the physics of space opera and horror, not entirely successfully but suggestively.
I suspect most readers would find this book too much to take - I can detach myself from literary horrors because I have a strong sense of the difference between reality and text but others may not.
It is a curiosity that stays in the library but the theme possibly still awaits someone who can pull the transgressionary powers identified here into a narrative that is more scientific.
All the 'greats' of science fiction and horror tend to evade overt sexuality because their transgressional and imaginative leaps are sexual evasions in any case. Their frisson lies in this quality.
Farmer tries to make sex explicit and opens a door in the middle of the Californian sexual revolution, offers suggestive thoughts and horrors but he fails to 'clinch the deal'.
The book is, in the end, yet another evasion, too arch, too high camp, too obvious.
December 19, 2019
3/10
I didn't like Piers Anthony because he was a weird, creepy, sex-obsessed, jack-off that used fiction to transparently live out boring and/or shock-based fantasies and then tell everyone how fucking genius he is.
This book is like a fancier version of that. (So I mentally bumped it from 2 to 3 stars) The fantasies are more interesting and creative, if not just as masturbatory, and the story is also actually interesting. There are some funky Sci-Fi that mix with traditional fantasy elements thrown in there which add a buffer layer from Farmer's jizz-soaked antics and make it somewhat more respectable. The ending is fucking weird, but I believe it counts as payoff. I enjoyed reading it, I guess, since I wasn't bored and I wasn't eye-rollingly creeped out by the sex stuff like I was while reading Piers Anthony. Still, after letting it sit for awhile I feel like it's weird to call it overall a success but I'm comfortable with the 3 star rating putting it at 2/5 since it seems a far cross between a 3 and a 4.
Idk, if you wanna read some weird shit, it's perfectly acceptable and likely to entertain.
I didn't like Piers Anthony because he was a weird, creepy, sex-obsessed, jack-off that used fiction to transparently live out boring and/or shock-based fantasies and then tell everyone how fucking genius he is.
This book is like a fancier version of that. (So I mentally bumped it from 2 to 3 stars) The fantasies are more interesting and creative, if not just as masturbatory, and the story is also actually interesting. There are some funky Sci-Fi that mix with traditional fantasy elements thrown in there which add a buffer layer from Farmer's jizz-soaked antics and make it somewhat more respectable. The ending is fucking weird, but I believe it counts as payoff. I enjoyed reading it, I guess, since I wasn't bored and I wasn't eye-rollingly creeped out by the sex stuff like I was while reading Piers Anthony. Still, after letting it sit for awhile I feel like it's weird to call it overall a success but I'm comfortable with the 3 star rating putting it at 2/5 since it seems a far cross between a 3 and a 4.
Idk, if you wanna read some weird shit, it's perfectly acceptable and likely to entertain.
April 14, 2022
This book is #6 in a series published by Bruna, in the Netherlands, between 1971 and 1976. There are 29 books in this series and I own all of them. I used to go shopping for food every Thursday, and on the way back home I stopped at the bookstore to buy myself a book. Those were the days...
The Dutch edition I read is not on Goodreads.
The Dutch edition I read is not on Goodreads.
April 5, 2014
‘Herald Childe has just seen a home movie in which his partner was brutally murdered, his life-fluids drained by a lady with razor-sharp dentures.
Childe is a private dick. He’s accustomed to sticking his nose into other people’s business, and it’s usually dirty. But he’s not prepared for the gut-churning horrors which await him as he wades through the L.A. smog following up a lead in the most disgusting case of his career.
He is plunged into a waking nightmare of sexual brutality and supernatural bestiality; he becomes entangled with a snake-woman; he is seduced by a filthy human sow; and he lays a ghost, only to realise that he’s the one getting laid – by a woman working off the frustrations of over a century in ectoplasmic exile.
But what can he do? he can hardly tell the police that he’s discovered a crowd of sex-mad vampires and werewolves from another universe…’
Blurb from the 1975 Quartet paperback edition
Private Detective Herald Childe is called to Police Headquarters who have received a film in the post showing Matthew Colben (Childe’s partner) tied to a table being seduced, tortured and finally castrated by the bite of what appears to be a vampire.
