Customer Reviews

Strange Relations

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This is a collection of three books, the novels THE LOVERS and FLESH and a loose collection of stories called STRANGE RELATIONS, one of which has a Father Carmody story. This handsome edition from Baen should be in everybody's library, everybody, that is, who claims to be a student of science fiction. Farmer was at his best when throwing humans up against alien races in sexual (or reproductive) situations. THE LOVERS, I think, stands as one of his very best novels overall. I had a lot of fun rereading these stories in this new edition. I highly recommend this book.

I bought this book after hearing of Philip Jose Farmer's death and reading of how he supposedly broke the taboo of sexual themes in science fiction. This book contains the groundbreaking story "The Lovers" (for which publication/expansion dates of 1952, 1961, and 1979 are given). It's a very good read. Central character Hal Yarrow escapes a hellishly frustrating marriage by volunteering for service as a linguistic specialist on mission to a planet populated by bug-like aliens. He cannot as easily escape the bonds of his dogmatic and suppressive religion. Once on the ground, Hal begins to stray from his mission...

Two more "novels" are included in this volume. Of the three, "Flesh" is the raciest. There is no material here that could be called explicit, but this bawdy comedy centers around Peter Stagg who leads a crew of space travelers returning to a future Earth transformed into tribal countries, one of which surgically attaches fleshy antlers to Stagg's head making him their "Sunhero" who must romp around the countryside impregnating crowds of eager virgins. Modern sensibilities might be offended by the episode involving the Pants Elves (the tribe that rules Pants-Elf-vania, and who are all homosexual males). The apparent fury with which Stagg dispatches them in making his escape might be considered gay-bashing. On the other hand, Stagg is pretty much out of control when his antlers are pumped. Make your own allusions.

The third "book" is called "Strange Relations" and is a collection of short stories. The first two are connected. In "Mother", an Earthman participates in an alien's reproductive process, and in "Daughter" one of the progeny heeds well the advice of her "dad". The next segment "Father" is a bit of a tease since you might imagine that it is a further continuation, though not obviously so, as we see a planet where a god-like Father holds sway. In the end, no connection to the first two parts is evident, but the story stands on its own as a broad spoof of Christian themes. The fourth part "Son" leaves no doubt. Very straight sci-fi compared to the rest of the book. The final segment "My Sister's Brother" is perhaps the most satisfying story in the volume. While on a spooky rescue mission on a fanciful Mars, spaceman Lane is thrown into a situation both seductive and well outside the bounds of his by-the-book sensibilities. Typical of Farmer's protagonists, he is a musclebound doofus who just might avoid disaster despite himself.

All in all, an interesting and entertaining collection of stories.

Philip Jose Farmer is another name from the past strongly associated with powerful writing, and STRANGE RELATIONS is an excellent compendium of three of his groundbreaking works under one cover: THE LOVERS, FLESH, and STRANGE RELATIONS. A starship captain sent by Earth's religious rulers discovers a human fugitive hiding in an ancient ruins and finds love too strong to ignore, however illogical or forbidden. His adventures with his new love will change worlds.

My first Farmer and I must say I was very impressed. Sometimes I am looking for good modern hard sci fi but more often than not I find myself seeking out good old fashioned well written and imagined space adventure. This book is the best of the latter type. Foreign planets or dystopian future earths and tons of boobs. This book is not as raunchy as the cover would have you believe (note to Baen: really? again? the pic has NOTHING to do with the book and it makes it embarrassing to read around my kids or on the tramvaj). I recommend this to anyone who is a fan of the golden age and enjoys stuff by Leinster, Laumer, Dickson etc etc. The 1st two novellas are classics not to be missed.

This book is for "old school" SF readers. If your younger than 40; you might find it unappealing.