Philip José Farmer books

Philip Jose Farmer was an American science fiction and fantasy author known for the Riverworld and World of Tiers series, and for pushing genre boundaries with provocative themes.

Anthologies

Title Published Buy on Amazon
The Microcosmic God 1965 Buy
Orbit 3 1967 Buy
Dangerous Visions 1967 Buy
Backdrop of Stars 1968 Buy
Orbit 11 1972 Buy
Alpha 3 1972 Buy
Demon Kind 1973 Buy
Bug-Eyed Monsters 1974 Buy
Continuum 1 1974 Buy
Jack the Knife: Tales of Jack the Ripper 1975 Buy
Weird Heroes Volume 1 1975 Buy
Weird Heroes Volume 2 1975 Buy
Nebula Award Stories Ten 1976 Buy
Weird Heroes Volume 6 1977 Buy
Weird Heroes Volume 8 1977 Buy
Chrysalis Volume 2 1978 Buy
The Arbor House Treasury of Modern Science Fiction / Great Science Fiction of the 20th Century 1980 Buy
Shadows of Sanctuary 1981 Buy
The Monster Book of Monsters 1988 Buy
The Misadventures of Sherlock Holmes 1989 Buy
Semiotext SF 1991 Buy
Tales Of Riverworld 1993 Buy
The Science Fiction Century 1997 Buy
Naked Came the Farmer 1998 Buy
The Worlds of Philip José Farmer: Protean Dimensions 2010 Buy

Dayworld Reading Order

Title Published Buy on Amazon
Dayworld: A Hole in Wednesday 2016 N/A
The Sliced-Crosswise Only-on-Tuesday World 1971 N/A
Dayworld 1985 Buy
Dayworld Rebel 1987 Buy
Dayworld Breakup 1990 Buy

Doc Caliban and Lord Grandrith Reading Order

Title Published Buy on Amazon
A Feast Unknown 1995 Buy
Lord of the Trees 1970 Buy
The Mad Goblin 1970 Buy

Herald Childe Reading Order

Title Published Buy on Amazon
Image of the Beast 1968 Buy
Blown 1969 Buy
Traitor to the Living 1973 Buy

Non-Fiction

Title Published Buy on Amazon
A Rough Knight for the Queen 2020 Buy

Opar Reading Order

Title Published Buy on Amazon
Hadon of Ancient Opar 1974 Buy
Flight to Opar 1976 Buy

Philip Jose Farmer’s The Dungeon Reading Order

Title Published Buy on Amazon
The Black Tower 1988 Buy
The Lake of Fire 1989 Buy
The Hidden City 1990 Buy
The Dungeon 2003 Buy
The Dark Abyss 2016 Buy
Philip José Farmer’s The Dungeon 1988 Buy
The Valley of Thunder 1989 Buy
The Final Battle 1990 Buy
Philip José Farmer’s The Dungeon Vol. 6, The Final Battle 2017 Buy

Philip José Farmer Short Stories/Novellas Reading Order

Title Published Buy on Amazon
Queen of the Deep 1954 Buy
The Black Tower 1988 N/A
How Deep the Grooves 1963 Buy
The Dark Abyss 1989 N/A
The Valley of Thunder 1989 N/A
Heel & The Wounded 2009 Buy
The Lake of Fire 1989 N/A
Rastignac the Devil 2021 Buy
The Hidden City 1990 N/A
The Final Battle 1990 N/A

Philip José Farmer Short Story Collections Reading Order

Title Published Buy on Amazon
They Twinkled Like Jewels 1954 Buy
The Black Tower 1988 N/A
Alley God 1959 Buy
The Dark Abyss 1989 N/A
Strange Relations 1960 Buy
The Valley of Thunder 1989 N/A
Down in the Black Gang 1971 Buy
The Lake of Fire 1989 N/A
The Book of Philip José Farmer 1973 Buy
The Hidden City 1990 N/A
Riverworld War 1980 Buy
The Final Battle 1990 N/A
Father to the Stars 1981 Buy
The Cache 1981 Buy
The Purple Book 1982 Buy
The Grand Adventure 1984 Buy
The Classic Philip Jose Farmer 1964-1973 1984 Buy
Riders of the Purple Wage 1992 Buy
The Best of Philip José Farmer 2006 Buy
Pearls from Peoria 2006 Buy
Up From The Bottomless Pit And Other Stories 2007 Buy
Venus on the Half-Shell and Others 2008 Buy
Tales of the Wold Newton Universe 2013 Buy
Riverworld and Other Stories 2017 Buy
Greatheart Silver and Other Pulp Heroes 2019 Buy
The Man Who Met Tarzan 2021 Buy

