What is Digg?49 Comments
- aethelberga, on 02/25/2009, -0/+17The Riverworld concept is one of my faves in SF. 'To Your Scattered Bodies Go' is a book everyone should read.
- sjvn, on 02/25/2009, -2/+17Why should you care?
See:
http://www.locusmag.com/Features/2008/08/yesterday ...
for a good overview of his stories. - bioncinola, on 02/26/2009, -0/+12His riverworld series was enchanting - a realm were your afterlife consisted of travelling down many rivers and emerging reborn on their banks over and over again.
May your river carry you to us again, Philip. - crystalblue69, on 02/25/2009, -1/+10aw i love riverworld =/
- inactive, on 02/26/2009, -0/+9Like so many other Sci-Fi writers from the golden age his work has been so under-rated.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Age_of_Science ... - linuxv, on 02/25/2009, -1/+9Read the book - skip the sci-fi channel 'movie' - uggggh
- rebrad, on 02/26/2009, -0/+8This is a sad day. We have lost one of the great storytellers.
- RobotBuddha, on 02/26/2009, -0/+7Man, there goes the creator of so much of my youth. Riverworld was one of the books that resparked my love of science fiction in high school. It was also, now that I think of it, possibly one of the first things which made me consider on some level "What if there is no god and the only life we have is what we can fight to claim with scientific advances in medicine"
Though I'm less sad for his death than I might otherwise be for the fact that his words will continue to speak to people long after most of us are forgotten. It's going to be a very long lasting monument to his life. - Sornos, on 02/26/2009, -0/+7I love his short stories. We lost a good one.
- TheCash, on 02/26/2009, -0/+6Five bucks says it was that god awful SciFi network adaptation of Riverworld that put him in the grave.
- sfury, on 02/25/2009, -0/+5Damn, I never finished the series and I absolutely loved what I had read from them. :(
- Dynamoo, on 02/26/2009, -0/+5Kilgore Trout. Well, not the real Kilgore Trout. Except of course that Kilgore Trout doesn't exist and Philip José Farmer does. Or did. Ah well, he can argue it out with Kurt Vonnegut if there's an afterlife. Come to think of it, Vonnegut will be really cross if there IS an afterlife. Oh dear.
Not quite the last of his particular generation of pioneering authors, but the door is closing fast. Who is left from his contempories? Ray Bradbury, I guess.. - hazello, on 02/26/2009, -0/+4I feel bad 'digging' that. His books are great!
- byikes, on 02/26/2009, -0/+4Loved those books, Thanks.
- Senorchili, on 02/26/2009, -0/+4Goodnight Scifi man
- woodrail, on 02/26/2009, -0/+4A great man
- RobotBuddha, on 02/26/2009, -0/+4Oh *****! For some reason I thought Chalker did the Tiers books. Now there's a series that was both beautifully thought out, and oddly obscure. I think I'm going through his list of books and adding to my 'toread' list. It's obviously been far too long since I've read his works.
- alphgeek, on 02/26/2009, -2/+6All right, we've heard you. You don't like them, that's fine. Now shut the ***** up.
- StephanCom, on 02/26/2009, -0/+3Oh, how sad :(
I spoke to him on the phone once. - brightscreamer, on 02/26/2009, -0/+3So it goes.
- wwco, on 02/26/2009, -0/+3His nephew, Danny Adams, also a published author, has written a nice piece with a little extra personal insight into the man and his life.
http://madwriter.livejournal.com/665805.html - grendelboogie, on 02/26/2009, -1/+4@sjvn, thanks for that link. We will miss him. The whole Riverworld blew my young high school mind when I first read it. "Riders of the Purple Wage" is in my top 20 SF short stories of all time. Maybe top 20 of all time period.
The man had a brilliant command of language and synthesis. I never heard of the Tarzan as written by William Burroughs story; I have GOT to read that. - LightUrple, on 02/26/2009, -0/+3I read the whole series. The first book is definitely the best.
- musicbear, on 02/26/2009, -0/+3His Tarzan vs Doc Savage porn book 'A Feast Unknown' was pretty off the hook. It gave a whole new meaning to 'crossing swords' back in the day.
- JiMiThInG, on 02/26/2009, -0/+2Been a rough couple of years for good authors. First Jordon, then Crichton.. RIP
- RealmDown, on 02/26/2009, -0/+3When you are dying, remind yourself when you realize no one cares.
