A PRIVATE COSMOS

Sphere paperback, 1973. Cover artwork by Peter Goodfellow.

Rear cover and synopsis.

THE GATES OF CREATION

Sphere paperback, 1973. Cover artwork by Peter Goodfellow.

Rear cover and synopsis.

MAKER OF UNIVERSES

Sphere paperback, 1973. Cover artwork by Peter Goodfellow.

Rear cover and synopsis.

THE MAKER OF UNIVERSES

Ace paperback, 1965. Cover by Jack Gaughan.

NIGHT OF LIGHT

Berkley Medallion paperback, October 1977 - sixth printing. Cover
painting by Vincent Di Fate.

"A WORLD GONE BERSERK 

Every seven years, the placid planet of Dante's Joy becomes a waking nightmare of death, deformity and madness. To escape, the populace has the choice of Sleeping - lying drugged in their tomblike houses - or taking the Chance - staying awake and going abroad while their world goes berserk. They become what their innermost longings dictate, whether it be a beast locked in the vilest bowels of depravity, or a supreme being raised to the flowering serenity of truth and light. Thousands are mutilated, killed, transformed into monstrous things. John Carmody, a conscienceless exile from Earth, arrogantly chooses to take the Chance. 

Reeling, shrieking his fear and despair, Carmody confronts the Night of Light, the unknown and unknowable..."

THE MAGIC LABYRINTH

Granada / Panther SF paperback, 1982. Cover illustration by
Melvyn Grant.

"Here all mysteries revealed, all quests completed, in the fabulous planet of Riverworld 

THE MAGIC LABYRINTH 

is the most herald science fiction event of recent times. It is the culminating achievement of the epoch-making Riverworld Series which has been pronounced the most daring, wide-ranging and speculative in the annals of science fiction. Here Philip José Farmer concludes the adventures of his all-star cast - Sir Richard Burton, Mark Twain, Jack London, Cyrano de Bergerac, Hermann Goering, Peter Frigate and literall everyone who has ever lived - all resurrected now along the banks of an enormous river on a mysterious planet known as Riverworld."

THE LOVERS

Corgi paperback, 1982. Cover painting by Jim Burns.

"Escaping the religious tyranny of a 31st-century Earth by a fluke assignment to the planet of Ozagen, linguist Hal Yarrow found that the worst of Earth had followed him - Pornsen, his personal Guardian Angel, vigilant for any evidence of a sin or wrong thinking. 

Conditioned by a lifetime of submission, Yarrow would have accepted Pornsen's constant spying as an unpleasant necessity, had it not been for Jeanette, the beautiful but dangerously different fugitive he found hiding in the ancient ruins..."

THE STONE GOD AWAKENS

Granada / Panther SF paperback, 1979 reprint. Cover painting by
Bruce Pennington.

"MILLIONS OF YEARS AFTER MAN'S EXTINCTION - ONE MAN SURVIVES... 

Ulysses Singing Bear was a scientist back in 1985. But an experiment with matter molecules backfired - and he became 'petrified'. Millions of years later he 'awakens'. But the world has changed - drastically - and he finds he is worshipped as a god by people no longer human. Hoping to find a human female with whom to start his race again, he sets out. But there is an obstacle - The Tree, Wurutana arch enemy of the Stone God's people, the mightiest tree ever known, whose branches touch the heavens and whose roots clasp hell. Ullyssses-turned-god must conquer The Tree and the weird race it shelters, move heaven and hell - no easy task, even for a god..."

TIME'S LAST GIFT

Granada / Panther SF paperback, 1979 reprint. Cover illustration by
Geoff Cummings.

"12,000 B.C. 

They were four trained scientists, each of them skilled in several disciplines - because this was an opportunity that would never occur again. There would never be another chance for men from the world of 2070 A.D. to examine in person the world of 12,000 B.C. What they learned and taped would be the only record ever made of this dim, enigmatic period of prehistory. But absolutely no one in the world of 2070 or in the borrowed time of 12,000 B.C. could have imagined what the tapes would reveal..."

