Phillip Jose Farmer has died. For those of you who don’t know, he was a science fiction author. He wasn’t one who ever managed to make it out into the public consciousness like Bradbury, Asimov or Heinlein, but he still wrote very good books.
Really, the only books of his I’ve ever read are the Riverworld series. This fascinating series concerns every human over the age of five who died from 10,000 BC or so up to 1985 or so, finding themselves revived on the banks of a great river. It’s an interesting concept and very entertaining and, if nothing else, got me interested in Sir Richard Burton (whom I initially thought was married to Elizabeth Taylor). He also invented the concept of the Wold Newton universe, which I find particularly entertaining.
Sadly, I haven’t much to say about this great man of science fiction, except that I hope that for him, there’s good fishing along the river!
March 3, 2009 at 12:47 pm
I didn’t know this! Poor Philip! I love his work. I’m going to bring you Dayworld to read and love. By far his finest, I think. Better than the Riverworld. Agreed, the concept on that was better than the actual story.
March 4, 2009 at 12:04 am
I look forward to reading it!