Most Popular Books by Philip Jose Farmer

Philip José Farmer applies his unique brand of sci-fi to create a thrilling post-apocalyptic America! Space Commander Stagg explored the galaxies for 800 years. Upon his return, the hero Stagg is made the centerpiece of an incredible public ritual, one that will repeatedly take him to the heights of ecstasy and the depths of hell.

DANGER! THRILLS! ADVENTURE! Alan Green was not exactly a hero. In fact he liked peace just as well as the next man. Not that he was really afraid of that crazy, hot-blooded hound-dog Alzo, or even of the hound''s gorgeous owner, the Duchess Zuni—who was also hot-blooded (to say nothing of the Duke). After all, these things were understood on this backward, violent planet, and a man could manage, provided he was alert twenty-four hours a day. And as a matter of fact, Alan was only normally apprehensive of his Junoesque, tempestuous (but altogether lovable) wife Amra. Delightful, demanding Amra—and her five uproarious kids. The trouble was, he was tired. And homesick. So when he heard of two other downed spacemen, he hitched a ride with a piratical merchant-captain on a windroller destined to carry him to the spaceship and thence to the peaceful green hills of Earth. But he had reckoned without the vagaries of the windroller, pirates, the "traveling islands," the rascally Captain, and various flora and fauna peculiar to this planet—all of which, it now seemed, regarded Alan with unnerving malevolence. And worst of all, Amra was determined that he should be a hero. Amra won.

One of the most daring, innovative, and prolific writers in the science fiction genre, Philip Jose Farmer has long been hailed for his soaring imagination and compelling storytelling. The Unreasoning Mask, first published in 1981, is Farmer at his best: it''s a fast-paced, mystical, high-action adventure. Ramstan is the captain of al-Buraq, a rare model starship of which three have been built. Each is capable of alaraf drive: instantaneous travel between two points in space. When one of the ships mysteriously disappears, it is discovered that an unidentifiable "creature" is marauding through the universe, destroying intelligent life on planet after planet. Ramstan, a thoughtful and moral man, becomes a fascinated yet reluctant pawn in the hands of the strange forces which arise to fight the deadly destroyer. But what price must he pay for becoming the savior of intelligent-kind?

A machine that enables the living to communicate with the dead threatens to allow angry and vengeful ghosts to reenter the world of the living and enact cruel revenge.

A New York Times bestsesller, The Dark Design is the third novel in Hugo and Nebula award-winning science fiction legend Philip José Farmer''s Riverworld series. Milton Firebrass, once Mark Twain''s enemy and now his greatest ally, plans to build a giant airship that can fly to the North Pole of Riverworld. Once there, he hopes to learn the secret of the mysterious tower that dominates the landscape and find the answer to his most urgent question: could the tower contain the Ethicals, the enigmatic beings that created Riverworld? Meanwhile, Jill Gulbirra is challenged for the job of piloting the airship by none other than Cyrano de Bergerac. As if there were not enough challenges facing the crew, they soon suspect there is an agent of the Ethicals among their number, plotting their destruction.... At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Fifteen billion years from now, Earth is a dying planet, its skies darkened by the ashes of burned-out galaxies, its molten core long cooled. The sunless planet is nearing the day of final gravitational collapse in the surrounding galaxy. Mutations and evolution have led to a great disparity of life-forms, while civilization has resorted to the primitive. Young Deyv of the Turtle Tribe knew nothing of his world''s history or its fate. He lived only to track down the wretched Yawtl who had stolen his precious Soul Egg. Joined by other victims of the same thief - the feisty Vana and the plant-man Sloosh - the group sets off across a nightmare landscape of monster-haunted jungle and wetland. Their search leads them ultimately to the jeweled wasteland of the Shemibob, an ageless being from another star who knows Earth''s end is near and holds the only key to escape.

Kickaha, a freedom-seeking wanderer from the planet Earth, meets his archenemy, the most powerful of the decadent interstellar lords, Lord Red Orc, in a final battle that will determine the fate of the universes.

