THREE BY FARMER

Philip Jose Farmer (January 26th, 1918-February 25th, 2009), was, in my estimation (along with many others), one of the great American science fiction writers of the twentieth-century. I recently read three of his novels and while none of them achieve any degree of greatness, they are all interesting works that are very much worth reading by both hardcore Farmer fans and neophytes.
HADON OF ANCIENT OPAR (1974), is an adventure novel set in prehistoric Africa about the warrior king Hadon, from the ancient city of Opar. Opar, you may recall, was the fabulous lost city full of treasure, brutish man-apes and the breathtakingly lovely La, that was discovered by Tarzan in his second adventure, THE RETURN OF TARZAN (1915). Farmer borrows the city from creator Edgar Rice Burroughs, sets the action thousands of years in the past (while doing a tremendous amount of world-building) and let's the narrative rip.

The title is a bit mis-leading. While Hadon is indeed a citizen of ancient Opar, almost none of the action takes place there. Instead, Hadon and a small army of athletes set out for another city to compete in a series of games and contests in which there can be only one victor. The games become deadly as they progress until the final two contestants must face each other in a sword-fight. Hadon wins (of course) but before he can claim his prize (the throne of the kingdom and the hand of a lovely princess), he is forced to embark on an epic quest to find some legendary beings who may or may not be gods. Hadon and his companions eventually find the beings (they're only mortals after all) and return to the city. But when they arrive, they find the evil king ruling with an iron fist and the princess (his daughter), imprisoned. Hadon and his mates are soon jailed themselves and they're forced to engineer a daring escape from prison before a volcano erupts and destroys the entire city.

HADON OF ANCIENT OPAR is a good adventure novel but Farmer fills a quarter of the pages of the book with time lines, glossaries and other elements of world building that I didn't bother to read. I would have much preferred to see those pages used to give us more of Hadon's adventures, but that would have to wait until the publication of FLIGHT TO OPAR (1976) Note: I have a copy of this book and will hopefully get around to reading it soon.

Next up is VENUS ON THE HALF SHELL (1975), a science fiction novel written by "Kilgore Trout". Trout is the fictional hack science fiction author that is referenced in the pages of Kurt Vonnegut's SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE (1969) as well as other Vonnegut novels. Farmer's chief conceit here is, just what would a science fiction novel "written" by Kilgore Trout actually look like? VENUS is the answer. The novel recalls GULLIVER'S TRAVELS (1726) and anticipates THE HITCH-HIKERS GUIDE TO THE GALAXY (1979) as it recounts the picaresque adventures of Simon Wagstaff, the sole survivor of the destruction of Earth, who journeys throughout the universe with this three companions, a beautiful alien robot, a dog and an owl, searching for the answer to the cosmic question: why are we born only to suffer and die?  VENUS riffs on a variety of sf tropes and achieves a degree of meta-fiction when Wagstaff recounts science fiction stories written by other fictional sf authors.

It's an uneven journey, with some of the satire and humor hitting the desired targets, while other bits of business simply fall flat. Ambitious and daring, VENUS ON THE HALF-SHELL caused quite a stir when it was originally published, with many readers and reviewers believing that "Kilgore Trout" was a real person until Farmer's ruse was eventually uncovered.

Finally, there's DARE (1965), which answers the eternal question: whatever happened to the lost colony of Roanoke, Virginia?. Turns out the inhabitants of that colony were captured by aliens and taken to another planet to live. The human descendants of the original colonists live in an uneasy truce with the natives of the planet, creatures that recall creatures from ancient Earth mythology and take the form of werewolves, dragons, satyrs and human/horse hybrids. The hero of the story, a young human male, finds himself in love with a beautiful alien woman, a love which is strictly forbidden. Before long the humans launch an all out war on the aliens only to be stymied in the third act by the deus ex machina of a star ship from Earth landing on the planet. DARE is nothing special but it's a good, quick read full of culture clashes, adventure, and undying love.