Behind the Walls of Terra

World of Tiers #4

by Philip José Farmer

"A human who travels alternate worlds finally finds a world that may prove too much for him...Earth."

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Speculative Fiction, Ebooks, Adventure

220 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

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

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The sidekick gets his own book. He finds his way to Earth, and finds that's where it's really dangerous, as he Knows Too Much.

Lots of excitement.

[Kathi · Rating 3 out of 5]

5/10
Well, yes, the plot does zip along like an action movie, with lots of fighting, shooting, & chasing (on motorcycles, in cars, on foot). The story mostly takes place in our world (Earth), which makes it slightly easier to follow. Still, I find I don’t much like or care about any of the characters, most of whom are interchangeable beyond the few main ones (Kickaha, Anana, Red Orc, & Urthona). And what should have been a huge shock of a plot twist in the story (finding out our Earth & its universe are a mere creation of the one the immortal, constantly-quarreling, amoral, mostly-mean-spirited & cruel Lords) was instead almost a ho-hum moment.
I guess classic sci-fi pulp fiction may not be my thing. I like more character in my characters. I feel like the world-building, while very creative, was done on the fly (ooh, let’s stick this creature in here…and what about trying a world with this weird feature? Etc.). This will sound contradictory, but for all the bells & whistles & gates & beasts & odd sky colors, for all the beamers shooting & good guys chasing bad guys who are chasing good guys, the story itself lacks complexity.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a bad read, but there were a few more issues with the story line, but again nothing major. Kickaha is the hero of the story, which is neat. I've wanted to see more of him since the first book & now I'm getting to see plenty of him. As part of the series, it's great, but one of the outstanding features is that it could stand alone without a problem. Usually the issue with such books is too much background info on the series, but that isn't a problem here. Just enough information is given to let a new reader know what is going on, but not enough to turn off a reader who has read it in order.

[Metaphorosis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Metaphorosis Reviews
2 stars

Summary:
Still on the search for Jadawin-Wolff and the last of the Black Bellers, Kickaha and Anana find themselves on Earth. Kickaha learns surprising things about the world he grew up on, and both find themselves quickly at odds with Earth’s lord, Red Orc.

Review:
Farmer brings the action to Earth in this book. It’s unfortunate, because the lack of other-worldly settings exposes the weakness of the prose. Happily, Farmer manages a stronger grip on the characters in this installment. Kickaha is still the macho leader, Anana still the strong but submissive follower – despite the fact that she has a thousand years of experience on him, and a much more sophisticated background. Farmer papers this over by having her lack language skills, but it’s a thin excuse.

While the characters are a little more contained, the action is even more arbitrary than before. The story is easy enough to follow, but I gave up on a search for logic pretty early. The result is a tolerable but not very interesting adventure story.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Geldar · Rating 2 out of 5]

Perhaps it's necessary to read the earlier books to enjoy this one? If so, we made a mistake in picking this up first, though I still can't really imagine getting that excited about it even if I understood the whole context. The writing, plot, action, dialogue --- it all felt bland and disjointed. I found it hard to take much of an interest in anything that was going on, and most of all, I hated the names of the main characters. They felt like something that I'd have come up with when I was a high school sophomore, as did the whole novel. Dang it, I should have written this.

[Isen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I remember this being the nadir of the series. I hope I'm right.

Most of the story takes place on Earth. As a result, even more than the preceding book, this one is focused on action. Kikaha drives cars. Motorcycles. Shoots guns. Punches people. Seduces Earth girls. Please love Kickaha. Kickaha needs to be loved.

Red Orc, who has been hinted at for the last three books, finally makes an appearance, and it turns out he's utterly useless. It is soon revealed that he lost control of Earth (and possibly Earth 2, the existence of which seems to add nothing to the story, although it's not quite clear) to a rival Lord, and his attempts to get it back are pathetic. However, the presence of two Lords in the setting leads to a lot of confusion as the author never makes it clear as to who's responsible for what. If this were a detective novel, this could lead to a sense of mystery, but it's an action novel. So not only are we reading a book half of which is Kickaha punching people in the face, but it's not even clear whom he's punching or why.

And the other half of the book? Well, we have two travellers from a different world coming to visit contemporary Earth. I hope you're excited, because this gives the author to indulge in that ubiquitous sci-fi trope of bashing on human society! We're destroying the planet! We're risking nuclear annihilation! We listen to bad music! We smell! We don't... perform plastic surgery to permanently redden our lips? Design worlds that will be full of incessant warfare between its inhabitants? Dedicate our lives to figuring out a way to murder our family members?