Philip José Farmer was given the WORLD FANTASY AWARD FOR LIFE ACHIEVEMENT and named an SFWA GRAND MASTER in the same year - a fitting recognition of his refusal to be pigeonholed. Whether pushing the boundaries of sexual and religious themes or reimagining pulp heroes for the modern age, Farmer''s restless imagination knew no bounds. This omnibus contains THE MAKER OF UNIVERSES, the first of the World of Tiers series; the HUGO AWARD-winning TO YOUR SCATTERED BODIES GO, which opens the acclaimed Riverworld sequence; and the stand-alone space opera, THE UNREASONING MASK.

Escaping the religious tyranny of a 31st-century Earth by a fluke assignment to the planet of Ozagen, linguist Hal Yarrow found that the worst of Earth had followed him - Pornsen, his personal Guardian Angel, vigilant for any evidence of sin or wrong thinking. Conditioned by a lifetime of submission, Yarrow would have accepted Pornsen''s constant spying as an unpleasant necessity, had it not been for Jeanette, the beautiful but dangerously different fugitive he found hiding in the ancient ruins...

It was a world of tiers and layers - the Amerind level, the Garden of Eden level, the Talanac, the Atlantean - a universe of green skies and fabled beasts. It was the playground-cosmos of the Lord Jadawin, with trans-gravitational gates to the other levels and other worlds. But now those gates were being sabotaged to permit the entry of an invading force of ''Bellers'' - human bodies housing the transferred minds of rebel Lords - and their minions, who were seeking two things: total domination of every lord''s private cosmos, now that they had achieved immortality, and the life of Kickaha the Trickster, who knew too much...

About a hundred years ago, a group of mutant supermen began playing a major role in our affairs. It is no accident that Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes, Captain Nemo, and Doc Savage were (are?) contemporaries. Nor was it accidental that their biographers titillated their public with hints of their true natures while not daring to part the veil. Just what was it that restrained them from telling all?

Two complete novels and five novelettes that broke new ground in science fiction and established Philip Jose Farmer as a master of the genre: The Lovers: One of the most controversial and groundbreaking novels in science fiction. Sent by the religious tyranny of a future Earth to the planet Ozagen, Hal Yarrow met Jeanette, an apparently human fugitive, hiding in ancient ruins built by a long-vanished race. Unconsecrated contact with any female was forbidden to Yarrow—and love for an alien female was an unspeakable abomination. But Yarrow’s lifelong conditioning was no match for his strange attraction to Jeanette. Flesh: The starship captain had been on a voyage lasting 800 years, and returned to find an Earth ruled by revived ancient pagan rituals. He was crowned the “Sunhero,” which was a very dubious honor . . . and unless he could escape, he would be the guest of honor at a fertility rite which would conclude with his very unpleasant death. Strange Relations: Five novelettes of unbounded imagination telling of strange—and often deadly—encounters between human and alien.

One of the most famous heroes in literature is back! Tarzan, Lord of the Apes, returns with a vengeance in this action-packed adventure by Philip José Farmer, Hugo Award winner, Nebula Grand Master, and author of the incredible Riverworld saga. Tarzan''s beloved mate, Jane, has been kidnapped, and the furious ape-man will let nothing stand in the way of rescuing her--not even a sinister safari whose target is Tarzan himself. With fierce Masai trackers leading the chase, a trio of white hunters are hellbent on capturing the Jungle Lord. But as the pursuers, and their uncanny half-human tracker, close in from behind, Tarzan races toward even greater danger ahead. For the trail leads to a bizarre, long-forgotten land boasting a multitude of strange and terrifying mysteries: the City Built by God, the Hideous Hunter, the One to Avoid, and most shocking of all, the Crystal Tree of Time--whose seductive powers could ultimately spell Tarzan''s doom . . . Philip José Farmer, a descendant of the actual Greystoke family, and a recipient of the prestigious Golden Lion Award, bestowed by the Burroughs Bibliophiles at the 1970 Dum-Dum, is famous for his adventure novels starring Tarzanic characters. Now, in Tarzan and the Dark Heart of Time, authorized by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., Farmer lends his vast imagination to the legend of the Lord of the Apes himself! In addition, this handsome new edition sports a gorgeous painted cover by well known Burroughs artist Mark Wheatley, a new Foreword by longtime Burroughs scholar Robert R. Barrett, and a new Introduction by Farmer expert Win Scott Eckert.

