Farewell, Philip Jose Farmer

[filkertom]

Damn. Damn damn damn. One of the legends has fallen. Author Philip Jose Farmer (official page here) has passed away at the age of 91.

Start listing favorites -- we've all got 'em. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Venus on the Half Shell, the Tarzan and Doc Savage pastiches and biographies, the various adventures of Greatheart Silver....

Comments

[jenrose]

Awww... Yes, sad, but 91...that's pretty impressive.

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

"Riders of the Purple Wage," novella dominating the landmark anthology DANGEROUS VISIONS.

[joshuwain.livejournal.com]

His vision of how centaurs and their anatomy would work in a science fiction setting really blew me away. It tweaked portions of my brain and provided a bridge from fantasy into science fiction.

I'll always think fondly of his work and legacy!

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Riverworld, certainly. Somehow World of Tiers just never grabbed me the same way.

And I can never get his alternate persona out of my head: Filfomar, god of rivers. May his waters always flow deep and peaceful.

[mdyesowitch.livejournal.com]

"JC and the Dude Ranch" always makes me giggle.

[phecda.livejournal.com]

My first introduction to Farmer was "Riders of the Purple Wage" in the Dangerous Visions collection. It used to be a dream of mine to turn that into a movie...

[trav13369.livejournal.com]

SONUVABITCH!!

Riverworld (the Sci-Fi movie was crap, even PJF himself, after FIVE MINUTES of seeing it, muttered "Horrible"), and the World of Tiers, I loved. I did a paper on him in a Creativity class at EMU, back in the day. This man pushed mores, sexual and otherwise, to their limits, til they screamed.... and then some more.

I heard he lived in A2 for a while in his youth, while working in the aerospace industry. But his home was always Peoria, IL.

Peter Jairus Frigate, you will be missed. See you on that great Riverboat in the sky!

[ladystarblade.livejournal.com]

For me, it's gotta be the Doc Savage Apocrypha; I'm sadly unfamiliar with most of his other work...

[tomreedtoon.livejournal.com]

And here I thought he'd been dead for a decade already. What a shame.

More than the biographies, the Wold Newton Universe was the greatest thing he did; a nerd's delight, linking all the great fictional characters together as a single family.

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

Phil had been pretty much unable to write for about a decade, IMSC.

[wildcard9.livejournal.com]

For about 10 years, I searched for a book I saw in a used book store in passing but was unable to get at the time: A Barnstormer In Oz, about Dorothy's son. I saw it right before I left the Navy and could not purchase it at the time I saw it. The title and description had me curious to read it. A decade later, I finally found a copy and was surprised to find that it was Philip Jose Farmer. That was my introduction to his work, which I saught out afterwards.

[ravenclaw-eric.livejournal.com]

*WAAAAIIIILLLLLLLL!*

I read all the Riverworld books, even the ones toward the end that seemed, to me, to be all but phoned-in; I also read his bio of Tarzan, and A Barnstormer in Oz. I always liked the idea of the Riverworld. He wrote a sort-of earlier version that I read once; I disremember the title---it's set in Hell.

I only ever met him once, when he was GOH at Iowa's ICon convention; he played Invisible Man for most of the weekend, and I was disappointed, but heard that it was partly because he really wasn't feeling very well.

[hsifyppah.livejournal.com]

I've always had a soft spot for the Dayworld books. So goofy and earnest.

But Barnstormer made me laugh. so. hard.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

Riverworld, natch.

I harbor a deep love for the series he inspired and oversaw, The Dungeon. It fell apart a bit at the end, but by Halford, what a ride!

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

I tried reading Riverworld. TYSBG troubled me with the way women were only in the story to provide historical sexual fantasies for the male protagonists ("Guess who totally did the Virgin Queen last night?"). But when the second book featured as a main plot-point the overwhelming urge black men have to rape white women (to get even with white men)...I put the book down and never touched another thing Farmer ever wrote.

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

Riders of the Purple Wage, Riverworld, Venus... and The City Beyond Play.

[vik_thor]

He died in his sleep. Best way to go IMO.
(and from another mythos, gives him a chance of staying in the Dreaming. :)

It's been probably couple of decades since I've reread anything of his, other than Riverworld series, which I reread a few years ago.

Favorites:
Riverworld series, World of Tiers series.

Riverworld and Other Stories I think was the first book of his I bought (used, coverless, at a yard sale in high school). I remember Volcano the most out of that.

I'm going to have to find/reread Barnstormer in oz. That was the first post Baum Oz book I read. Can't remember anything about it offhand, other than it is an adult Oz.

*raises drink in memory*

[hvideo.livejournal.com]

I liked the first 3 in the World of Tiers series.

crapcrapcrapcrap

[triplemare.livejournal.com]

The Tiers series was one of the first SF novels I ever read.
:(

[mythdude.livejournal.com]

Damn....what a guy. :(