This rather odd novel is no doubt Farmer’s contribution to the New Wave movement which – sometimes achieving its effect through shock and the use of taboo subject matter – intended to revive and reinvent Science Fiction. Like the Punk movement in music of the Nineteen Seventies, it injected some much-needed adrenaline into the genre and extended the boundaries of what readers wanted and accepted as Science Fiction.
Herald follows a trail to the home of a man reputed to be a vampire and discovers a peculiar community of vampires and were-creatures, visitors from a parallel dimension.
The novel is littered with graphic scenes of pseudo-bestial sado-masochistic sex, which would be less of a problem if they were adding something to the plot. As it is, most of these scenes read like some vague and bizarre pornographic story.
There’s a plethora of weird names floating about. Hamlet Jeremiah is some kind of guru and provides an introduction to Woolston Heepish, a collector of arcane genre items. This in turn leads to the sinister house of Baron Igescu where the majority of the novel takes place.
The problem one has with the novel is that there is no real reason why the creatures Herald discovers should be so sexually obsessed. He is seduced by a snake-woman, a pig-woman and – for even less good reason – the resident ghost of Igescu’s mansion, Delores Del Osorgo. These bestial (and ectoplasmic) acts are described in interminable detail.
Other authors such as JG Ballard – who has written his own share of graphic sexual acts – and Brian Aldiss have at least set this theme within some sort of context.
Farmer does not even have the excuse of this being soft-porn masquerading as Science Fiction or even Horror, since the sex is neither soft, erotic or particularly horrific, and it’s puzzling as to whom the target audience of this book might have been.
Had the sexual elements been less blatant and less numerous, and the emphasis been on the style of the detective novel that this is attempting to emulate then this might have been a better work. It’s a book which cannot decide what it wants to be. There is interesting characterisation, and – as in many private eye stories – Herald has a problematic relationship with his ex-wife and strained relationships with everyone else. The setting is a Los Angeles shrouded in smog and a cast of eccentric grotesques. It seems like a sadly wasted opportunity to produce some interesting work.
Childe is a private dick. He’s accustomed to sticking his nose into other people’s business, and it’s usually dirty. But he’s not prepared for the gut-churning horrors which await him as he wades through the L.A. smog following up a lead in the most disgusting case of his career.
He is plunged into a waking nightmare of sexual brutality and supernatural bestiality; he becomes entangled with a snake-woman; he is seduced by a filthy human sow; and he lays a ghost, only to realise that he’s the one getting laid – by a woman working off the frustrations of over a century in ectoplasmic exile.
But what can he do? he can hardly tell the police that he’s discovered a crowd of sex-mad vampires and werewolves from another universe…’
Blurb from the 1975 Quartet paperback edition
Private Detective Herald Childe is called to Police Headquarters who have received a film in the post showing Matthew Colben (Childe’s partner) tied to a table being seduced, tortured and finally castrated by the bite of what appears to be a vampire.
This rather odd novel is no doubt Farmer’s contribution to the New Wave movement which – sometimes achieving its effect through shock and the use of taboo subject matter – intended to revive and reinvent Science Fiction. Like the Punk movement in music of the Nineteen Seventies, it injected some much-needed adrenaline into the genre and extended the boundaries of what readers wanted and accepted as Science Fiction.
Herald follows a trail to the home of a man reputed to be a vampire and discovers a peculiar community of vampires and were-creatures, visitors from a parallel dimension.
The novel is littered with graphic scenes of pseudo-bestial sado-masochistic sex, which would be less of a problem if they were adding something to the plot. As it is, most of these scenes read like some vague and bizarre pornographic story.
There’s a plethora of weird names floating about. Hamlet Jeremiah is some kind of guru and provides an introduction to Woolston Heepish, a collector of arcane genre items. This in turn leads to the sinister house of Baron Igescu where the majority of the novel takes place.
The problem one has with the novel is that there is no real reason why the creatures Herald discovers should be so sexually obsessed. He is seduced by a snake-woman, a pig-woman and – for even less good reason – the resident ghost of Igescu’s mansion, Delores Del Osorgo. These bestial (and ectoplasmic) acts are described in interminable detail.
Other authors such as JG Ballard – who has written his own share of graphic sexual acts – and Brian Aldiss have at least set this theme within some sort of context.
Farmer does not even have the excuse of this being soft-porn masquerading as Science Fiction or even Horror, since the sex is neither soft, erotic or particularly horrific, and it’s puzzling as to whom the target audience of this book might have been.