Join John Carmody of Earth on an unforgettable adventure on the weirdest planet in the galaxy. Just when Carmody had given up understanding this weird world and decided simply to accept whatever happened, it was the Night of Light. All the citizens of Dante''s Joy slumbered on that night - to awake, if at all, in a world even more bizarre and more unearthly than before...

In Philip Jose Farmers incredible sequel to The Image of the Beast, Herald Childe continues what started as a murder case - a very gruesome one - but which has now become a struggle against the strange and deadly beings who have taken his wife, who threaten his manhood and threaten mankind itself. His seems a hopeless quest. He is fighting not people but inhuman, unhuman monster from another universe. They take grotesque physical forms, they indulge cruel whims, and they are sex-mad. There is Vivienne, amazingly beautiful, who used to be Joan of Arc. But she has false teeth and she comes literally to pieces. Her lover is a snake-like horror whose needle teeth drip aphrodisiac venom. There is Count Igescu, a real live vampire. And these three are surrounded by a grisly crowd of bizarre aliens, characters in a science fiction nightmare. But for Childe there is to be no waking up: though no one else will believe him, he knows this is for real...

Operation Timestop: Post-holocaust Paris is a pretty seedy stand-in for the original, but what can you expect when the goverment''s main function is Orgasm Prevention & when the national hero is wandering around in Nowhen. But things are changing! Rumor has it that the Timetraveler is coming back in a few months. At which point, Time itself will come to an end.

OUT FROM THE GREEN WORLD: Humans had colonized the planets & lost its birthright. Civilization was a lonely chain of space stations linked by terror. The Empire kept the pioneers enslaved with a weapon that shattered any protest into screaming insanity. All they had left was the dream of someday returning home. Until their dream exploded in the holocaust that destroyed the Earth. But the embers of their dead planet sparked a brain-blasting revolution that swept the galaxy: a revolution of exiles in an alien universe-with nothing left to lose.

Resurrected on the lush, mysterious banks of Riverworld, along with the rest of humanity, Samuel Langhorne Clemens (a.k.a. Mark Twain) has a dream: to build a riverboat that will rival the most magnificent paddle-wheelers ever navigated on the mighty Mississippi. Then, to steer it up the endless waterway that dominates his new home planet - and at last discover its hidden source. But before he can carry out his plan, he first must undertake a dangerous voyage to unearth a fallen meteor. This mission would require striking an uneasy alliance with the bloodthirsty Viking Erik Bloodaxe, treacherous King John of England, legendary French swordsman Cyrano de Bergerac, Greek adventurer Odysseus, and the infamous Nazi Hermann Göring. All for the purpose of storming the ominous stone tower at the mouth of the river, where the all-powerful overseers of Riverworld - and their secrets - lie in wait . . .

In this classic of alternate history by grand master Philip Jose Farmer, Native American bomber pilot Roger Two Hawks bails out over enemy territory in WWII, only to find himself on another Earth - one in which the American continents never rose from the waters, and the ancestors of the American Indians remained in Asia and Europe-an Earth embroiled in a world war of its own - with Two Hawks caught in the middle.

Sent into the world of Tiers by a well-meaning doctor in the mental hospital where he is incarcerated, teenage troublemaker Jim Grimson finds himself in a world of fantasy and danger. Philip José Farmer returns to his towering World of Tiers, where immortal Lords fight bloody wars over a host of pocket universes.

