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Published for the first time anywhere, the Restored Edition of Philip Jos Farmer's Flight to Opar features nearly 4,000 words that were cut from Farmer's original manuscript when the novel was published in 1976. This new Meteor House edition is the first and only publication of the novel ever to include the excised material, which encompasses long passages of narrative, dialogue, and rich world-building details on Ancient Opar and the civilization of Khokarsa that readers have never show more previously been able to enjoy―until now. The Restored Edition of Flight to Opar also features rare and previously unpublished bonus material, including: * A Preface to the Restored Edition by Christopher Paul Carey (coauthor with Philip Jos Farmer of The Song of Kwasin, the third novel in the Khokarsa series) * A brand-new introduction by S. M. Stirling (New York Times bestselling author of the Change series) * The Khokarsan Language by Philip Jos Farmer * Khokarsan Glossary by Philip Jos Farmer and Christopher Paul Carey * A Guide to Khokarsa by Christopher Paul Carey * Early Notes on the Khokarsa Series by Philip Jos Farmer * Original Outline to Flight to Opar by Philip Jos Farmer * Cross-section Map of Opar by Philip Jos Farmer Hadon of Opar was the winner of the Great Games and the rightful claimant to the throne of Khokarsa, a mighty empire that stretched along the shores of ancient Africa's great inland seas. But the old king has refused to surrender his power, and Hadon finds himself caught in the middle of a bloody civil war between the zealous priests of the sun god and the beneficent priestesses of the great mother goddess. Now a divination of the oracle hurls Hadon on his most dangerous adventure yet. With a tyrant's armies and warships hot on their heels, Hadon and his companions must set out on a journey through perilous jungles and across storm-racked seas to reach the city of his birth―for only in far-flung golden Opar can he fulfill the oracle's prophecy and save the land from utter doom. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
Flight to Opar is the second of two Opar books that Farmer set in 10,000 BCE Africa. Because the first (Hadon of Opar) ends on a cliffhanger, and Flight includes some digestible recapitulation, the second could stand alone while its predecessor does not. Roy Krenkel's art is more legible and engaging in this volume than in the previous one (in my copies anyhow).
Even without the incompleteness of its predecessor, this one gathers speed towards its abrupt finish and entirely dispenses with denouement. Character development is sparing, and the prose is workmanlike. Despite all of the abundant action, these are ultimately books of ideas, centered on the imagined world: the culture and vanished history of a pre-patriarchal human empire. show more There is even more attention in this second book to various ceremonial functions, technological circumstances, and modes of personal status, which are some of the features that go to make this world interesting and credible.
Although Farmer's nods to model literature are mostly to Burroughs' Tarzan (whence the city of Opar), he has clearly incorporated a lot of ideas from H. Rider Haggard's "lost civilizations" of Africa, and mixed in his own readings of Frazerian anthropology and 20th-century gender theories. show less
Even without the incompleteness of its predecessor, this one gathers speed towards its abrupt finish and entirely dispenses with denouement. Character development is sparing, and the prose is workmanlike. Despite all of the abundant action, these are ultimately books of ideas, centered on the imagined world: the culture and vanished history of a pre-patriarchal human empire. show more There is even more attention in this second book to various ceremonial functions, technological circumstances, and modes of personal status, which are some of the features that go to make this world interesting and credible.
Although Farmer's nods to model literature are mostly to Burroughs' Tarzan (whence the city of Opar), he has clearly incorporated a lot of ideas from H. Rider Haggard's "lost civilizations" of Africa, and mixed in his own readings of Frazerian anthropology and 20th-century gender theories. show less
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Philip José Farmer was born in North Terre Haute, Indiana on January 26, 1918. He worked in a steel mill while attending Bradley University at night and writing in his spare time. In 1952, his story The Lovers, in which a human has sex with an alien, was published in a pulp magazine called Startling Stories and won him the Hugo Award in 1953 for show more most promising new author. He quit his job to become a full-time writer, but a string of misfortunes eventually forced him to take jobs as a manual laborer. He worked as a technical writer from 1956 to 1970, but continued writing science fiction. He finally found success in the 1960's with the Riverworld series. He wrote more than 75 books throughout his lifetime including the Dayworld series and the World of Tiers series. He also wrote short stories. He won the Hugo award for best novella in 1968 for Riders of the Purple Wage and for best novel in 1972 for To Your Scattered Bodies Go. In 1988, he was the recipient of the Writers of the Past Award and the Nova for best book for Riverworld. In 2001 he was awarded the Grand Master Award and the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award. He died on February 25, 2009 at the age of 91. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- Flucht nach Opar
- Original title
- Flight to Opar
- Original publication date
- 1976
- People/Characters
- Hadon; Awineth; Lalila; Kho (Deity); Resu (Deity)
- Important places
- Khokarsa; Opar
- First words
- Hadon leaned on his sword and waited for death.
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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