Yeah, you see the problem. When Captain Kirk pokes fun at the way his ignorant ancestors lived, he does so from a moral high ground -- if we conveniently ignore all the Star Trek episodes that suggest the contrary, the Federation really does seem like a great place to live. The worlds of the Lords, however, are truly hellish places to live. Sure, they got rid of old age and disease, or at least Wolff did, but in return they gave the inhabitants a world where everything always wants to kill you. Is that really an improvement on Earth? Is Earth 2 an improvement on Earth, for that matter? From the little we saw of it the benefits seem to be less smog and more topless women, presumably at the cost of more plague and bad dental care.

This is also the book where the artificial nature of Earth is revealed. I remember this moment being a lot more poignant the first time I read it. Perhaps I read a different edition. On the bright side, the first time through I completely missed the top-notch banter between Lucifer's Louts and Satan's Slaves. I must have read it before I hit my teens.

[Christian Umami · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gerade fertig gelesen.
Leider der bislang schwächste Teil, finde ich.
Anfangs war es sehr interessant, das endlich mal die Erde der 60er Jahre im Fokus steht.
Das Buch kam 1970 raus, daher war die Idee vielleicht noch nicht so verbraucht.
Außerdem hätte es Raum gegeben die verrückten Ideen der vorherigen Bücher auch auf die irdische Welt anzuwenden.
Leider ist es doch sehr vorhersehbar und weit hinter seinen Möglichkeiten geblieben.
Manche Twists werden in einem kurzen Absatz erwähnt (z.B. wie sieht Red Orc eigentlich aus...).

Auch schade weil eine Hauptfigur einfach fehlt. Kickaha ist der Held und bleibt es in jeder Lage. Anana wird zur Nebenfigur ohne viel Tiefgang und dazu noch zurückgestuft. Zuvor war sie in Band 3 noch gleich auf zu Kickaha.
Am wenigsten gefiel mir das Ende. Da kam endlich mal etwas Spannung auf und dann kommt diese letzte Seite des Buches. Zuviel Inhalt in zu wenigen Sätzen. Hat mir nicht gerade Lust auf Band 5 gemacht. Werden diesen aber auch noch lesen.

[Thad Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read a lot of Philip Jose Farmer over the years. I'm pretty sure I have read this one at some point. One of my favorite story lines is someone going back in time or ahead in the future. In this book the main character (Kickaha) returns to earth in 1970 after leaving in 1946.

Kickaha (Paul Janus Finnegan) has aged little since stepping through a "gate" and entering the world of tiers where Lords have built separate universes and started waging war on each other.

The plot is involved and Kickaha and his love Anana are immediately thrown into adventure after adventure trying to find friends and trying to kill the "Beller" who is one of the more dangerous characters in the universes.

Beginning with a fight with bikers, a trip in a bus with a flower power rock group and then trying to stay ahead of the LAPD, this book has page after page of battles and near misses before incredible escapes.

A page turner.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would have liked this more if the "fish out of water" plot had not been part of the first half of the story. The protagonists find themselves on Earth in this dimension, and so much time is spent wondering what the hell the unseen antagonists are doing or thinking or plotting. Since the reader only sees things from Kickaha's point of view, the antagonists could be completely unaware for all you know. Once we have a confrontation and it becomes more of a cat and mouse game played between alternate dimensions, it gets a lot better. Can't tell whether the tension was helped or hindered by the fact that Farmer decided to do without chapter breaks, but at least it was a fairly short read. Does not have a real ending at all, just points you right to the next (and last) book in the series.

[Tom Britz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is book four of Farmer's World of Tiers series, and easily the best one so far. The action in this one was nearly non-stop and the plot-line was at least comprehensible. The first three books of this series were, at least to me, disjointed and merely a hodge-podge of happenings, seemingly the further into the world of strange the better.
This novel takes place nearly always on Earth, the Earth we know. Though there is another Earth 2. Kickaha and Annana are out to stop the last Beller and rescue Wolfe and his wife. Through many hair raising adventures, dealing mainly running from police, Kickaha does manage to kill the last beller, and inch a bit closer to finding Wolfe and his wife. But, hopefully that will happen in the next episode.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

PJ Farmer is underrated, or underknown, or both. This book was both a mind-stretcher and yet familiar. Plain old shoot-em-up, escape and evasion, intergalactic bad guy chasing is mixed with a Hermann Hesse-like section at the back where different rooms lead to different realities. Will Kickaha escape?

I found it very engaging.

[Jordan · Rating 2 out of 5]

For such a short book, this sure was a slog. Taking the World of Tiers to (then) modern-day Earth felt like that part in a sci-fi or fantasy series when they go to current Earth to cut corners on the budget. The fast-paced action, stripped of the imaginative worldbuilding, turned into a real grind. Hopefully the next in the series in better.