THE OTHER LOG OF PHILEAS FOGG

1973 DAW Books paperback. Artwork by Jack Gaughan.

"Philip José Farmer won the Hugo for the best SF novel of last year. His study of the background of Tarzan made feature headlines in the news. Now in his latest novel he turns his literary wizardry to the astounding science fiction story Jules Verne did not tell in Around The World In Eighty Days. 

Who was Phileas Fogg really - this man whose origins were shrouded in mystery and whose actions were guided as if by clockwork? How could he compute the probabilities of future events so accurately? 

The Other Log Of Phileas Fogg is a thoroughly enthralling novel of what went on behind the scenes during Fogg's unprecedented trip - in which not only do two alien races contend for Earth's mastery, but you will meet some even more famous characters you never suspected were involved in the globe-girdling race!"

STRANGE RELATIONS

Granada paperback, 1982. Illustration by George Underwood.

"If you thought your relations were strange...Come and meet Hugo award-winner Philip José Farmer's strange relations - and outstanding collection of brilliantly disturbing stories where man meets alien in a weird variety of ways. The results of these encounters will shock, startle and astound you as only the acclaimed author of the Riverworld saga can."

Contents:

Mother

Daughter 

Father

Son

My Sister's Brother

STRANGE RELATIONS

Panther SF paperback, 1973. Artist uncredited.

"Philip José Farmer is one of the handful of authors who made science fiction grow up. Unlike so many other sf writers, he has never been afraid to explore to the furthest limits of the bizarre, terrifying and grotesque the implications of man's contact with completely alien life-forms in outer space. In this outstanding collection of brilliantly disturbing stories man meets alien in a weird variety of ways. The results of these encounters will shock, startle and astound you. They will also open your mind to a new awareness of the rance of experience available to man in an infinite universe..."

Contents:

Mother
Daughter
Father
Son
My Sister's Brother

Today was definitely a day for oddball book covers - I bought this at the same time (and place) that I got Philip Bedford Robinson's Masque Of A Savage Mandarin.

BEHIND THE WALLS OF TERRA

Sphere SF paperback, 1978 reprint. Cover painting
by Melvyn Grant.

"Behind the walls of Terra lay a secret no man could be allowed to learn. But Kickaha - the Earth-born adventurer of the Tiered Worlds - had to uncover that secret, or watch his home world destroyed. 

Kickaha was returning to earth from the World of Tiers, the many-levelled universe of the god-like lords, that he had entered many years ago as Paul Janus Finnegan. Now he had returned to a world he no longer knew, to find it ruled by Red Orc, a lord jealous of his personal domain and hostile to intruders. Yet Kickaha had to stay alive in order to defeat the deadly enemy that threatened Rarth and the other Worlds of Tiers - the 'Beller', the malignant creature that was the mind-essence of a rebel lord."

THE DARK DESIGN

Grafton paperback, 1988 reprint. Cover by Joe Petagno.

"Who are the weavers of the dark design? The myriad dead of thirty thousand centuries have awakened to find themselves resurrected, naked and hairless, on the banks of the great river which winds itself round the awe-inspiring planet Riverworld. A few resourceful and intrepid individuals attempt to trace the source of the river, among them Sir Richard Francis Burton, Mark Twain and Peter Jairus Frigate. Together they seek to find some purpose to the dark design in which they find themselves enmeshed..."

TO YOUR SCATTERED BODIES GO

Granada / Panther SF paperback, 1980. Cover by Joe Petagno
(thanks: Egrove).

"WELCOME TO RIVERWORLD 

It is not like our world - or any world that can be imagined by anyone but Philip José Farmer. It is huge and mysterious. It has a central river, rimmed by mountains, with a hidden source and an unknown end. Reborn there is every last soul who ever lived on earth - from prehistoric apemen to moondwelling future civilizations. Reborn there is Sir Richard Francis Burton, translator of The Arabian Knights, explorer, brawler, scholar, womanizer - adventurer. His quest to discover the end of the river, the meaning of the world's existence - and lovely Alice Hargreaves (the real-life model for Alice In Wonderland) form a science fiction adventure that is already recognized as a classic."