All those who ever lived on Earth have found themselves resurrected - healthy, young, and naked as newborns - on the grassy banks of a mighty river, in a world unknown. Miraculously provided with food, but with no clues to the meaning of their strange new afterlife, billions of people from every period of Earth''s history - and prehistory - must start again. Sir Richard Francis Burton would be the first to glimpse the incredible way-station, a link between worlds. This forbidden sight would spur the renowned 19th-century explorer to uncover the truth. Along with a remarkable group of compatriots, including Alice Liddell Hargreaves (the Victorian girl who was the inspiration for Alice in Wonderland), an English-speaking Neanderthal, a WWII Holocaust survivor, and a wise extraterrestrial, Burton sets sail on the magnificent river. His mission: to confront humankind''s mysterious benefactors, and learn the true purpose - innocent or evil - of the Riverworld . . . Winner of the Hugo Award for best novel, 1972

A collection of Wold Newton-inspired short stories by Farmerphiles, experts, and the Grand Master of SF himself.A real meteorite fell near Wold Newton, Yorkshire, England, on December 13, 1795, and was found to be radioactive, causing genetic mutations in the occupants of a passing coach. Many of their descendants were thus endowed with extremely high intelligence and strength, as well as an exceptional capacity and drive to perform good, or, as the case may be, evil deeds.

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 known by our starry galaxy. 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...?

After viewing his partner''s mutilation in a home movie, a horrified private detective pursues leads in the most disgusting case of his career. His investigation plunges him into a nightmare of sexual brutality and supernatural bestiality. It is a journey he - and you - will never forget.

All three of Philip José Farmer''s Secrets of the Nine novels collected in one omnibus for the first time! A FEAST UNKNOWN The controversial underground classic of blood and lust-for adults only! LORD OF THE TREESTHE MAD GOBLIN Lord of the Trees and The Mad Goblin, originally published together in an Ace double edition, follow Grandrith''s and Caliban''s less controversial but no less exciting simultaneous-separate adventures in their desperate battle against the Nine. METEOR HOUSE OMNIBUS EDITION With cover art by Douglas Klauba and a new introduction to the omnibus by R. Paul Sardanas (aka "Doc Talos"), this is the definitive collection of the adventures of Doc Caliban and Lord Grandrith! This volume also features previously published essays by Theodore Sturgeon and Art Sippo, as well as a Nine Universe timeline by Win Scott Eckert and a new afterword to the omnibus by Eckert.

Clark Savage, Jr, was raised from birth to become the perfect human specimen. Almost from birth, a team of scientists assembled by his father trained his mind and body to near-superhuman abilities, giving him great strength and endurance, a photographic memory, a mastery of the martial arts, and vast knowledge of the sciences. The result: Doctor Clark Savage, Jr. - physician, surgeon, scientist, adventurer, inventor, explorer and researcher - best known to the world as , the man of Bronze. Doc Savage. Philip José Farmer, biographer of Lord Greystoke (better known to the world as Tarzan), has turned his superb research and narrative skills to one of the most famous heroes of our time.

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....

Through the tales of Edgar Rice Burroughs, generations of readers have thrilled to the adventures of Lord Greystoke (aka John Clayton, but better known as Tarzan of the Apes). In this biography Philip José Farmer pieces together the life of this fantastic man, correcting Burroughs''s errors and deliberate deceptions and tracing Tarzan''s family tree back to other extraordinary figures, including Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes, the Scarlet Pimpernel, Doc Savage, Nero Wolfe, and Bulldog Drummond. Tarzan Alive offers the first chronological account of Tarzan''s life, narrated in careful detail garnered from Burroughs''s stories and other sources. From the ill-fated voyage that led to Greystoke''s birth on the isolated African coast to his final adventures as a group captain in the RAF during World War II, Farmer constructs a comprehensive and authoritative account. Farmer''s assertion that Tarzan was a real person has led him to craft a biography as well researched and compelling as that of any character from conventional history.

