"The Lavalite World" by Philip Jose Farmer (1977)

"Orc removed a little black book from a pocket, opened it, consulted a page, said something that sounded like gibberish, and the door opened.  He replaced the book and stood to one side as the cage rolled into a large room.  It stopped in the exact center."

The Lavalite World is, for all intents and purposes, the last book in Farmer's World of Tiers series.  By some accounts, there are two other books in this series: Red Orc's Rage and More Than Fire.  But Red Orc's Rage is only tangentially connected to The World of Tiers, and More Than Fire was written so long after The Lavalite World that one could easily regard it as apocryphal.  

The Lavalite World, although written a whopping 7 years after Behind the Walls of Terra, picks up where the previous book left off.  Kickaha and Anana are still on the Lavalite World, and still trying to foil the schemes of Red Orc and Urthona.

The writing in this novel is much more mature than that seen in previous installments, though there are misspellings, and some embarrassing grammar ("much potentialities").  Pacing is no longer an issue, the author does a better job of foreshadowing, and the characters' motivations are clear throughout.  The ending of this book, which is (for all intents and purposes) the end of the series, also seems much less arbitrary.  Farmer put a lot more thought into The Lavalite World, and it shows.

And I've got to say, you don't get more 70s than a science fiction novel about five people trapped inside a virtual lava lamp.  There's even a black character who says things that white people think black people ought to say, and an escape sequence near the end that's delightfully weird.  In many ways it's a throwback to the only other good book in the series, The Gates of Creation, but it's also its own creature, playing by a newer and more interesting set of rules.

The Lavalite World isn't high art by any stretch of the imagination, but it's a solid book that deserves to be read.  No, it's not The Godmakers.  No, it's not The Eden Cycle.  No, it's not V.A.L.I.S.  But as adventure stories go, it's one of the better efforts by one of the less famous science fiction writers.  And while I can't recommend The World of Tiers as a series, I can recommend this book without any reservations.

"Behind the Walls of Terra" by Philip Jose Farmer (1970)

Who says science fiction can't be homoerotic?

"'And I could not go to the men who had carried out my orders and say, 'Here I am, your own true Lord!  Obey me and kill that fool who is now giving you orders!'  I would have been shot down at once, because Urthona had described me to his servants, and they thought I was the enemy of their leader.'"

Behind the Walls of Terra is the fourth book in Philip Jose Farmer's World of Tiers series.  The first book, The Maker of Universes, the second book, The Gates of Creation, and the third book, A Private Cosmos have all been reviewed here.  After this entry there is only one more book in the series - A Lavalite World. 

In this installment, Kickaha and Anana journey back to Earth as they chase the last of the Black Bellers.  Jadawin/Wolff and his lover Chryseis have preceded them through the earthbound gate, and eventually all four must contend with Red Orc, the Lord of Earth.

Behind the Walls of Terra is MUCH better than the previous book in the series, though a sense of suspense is largely absent from the book.  The characters are handled better; their actions seem believable, but it's hard to care much about them.  They are primarily action figures, which would have been fine if the plot had been better thought out. 

More foreshadowing would have also done wonders for this book.  As it is, the ending just kind of happens, and there's no real twist at the end which would have made the book much better.  There are some allusions made to Kickaha's "true parentage," but the nature of this parentage - along with the whereabouts of both Wolff and Chryseis - are abandoned to the book's sequel.

And what are the "walls" of Terra, exactly?  The book makes no mention of them!

Anyway, it's an improvement over A Private Cosmos.  Hopefully the last book in the series, A Lavalite World, is better still.

"A Private Cosmos" by Philip Jose Farmer (1968)

"'Now the scientists had originally constructed the Beller so that it was purely automatic.  It had no mind of its own; it was a device only.  When placed on a man's head, it detected a man's skin potential and automatically extruded two extremely thin but rigid needles.  These bored through the skull and into the brain.'"

A Private Cosmos is the third book in Farmer's World of Tiers series.  The first book, The Maker of Universes, and the second book, The Gates of Creation, have also been reviewed here. 