Had the sexual elements been less blatant and less numerous, and the emphasis been on the style of the detective novel that this is attempting to emulate then this might have been a better work. It’s a book which cannot decide what it wants to be. There is interesting characterisation, and – as in many private eye stories – Herald has a problematic relationship with his ex-wife and strained relationships with everyone else. The setting is a Los Angeles shrouded in smog and a cast of eccentric grotesques. It seems like a sadly wasted opportunity to produce some interesting work.
April 6, 2024
Turns out this is actually, technically, both the first and second book as the Kindle version, or possibly a later publishing, combined them. Little disappointing there isn't an actual sequel, but also understandable as there's precious few threads left unsevered.
This is without doubt one of the most weird, imaginative, bizarre, beautifully written, disgustingly pornographic, and fascinating books I have ever read. It has pages of the most gratuitous, explicitly detailed sex and violence, taken to absurdity and then beyond into outright horror and back into enthralling wonder at the mind behind such.
The plot doesn't twist, it fucking jack-knifes and causes a 6 car pile up in the road. Did I predict basically any elements of the ending by the time I was halfway through? Not a damn diddy. Well, maybe one minor instance. Childe is a fun, if a little underdeveloped, protagonist and lens into the world PJF unfolds for us, but the best character by far is the author himself - watching as he peels back the morbid well of creation and imagination of his mind.
Really a book that has to be experienced in full to comprehend the full scope of what it contains.
Also, I'll say again, there is some absolutely incredible prose amongst the filthy filthy smut and horrific body horrors.
This is without doubt one of the most weird, imaginative, bizarre, beautifully written, disgustingly pornographic, and fascinating books I have ever read. It has pages of the most gratuitous, explicitly detailed sex and violence, taken to absurdity and then beyond into outright horror and back into enthralling wonder at the mind behind such.
The plot doesn't twist, it fucking jack-knifes and causes a 6 car pile up in the road. Did I predict basically any elements of the ending by the time I was halfway through? Not a damn diddy. Well, maybe one minor instance. Childe is a fun, if a little underdeveloped, protagonist and lens into the world PJF unfolds for us, but the best character by far is the author himself - watching as he peels back the morbid well of creation and imagination of his mind.
Really a book that has to be experienced in full to comprehend the full scope of what it contains.
Also, I'll say again, there is some absolutely incredible prose amongst the filthy filthy smut and horrific body horrors.
April 7, 2014
I read this as a kid. If I remember correctly, Farmer cast his good friend, Forrest J. Ackerman, as the hero in a bunch of X-rated occult private dick fantasies (one of them being -- again, if I'm not just making this up [and I doubt I have the imagination to do so] -- a woman with a steel cobra emanating from her nethers who turn out to be Joan of Arc and Gille de Rais in some kind of kinky symbiosis); it's sort of amusing if you belonged to SF fandom, and knew that Forry Ackerman was basically the super-fan, super-collector and rah-rah supporter of all things science-fictiony. So basically "Image of the Beast" is a kind of affectionate inside joke, made for those teens and others with a juvenile bent who would come up with shocking imagery and transgression for its own sake: it has its place, but it's nothing "classic."
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 8, 2024
Bueno, realmente no hay mucho que decir.
La temática y la primicia es buena e interesante, y aquí vienen los peros...
Realmente no soy fan de que se usen tres páginas para describir una habitación o un sentimiento, tengo entendido que es algo característico del autor, pero no es mi gusto.
Siento que por lo mismo el desarrollo de los personajes es nulo ya que se engancha describiendo cosas.
La parte del sexo creo que fue bastante decente y bien escrito. La temática dentro de ese aspecto de cada personaje es bastante interesante.
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La temática y la primicia es buena e interesante, y aquí vienen los peros...
Realmente no soy fan de que se usen tres páginas para describir una habitación o un sentimiento, tengo entendido que es algo característico del autor, pero no es mi gusto.
Siento que por lo mismo el desarrollo de los personajes es nulo ya que se engancha describiendo cosas.
La parte del sexo creo que fue bastante decente y bien escrito. La temática dentro de ese aspecto de cada personaje es bastante interesante.
