Three Powerful Science Fiction Classics

The Lovers

In this Hugo-winning novella, Farmer provides more complex characters than in much of his later work. The hero is a rebel, but not too much of one; he's caught up by the beliefs he was raised with, and has difficulty getting past them. In this, he doesn't always take the easy literary path; he doesn't invariably triumph against all odds, and not all of his choices are good. The villain of the piece has another side that we only glimpse, but know is there.

While the depth of characterization is a surprising precursor to the more simplistic templates Farmer later relied on, the seeds of that more facile approach are here as well. I never really found myself believing in the society he created, nor in the alien biology he posits. For one thing, there's no clear focus to the book; it feels very much like he's making it up as he goes along. Sometimes that works. Here it doesn't.

For all the story's flaws, there are the bones of interesting ideas, and I can see why it attracted attention. At the same time, the story feels unnecessarily stretched out, and the weak spots are hard to ignore. This should probably have stayed at short story length. Still, I wish he'd taken the complexity and interesting choices that are here, and written more like that, rather than what seems to have been a determined tack toward pulp.


Dark is the Sun

I've read a lot of Philip Jose Farmer in recent months. I've liked very little of it. In fact, I'd started to think that my enjoyment of the Riverworld series was an anomaly, and that, to put it bluntly, Farmer was simply not a very good writer.

Dark is the Sun doesn't entirely confound that view; it's not a work of any particular genius. But it is head and shoulders above the World of Tiers series, to pick one example. It's so different that it reads as if it had been written by an entirely different author. Had I picked it up blind, I'd have assumed it to be a lost Piers Anthony novel from the 1970s, or a collaboration with him during that period. It has the same mounting introduction of novelty after novelty, and the same relentless, if somewhat facile, logical application of concepts. The sexism is limited and of its time rather than well past it. In short, it's like reading a book by a whole different author.

That doesn't mean this is a good book, but it's not a bad one. It's got an interesting world, decent (if into entirely credible) characters, and a challenging quest. There's not a lot of surprise, but there's plenty to keep you going. Of the half dozen Farmer books I've read recently, this is the only one that had me looking forward (slightly) to the next reading session, rather than looking for any excuse to put it off.

I can't say this is the Riverworld Farmer I remember and liked, but it's a lot like the Tarot and Cluster Anthony that I remember and liked. If you're a fan of those series, you might like this as well.


Riders of the Purple Wage

I can only imagine what Farmer was intending when he wrote this. It appeared in Harlan Ellison's Dangerous Visions, and I envision Ellison asking Farmer for a story, Farmer agreeing, and then trying to be ‘dangerous' by emulating Hunter S. Thompson and Jack Kerouac. Or being on a lot of drugs. Or both.

I can't imagine what the Nebula (nominated) and Hugo (won) voters were thinking. I found this essentially unreadable. If you really try, you can get a general sense that it's about an artist trying to win a government grant. But there's no reason to try. I did, and I'd like to save you the effort. Don't read this.

Merged review:

The Lovers

In this Hugo-winning novella, Farmer provides more complex characters than in much of his later work. The hero is a rebel, but not too much of one; he's caught up by the beliefs he was raised with, and has difficulty getting past them. In this, he doesn't always take the easy literary path; he doesn't invariably triumph against all odds, and not all of his choices are good. The villain of the piece has another side that we only glimpse, but know is there.

While the depth of characterization is a surprising precursor to the more simplistic templates Farmer later relied on, the seeds of that more facile approach are here as well. I never really found myself believing in the society he created, nor in the alien biology he posits. For one thing, there's no clear focus to the book; it feels very much like he's making it up as he goes along. Sometimes that works. Here it doesn't.

For all the story's flaws, there are the bones of interesting ideas, and I can see why it attracted attention. At the same time, the story feels unnecessarily stretched out, and the weak spots are hard to ignore. This should probably have stayed at short story length. Still, I wish he'd taken the complexity and interesting choices that are here, and written more like that, rather than what seems to have been a determined tack toward pulp.


Dark is the Sun

I've read a lot of Philip Jose Farmer in recent months. I've liked very little of it. In fact, I'd started to think that my enjoyment of the Riverworld series was an anomaly, and that, to put it bluntly, Farmer was simply not a very good writer.

Dark is the Sun doesn't entirely confound that view; it's not a work of any particular genius. But it is head and shoulders above the World of Tiers series, to pick one example. It's so different that it reads as if it had been written by an entirely different author. Had I picked it up blind, I'd have assumed it to be a lost Piers Anthony novel from the 1970s, or a collaboration with him during that period. It has the same mounting introduction of novelty after novelty, and the same relentless, if somewhat facile, logical application of concepts. The sexism is limited and of its time rather than well past it. In short, it's like reading a book by a whole different author.

That doesn't mean this is a good book, but it's not a bad one. It's got an interesting world, decent (if into entirely credible) characters, and a challenging quest. There's not a lot of surprise, but there's plenty to keep you going. Of the half dozen Farmer books I've read recently, this is the only one that had me looking forward (slightly) to the next reading session, rather than looking for any excuse to put it off.

I can't say this is the Riverworld Farmer I remember and liked, but it's a lot like the Tarot and Cluster Anthony that I remember and liked. If you're a fan of those series, you might like this as well.


Riders of the Purple Wage

I can only imagine what Farmer was intending when he wrote this. It appeared in Harlan Ellison's Dangerous Visions, and I envision Ellison asking Farmer for a story, Farmer agreeing, and then trying to be ‘dangerous' by emulating Hunter S. Thompson and Jack Kerouac. Or being on a lot of drugs. Or both.

I can't imagine what the Nebula (nominated) and Hugo (won) voters were thinking. I found this essentially unreadable. If you really try, you can get a general sense that it's about an artist trying to win a government grant. But there's no reason to try. I did, and I'd like to save you the effort. Don't read this.