Philip José Farmer Standalone Novels Reading Order

Title Published Buy on Amazon
The Green Odyssey 1957 Buy
The Black Tower 1988 N/A
A Woman a Day / The Day of Timestop / Timestop! 1960 Buy
The Dark Abyss 1989 N/A
Flesh 1960 Buy
The Valley of Thunder 1989 N/A
The Lovers 1961 Buy
The Lake of Fire 1989 N/A
Cache from Outer Space 1962 Buy
The Hidden City 1990 N/A
Fire and the Night 1962 Buy
The Final Battle 1990 N/A
Inside Outside 1964 Buy
Tongues of the Moon 1964 Buy
Dare 1965 Buy
Night Of Light 1966 Buy
The Gate of Time / Two Hawks from Earth 1966 Buy
The Day of Timestop 1968 Buy
Lord Tyger 1970 Buy
The Stone God Awakens 1970 Buy
Love Song 1970 Buy
Time’s Last Gift 1972 Buy
The Other Log of Phileas Fogg 1973 Buy
The Wind Whales of Ishmael 1973 Buy
Venus on the Half-Shell 1975 Buy
Ironcastle 1976 Buy
Dark is the Sun 1979 Buy
Jesus on Mars 1979 Buy
The Unreasoning Mask 1981 Buy
Stations of the Nightmare 1982 Buy
Greatheart Silver 1982 Buy
A Barnstormer in Oz 1982 Buy
Nothing Burns in Hell 1988 Buy
The Caterpillar’s Question 1992 Buy
The City Beyond Play 2007 Buy
The Evil in Pemberley House 2009 Buy
Up From The Bottomless Pit 2020 Buy

Riverworld Reading Order

Title Published Buy on Amazon
Le Monde du fleuve 1971 N/A
To Your Scattered Bodies Go 1971 Buy
Auf dem Zeitstrom 1971 N/A
The Fabulous Riverboat 1971 Buy
The Dark Design 1977 Buy
The Magic Labyrinth 1980 Buy
Gli dei del Fiume 1983 N/A
Gods of Riverworld 1983 Buy
River of Eternity 1983 Buy
Human Spirit, Beetle Spirit 1992 Buy
The Merry Men of the Riverworld 1992 Buy

Tarzan Reading Order

Title Published Buy on Amazon
Tarzan Alive 1972 Buy
Doc Savage 1973 Buy
Tarzan and the Dark Heart of Time 1999 Buy

The Further Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes Reading Order

Title Published Buy on Amazon
The Adventure of the Peerless Peer 1974 Buy
War of the Worlds 1975 Buy
The Giant Rat of Sumatra 1976 Buy
Sherlock Holmes and the Railway Maniac 1994 Buy
The Angel of the Opera 1994 Buy
Between the Thames and the Tiber 2011 Buy
The Albino’s Treasure 2015 Buy
Murder at Sorrow’s Crown 2016 Buy
Imagination Theatre’s Sherlock Holmes of Scripts From The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes 2017 Buy
The Improbable Prisoner 2018 Buy
The Devil and the Four 2018 Buy
The Instrument of Death 2019 Buy
The Crusader’s Curse 2020 Buy
Revenge from the Grave 2022 Buy
Deathly Relics 2023 Buy
The Gentleman Burglar 2024 Buy
Sherlock vs Dracula 1978 Buy
The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Stalwart Companions 1978 Buy
The Stalwart Companions 1978 Buy
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Holmes 1979 Buy
The Ectoplasmic Man 1985 Buy
The Seventh Bullet 1992 Buy
The Whitechapel Horrors 1992 Buy
Seance for a Vampire 1994 Buy
The Titanic Tragedy 1996 Buy
The Scroll of the Dead 1998 Buy
The Star of India 1998 Buy
The Haunting of Torre Abbey 2000 Buy
The Man from Hell 2000 Buy
The Veiled Detective 2004 Buy
The Web Weaver 2012 Buy
The Grimswell Curse 2013 Buy
The Devil’s Promise 2014 Buy
The Counterfeit Detective 2016 Buy
The Ripper Legacy 2016 Buy
The White Worm 2016 Buy
The Moonstone’s Curse 2017 Buy
The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: Part 1: 1881-1891 2019 Buy
The Martian Menace 2020 Buy
The Venerable Tiger 2020 Buy
Sherlock Holmes and the Four Kings of Sweden 2021 Buy