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November 18, 2008
Trashy sex aside, Farmer gets at some interesting ideas in this book, and offers intriguing twists on some standard sci-fi tropes. The sex scenes have a surprising amount of both humor and ickiness, giving even the porn a subversive quality. If you're going to go for something in the increasingly popular erotic fantasy genre, why not go all the way with Mr. Farmer? It'll be weirder, grosser, and more rewarding.
August 31, 2008
I'm torn about this book. Elements of it were pretty good, but for a book that was basically pornographic for the time (Late 1960s) it is amazingly non-erotic. My rating is actually between 2 and 3 stars. It's worth a read but very dated. I actually don't remember much in the way of details about it.
September 1, 2012
This was one of the most bizarre books I have ever read. I really like stories that grab you right from the beginning pages and force you to read on in abject horror combined with humor. Gave an amazing explanation for Werewolves and vampires. Could not put it down.
June 11, 2019
Pornografía, vampiros y crímenes, ¿qué puede salir mal con esta combinación? Muchas cosas podrían salir mal pero Philip J. Farmer se las rebusca para lograr una novela policial -de detectives privados recios y de buen corazón- con mucha acción bastante potable. Para simpatizantes del género.
May 31, 2019
”Image of the Beast” inleds med att Harold Childe, en korkad deckare ser en slags snuffilm av hur hans tidigare kollega sexmördas under märkliga rituella former. Genom att konsultera en skräcknörd med stor samling av bisarr litteratur leds Childe till ett mystiskt hus ute i skogen, där det ylar varulvar och stryker omkring sexgalna kvinnor som ägnar sig åt allmänna hemskheter.
 Min favoritpodcast Bad Books for Bad People nämnde den här romanen i förbifarten som ”Georges Batailles 'The Story of the Eye' meets Monster Mash” och jag satte direkt upp den på min att-läsa-lista. Dekadent symbolism med rymdmonster lät helt som något för mig. Med facit i hand: visst, bägge innehåller grova sexscener, visst bägge har symbolism inbakat, osynligt för den ovaksamme. Titeln måste ha någonslags biblisk koppling (?), och undertiteln vittnar om att det gömmer sig mera mening i den också, exorcism och ritualer (de betydelselagren från titlarna går mig totalt förbi i läsningen). Farmer plockar överlag stoff och referenser hejvilt från litteraturhistorien. Dante, Lord Byron, Matthew Lewis, Mary Shelley. Men en djup skillnad mellan Bataille och Farmer är att den tidigare kan skriva, behärskar tempo, tonfall och ordval. Farmer bara kör på. Det tar inte många sidor innan insikten kommer. För att njuta av ”Image of the Beast” så måste läsaren strunta i dramaturgi, vad som skrivs och vad som gestaltas, varför vissa delar snabbspolas. Det går inte att läsa och förvänta sig att handlingen ska hänga samman. En läsare får inte heller vara känslig för kvinnohat eller för platta karaktärer. Farmer har konstruerat en romanplot som egentligen inte är mycket mer än en slags promenad genom ett läskigt hus fullt av monster, sex och våld. Men klarar en att läsa den på det viset blir det riktigt kul!
Theodore Sturgeon (en av mina stora författarhjältar, vars ”As the next question”-symbol jag tatuerat på handen) har skrivit ett generöst efterord till den här boken, där han ifrågasätter vanan att sätta etiketter på romaner. Kan se poängen i att det skapar ett tolkningsföreträde och ringar in romaner som kanske inte helt kan eller bör ringas in. Etiketter får konstuplevelsen att stelna. Samtidigt behövs diskussionen, tycker jag. Men i förhållande till ”Image of the Beast” håller jag inte med Sturgeon. Inte ens när jag får förstå att kvinnan som döljer en orm med mansansikte inuti sitt kön (!) är en symbol för Jeanne d'Arc och Gilles de Rais (pallplats i ”galnaste litterära monstret någonsin”?), så blir inte ”Image of the Beast” mer än en noirdeckare, kryddad med kreativ Kronenburgsk kroppsskräck och framskrivet som vildsint våldsamt snusk. Jag älskar en annan poäng Sturgeon gör, som sätter ord på en av anledningarna till att jag tenderar att frossa i provokativ litteratur (självrannsakan och självutveckling):
”Calculated discomfort is a wellknown path for truth.”