In a A Private Cosmos, Wolff's adventurer friend Kickaha takes center stage as a malignant form of artificial intelligence threatens the tier-shaped world that Wolff created.  In his battle Kickaha is joined by Anana, Wolff's sister, and also by the half-insane Podarge, the "harpy" introduced in The Maker of Universes.

As science fiction novels go, it's fairly arbitrary and nonsensical.  As an adventure story, it's readable but not involving.  Unlike the two previous novels in the series, there seems to be little internal logic to this one, and the author seems to be making everything up as he goes along.  An obstacle is presented, the characters overcome it, but the manner in which they overcome the obstacle rarely arises from the events which preceded it, or from some larger set of principles that one could deduce from commonalities present in both our world and the World of Tiers.

In the end, the kind of internal logic which A Private Cosmos lacks is what separates an indifferent novel from a good one.  It's like a chess game played between the author and the reader, or a chess game played between the author and himself.  The rules of engagement ought to be obvious, and they should be made clear from the beginning.  A good author will then use these rules to create surprise, or suspense, or a sense of tension in the plot, or even turn these rules on their head by the end of the story.  But the rules will remain rules, and not just a set of conditions that the author adds to as he (or she) goes along.  This is the biggest problem in A Private Cosmos: the rules of the game - if there are any - are never explained.

And then there are the analogies present in the book.  Throughout the narrative, Farmer (through Kickaha) compares the World of Tiers to Earth, and this draws the reader out of the narrative flow.  Even worse, it makes the World of Tiers seem far less alien, and far more artificial.  The world presented in the book could have been presented in far more general language - sans earthy analogies - and it would have come across much stronger.

But oh well.  Again, taken as an adventure story it's not terrible.  It's just not very good.  I'm hoping the next book in the series, Behind the Walls of Terra, improves upon its predecessor.

"The Gates of Creation" by Philip Jose Farmer

"...the Lords have inherited their weapons.  What they haven't inherited or taken from others, they cannot get.  The race has lost its ancient wisdom and skill; it has become users, consumers, not creators.  So, a Lord must use what he has.  And if these weapons do not cover every contingency, if they leave holes in the armor, then they can be penetrated.

"There is another aspect to this.  The Lords fight for their lives and fight to kill each other.  But most have lived too long.  They weary of everything.  They want to die.  Deep in the abyss of their minds, below the thousands of strata of the years of too much power and too little love, they want to die.  And so, there are cracks in the walls."

"The Gates of Creation" is the second book in Farmer's World of Tiers series, and was first published in 1966.  I have yet to read the other books in this series.

The novel is centered around Robert Wolff, also known as Jadawin, a member of a race called the Lords.  The Lords are godlike beings, who maintain their godhood through technologies others have invented.  The Lords, powerful enough to remain virtually immortal and to create entire universes, lack the scientific understanding upon which their technologies are based.  Their machines allow them to do wondrous things, but they are like children playing with toys, unconcerned with how their actions influence others.

The Lords perpetually war against one another, and all seek to overthrow their father, Urizen, who sits over and above the World of Tiers they have created.  Urizen sets traps for his children, and delights in pitting one sibling off against another.

At the beginning of the novel, Urizen abducts Wolff's concubine, Chryseis, and forces Wolff and several other Lords into an open confrontation.  Early on the Lords are deprived of their miraculous devices, and must rely upon Wolff to lead them.  Wolff, having learned much from a brief stay on Earth, possesses a practical knowledge that all of the other Lords have lost.

In tone, the novel resembles a Robert E. Howard story, with bits of "science" thrown in for good measure.  The characters are all lustful and larger than life, and the action flows seamlessly from beginning to end.  It's definitely not the deepest sci-fi novel I've ever read, but I never felt like it was boring.  It's a lot like reading a video game, with each chapter representing another level of the game.  

I plan on reading the other books in this series, and I enjoy Farmer's more sexualized take on the science fiction genre.  While "Gates of Creation" won't blow your mind in the way that "God Emperor of Dune" or "Lies, Inc." will, it offers a well-written adventure story, highlighted by gods who are engagingly human.