Philip Farmer - Venus on the Half-Shell

“Savage Shadow” as by Maxwell Grant. (Weird Heroes, Volume Eight, ed. Byron Preiss, Jove/HBJ Books, November 1977. Maxwell Grant was the house pen name used by the authors of The Shadow pulp magazine and paperback stories.)

“It’s the Queen of Darkness, Pal” as by Rod Keen. (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, ed. Edward L. Ferman, August 1978; revised version published in Riverworld and Other Stories, Berkley Books, 1979 as “The Phantom of the Sewers.” Rod Keen is a fictional author from Richard Brautigan’s The Abortion: An Historical Romance 1966.)

“Who Stole Stonehenge?” as by Jonathan Swift Somers III. (Farmerphile: The Magazine of Philip José Farmer, no. 2, eds. Christopher Paul Carey and Paul Spiteri, October 2005. Although this one-page fragment of an unfinished Ralph von Wau Wau story was published under Farmer’s name, the original manuscript is attributed to Jonathan Swift Somers III; see the entry above for “A Scarletin Study.”)

Farmer has cited Paul Radin’s The Trickster, a book about the role of the mischievous archetype recurrent in mythology and folklore, as one of his influences; and among the stories at hand it is easy to see why. By assuming the role of a fictional author, Farmer dons a shamanic mask and enters the sublime creative world where fictional characters take on a life more real than our own.

A long-held theory goes that Farmer unconsciously hatched his fictional-author series, as well as penned his many pastiches, in an attempt to get over a period of writer’s block which had descended upon him during the early to mid-1970s. I do not doubt it; although, if true, I—doubtless along with all of Farmer’s readers—am grateful that his muse found such a scintillating, creative means to overcome its obstacle.

But there is another possibility, more fun to contemplate and more in tune with the spirit of the fictional-author concept: Perhaps Farmer’s muse did not merely find a clever mechanism to jumpstart itself. What if the fictional-author period was not a hoax after all, but instead Farmer, donning his shamanic mask, did indeed glimpse into another universe? One in which William S. Burroughs wrote Tarzan of the Apes, and John H. Watson hobnobbed at the same gentlemen’s club as A. J. Raffles and Edward Malone. Where Kurt Vonnegut may have asked Farmer’s Riverworld counterpart, Peter Jairus Frigate, for permission to write a World of Tiers novel. A universe in which you and I are merely fictional characters in the works of a Grand Master of Science Fiction.

Yes, paging through this new edition of Venus on the Half-Shell , I think I too am getting a glimpse through the doors of perception.

Thank you, Philip José Farmer, for opening them.

Christopher Paul Carey is the coauthor with Philip José Farmer of The Song of Kwasin, and the author of Exiles of Kho, a prelude to the Khokarsa series. His short fiction may be found in such anthologies as The Worlds of Philip José Farmer 1: Protean Dimensions, The Worlds of Philip José Farmer 2: Of Dust and Soul, Tales of the Shadowmen: The Vampires of Paris, Tales of the Shadowmen: Grand Guignol , and The Avenger: The Justice, Inc. Files . He is an editor with Paizo Publishing on the award-winning Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, and the editor of three collections of Farmer’s fiction. Visit him online at www.cpcarey.com.

PHILIP JOSÉ FARMER

Brand-new editions of classic novels from one of the greatest science-fiction writers of the 20th century. Each novel contains unique bonus material from well-known Farmer experts and fans.

WOLD NEWTON SERIES

The Other Log of Phileas Fogg

PREHISTORY

Time’s Last Gift

Hadon of Ancient Opar

SECRETS OF THE NINE: PARALLEL UNIVERSE

A Feast Unknown

Lord of the Trees

The Mad Goblin

Tales of the Wold Newton Universe

GRANDMASTER SERIES

Lord Tyger

The Wind Whales of Ishmael

Flesh

JAMES P. BLAYLOCK

The award-winning author returns with his first full-length steampunk novel in twenty years!

The Aylesford Skull

Professor Langdon St. Ives, brilliant but eccentric scientist and explorer, is at home in Aylesford with his family. Not far away a steam launch is taken by pirates, the crew murdered, and a grave is possibly robbed of the skull. The suspected grave robber, the infamous Dr. Ignacio Narbondo, is an old nemesis of St. Ives. When Narbondo kidnaps his son Eddie, St. Ives races into London in pursuit.

Also available:

Homunculus

Lord Kelvin’s Machine

“Blaylock is better than anyone else at showing us the magic that secretly animates our world….” — Tim Powers

“Blaylock is a singular American fabulist.” — William Gibson

SHERLOCK HOLMES

BY GUY ADAMS

The Breath of God

A body is found crushed to death in the London snow. There are no footprints anywhere near. It is almost as if the man was killed by the air itself. This is the first in a series of attacks that sees a handful of London’s most prominent occultists murdered. While pursuing the case, Holmes and Watson have to travel to Scotland to meet with the one person they have been told can help: Aleister Crowley.

The Army of Doctor Moreau

Following the trail of several corpses seemingly killed by wild animals, Holmes and Watson stumble upon the experiments of Doctor Moreau. Determined to prove Darwin’s evolutionary theories, through vivisection and crude genetic engineering Moreau is creating animal hybrids. In his laboratory, Moreau is building an army of “beast men” in order to gain control of the government…

CAPTAIN NEMO

The Fantastic Adventures of a Dark Genius

BY KEVIN J. ANDERSON

When André Nemo’s father dies suddenly, the young adventurer takes to the sea and is accompanied by his lifelong friend, Jules Verne. Verne is thwarted in his yearning for action, while Nemo continues to travel across continents…

THE MARTIAN WAR

BY KEVIN J. ANDERSON

What if the Martian invasion was not entirely the product of H. G. Wells’s vivid imagination? What if Wells witnessed something that spurred him to write The War of the Worlds as a warning? From drafty London flats to the steamy Sahara, to the surface of the moon and beyond, The Martian War takes the reader on an exhilarating journey with Wells and his companions.

THE ANNO DRACULA SERIES

Anno Dracula

The Bloody Red Baron

Dracula Cha Cha Cha

Johnny Alucard

BY KIM NEWMAN

Brand-new editions of Kim Newman’s critically acclaimed alternate history series, featuring additional never-before-seen material.

“Compulsory reading… Glorious.” — Neil Gaiman