Somewhere in the unexplored heart of Africa a part of this Earth has been taken over by an intelligence from outer space. Such was the message that reached the explorer Hareton Ironcastle, member of the famous Baltimore Gun Club. In that hidden and transformed valley would now be found monsters and pre-humans not to be seen anywhere else. Such a challenge could not be ignored, and the account of Ironcastle''s expedition of daring but inexperienced amateurs became one of the classic novels of the French writer, J. H. Rosny, who was a contemporary of Verne, Wells, and Edgar Rice Burroughs. Now Philip José Farmer, Hugo winner and chronicler of the adventures of Tarzan and Doc Savage, has translated and retold Rosny''s novel, making it a marvel adventure novel to stand alongside the works of Burroughs, Haggard and Farmer himself.

In a dystopian future, brilliant but arrogant scientist Dr. James Carroad conducts a shocking experiment on his unborn son to impress the Secretary of Science. Using a powerful mind-reading machine, Carroad taps into his child''s thoughts - with disturbing results that call into question the nature of free will. As secrets from the past resurface, his wife Jane starts to realize the horrific implications of her husband''s hubris.

The novels of the author''s World of Tiers series are presented in an anthology that takes the reader on a universe-hopping adventure.

The author of the bestselling Riverworld saga presents the second omnibus volume of classic SF novels from his popular World of Tiers series. These three action-packed novels--"Behind the Walls of Terra, The Lavalite World", and "More Than Fire"--are great originals of universe-hopping adventure and were later used as models by Roger Zelazny for his Chronicles of Amber.

This one is for fans of Quentin Tarantino and of the ever-present gratuitous violence of Robert Altman. It is a direct descendant of Mickey Spillane''s Mike Hammer and the mystery action pulps epitomized by Black Mask. Philip José Farmer, now one of the great living SF writers, who has published many varieties of pulp fiction, who has written novels of Tarzan, Doc Savage, and Oz, now turns his hand to the detective novel, with colorful, violent results. A self-obsessed private detective married to a sincere wiccan is hired to witness an illegal transfer of money in a rainy cemetery that goes bloody wrong. Chasing the bad guys, he ends up the prisoner of a grusome threesome in their Dogpatchy cabin in the woods. His escape involves nudity, blood, death, and a terrible snapping turtle. That''s how the mystery begins, leading him through all the levels of Peoria society, geography, and history. Absurdly funny things happen continually in the peripheral vision of the story. No violence is left out. Greed, venality and hatred are unleashed. Unpleasant family history is brought to light. All the sex is offstage. The body count mounts steadily, with occasional mutilations. Nothing Burns in Hell is pulp fiction at its most gorgeously excessive.

Behind the walls of Terra lay a secret no man could be allowed to learn. But Kickaha - the Earth-born adventurer of the tiered worlds - had to uncover that secret, or watch his home world destroyed. Kickaha was returning to Earth from the World of Tiers, the many-levelled universe of the god-like Lords, that he had entered many years ago as Paul Janus Finnegan. Now he had returned to a world he no longer knew, to find it ruled by Red Orc, a Lord jealous of his personal domain and hostile to intruders. Yet Kickaha had to stay alive in order to defeat the deadly enemy that threatened Earth and the other worlds of tiers - the ''Beller'', the malignant creature that was the mind-essence of a rebel Lord.

Gods of Riverwold is the fifth and final chapter in Philip Jose Farmer''s New York Times bestselling classic SF series, Riverworld Thirty billion people from throughout Earth''s history have been resurrected along the great and winding waterways of Riverworld. Most began life anew—accepting without question the sustenance provided by their mysterious benefactors. But a rebellious handful, including Mark Twain, Richard Burton, and Peter Jairus Frigate, burned to confront the unseen masters who controlled their fate—and these few launched an invasion that will ultimately yield the mind-boggling truth. The story was chronicled in four previous volumes, and is now concluded in Gods of Riverworld. Riverworld''s omnipotent leaders must finally be confronted, and the renegades of Riverworld—led by the intrepid Sir Richard Francis Burton—will control the fantastic mechanism that rules them. But the most awesome challenge lies ahead. For in the vast corridors and secret rooms of the tower stronghold, an unknown enemy watches and waits to usurp the usurpers.... At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Sam Clemens and Peter Jairus Frigate, along with various figures of historical note, contend with the afterlife along the ten million mile river.