From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. This colossal scrapbook of scarce, offbeat fiction, poetry and nonfiction from SF veteran Farmer offers fans a smorgasbord of his hard—and impossible—to find work from fanzines and other small publications, spanning the 1940s to the 1990s. Amassed by Mike Croteau, who runs the official Philip José Farmer Web site, and edited by Paul Spiteri, who provides brief introductions for each piece, this collection is especially valuable for its insights into the author's writing methods. For fun, Farmer reinterpreted the adventures of pulp hero Doc Savage, Oz characters, Sherlock Holmes and Tarzan. His canine detective, Ralph von Wau Wau, in "A Scarletin Study," somehow blended Holmes, Sam Spade and, typically, puns. Farmer also reprised vampire, werewolf and Frankenstein stories. About the sale of his first story, "The Lovers" (which won a Hugo in 1952), Farmer says in the autobiographical "Maps and Spasms" that he thought he "had the world by the tail. But, as it turned out, there was a tiger at the other end." Fortunately for generations of SF readers, he persisted. (Aug.)
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Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
What with the recent Best of Philip Jose Farmer (2006), the multilayered oeuvre of the veteran sf grandmaster has been enjoying a well-deserved renaissance. This equally hefty compilation of previously uncollected stories, essays, poems, and autobiographical sketches supplements that weighty volume. Divided in 10 sections, the "pearls" it gathers touch almost every one of Farmer's favorite themes and idiosyncratic interests. Embodying his predilection for revisiting familiar sf and fantasy characters, the first 3 stories adopt the grisly perspectives of a vampire, a werewolf, and Frankenstein's monster, respectively. In essays on Doc Savage and Tarzan (aka Lord Greystoke), Farmer explains his motivations for writing pseudobiographies of those classic series figures. In "Maps and Spasms," Farmer recounts the history of his first published story, "The Lovers," which won him a Hugo Award in 1952. More than 60 pieces in all showcase Farmer's amazing versatility and should gratify the pants off fans searching for previously unpublished and long-out-of-print gold. Carl Hays
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
