Two Hawks from Earth [Paperback]

Philip Jose Farmer (Author), Christopher Paul Carey (Afterword)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 16, 2009

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.

Product Details

• Paperback: 300 pages
• Publisher: Monkeybrain (August 16, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932265287
• ISBN-13: 978-1932265286
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,542,541 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Christopher Paul Carey is the coauthor with Philip José Farmer of THE SONG OF KWASIN, forthcoming in the omnibus GODS OF OPAR: TALES OF LOST KHOKARSA (Subterranean Press, 2012). He is an editor with Paizo Publishing and their Planet Stories imprint, and the editor of three collections of Philip José Farmer's fiction from Subterranean Press: THE OTHER IN THE MIRROR (2009), VENUS ON THE HALF-SHELL AND OTHERS (2008), and UP FROM THE BOTTOMLESS PIT AND OTHER STORIES (2007). His short fiction may be found in such anthologies as TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN: THE VAMPIRES OF PARIS (Black Coat Press, 2009), TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN: GRAND GUIGNOL (Black Coat Press, 2010), THE WORLDS OF PHILIP JOSÉ FARMER 1: PROTEAN DIMENSIONS (Meteor House, 2010), THE WORLDS OF PHILIP JOSÉ FARMER 2: OF DUST AND SOUL (Meteor House, 2011), and THE AVENGER: THE JUSTICE, INC. FILES (Moonstone Books, 2011). Visit his website at www.cpcarey.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Seminal work of AH back in print, August 16, 2009

By 

Jvstin "Paul Weimer" (Circle Pines, MN United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Two Hawks from Earth (Paperback)

The scene is World War II. Native American Bomber Pilot Roger Two Hawks, off course on a mission to bomb the Ploesti oil fields in Rumania, has a mid air collision with a German plane over enemy territory. Along with Pat O'Brien, turret gunner, he is the only person to successfully manage to get a parachute open and descend to the countryside.

Hawks felt something odd just before the crash, however, and that oddness is reinforced when Hawks and O'Brien land. The people are all wrong, with technology distinctly primitive (~World War I era) by even backwater Rumanian standards. What's more, they speak a language that Hawks recognizes as a derivative of an Iroquois tongue.

Hawks, as a reader of science fiction and comic books has figured out what has happened. Somehow he and the gunner have wound up in a parallel history. One where the Siberian tribes that would have gone to America (only a chain of islands here), instead rolled west and vastly changed subsequent history. But events quickly sweep up Hawks along, as this world has a World War on a scale similar to his own going on...

Two Hawks from Earth is the story of Roger's quest to make his way through this world, and find a way to get back home. Along the way, his skills in this slightly technologically backward world are much in demand. And, of course, like any good adventure novel, there is always the love interest.

Some of the science (especially the ethnography) is outdated and flat out wrong. Given that, though, Two Hawks from Earth does what Farmer wrote very well--action and adventure, with a protagonist making his way in an unfamiliar world.

I read this book years ago in its bowdlerized and shortened edition (The Gate of Time) and I wondered if the re-read would hold up to my memories. I noticed the differences in the text, but the basic premise of the novel and the writing still held up for me.

I enjoyed it heavily. Fans of Farmer should not miss this reprint of a long-out-of-print novel, and fans of Alternate History novels will appreciate this as well. Its not a door stopper that people such as Turtledove put out, Farmer keeps the pace crackling and the novel and story never get dull.

Sometimes you can go back into your reading past and come away delighted again. I certainly was in this case.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars my favorite Farmer, December 9, 2004

By 

Erik (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Two Hawks From Earth (Paperback)

I read most of Phillip Jose Farmer's books between 1978 and 1985. Recently I started reading them again. The intervening years may have caused my preferences to change. After rereading a lot of his stories, I have revised my opinions. I think Two Hawks is his best novel in several respects: the way he developes believable speculative science; and the way the history, linguistics and ethnology of the parallel earth were developed.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars "Two Hawks: in space and time, November 12, 2009

By 

Paul Brooks (New Hampshire) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Two Hawks from Earth (Paperback)

Two Hawks From Earth - The magical transposition of beings from our Earth to an alternative Earth is one of the standard plot ideas common in the universe of science-fiction novels. Authors usually employ some pseudo-scientific hocus-pocus to justify this highly improbable event. The hero muses about the "warp in the space time fabric" and temporary "time gates' opening or the old standby a "black hole eruption" to rationalize the experience. Clever authors soon have the heroes up to their neck in alligators and leeches. Musing about author's the crackpot speculations are soon forgotten and the plot rumbles or stumbles on.

Phil Farmer, an author I hold in high esteem, wrote "Two Hawks' early in his career. Mr. Two Hawks, a WW2 bomber pilot, and his gunner are spirited to Earth 1 as they parachute from their disabled plane. Earth 1 is appreciably unlike in geography, evolution and technological development from our Earth. One aspect of the world that is identical is War. The story line then is fairly straightforward. Two Hawks, a military man from an advanced Earth, is hunted by the military intelligence services of the warring factions. His goal is to return to his "home" Earth. Farmer works with great diligence to keep this potboiler bubbling but, quite frankly, it is a story that has been told better by other writers.

It is painfully apparent that Mr. Farmer spent many long hours researching continental drift theories, ancient migration patterns, language development and conjectures on racial development. Instead of padding his story with a few smart sounding observations we are given the whole load - pages and pages of esoteric theories and ideas. All this excessive "information" did was to turn a modestly interesting story into a very uninteresting one.
If you have read Farmer's Riverworld" books you find the discussion in "Two Hawks from Earth" concerning air ships, there construction and use as a military weapon, familiar.

In the forward to my 1985 Berkley edition Farmer tells us that he was very displeased when, in 1966, an editor changed the title to "The Gate of Time" and revised some of the dialog. Farmer had the intended title restored, dialog reset and added some addition words expanding the ending. Interested readers may want to read "The Gate of Time' which is available here, used, on Amazon.