As an exercise in world building, World of Tiers is very interesting. That's about it, though. I enjoyed it on a pulpy quick read level. However, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone looking for a deep involving novel. The PlotRobert Wolff is a retired linguistics professor looking at homes to buy in Arizona. While inspecting a room alone, a gate to the world of tiers opens before him. He steps through and finds a world where mermaids and nymphs exist. After a few weeks of eating the food and drinking the water, he is young again. That's when the plot really gets going and he tries to figure out what this world is. The GoodThe world of tiers is a pretty cool invention. It's a world shaped like a stepped Myan/Incan pyramid, four steps high. The individual layers are separated from each other, connected only in the middle by massive monoliths. Each layer is massive, containing entire continents.The world exists in a pocket universe, created by an alien race of immense power. It is orbited by one sun and one moon. When the sun goes behind the monoliths in the middle of the world, that's when night occurs.People get from level to level by climbing the nooks and crannies of the massive monoliths in the middle of each level. This is forbidden by the "god" of the world of tiers, though.Most of the inhabitants were kidnapped from earth and their physical bodies altered by the "god" to resemble creatures of earth's myths, such as centaurs and mermaids.All of this is really cool, and very inventive, in my opinion. I liked this world building aspect of the novel the most. The Not-So-GoodThe not-so-good? Pretty much everything else. The book read like a summary of another, longer book. For instance, while climbing the central monoliths, one of the character's girlfriends becomes pregnant and later loses the baby. I didn't really spoil anything here, because this happens in the space of a couple of pages. No psychological ramifications and no blaming or hurt feelings occur. The characters were also not very compelling. There was one who was kind of a trickster, but it was obviously a "mary sue" self insertion character for the author himself. He was a little too perfect and competent to be true. ConclusionIt's a good enough read but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who isn't a big fan of world building. On that alone, it deserves praise. That's about all the praise it deserves, though.
The Maker of Universes, Philip Jose FarmerSpoiler Alert. Following any hyperlinks could lead to spoilers. 4 stars. As I remember it, ages ago it was 5 stars. And I'm sure it could be either. This is Philip Jose Farmer after all. And this World of Tiers series is one of his best, and The Maker of Universes, is the novel that launched the series. The World of Tiers series was also inspirational for Roger Zelanzy's famous fantasy Amber series. An author in Philip Jose Farmer's day was in high demand if he was good. Mr. Farmer was very good and was necessarily prolific.You may read any blurb about this book and learn more than this review They're all good. I take exception with the Goodreads phrase “unlike any science-fiction novel you have ever read, it is wonderfully unique.” Here's why...The Maker of Universes is a connect the dots classic quest plot. There goes “wonderfully unique”, at least in that sense. What makes that little statement true is it is written by the magic that is Philip Jose Farmer. Not only is there the typical adventure after adventure, peril after peril, while the main protagonists strive for their quest goal, which in this case is the “top of the world”... literally. It is a world of tiers. A step pyramid if you will, albeit round I felt. Each tier very much represented something you would be familiar with. Garden of Eden, pre-Columbian American plains, Tudor England, Atlantis... well reading the novel and discovering the portrayal of our beautiful world is part of the journey. Mr. Farmer is a multifaceted person so you get multiple results from this long quest plot. Not only do you quest through multiple tiers, you quest through the growth of Bob Wolff as well. He likely changes the most having arrived on the world of tiers in a most fantastic way from a work a day life on old planet Earth. , but by the end of the novel not only is he changed, you get a nice twist and a bit of mystery in the climax and conclusion. Through most of the novel you think that Wolff is Tonto to Kichaha the trickster, who's a secondary protagonist who is simply remarkable. But Wolff really is the primary character. It is a short read, and you'll want to stick through to the end. Took me a month as I was cycling through 4-6 other books during that time. I recommend it. God willing it will be an ebook at some point with whispersync audio. Just hoping...
What do You think about The Maker Of Universes (1965)?
I didn't really like the book, it seemed very dated, but it was possibly ahead of its time when it came out. However, it fails to hold my interest because it focuses on fighting and adventuring instead of characterization. Some random thoughts: It contains fight scenes that make my eyes glaze over. The bits with the creature where they mention the Lord reminded me of The Island of Doctor Moreau. The people stealing from the lord by sneaking into his palace and getting the dimension hopping devic
—Millguy
Upon receiving the recommendation from my brother John, I pulled the 5 book series from the cramped and overstuffed used bookstore shelf a couple of years ago. It's taken that long to whittle down the Read Pile but after finally completing the John Carter Series and EE Smith's Skylark Trilogy, both pre WWII era literature, it looked like a great time to emerse myself in Philip Jose Farmer's World of Tiers.Having known about Farmer's list of credits; my only other exposure to Farmer was the early 1990's 6 Book Experiment series "The Dungeon" which included 3 different authors taking Jose's story outline and putting Clive Folliot's journey across time, space and the may dimensions on paper. That series was amaxing and including some create characters and imaginative worlds, very much like Maker of Universes.NO SPOILERS HEREThis story starts with Robert Wolffe and his sudden encounter with a portal.....I liked it!
—Jeffrey J
When Robert Wolff found a strange horn in an empty house, he held the key to a different universe. To blow that horn would open up a door through space-time and permit entry to a cosmos whose dimensions and laws were not those our starry galxy knows.For that other universe was a place of tiers, world upon world piled upon each other like the landings of a sky-piercing mountain. The one to blow that horn would ascend those steps, from creation to creation, until he would come face to face with the being whose brain-child it was.But what if that maker of universes was a madman? Or an imposter? Or a super-criminal hiding from the wrath of his own superiors?THE MAKER OF UNIVERSES is unlike any science-fiction novel you have ever read, it is wonderfully unique.
—Gigngogn