Thieves’ World Reading Order

Title Published Buy on Amazon
Den vulgära enhörningen 1980 N/A
Shadows of Sanctuary 1981 Buy
Storm Season 1982 Buy
The Face of Chaos 1983 Buy
Dagger 1988 N/A
Wings of Omen 1984 Buy
The Dead of Winter 1985 Buy
The Shattered Sphere 1986 N/A
Blood Ties 1986 Buy
Shadowspawn 1987 Buy
Aftermath 1987 Buy
The Shadow of Sorcery 1993 Buy
Thieves’ World: Player’s Manual 2005 N/A
The Secret of the Blue Star 2013 Buy
Thieves’ World 1979 Buy
Tales from the Vulgar Unicorn 1980 Buy
Soul of the City 1986 Buy
Uneasy Alliances 1988 Buy
Stealers’ Sky 1989 Buy
Sanctuary 2002 Buy
Turning Points 2002 Buy
Enemies of Fortune 2004 Buy

Wild Adventures Of Doc Savage Reading Order

Title Published Buy on Amazon
Escape from Loki 1991 Buy
Python Isle 1991 Buy
White Eyes 1992 Buy
The Frightened Fish 1992 Buy
The Jade Ogre 1992 Buy
Flight into Fear 1993 Buy
The Whistling Wraith 1993 Buy
The Forgotten Realm 1993 Buy
The Desert Demons 2011 Buy
Horror in Gold 2011 Buy
The Infernal Buddha 2012 Buy
Death’s Dark Domain 2012 Buy
The Miracle Menace 2013 Buy
Skull Island 2013 Buy
Phantom Lagoon 2013 Buy
The War Makers 2014 Buy
The Ice Genius 2014 Buy
The Sinister Shadow 2015 Buy
The Secret of Satan’s Spine 2015 Buy
Glare of the Gorgon 2016 Buy
Empire of Doom 2017 Buy
Mr. Calamity 2018 Buy

World Of Tiers Reading Order

Title Published Buy on Amazon
A Shropshire lad. 1922 N/A
The Maker of Universes 1965 Buy
The Gates of Creation 1966 Buy
Врата творения 1966 N/A
A Private Cosmos 1967 Buy
Личный космос 1967 N/A
Behind the Walls of Terra 1970 Buy
За стенами Терры 1970 N/A
The Lavalite World 1977 Buy
Невъзможен свят 1977 N/A
Red Orc’s Rage 1991 Buy
More Than Fire 1993 Buy

Philip Jose Farmer (1918-2009) was one of science fiction’s most imaginative and controversial authors. He broke into the field in 1952 with “The Lovers,” a novella that dealt frankly with human-alien sexual relationships at a time when such content was taboo in the genre. Throughout his career, Farmer pushed at the boundaries of what science fiction could address, mixing adventure storytelling with provocative ideas about religion, sexuality, and identity.

His two most famous series are Riverworld, which imagines all of humanity resurrected along the banks of a massive river on an alien world, and World of Tiers, about pocket universes created by god-like beings. He was also a pioneer of crossover fiction, creating the Wold Newton family concept that links dozens of fictional characters into a single genealogy. Farmer won three Hugo Awards over the course of his career, including a Lifetime Achievement award. His influence can be seen in later authors who blend pulp adventure traditions with literary ambition.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many books has Philip José Farmer written?

Philip José Farmer has written 232 books across sixteen series.

What was Philip José Farmer's first book?

Philip José Farmer’s first book is A Shropshire lad., published in 1922.

What is the Wold Newton family concept that Philip Jose Farmer created?

Farmer developed the Wold Newton family theory, which proposes that many fictional heroes (Tarzan, Doc Savage, Sherlock Holmes, and others) are all related, descended from people present at a meteorite strike in Wold Newton, Yorkshire, in 1795. This concept has been widely adopted by other authors and pop culture.

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