[Krista · Rating 3 out of 5]

A portal fantasy with artificial worlds, populated with creatures from fantasy, created by a super-powered technologically advanced family who sometimes ally with but largely loathe each other - this series is one of Zelazny's major inspirations for his Chronicles of Amber.

The flavor of these lie closer to pulp adventure than Zelazny's tales but is just as fantastical.

[Ralph Carlson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great and entertaining read from the worlds of Philip Jose Farmer.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

fun and quick read with very interesting ideas about the world.

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Aimless. What a waste of an interesting concept.

[John Trupiano · Rating 2 out of 5]

Short and sweet. Nothing spectacular or especially deep. Pretty much just an action-movie script.

[MrFuckTheSystem · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just love these universes ! Such fun books !!!

[Karen-Leigh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Most of the story takes place on Earth. As a result, even more than the preceding book, this one is focused on action. Kikaha drives cars. Motorcycles. Shoots guns. Punches people. Seduces Earth girls. Please love Kickaha. Kickaha needs to be loved.

Red Orc, who has been hinted at for the last three books, finally makes an appearance, and it turns out he's utterly useless. It is soon revealed that he lost control of Earth (and possibly Earth 2, the existence of which seems to add nothing to the story, although it's not quite clear) to a rival Lord, and his attempts to get it back are pathetic. However, the presence of two Lords in the setting leads to a lot of confusion as the author never makes it clear as to who's responsible for what. If this were a detective novel, this could lead to a sense of mystery, but it's an action novel. So not only are we reading a book half of which is Kickaha punching people in the face, but it's not even clear whom he's punching or why.

And the other half of the book? Well, we have two travellers from a different world coming to visit contemporary Earth. I hope you're excited, because this gives the author to indulge in that ubiquitous sci-fi trope of bashing on human society! We're destroying the planet! We're risking nuclear annihilation! We listen to bad music! We smell! We don't... perform plastic surgery to permanently redden our lips? Design worlds that will be full of incessant warfare between its inhabitants? Dedicate our lives to figuring out a way to murder our family members?

Yeah, you see the problem. When Captain Kirk pokes fun at the way his ignorant ancestors lived, he does so from a moral high ground -- if we conveniently ignore all the Star Trek episodes that suggest the contrary, the Federation really does seem like a great place to live. The worlds of the Lords, however, are truly hellish places to live. Sure, they got rid of old age and disease, or at least Wolff did, but in return they gave the inhabitants a world where everything always wants to kill you. Is that really an improvement on Earth? Is Earth 2 an improvement on Earth, for that matter? From the little we saw of it the benefits seem to be less smog and more topless women, presumably at the cost of more plague and bad dental care.

This is also the book where the artificial nature of Earth is revealed. I remember this moment being a lot more poignant the first time I read it. Perhaps I read a different edition. On the bright side, the first time through I completely missed the top-notch banter between Lucifer's Louts and Satan's Slaves. I must have read it before I hit my teens.

[Norm Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Behind the Walls of Terra, Philip José Farmer 9/1/15 -1/9/16 (4 sessions over 130 days ≈147 pages)

I'm sorry Philip, you caught me during a “hover over the stars award period” for me, and that means, “I liked it” 3 stars. You know it is 5 star work so we won't worry what I think. Because you are Philip Jose Farmer and because you did write some Doc Savage novels and because you started this novel with enough backstory that it could be a stand alone novel, that's 5 stars in my book. But...

Despite the fact the action NEVER stops, as is true of your writing, I somehow became inattentive, reading other books two cycles before coming back to you. That's probably a backhanded knock to 4 stars. More me than you on that one. But then you ended on a climax rather than a conclusion which means, “The Lavalite World” must be immediately amended to a long currently reading list. Bugger. 3 stars is enough.

Kickaha on Earth, back to the home world, away from his beloved World of Tiers, chasing down the last Black Beller, which could very literally destroy mankind. In the previous novel, “A Private Cosmos” a beautiful “Lord” hooked up with Kickaha and they managed to kill the invading 50 or so Bellers and then chase the last Beller only to end up in Lord Red Orc's universe, where Kickaha was born... “Behind the Walls of Terra”

In this series, ANYTHING can and does happen. But in coming to Terra, this time, Kickaha and Ananna had some microcosm of an ability to be prepared. So the minute they arrive, all the buzzers, bells, chases, captures, escapes, killing and avoiding being killed gets kicked into high gear.

Here's what you need to know... can't find an ebook for this series. Bummer. It stars with “The Maker of Universes” and 4 books later you managed to take a breath and say, “Ok, where are we”. Well, we are at “The Lavalite World” it has Kickaha, his beautiful Lord companion with him, two ancient universe building Lords in tow, another one and his girlfriend lost while trying to negotiate a world blobbing along, coming apart here and there, never knowing exactly where you are... but that's the next book.

