For the past 11 years, I have been a huge fan of Philip Jose Farmer's writings, particularly those dealing with the vast family tree of literary, pulp, mystery, and adventure heroes and villains dubbed the Wold Newton Family, after the Yorkshire village where their ancestors were exposed to the radiation accompanying a (very real) meteor that landed there. The Jungle Lord, the Man of Bronze, and Sherlock Holmes are the three most prominent members of this family. Besides his seminal biographies of the first two gentlemen I named, TARZAN ALIVE and DOC SAVAGE: HIS APOCALYPTIC LIFE, Farmer also wrote a number of books and short stories based in the Wold Newton mythos. In this superb collection, Titan Books and editors and lifelong Farmerphiles Win Scott Eckert and Christopher Paul Carey have compiled all of Farmer's short fiction set in what Eckert in 1997 dubbed "the Wold Newton Universe," as well as stories by the editors and other Farmer fans set in his milieu. Eckert and Carey also provide introductions for each story, explaining its relevance to Wold Newton continuity. I have been a huge fan of Titan's new editions of many of Farmer's classic works, and this is without a doubt my favorite yet. Below, I will sketch my brief thoughts on each story.
"The Problem of the Sore Bridge - Among Others" is presented as a story written by Harry "Bunny" Manders, sidekick and amanuensis of E.W. Hornung's gentleman thief A.J. Raffles, and edited by Farmer. In this tale, Manders reveals how Raffles solved the three mysteries that were recorded as having stumped Sherlock Holmes in "The Problem of Thor Bridge." Farmer's solution is typically unique, and shows his roots in science fiction. Having read the original stories, I feel he captures Raffles and Bunny's "voices" perfectly. There are also references to Holmes and Raffles being distant cousins, a genealogical connection he first revealed in TARZAN ALIVE.
"A Scarletin Study," allegedly written by Jonathan Swift Somers III and again edited by Farmer, features the first meeting, and case together, of talking dog detective Ralph von Wau Wau and Dr. Johann H. Weisstein. Farmer treats von Wau Wau as a real person (or rather canine) in DOC SAVAGE. Once again, Farmer takes an audacious concept and runs with it, making the story both exciting and funny at the same time. As one can infer from the title, this tale owes a debt to Holmes' first appearance, A STUDY IN SCARLET, particularly in its opening scenes.
"The Doge Whose Barque Was Worsen Than His Bight" is another story presented as by Somers, and featuring von Wau Wau and Weisstein. Here, they are teamed with Wold Newton Family member Cordwainer Bird, nephew of the Shadow, the Spider, and G-8, and the main character of Harlan Ellison's "The New York Review of Bird." Once again, Farmer manages to tell a story that is equal parts thrilling and hilarious, and Bird is a welcome addition to the proceedings.
"Skinburn," written by Farmer under his own name, features private investigator Kent Lane, whose parentage should be obvious to those who have read the works of Walter Gibson. Besides his name, the fact that he wears a ring with a fire opal set into it is a pretty prominent clue. The solution to the mystery of this story is just as off-the-wall (yet great) as that of "Sore Bridge."
"The Freshman" is a tale utilizing H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, in which 60-year-old Roderick Desmond enrolls at Miskatonic University. Farmer tells a tale that, while utilizing Lovecraft's concepts, stands more than adequately on its own merits. There are two references to works featuring Wold Newton Family members in this story. One, noted in the introduction to the tale, is that a Miskatonic student named Bukawai is stated to be from a long line of African witch doctors, implying that he is a descendant of the Bukawai that appears in Burroughs' JUNGLE TALES OF TARZAN. The other, which I realized while reading the story in this edition, and told Eckert and Carey about on the Facebook Wold Newton group, is that Desmond identifies another student's ancestor as a resident of the hamlet of Tredannick Wollas, near Poldhu Bay, from Watson and Doyle's Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure of the Devil's Foot."
"After King Kong Fell" features an older gentleman named Tim Howller telling his granddaughter the story of how he witnessed the aftermath of the giant ape's plummeting from the top of the Empire State Building. His story mentions a powerful-looking golden-eyed man and his five companions as arriving on the scene, as well as the presence of a hawk-faced man with strange eyes who was accompanied by a beautiful woman named Margo. Farmer's tale functions marvelously as both a work of fiction and a commentary on the film and character of King Kong. It is worth noting that Howller was the same age in 1931 as Farmer himself, and that both were Peoria natives. Additionally, Howller is featured in another Farmer story, "The Face That Launched a Thousand Eggs," which the author has described as autobiographical. Draw your own conclusions from that.
"Kwasin and the Bear God" is co-written by Farmer and Carey, and takes place between chapters of THE SONG OF KWASIN, the third book included in the omnibus GODS OF OPAR, which collects Farmer's trilogy of novels featuring the same city later explored by the Jungle Lord. Kwasin is the cousin of Hadon, the hero of the first two books (HADON OF ANCIENT OPAR and FLIGHT TO OPAR), and the hero of GODS OF OPAR, which Farmer began writing in the 1970s, but was finished by Carey in recent years, and only published as part of the omnibus after Farmer's passing. I've always felt that Kwasin was a more entertaining character than the admittedly well-written Hadon, who is more of a traditional hero than his cousin, and telling the story from his point of view makes the story even more enjoyable. Kwasin is a giant, a rogue, and just as skilled at combat as Hadon, if not more.
"Into Time's Abyss" by John Allen Small extrapolates its plot from a passage in Farmer's time-travel novel TIME'S LAST GIFT. Sharp-eyed readers of Farmer's novel have identified one of the protagonists, the long-lived John Gribardsun, as a nom de guerre for a member of the Wold Newton Family who also plays a significant part in the Opar books. Small captures the personalities of Farmer's characters as well as Farmer did those of the writers whose characters he used in his own Wold Newton fiction, and offers an entertaining parallel plot to Farmer's book.
"The Last of the Guaranys" by Octavio Aragao and Carlos Orsi blends John Gribardsun into the events of Brazilian author Jose de Alencar's 1857 novel O GUARANI. While I have never read de Alencar's book, I have read TIME'S LAST GIFT, and Aragao and Orsi are spot-on in their characterization of this enigmatic individual. I am now curious to see if any English translations of O GUARANI have been published; if so, I will definitely give it a look.
Eckert rounds out the book with my personal favorite tale, "The Wild Huntsman." Eckert's story is a tour-de-force drawing together the Wold Newton stories and Farmer's Secrets of the Nine trilogy, whose protagonists, Lord Grandrith and Doc Caliban, are counterparts to the Jungle Lord and the Man of Bronze, respectively. Eckert's tale at long last explains why so many people were traveling through a remote place like Wold Newton at just the right time to be affected (as were their descendants) by the meteor's radiation. Eckert's story, which as with the previous two features Gribardsun prominently, ties in with a number of other stories he's written, as those who have devotedly read his previous work (like myself) will realize. Like Farmer, Eckert's work forms a rich tapestry that can be enjoyed individually, but even more so when read together.
This collection of tales about my favorite fictional universe is a must-have. Farmer was an innovator in the science fiction genre, and the Wold Newton Family is one of his best creations. All good Farmer, pulp, and Wold Newton fans should pick up this magnificent collection As long as more people read Farmer's work, and write new tales set in his mythos, the Wold Newton Universe should thrive for a long time to come!
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