From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Joe R. Lansdale, in his introduction to this sterling "best of" collection, calls Farmer "the most underrated science fiction writer of all time." Farmer's talent was evident early on in such tales as "The Lovers," one of the first works of SF to treat sex in an adult manner, which helped win him a Hugo Award as Best New Talent for 1952. The 19 other selections demonstrate his immense range, from the hilarious parody "The Jungle Rot Kid on the Nod," a Tarzan story as if written by William Burroughs (instead of Edgar Rice Burroughs), through the manic and marvelously loony "The Henry Miller Dawn Patrol," about a raunchy oldster in a nursing home who sees everything in terms of the planes he flew in WWI, to the more sober and touching "After King Kong Fell," which reimagines the death of the giant movie ape as a real event recalled many years later. Some fans may quibble that one classic Farmer story or another has been left out, but none will dispute that this volume is a timely tribute to a genius of the genre. (Jan.)
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Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
During a nearly 60-year career distinguished by much stylistic and thematic experimentation, Farmer has earned his reputation as one of sf's true innovators. In 1952, his first published sf story, "The Lovers," which opens this long-overdue collection, broke the taboo of writing about sex in the genre. His Hugo-winning "Riders of the Purple Wage," also here, was a highlight of Harlan Ellison's landmark, genre-bending anthology, Dangerous Visions (1969). Another classic featured here is the novella "Riverworld," which laid the foundation for the award-winning series of the same name, wherein Earth's 35 billion dead have been inexplicably resurrected on an alien world. Other vintage tales provide an original take on time travel, the true fate of King Kong, and a morsel of alternate history following Christopher Columbus' voyage to the edge of the world. Farmer's far-reaching vision and shifting narrative voice may make his style difficult to categorize, but the varied contents of this compilation confirm his status as an entertaining and challenging sf living legend. Carl Hays
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