På Wikipedia läser jag att romanen initialt gavs ut som pornografi! Det får mig att hajja till. Absolut, upphetsning är en djupt individuell upplevelse, men jag är förjävla skeptisk till att speciellt många blir verkligt kåta av den här romanen. Jag tror inte ens det är syftet. För mig är den skriven av en skrattande författare med glimten i ögat, med målet att få den avtrubbade snusk- och fantastikläsaren att fnissa. Vilket funkar fint för mig! Men det är för att jag kan se tjusningen i en sexdrog som tvingar hjälten att springa omkring med ett oböjligt stånd som ejakulerar i opassande situationer. Jag tycker att det är roligt med varulvsgriskvinnor som halkar omkull i kroppsvätskor. Romanens mest flippade idé är flådda människohudar som blir uppblåsta till ballonger (något som aldrig har ett syfte eller förklaring mellan pärmarna. Det är bara en bild som bränner fast i läsarens hjärna och stannar).
Så letar du porr, ta en annan bok. Letar du psykologiskt påverkande snusk, välj Bataille eller Mirbeau. Men vill du ha hypnotiskt vildsint snusk att fördriva en timme eller två genom rejäl verklighetsflykt i, då är ”Image of the Beast” kanske passande. Även om ”passande” är fel ord i sammanhanget. Farmers bok är långt över alla gränser. Moraliska, som stilistiska. Be warned. Be prepared. Be entertained.
Nu ska det bli skoj att höra litteraturproffsen i Bad Books mangla romanen.
 Min favoritpodcast Bad Books for Bad People nämnde den här romanen i förbifarten som ”Georges Batailles 'The Story of the Eye' meets Monster Mash” och jag satte direkt upp den på min att-läsa-lista. Dekadent symbolism med rymdmonster lät helt som något för mig. Med facit i hand: visst, bägge innehåller grova sexscener, visst bägge har symbolism inbakat, osynligt för den ovaksamme. Titeln måste ha någonslags biblisk koppling (?), och undertiteln vittnar om att det gömmer sig mera mening i den också, exorcism och ritualer (de betydelselagren från titlarna går mig totalt förbi i läsningen). Farmer plockar överlag stoff och referenser hejvilt från litteraturhistorien. Dante, Lord Byron, Matthew Lewis, Mary Shelley. Men en djup skillnad mellan Bataille och Farmer är att den tidigare kan skriva, behärskar tempo, tonfall och ordval. Farmer bara kör på. Det tar inte många sidor innan insikten kommer. För att njuta av ”Image of the Beast” så måste läsaren strunta i dramaturgi, vad som skrivs och vad som gestaltas, varför vissa delar snabbspolas. Det går inte att läsa och förvänta sig att handlingen ska hänga samman. En läsare får inte heller vara känslig för kvinnohat eller för platta karaktärer. Farmer har konstruerat en romanplot som egentligen inte är mycket mer än en slags promenad genom ett läskigt hus fullt av monster, sex och våld. Men klarar en att läsa den på det viset blir det riktigt kul!
Theodore Sturgeon (en av mina stora författarhjältar, vars ”As the next question”-symbol jag tatuerat på handen) har skrivit ett generöst efterord till den här boken, där han ifrågasätter vanan att sätta etiketter på romaner. Kan se poängen i att det skapar ett tolkningsföreträde och ringar in romaner som kanske inte helt kan eller bör ringas in. Etiketter får konstuplevelsen att stelna. Samtidigt behövs diskussionen, tycker jag. Men i förhållande till ”Image of the Beast” håller jag inte med Sturgeon. Inte ens när jag får förstå att kvinnan som döljer en orm med mansansikte inuti sitt kön (!) är en symbol för Jeanne d'Arc och Gilles de Rais (pallplats i ”galnaste litterära monstret någonsin”?), så blir inte ”Image of the Beast” mer än en noirdeckare, kryddad med kreativ Kronenburgsk kroppsskräck och framskrivet som vildsint våldsamt snusk. Jag älskar en annan poäng Sturgeon gör, som sätter ord på en av anledningarna till att jag tenderar att frossa i provokativ litteratur (självrannsakan och självutveckling):
”Calculated discomfort is a wellknown path for truth.”
