The Lavalite World

On an artificial world created by the immortal Lord Urthona, the landscape is forever shifting. Mountains crumble into plains, flesh-eating trees roam the surface, chunks of the planet are ejected into orbit as temporary moons only to fall back and crash into the surface. It is on this world that Earthman Paul Janus Finnegan—known as Kickaha among other aliases—and his companion, the Lady Anana, find themselves stranded with the devious Urthona, Red Orc, and their human henchman, McKay. Somewhere on this vexing planet floats Urthona’s palace and the means for finding a gateway to another world. Before Kickaha and Anana can find it, however, they must survive the treachery of the other three—not to mention the dangerous plants, show more animals, and natives.

In this fifth and penultimate volume in his Word of Tiers series, Farmer provides enough detail about previous events involving the characters that you don’t need to read the previous books to enjoy The Lavalite World. However, what this story fails to mention is that the series began with a character named Robert Wolff also known as Jadawin, one of the immortals lords. Thus, to grasp the full scope and breadth of the World of Tiers, it is advisable to begin with book one, The Maker of Universes.

I can’t help but to compare Farmer’s World of Tiers to Jack Vance’s Planet of Adventure series or to some of Farmer’s other works such as The Stone God Awakens, The Green Odyssey, or even Riverworld. In all cases, a human finds himself (by whatever means) in a strange world and in order to escape, must venture across the planet, battling dangerous tribes, animals, and the environment along the way, all while earning the companionship of a beautiful woman and making a few unlikely allies. There is nothing wrong in these comparisons and each story puts its own spin on that basic premise, making every one a rip-roaring adventure. show less

And bleah. A pointless story, that ends without ending. The world is not very interesting (nasty, but not neat), there are multiple contradictions within the story (for one, one chapter ends with them on the split and the palace specifically staying on the main body. Then it goes by "half a mile" above them, then it's described as staying a hundred feet up... sheesh). There's also a wild contradiction in Kickaha's back-story. He has, multiple times throughout the series, stated that he was born in Indiana as a farmer's son. Last book he suddenly remembered mysteries, but here he states that he was adopted and he knew it. WTF? This makes no sense. And an unpleasant bit of twentieth-century sexism suddenly rears its head in a very show more illogical place - Anana is raped (depicted in the politest possible language), and for some reason this makes Red Orc say that she has been shamed by "mating with a leblabbiy". Never mind that throughout the series Lords, male and female, have taken lovers from among their creations...bah. The usual feats of derring-do and plain luck get Kickaha and Anana to safety...and the book stops, with them making plans to go back to Earth to find Wolff and Chryseis (who apparently escaped on Earth rather than being dumped on the lavalite world). This book seriously needed an editor to keep the continuity straight. Overall, a boring and annoying end to a not-very-good series. Good, I can get rid of these books. show less

5.5/10
A book of its time in terms of language & stereotypes, although it reads more like it was written in the late 1950s rather than the late 1970s. Lots of action, complicated plans, alliances & double-crosses. Thad characters are pretty much cartoon cutouts, although Kickaha & Anana are pretty clever.

A pretty good read, Farmer explores a very different environment. A pocket universe where a world is not stable, but moves about, even spawns moons for itself, which last a few months & then merge back with the main body. He explores odd types of life that lives there & sets an adventure among it all.I had remembered the book ending on a cliff hanger, but it doesn't. There's certainly room for another book - he eventually wrote two more - but the series could end there, although I'm glad he FINALLY continued it. I'm going to start the next book, "Red Orc's Rage" today.