Philip José Farmer was een Amerikaanse auteur, voornamelijk bekend van zijn sciencefiction- en fantasyromans en -verhalen. Zijn werk valt op door de exploratie van seksuele en religieuze thema's, en door zijn fascinatie voor en herinterpretatie van de mythen van legendarische pulphelden. Af en toe schreef hij ook geestige werken onder pseudoniemen, alsof ze door fictieve personages waren geschreven.
Dank zij een bijzondere overeenkomst met de copyright-holders van twee voortreffelijke Amerkaanse science-fiction-magazines: 'Amazing' en 'Fantastic' kon uit verscheidene jaargangen het beste van het beste geput worden voor deze Zwarte-Beertjes-selectie.
Dayworld's a Philip José Farmer trilogy set in a dystopian future in which people live only a day a week. The other days they're stoned, a suspended animation. It focuses on Jeff Caird, a daybreaker: someone who lives more than a day a week. As the series progresses, he seems to suffer Dissociative Identity Disorder. The three parts are Dayworld ('85), Dayworld Rebel ('87), Dayworld Breakup ('90). Caird's a citizen of Tuesday-World New Era 1330. The book starts on D5-W1 (Day-5, Week-1) in the 2nd Month of NE1330. (Each day of the week is the same day number, i.e. Sun-Sat will still be D5-W1). The book covers a week: Tuesday-World D5-W1 to Tuesday-World D6-W1. He's an 'organic' (police officer) by profession. Each day of the week organics have different outfits. Each day of the week has a different fashion trend, tv shows, news etc, most only knowing about each in their own day. He's also an immer, a group acting beneath governmental radar. Their goal's to subtly improve government. There are immers in almost every social sector in each day of the week. He's special in that he's a daybreaker as sanctioned by the immers, used to pass messages from day to day. As a daybreaker, he's mentally created a different identity for himself for each day of the week, different jobs, friends & wives included.
Contents: · The Night of Light · na F&SF Jun ’57 · A Few Miles · nv F&SF Oct ’60 · Prometheus · na F&SF Mar ’61 · Father · na F&SF Jul ’55 · Attitudes · nv F&SF Oct ’53
After 800 years of exploring the stars, Space Commander Stagg had returned to Earth. But Earth had become a new world. Where science and technology had reigned, now there were agriculture and tribal warfare. And mankind worshiped the Goddess and was content. Into this New Earth came Peter Stagg. They named him "Sunhero" and worshipped him acoordingly. The secret rites were performed, and Stagg found himself setting out on a cross-country, orgiastic jaunt, with foot-high antlers throbbing on his head and endowed with the virility of a nation. Yes, Space Commander Peter Stagg was the Sunhero, king of the Earth and all its willing women. But how long he would hold his throne, only the Goddess could say...
When Robert Wolff found a strange horn in an empty house, he held the key to a different universe. To blow that horn would open up a door through space-time and permit entry to a cosmos whose dimensions and laws were not those our starry galxy knows. For that other universe was a place of tiers, world upon world piled upon each other like the landings of a sky-piercing mountain. The one to blow that horn would ascend those steps, from creation to creation, until he would come face to face with the being whose brain-child it was. But what if that maker of universes was a madman? Or an imposter? Or a super-criminal hiding from the wrath of his own superiors? The Maker of Universes is unlike any science-fiction novel you have ever read, it is wonderfully unique.
Twentieth-century scientist Ulysses Singing Bear had no idea his experiments with atomic stasis would result in a twenty-million-year journey to a world peopled by the descendants of present-day mammals. It was the world of Awina, the cat-woman who impossibly loved Ulysses. It was the planet of the mammoth continent-spanning intelligence-The Tree, whose branches touched the heavens and whose roots clasped hell-who knew that Ulysses, the newly-awakened Stone God, could destroy his reign. To enable his species to survive, Ulysses had to find a human mate. To do so, and to fulfill the single condition set by his worshippers, he had to confront The Tree. It would have been an easy task for a god, but he was only a man-and the only man at that... Originally published as an ACE paperback in 1970, The Stone God Awakens has been reprinted numerous times throughout the '70s and into the '80s, but is still one of Philip José Farmer's lesser-known works. And that is a shame because, as Danny Adams (co-author with Philip José Farmer of The City Beyond Play and Dayworld: A Hole in Wednesday) spells out in his introduction, it is "a breathless mix of adventure, intellect, and myth."
His journey began with the blast of a shotgun aimed at a gleaming nimbus of light. The tightening of his finger on the trigger was almost accidental; his punishment was almost merciful. But his journey has just begun, and when it is over Paul Eyre will no longer be human.