På Wikipedia läser jag att romanen initialt gavs ut som pornografi! Det får mig att hajja till. Absolut, upphetsning är en djupt individuell upplevelse, men jag är förjävla skeptisk till att speciellt många blir verkligt kåta av den här romanen. Jag tror inte ens det är syftet. För mig är den skriven av en skrattande författare med glimten i ögat, med målet att få den avtrubbade snusk- och fantastikläsaren att fnissa. Vilket funkar fint för mig! Men det är för att jag kan se tjusningen i en sexdrog som tvingar hjälten att springa omkring med ett oböjligt stånd som ejakulerar i opassande situationer. Jag tycker att det är roligt med varulvsgriskvinnor som halkar omkull i kroppsvätskor. Romanens mest flippade idé är flådda människohudar som blir uppblåsta till ballonger (något som aldrig har ett syfte eller förklaring mellan pärmarna. Det är bara en bild som bränner fast i läsarens hjärna och stannar).
Så letar du porr, ta en annan bok. Letar du psykologiskt påverkande snusk, välj Bataille eller Mirbeau. Men vill du ha hypnotiskt vildsint snusk att fördriva en timme eller två genom rejäl verklighetsflykt i, då är ”Image of the Beast” kanske passande. Även om ”passande” är fel ord i sammanhanget. Farmers bok är långt över alla gränser. Moraliska, som stilistiska. Be warned. Be prepared. Be entertained.
Nu ska det bli skoj att höra litteraturproffsen i Bad Books mangla romanen.
November 22, 2024
Often, in my search for gems among the paperbacks of the second-hand stories, I set one of my desired criteria as 'Something a little tarty and weird'.
Yet, I come away disappointed again and again. 'Tarty' and 'weird' usually just becomes misogyny in the hands of old authors, with much description of 'little frail princesses with tiny, child-like hands'. Sometimes weird kinkeries abound, but sex itself seems lacking (Take the 'rings of the masters' series, of which I have read two, and had much to say). A third, and equally unpleasant option, is when rape rears its head as the boogeyman haunting the pages of any fantasy novel claiming itself to be 'serious' literature.
With so many of these poor experiences, I begin to wonder if I really, actually DO want a book with weird, tarty things going on? If I'm disgusted and turned off again and again, is this what I should actually be seeking?
It turns out the answer is yes, because I really enjoyed Image of the Beast.
There's something about Philip Jose Farmer's voice that I loved. He describes everything in such disgusting, matter-of-fact terms. Pollution is ever-present. There is rape, and murder, and murder-rape, and lots of it. There are plenty of physically gross people. And yet, beneath it all, I can't help but feel there's a hint of LOVE in there somewhere. It isn't the smugly pretentious narrative of some Gaiman-esque author who's hoping to have a 'gotcha' moment with you, saying "Ha ha, you think love-making is supposed to be beautiful? Well let me tell you how disappointing and gross it really is!" Instead, Farmer lays it all out on the table in a very human way, saying "We're all of us dumpy and weird with our clothes off, but heck if that isn't just fine!"
The one weakness, I think, is that the main character himself is a touch lacking in personality. I couldn't really describe him beyond to say he's your bog-standard detective. But I think this is the case only because everything ELSE has so much personality that it overwhelms him, from the city to every character he meets. The pacing of the story is plodding, but in a fascinating, peep-show like way, where you become fascinated with the human minutia going on around the detective as he undertakes his case.
I won't say what happens, or even hint at anything specific, because I went in blind and I think that's the way to do it; but I will say, be careful if you're squeamish, because there's plenty of nasty shit (literally) to make you uncomfortable. But if you're a weird, sick freak like me who enjoys not just strange messed-up stuff but also more than a cup-full of campy flavor, you may just like this.
Yet, I come away disappointed again and again. 'Tarty' and 'weird' usually just becomes misogyny in the hands of old authors, with much description of 'little frail princesses with tiny, child-like hands'. Sometimes weird kinkeries abound, but sex itself seems lacking (Take the 'rings of the masters' series, of which I have read two, and had much to say). A third, and equally unpleasant option, is when rape rears its head as the boogeyman haunting the pages of any fantasy novel claiming itself to be 'serious' literature.
With so many of these poor experiences, I begin to wonder if I really, actually DO want a book with weird, tarty things going on? If I'm disgusted and turned off again and again, is this what I should actually be seeking?
It turns out the answer is yes, because I really enjoyed Image of the Beast.
