The Maker of Universes

Farmer's first book (1965) in the 'World of Tiers' series starts well enough (Farmer can write well when he is not being lazy) with what appears to be a version of the common pulp trope of an ordinary man thrown into an alien world - John Carter of Mars being the obvious model for most.

In this case, a late middle aged man, flabby and married to a loved shrew, is thrown into a fantasy world that seems to mimic that of Greek mythology. It is one of a tiered series of worlds leading via other largely literary fantasies to the eventual excuse for calling it a science fiction novel.

All the pulp reading of a teenager - the Greek myths, Westerns (without the cowboys), chivalry (with the nice twist of having Yiddish Knights), Doc Savage and show more Tarzan, evil bored galactic scientists of the Ming school - is mixed in with a rather sweet nostalgic eroticism.

Our hero Wolff is in his sixties but Farmer seems to be writing as if he was having a mid-life crisis of his own in his late forties when he wrote the book. It is an entertainment of its time and place but it has not lasted well.

The Maker of Universes soon declines into pulp predictability. The science fiction is of the Flash Gordon type as our hero gets reinvigorated into the most manly of heroes, acquires a side kick and a girl and works his way through American Indian, exotic jungle and teutonic cultures.

The writing too deteriorates with the mounting excitement albeit with some genuine inventiveness and adventure mixed up with the obvious and the tedious. As ground zero for a series it might have merit as an introduction but the book itself does not honestly encourage one to read on.

The link with his avowed classic 'Riverworld' series (started as his fourth 'Tiers' book had been completed) - earthly literary cultures explored in sequence on a quest - is so clear that the ideas behind Tiers might reasonably be called a practice run for the later and better series. show less

Mildly fun to read - excellent description, interesting characters. However, it gets to be a little too much wish-fulfillment after about the half-way mark. I like Wolff while he's figuring things out (the getting-younger part, though - eh). But once his adventures start they run a little too much on rails. Even Kickaha is surprised when Wolff manages to find him after the capture by slavers. And all the challenges are just a little too easily overcome. There are also two points - the description of the World of Tiers, and what Abiru had to say to Wolff - where we the readers aren't told what's happening, it's left to come out later. In both cases, this is a bit too much auctorial fiat for me. In the first case, Kickaha has to 'say' show more again what he just said the night before to Wolff in order to explain to the readers, which is silly - either he shouldn't have explained it before, or we should have gotten the whole story the first time. In the second, there's better reason - it's a twist ending. But concealing it by waving a red cloth and shouting "I'm hiding something! Right here! Look - no, you can't look at it!" is annoying. It could have been done more subtly. It is fun to read, and very memorable - I don't think I'd read this series in the past 10 years, maybe 20, but everything was still quite familiar to me. Good but not excellent. show less

Seconda lettura per questo impegnativo ciclo di fantascienza ad opera di uno dei migliori "fabbricanti di universi" mai comparsi sulla scena.
La prima parte è decisamente la migliore, con un afflato creativo fresco e vivace, poi, come succede per altri cicli dello stesso autore, la creatività scema un po', e gli spunti si perdono per strada.
Comunque godibile e consigliabile per gli appassionati del settore.

4/10
I expected this book to feel dated (published 1965), and it did, but it also felt more like fantasy than sci fi for huge chunks of the story. I never felt connected to any of the characters. There were too many plot developments that just seemed convenient (or contrived) rather than developing naturally out of the narrative. I guess the author laid some groundwork for the the big reveal in the final chapter, but it still felt like it came out of left field.

I am trying to read some “classics” in the genre, so I am going to keep going with this series and see if my opinion changes with later books.

An interesting allegory but I was never entirely sure of what. Yes there were different levels of a different world but all along I did not really get any sense of tension. The main character was an old man at the start but I never really cared about what happened to him or where he was 'from'.

I'm re-reading this now after finally completing the series. It's been almost 40 years since I first read it, so I'll see if it keeps its 4 star rating (I doubt it), but I HAVE to find out how the entire story winds up.The re-read was great. There are some holes in the story, but it still stands as a fun, quick read. It's still a fairly unique adventure story that is based on SF, but has some fantasy elements, sort of. -----------For years, I considered it a good, stand-alone, novel. I still think so. However, I got sucked into reading the following books, through the 5th & wanted to scream in frustration since the ending was a cliff hanger. It is now a series of 7 books. The series was completed in the 90's, a 14 year gap between books show more 5 & 6. I haven't read 6 or 7, yet. Reviews for the last book are not encouraging, but I will get them because I need closure!!! -----------The first book starts out with Wolf on Earth. He falls in with a knave who leads him on a merry chase through a private world of tiers that is inhabited by a bizarre collection of mythological beings that were grown in the labs of the creator of the universe. When I first read this, what impressed me most, was the new (to me, then) idea of private universes & worlds that Farmer came up with & how he handled them. It's really just a fun, action story with an SF basis but really more of a fantasy novel. He's managed to pack so many different genres into one book & tied them all together in a unique (then) & seamless way. ------- Spoiler below ---------Farmer posits a race that humans are descended from & our 'Earth' is just one more private universe. Space travel isn't really possible since the 'stars' aren't really there, they're imperfections in the lining of the bubble universe we inhabit. The makers of the universes aren't even the originators of this, they found out the same thing as they developed. They are now an old, declining race. They've forgotten the science behind the wonders they control & are fighting among themselves - the implication being they are repeating the cycle of those that created them. The main character of the series is Kickaha, the merry knave that first introduces Wolf to the new universe. He's originally from Earth & is now something of a legend & thorn in the side of the 'Lords'. His battle with one lord, Red Orc, in particular is a central theme - the clean cut hero against the decadent villan. show less

Like Riverworld, for me the originality of the ideas in this book make up for the deficiencies in the writing. The story revolves around a group of people, the "Lords", who have such powerful science that they can create their own universes. However the Lords have forgotten how their science works. They are stagnant, and are reduced to squabbling, petty things with nothing else better to do than torturing the hapless inhabitants of their creations and killing each other. A man named Robert Wolff is dragged into one of their worlds and must discover the secrets of who and what the Lords are. An interesting story somewhat in the vein of Burroughs' Mars books.