[Fede · Rating 4 out of 5]

La saga migliora di libro in libro

Devo dire che sono rimasto piacevolmente sorpreso da questo libro. Ad esser sinceri, la saga dei Fabbricanti di Universi comincia abbastanza male, con il primo libro un po' troppo scontato e il secondo decisamente brutto (imho).Poi però già del terzo libro comincia a migliorare sensibilmente. Questo capitolo è molto intrigante, con un'ambientazione a metà tra il poliziesco e il thriller. Fuggiti dal mondo dei Livelli, i protagonisti Anana e Kickaha si ritrovano catapultati nella Terra degli anni 70, che (ovviamente) è molto differente da quella degli anni '40 che conosceva Kickaha. Segue piccolo spoiler (niente di che):
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Scopriamo che anche la Terra è in mano al Signore Orc il Rosso, che come un Bilderberger ne tesse le fila nell'oscurità. Egli sta anche combattendo una lotta all'ultimo sangue contro il Signore Urthona, del Mondo Mobile, che vuole strappargli il suo universo tascabile.La lotta tra i due è un mix tra uno scontro tra bande mafiose e uno tra servizi segreti, il tutto farcito dalle onnipresenti auto della polizia che ovviamente ottengono come unico risultato quello di stamparsi contro i pali della luce o finire ribaltate giù da un cavalcavia. Tipicamente poliziesco insomma. Il libro ha una bella verve e non annoia, consigliatissimo.

[Chris Gager · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started just a bit last night after finishing #3. Will get more into it tonight after work.

I stayed up a bit late last night getting into this. Pretty much picks up where the previous book left off only now we're back on Earth and things look more familiar. I like that! The author's reaction to the bikers and the hippies is amusingly curmudgeonistic. The words he puts in their mouths are ridiculously stilted but I guess that can be tolerated.

Finished last night after staying up too late - again! This one's pretty much the same as #3 with a different setting. Kickaha is pursued and is the pursuer. Lot's of action, including people zipping back and forth through those darned gates. Very Confusing. I do ike the imagination shown in the author's presentation of the different worlds that serve as backdrops. The book ends with one not visited before and it's REALLY weird!

2.75* rounds up to 3* - a standard rating for decent sci-fi

- endless car stuff in LA. reminiscent of The Rockford Files.

- Seems to be a logic hole or two in the plot here and there. Was PJF himself able to keep up with all the stuff?

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

Messy, yet fun. This book had one of the funniest typos I’ve ever seen. P. 97: “He purchased a package of gun and chewed all the sticks until he had a big ball of gun.” There were lots of other typos too. The book was also strange because it didn’t have any chapter breaks, nor any double spaces between certain paragraphs to indicate a new section. The book was written in 1970, but there were a lot of times that I thought it was a bad imitation of that time period. I had hoped that having the World of Tiers characters return to earth would result in more spectacular things than we got in this book. There were a lot of car chases and running and hiding in alleys, but it didn’t clash the cultures as much as I hoped. At one point a character said, “We should have brought along our anti-gravity belts.” And I thought – yeah! You should’ve! That would’ve been great. The best action was when they went back away from earth to the other worlds again. I’m still enjoying this series a lot, and look forward to the next book.

[Sean Meriwether · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed the To Your Scattered Bodies Go and Riverworld series, and hoped to find an imaginative story for some enjoyable summer reading. I read this book without the context of the first novel, but not sure I would return to read it now. This novel reads a bit like a run-on sentence, moving swiftly from one situation to the next without direction, with the author's transparent distaste for the youth culture and gangsters of the 1960s (which feels to be a reaction to a movie version of the '60s). However, he seems to have a healthy appreciation for violence and sex, along with gadgets and gizmos aplenty.

[Guy Ferguson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love PJ. 2D characters, buxom girls, so why is it appealing? Seeing parallels between the science in this and Dan Simmons Hyperion series, with multiple worlds connected by gates. Why do (a lot of) the best sci-fi writers come from California?
*****
Read it again. I really should get some new PJF. This time I'm reminded a little of Harry Harrison, his chiselled jawed super strong heroes who assess all the options and decide instantly. Woody Allen they ain't.

[Mike (the Paladin) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as the volumes that went before (but how many series do hold up that well over 4 or more volumes). Still action, and so on, but not so well written (I suppose). We discover that Earth is also part of a so called "pocket Universe" made another one of the Alien "Lords" (Red Orc). Not so good, some "re-dos" and so on...3 for the "fun value".

[Jonathan · Rating 2 out of 5]

A series in which the idea is more fun than the execution.

[Paul Shaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

More fun

[DavidO · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's like a bad b movie where the hero is perfect and so is his girl and every villain is super bad but easily defested. yawn.

[Georgi Sokolov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good enough