There's something about Philip Jose Farmer's voice that I loved. He describes everything in such disgusting, matter-of-fact terms. Pollution is ever-present. There is rape, and murder, and murder-rape, and lots of it. There are plenty of physically gross people. And yet, beneath it all, I can't help but feel there's a hint of LOVE in there somewhere. It isn't the smugly pretentious narrative of some Gaiman-esque author who's hoping to have a 'gotcha' moment with you, saying "Ha ha, you think love-making is supposed to be beautiful? Well let me tell you how disappointing and gross it really is!" Instead, Farmer lays it all out on the table in a very human way, saying "We're all of us dumpy and weird with our clothes off, but heck if that isn't just fine!"
The one weakness, I think, is that the main character himself is a touch lacking in personality. I couldn't really describe him beyond to say he's your bog-standard detective. But I think this is the case only because everything ELSE has so much personality that it overwhelms him, from the city to every character he meets. The pacing of the story is plodding, but in a fascinating, peep-show like way, where you become fascinated with the human minutia going on around the detective as he undertakes his case.
I won't say what happens, or even hint at anything specific, because I went in blind and I think that's the way to do it; but I will say, be careful if you're squeamish, because there's plenty of nasty shit (literally) to make you uncomfortable. But if you're a weird, sick freak like me who enjoys not just strange messed-up stuff but also more than a cup-full of campy flavor, you may just like this.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 26, 2019
Hard to find until recently due to its explicit content, this one is only for die-hard Farmer fans. I ran across a free, plain-text eBook version online and read it in a few hours. (No edition was specified in the etext, but it appeared to be a 1981 reprint by Playboy Press which combined it with a sequel Blown. I passed on the sequel which promised more of the same.) For a book full of sex and violence, it's surprisingly dull. Unless your imagination is very limited, there's nothing extraordinary here. Content that was racy in 1968 is hackneyed and ho-hum fifty years on. Farmer halfheartedly tried to tie this mess together with some serious themes, but it never gels. One theme seems to be an ostensible relationship between sexual repression and political repression, ground being heavily mined in the late sixties by science fiction writers. Banishing repression isn't going to fix society if it's peopled entirely by self-centered hedonists, and our protagonist Childe acts as if he's not sure what good is, much less how to be good. He manages to get victimized and whine about it. Sybil, Childe's ex-wife, is one of a few potentially interesting characters, but her appearances are brief and mostly serve, ironically, to give Childe someone to condescend to. Childe's misanthropic attitude undermines Farmer's efforts to show how free from society-imposed stereotypes he is. Farmer was capable of very good writing. The Riverworld series proved that. Here he flailed around trying too hard or not trying at all. It varies from page to page. The result just showcases the banality of evil. Descriptions of evil actions, even supernatural ones, aren't very interesting by themselves. Devoid of sympathetic characters, this tale is intellectual posing with the depth of a T-shirt slogan.
March 3, 2021
Empezando por el Post-Scriptum -escrito por Theodore Sturgeon- en el cual el gran escritor de ciencia ficción clásica se refiere al "etiquetador" quien en la inherente letalidad destructiva de "etiquetaje" prescinde de la más básica de las características del universo: el devenir -es decir el flujo y el cambio.
Dialéctico Farmer, es el artista por excelencia del flujo entre etiquetas y categorías. Desde la ópera espacial, la ciencia ficción especulativa, hasta -en este libro- la novela negra detectivesca, a la vez obscurecida por la tenebrosa fantasía de seres sobrenaturales e iluminada por el divertido humor erótico de sus devenires pornográficos.
Lo que me lleva a preguntarme, ¿tan aburridos andan los billonarios gringos de origen europeo, que terminan organizando diversos cultos retorcidos en sus protegidas mansiones? Supongo que nuestro detective también en cierto momento se hizo la misma pregunta mientras huía con la pichula al palo, eyaculando continuamente al tratar de salvar su pellejo de los peligros de la mansión, en un suburbio del contaminado Los Angeles, en la que discurren sus sórdidos avatares.
Divertida historia.
Dialéctico Farmer, es el artista por excelencia del flujo entre etiquetas y categorías. Desde la ópera espacial, la ciencia ficción especulativa, hasta -en este libro- la novela negra detectivesca, a la vez obscurecida por la tenebrosa fantasía de seres sobrenaturales e iluminada por el divertido humor erótico de sus devenires pornográficos.