- Otto, on 02/26/2009, -0/+3The movie was rather poor, IMO, because they left so much out and added a bunch of stuff that came out of nowhere. But then that's always the way of it. Originally they were going to do it as a miniseries, and that would have been much better because it would have given them the necessary screen time to do it properly.
- LightUrple, on 02/26/2009, -0/+2How can the article not even mention Riverworld once?
- johnny23, on 02/26/2009, -0/+2A tragedy for us, having lost a great story teller. I got hooked on his stories by first reading "Maker of Universes" from his World of Tiers books. Now I want to dig them out and re-read them all over again.
- thanakar, on 02/26/2009, -0/+2It was one river by the way...
- pyrator, on 02/26/2009, -0/+2Except then he'll be called Peter Jairus Frigate
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Jairus_Frigate - whiledo, on 03/25/2009, -0/+1I've still only read his novel _Dark is the Sun_ (Riverworld is on my eventual list). That novel was a great, somewhat pulpy sci-fi. Still one of my favorite memories of books I read growing up.
http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Sun-Philip-Jose-Farmer/ ... - aladrin, on 02/26/2009, -0/+2Don't. His fans deserve to know of his passing and mourn. Digging is how you spread info, not how you show support of the info.
- fragomatik, on 02/26/2009, -0/+1RIP Mr Farmer, may we see you on the shores of that fabulous river when our time comes...
He was truly a giant among the early science fiction greats. He broke so many taboos, pushed the envelope in so many ways; he elevated the genre from adolescence to adulthood. The first author to seriously tackle the subject of human/alien sex, in the short-story "The Lovers". He was fantastically prolific. Nearly everyone speaks of the Riverboat series - a genuine classic, but there's so much more! There's the surreal "Jesus On Mars" , the blistering action of the "World Of Tiers", and the hallucinogenic, twisted world of Harold Childe. So many wonderful stories written by this man! - LightUrple, on 02/26/2009, -1/+2I actually saw the movie first on sci-fi. I kind of liked it and it seemed like such a cool concept. I immediately looked for the book it was based on and loved it even more.
- Rivetgeek, on 02/26/2009, -0/+1Spider Robinson is a god and will never die.
- cupofkona, on 02/26/2009, -0/+1All his wonderful books. I was crazy for Riverworld, but really was about all his others too!!!
Hope the movie adaptations coming in the next decades do his vision proper! I will always remember. - raz98, on 02/26/2009, -0/+1Almost one year ago Arthur C Clarke and now Farmer :(
I loved his Dayworld series when I was a kid, and later I did the same with Riverworld... - LightUrple, on 02/26/2009, -0/+1Well like I said, I saw the movie before I read the book, so I didn't realize they changed stuff or left stuff out. I seem to remember reading that they were going to make it into a series and the tv movie was the pilot, but I'm not sure.
I don't know if any movie could do the book justice. Maybe a series of movies or a tv series which takes place in the Riverworld but doesn't have anything to do with the books could work. There are so many stories to be told in Riverworld. - alphgeek, on 02/26/2009, -1/+2Read his Dayworld series too, another great det of stories.
- JackSrenton, on 02/27/2009, -0/+1dont forget Clarke! Or was that last year...
- spriggig, on 02/26/2009, -0/+1I read and enjoyed the Riverworld series in high school. I remember I could predict that a character would be killed off soon after they fulfilled their usefulness to the plot. Far from a detriment to the story, I looked forward to the imaginative death to come.
- callmebwana, on 02/27/2009, -0/+1Riders of the purple wage is brilliant, and prophetic.
- Taedirk, on 02/26/2009, -0/+0Huh. I was just reading the Callihan's story with Josie Bauer in it this afternoon...
- inactive, on 02/26/2009, -5/+1Remind me why I should care if a 91 year old guy dies again?
- gyrfalcon, on 02/26/2009, -8/+1You first
- gyrfalcon, on 02/26/2009, -8/+1Riverworld is pretty dumb (book & movie)... then again it's a lot better than the Supernatural/Ghost/Horror crap the Sci-Fi channel plays.
It seems even semi-decent sci-fi writers still produce crap, like 'The Number of the Beast'. - gyrfalcon, on 02/26/2009, -9/+1aw i hate you >:]
- gyrfalcon, on 02/26/2009, -10/+1both suck, but thanks for the suggestion.
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