A while back I found hardcover copies of The World of Tiers volumes 1
and 2 in a local antique store for a couple bucks each, so I grabbed
them. I just finished reading them. Can't say I was too thrilled
with the five novels that made up those two collections. Interesting
world building, but the characters were cardboard cut-outs and the
plot of every book was basically: Good guy meets villain and fights,
outsmarts or kills him. Good guy meets some sort of monster cobbled
together from various Earthly predators and fights or kills it. Rinse
and repeat. Over and over. Plus the actual writing was shockingly bad.

I made it through all five books, although it was a slog. I know
there were two more books written much later on, but despite the fact
that book five left so many threads dangling (including the
whereabouts and fate of the main character of books one and two!), I
have no plans to look for those last two books. But I'm wondering if
one of them answers the following:

Who was the British man seen in the floating palace towards the end of
The Lavalite World? Farmer never names him, and he never directly
appears in the story - he's just seen through a window, and later seen
helping one of the bad guys climb into the palace. But the book keeps mentioning him again and again. I thought for sure he was going to
end up being important to the plot, but he just disappears out of the
story. I got the impression that he was supposed to be a real
historical figure, but if the book gave any clues as to who he was
they must have gone right over my head.

Google's AI suggests that it was P.G. Wodehouse, but I have no idea
how it came up with that. When I asked again just a couple hours
later, the same AI said it was McKay, another character in the book
who wasn't British and definitely wasn't the person in question.

So...anyone know? I'm wondering if it was supposed to be William
Blake, who Farmer lifted many of the names in the saga from.

-- Bob

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On 2025-07-24, Bice <eichler2@comcast.net> wrote:

A while back I found hardcover copies of The World of Tiers volumes 1
and 2 in a local antique store for a couple bucks each, so I grabbed
them. I just finished reading them. Can't say I was too thrilled
with the five novels that made up those two collections. Interesting
world building, but the characters were cardboard cut-outs and the
plot of every book was basically: Good guy meets villain and fights, outsmarts or kills him. Good guy meets some sort of monster cobbled
together from various Earthly predators and fights or kills it. Rinse
and repeat. Over and over. Plus the actual writing was shockingly bad.

That's Philip Jos� Farmer for you. He had a highly fertile imagination
and conjured up all manners of phantasmagorical worlds, but the
characters are paper-thin, and he struggled with even producing a
coherent plot. I mean, I don't know his process, but I always
assumed that we just started writing without knowing in advance
what story he wanted to tell. The result can be interesting if
flawed... or utter dross.

I made it through all five books, although it was a slog. I know
there were two more books written much later on, but despite the fact
that book five left so many threads dangling (including the
whereabouts and fate of the main character of books one and two!), I
have no plans to look for those last two books.

I read them once upon a time, but you won't miss much. Book six
takes the vaguely interesting approach of treating the whole World
of Tiers story universe as fictional, but the result felt rather
meh, I remember thinking at the time.

But I'm wondering if one of them answers the following:

And I'm sorry, but I have no idea.

--
Christian "naddy" Weisgerber naddy@mips.inka.de

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In article <6tc58khmi336jg854l5tckrhm3712d1s79@4ax.com>,
Bice <eichler2@comcast.net> wrote:

(snip)

I made it through all five books, although it was a slog. I know
there were two more books written much later on, but despite the fact
that book five left so many threads dangling (including the
whereabouts and fate of the main character of books one and two!), I
have no plans to look for those last two books. But I'm wondering if
one of them answers the following:

Who was the British man seen in the floating palace towards the end of
The Lavalite World? Farmer never names him, and he never directly
appears in the story - he's just seen through a window, and later seen helping one of the bad guys climb into the palace. But the book keeps mentioning him again and again. I thought for sure he was going to
end up being important to the plot, but he just disappears out of the
story. I got the impression that he was supposed to be a real
historical figure, but if the book gave any clues as to who he was
they must have gone right over my head.

Book 6 is very odd (and certainly doesn't answer any of your questions).
I have book 7 in my unread pile ( ... digs through it ...), it appears
to be a continuation of books 3 though 5.

BTW, when I read _The Lavalite World_, I came to the conclusion that it
was a merger of two manuscripts written at different times (e.g., draft
one was done around 1970, and draft two was done in 1976) and the discrepancies between the two were not completely ironed out.

--
"We have advanced to new and surprising levels of bafflement."
Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan describes progress in _Komarr_. -------------------------------------------------------
Robert Woodward robertaw@drizzle.com

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