Lo que me lleva a preguntarme, ¿tan aburridos andan los billonarios gringos de origen europeo, que terminan organizando diversos cultos retorcidos en sus protegidas mansiones? Supongo que nuestro detective también en cierto momento se hizo la misma pregunta mientras huía con la pichula al palo, eyaculando continuamente al tratar de salvar su pellejo de los peligros de la mansión, en un suburbio del contaminado Los Angeles, en la que discurren sus sórdidos avatares.
Divertida historia.
May 9, 2021
This book was wild. The premise is maybe a little weak, but it's the execution the reader will stay for, especially if they have a taste for the bizarre. And that's pretty much the thing here. It gets weird. In a way that made me whoop out loud about 2/3 of the way through. And then it doesn't let up. This is erotic horror. And by erotic, the label-makers don't mean it'll get you hot. Here, the sexual is used as a catalyst to carry the shudders. It's enough to allow one to say "Oh man, I just read a crazy book where these crazy people did this crazy things, here let me read you a few paragraphs" but it's not enough to constitute a meaningful work. I am quite glad I read it, if only to experience a bit of Farmer's imagination but honestly, my copy is a combination of two books (Image of the Beast and Blown). I could tell when the first one ended and I stopped there. After that seemed to be more of the same and I had got the point. It was just sort of all over the place with all of the different types of monsters and crises in a setting traversed so haphazardly that it was difficult to get a sense of "place." But it was a fun read.
May 21, 2020
I enjoyed the hell out of this gonzo genre mashup featuring werewolves, vampires, aliens, the resurrected body of Joan of Arc, a riff on the holy grail, dueling sci-fi critics, serial killers, snuff porn, interdimensional travel, a vengeful Spanish ghost, a quasi-dystopia version of Los Angeles, and lots of bizarre sex and violence among other things. There really is no way for me to describe this book adequately, except to say that this book is a wild riff on about 100 different tropes, glued together with a series of fun genre set pieces and increasingly elaborate (and oftentimes hilarious) sex scenes.
This volume apparently combines two books into one--Image of the Beast and its sequel Blown.
This volume apparently combines two books into one--Image of the Beast and its sequel Blown.
September 10, 2025
Well. The copy I read included Blown, which is the conclusion of the story started in Image of the Beast.
Frankly, it's merely a pornographic fantasy book. The pornographic scenes, may have well been block copied from the first spot in the book to most of the other locations.
He tries (unconvincingly) to give some sort of pseudo science fiction pretext to the book, but it's frankly horse crap, and pure fantasy. The ending is strictly deus ex machina. . .
I'd say that it is strictly second or third rate as far as Farmer's books go.
You are certainly safe skipping it. In my opinion.
Frankly, it's merely a pornographic fantasy book. The pornographic scenes, may have well been block copied from the first spot in the book to most of the other locations.
He tries (unconvincingly) to give some sort of pseudo science fiction pretext to the book, but it's frankly horse crap, and pure fantasy. The ending is strictly deus ex machina. . .
I'd say that it is strictly second or third rate as far as Farmer's books go.
You are certainly safe skipping it. In my opinion.
February 3, 2023
Una mezcla entretenida de novela negra, terror y porno, explosiva y calenturienta, donde ese dinamismo entre guarrería y guarrería hace que se lea muy rápido, esperando que el sufrido protagonista no pierda la virginidad del ojo, y pueda escapar de tan desquiciada mansión.
No creo existan muchos libros del "género", y menos escritos en 1968. Son los albores del futuro hentai japonés, surgidos de la desbocada imaginación de Farmer. Una mente degeneradamente visionaria.
No creo existan muchos libros del "género", y menos escritos en 1968. Son los albores del futuro hentai japonés, surgidos de la desbocada imaginación de Farmer. Una mente degeneradamente visionaria.
July 5, 2024
If you take all the Raymond Chandler and mash it with everything James Ellroy and let it go completely off the rails, you get the most L.A. novel I've ever read. This book is a heavy influence on my writing.
did-not-finish
December 10, 2025couldnt get through this one and it might be because my digital copy had a really strange formatting error making every
sentence look like
this. and it was
really difficult to
read and not engaging
enough for me to
struggle through.
may find a better copy someday and pick it up again.
sentence look like
this. and it was
really difficult to
read and not engaging
enough for me to
struggle through.
may find a better copy someday and pick it up again.
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