More Than Fire: A World of Tiers Novel (Hardcover)

by Philip Jose Farmer (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Hugo Award-winner Farmer ( Red Orc's Rage ) returns to his popular World of Tiers for a disappointing conclusion. Tiers (like Earth) is in a continuum of often very different "pocket" universes, created by the super-powerful Lords. These universes are connected through interdimensional gateways, like the one that 20th-century earthman Paul Janus Finnegan crossed to find the tiered world of Alofmethbin and become Kickaha the Trickster. Since then, Kickaha has lived an adventurous and heroic life trying to thwart Red Orc, who plans to recover the lost secrets of making and destroying universes in order to annihilate all other universes and create his own. For the most part, Kickaha and his lover, Anana, wander aimlessly from universe to universe until they're captured by Red Orc, who (in the manner of foolish villains everywhere) toys with them long enough for Kickaha to escape and force a final climactic confrontation. The World of Tiers novels were always mainly action and adventure--nothing deep--but here Farmer fails to deliver even that: the action is flat, the plot hopelessly contrived, the characters less engaging than in previous outings and the new worlds less vivid. And the prose is often worse than even pulp adventure should be: "Sometimes he glimpsed art forms that seemed to have been originated by an insane brain. But that was because of his own cultural mindset." Even die-hard fans of this series will likely be disappointed.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
Farmer's World of Tiers yarns--a mingling of classical and American Indian mythology, William Blake-ish romanticism, and Edgar Rice Burroughs-like high adventure--have been appearing variously since 1965; this book (according to the publishers) presents the ultimate showdown between the hero, Kickaha, and Lord Red Orc--one of the arrogant and decadent super-race that created the Tiers, a succession of pocket universes (the Tower of Babylon tier, the Atlantis tier, the Amerind tier, etc.). Though recent volumes have been presented for review in these pages, series fans will wish to investigate. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (September 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312852800
• ISBN-13: 978-0312852801
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #765,050 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good series, disappointing conclusion, May 24, 2002

By	M. Allen "m214463" (Exeter, UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: More Than Fire (World of Tiers) (Mass Market Paperback)

I first read World of Tiers books in 1974, and enjoyd them over the years. As a whole, I would have given the series 5 stars, yet this one only rates 3.
The basic plot is that Kikaha and Annana have been tryng to escape from some universe for 15 years, and when they finally do, they meet up with their arch enemy, Red Orc. Farmer does bring the series to an end, but I think it was very contrived.
He does answer some questions from the earlier books, but I was left with the overwhelming question: why did I bother to buy the book in the first place?
Saying that, it is worth reading to find out how the series comes to an end.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A very good end for a great series(or it's not the end?), July 4, 2000

By	Ventura Angelo (Brescia, Lombardia Italy) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Khichaka and Anana are absolutely unique:a goddess so human,a human so godlike.The pocket universe idea is wonderful,provided it's not used for making the heroes wander pointlessly from one zany universe to another.And the solution is so bizarre,so farmerish,one would say,but very humane.I only think that the petty wars between the immortal supergods who made the World of Tiers made me wonder about the desirability of immortality.And what happened to Wolff and Chryseis,by the way?