Down in the Black Gang

by Philip José Farmer

* 1 • Down in the Black Gang • (1969) • novelette by Philip José Farmer
* 23 • The Shadow of Space • (1967) • novelette by Philip José Farmer
* 49 • A Bowl Bigger Than Earth • (1967) • novelette by Philip José Farmer
* 67 • Riverworld • [Riverworld] • (1966) • novelette by Philip José Farmer
* 99 • A Few Miles • [Father Carmody] • (1960) • novelette by Philip José Farmer
* 131 • Prometheus • [Father Carmody] • (1961) • novelette by Philip José Farmer
* 177 • The Blasphemers • (1964) • novelette by Philip José Farmer
* 205 • How Deep the Grooves • (1963) • shortstory by Philip José Farmer

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction, Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy, Collections

215 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Philip José Farmer was an American author, principally known for his science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories. He was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, but spent much of his life in Peoria, Illinois.

Farmer is best known for his Riverworld series and the earlier World of Tiers series. He is noted for his use of sexual and religious themes in his work, his fascination for and reworking of the lore of legendary pulp heroes, and occasional tongue-in-cheek pseudonymous works written as if by fictional characters.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of two short stories, five novelettes, and a novella from the 1960s, originally published in genre magazines Worlds of If (3), F & SF (2), and one each from Amazing, Galaxy, and Worlds of Tomorrow. They're neither particularly traditional nor New Wave pieces; Farmer somehow always got away with doing his own thing. Many consider various aspects of religion, and my favorite of the lot is the uproarious Prometheus, which features Father John Carmody, one of his most enduring and popular characters. Also included is Riverworld, the earliest appearance of his most famous and most highly regarded creation.

[P · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sort of like how Heinlein was obsessed with sex, this guy is clearly trying to work out his issues with religion. Like an odd number of SciFi writers of the time, very reactionary about social issues that aren't the one special one they've decided to enlighten themselves on.

But where Heinlein thought sexual mores were outdated and also was a literal fascist, this guy thinks religion is a restrictive means of social control and is only terrified of be-bopping teens who speak slang so cartoonish it's basically Tarzan-speak, having beach blanket bingo picnics.

A character gets in a knife fight with a group of young toughs that starts when he runs through their picnic and steps in their potato salad. Nothing says 'this is a thing real teenage gangbangers might ever do, and I know from experience because I know at least one teen' like a youth gang serving potato salad at a picnic in a park.

But otherwise a decent couple of stories. Weird as hell. More on the metaphysical end than pew pew lasergun scifi, one ends up essentially Lovecraftian by the end just because it turns out God is the villain. Got it free in one of those little library hootches on the sidewalk, so the price was right.

[Traitor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read the German translation published by Goldmann back in the 70s. After Farmer's very avantgarde "Riders of the Purple Wage" in "Dangerous Visions", this seemed like a huge step down both in literary quality and in visionary content - 2/5. But 1-1.5 points might have been "lost in translation"...

The 5 stories:

1) "Prometheus" (same title in both languages) is a shockingly naive and old-fashioned account of first contact with an alien species and of a single human educating them, bringing them from their paleolithic starting point up quite a few tech levels. Mixed with some theological musings, as that human happens to be a monk. Besides the naivety of the whole setup, it's reasonably competently written, and as a 10-year-old I would have enjoyed it without reservations. But the other stories in the volume clearly make this an adult-oriented publication, and I can't take this simplistic story seriously on that level. Also, the human characters (main guy plus some support scientists in the background) act horribly random and unscientific. In the end, my only redeeming thought about this one is that Farmer might have written the English original as a parody, and the translator completely missed that point...?

2) "Programmierte Ausweglosigkeit" ("Down in the black gang") at least can be recognised as coming from the same experimental writer as "Purple Wage". A weird story about the whole universe being a "ship" run by some sort of psychic energy mechanics. The purposefully weird language has aged unfavourably in German, but that's a typical translation problem. More seriously, the narrative arc unfortunately is just not very interesting. But at least there's the interestingly weird idea.

3) "Die Gotteslästerer" ("The Blasphemers") is certainly the high point of the volume. An alien race with unconventional body plan, procreative and social structure. (Though the social structure actually seems implausibly similar to ours.) They're starting a large-scale space exploration program in a social minefield of clan traditions, religion and teenage ennui. Quite a bit gimmicky at the end, but a decent read.

4) "Außerhalb von Raum und Zeit" ("The Shadow of Space"): A faster-than-light spaceship accidentally leaves the universe and enters into some weird meta-space with non-existent or abstruse physical laws. A silly, but promising setup. But the story is crippled by flat characters, too much narrative randomness even when the premise is the absence of physical predictability, and blatant misogynism in the characterisation of the woman who's blamed for the accident.

5) "Eine Schüssel, größer als die Erde" ("A Bowl Bigger than Earth"): Obviously a Proto-Riverworld. A random guy dies and is resurrected in a strange world consisting entirely of an everything-made-out-of-brass city along a single river, peopled by resurrected humans turned into physically uniform sexless beings who are also suppressed into hyper-communist psychological and social uniformity by unseen entities. The setup was obviously fruitful, as it later led to the whole Riverworld franchise, but this first attempt is just a painfully underdeveloped thought experiment.

[Michael Norwitz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Collection of stories, some of which have aged badly, but the two best (a Father Carmody story, and a Riverworld story, both available elsewhere) elevate the rest.

I had a dream about the Carmody which I wrote into my comic!

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of short stories, Farmer writes hauntingly about strange situations with real humanity.

[Ari Pérez · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Down in the Black Gang
⭐⭐⭐ The Shadow of Space
⭐⭐⭐⭐ A Bowl Bigger Than Earth
⭐⭐⭐ Riverworld
⭐⭐⭐ A Few Miles
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Prometheus
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Blasphemers
⭐⭐⭐ How Deep the Grooves

[Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best of these stories- and that would be the first four- are among my favorites in a lifetime of reading science fiction. Because this is a collection, though, I've had to average the rating down to four stars. None of the stories are bad, but the selection in the second half of the book is not nearly equal to the quality of those at the beginning.... so, I'll just talk about the beginning:

I have read "Down In The Black Gang" and "A Bowl Bigger Than Earth" each several times over in the past quarter century because they truly "got into me". They aren't just satisfying tales.... they disturb me both intellectually and spiritually. I can't help coming back to them, even though they are philosophically and... yes... theologically frightening. Give 'em a read and see if certain passages don't come to haunt you a bit.

Farmer at his best can make you re-examine the most basic beliefs concerning the nature of reality and the purpose of life. And these stories are definitely among his best.

Also, the short story "Riverworld" begins his long association with his most strange and enduring creation : an enigmatic afterlife called Riverworld that is a seemingly endless river populated with everyone who every lived: Jesus, Tom Mix, Hessians, Moses' girlfriend... and if a character gets killed on Riverworld... he or she is promptly resurrected on... Riverworld. And no one is quite sure why.

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of stories from one of my literary heroes, Philip Jose Farmer, that ranges from the 'Wow! that was weird.' to 'What the &^%$# was that all about?!'

Brilliant, and occasionally twisted ideas and one of the earliest Riverworld stories. Like any anthology, it is uneven, but Farmer is rarely predictable or boring.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great collection of fantasy/science fiction short stories from one of the masters in the field. The titular story in particular is gripping and heartbreaking.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Listened to "Prometheus".

[Ralph Blackburn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some great, some okay. I read several of these stories in magazines during the 60's, but the good ones are still powerful. I love Farmer's writing, so unique, so outlandish!