Dayworld

Dayworld
Author: Philip José Farmer
Publisher: Open Road Media
Total Pages: 283
Release: 2017-08-08
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 150404603X

“Every bit as appealing as the Riverworld saga,” this brilliant high-concept dystopian novel features an overpopulated Earth under strict government control (Booklist). Only by being watched may you become free. It’s 3414 AD, the rise of the New Era, and Earth has become massively overpopulated. The worldwide government has recently implemented a system that allows human civilization to continue: Each person lives only one day a week. For the other six he or she is “stoned”—placed in suspended animation. To keep everyone to their particular day, the activities of all citizens of the Organic Commonwealth of Earth are closely monitored. Jeff Caird is an “immer,” one of the rebels secretly working to infiltrate the government to gain influence and loosen the surveillance on citizens. He’s also a “daybreaker,” avoiding stoning and thereby conscious all seven days a week. He operates under a different identity every day, delivering sensitive messages between rebels. Jeff is dedicated to his cause, but maintaining seven separate identities, including jobs, families, and friends, is no small feat, and when the juggling finally begins to take its toll, the immers determine that Jeff is a liability who must be eliminated. Now, he’s fighting for survival and on the run from both his fellow rebels and the authoritarian government that considers his mental state incurable and punishable by death. From the Hugo Award–winning author of the Riverworld and World of Tiers series, Dayworld is “an excellent novel, set in a constructed society that is unique and fascinating” (Science Fiction Chronicle).

Dayworld Rebel

Dayworld Rebel
Author: Philip José Farmer
Publisher: Open Road Media
Total Pages: 285
Release: 2017-08-08
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1504046048

A daybreaker rebels on an overpopulated planet in this dystopian adventure by the author of the World of Tiers series. Jeff Caird was once a daybreaker: a criminal who avoided government-required suspended animation by living seven different identities. Now he goes by the name William St.-George Duncan, and he’s suppressed the memory of his past, and even his real identity, in order to avoid harsh punishment by the government of the Organic Commonwealth of Earth. But the danger is far from over, and the authorities continue to hunt him—because among the things he’s forgotten there’s something very important . . . In the wilderness of northern New Jersey, Dunc has fallen in with a group of rebel daybreakers. As he struggles to retrieve the memory that’s so valuable—and dangerous—to the government, he learns from his new allies that there’s a larger movement to break free from the control of the corrupt World Council that limits citizens to one day of consciousness per week. And the knowledge buried deep within him may be the key to their success. Hugo award–winning Science Fiction Grand Master Philip José Farmer returns to the Dayworld universe for the second installment of his richly imagined trilogy, in which Earth’s overpopulation has led to the most stringent government restrictions on personal freedom imaginable.

Dayworld Breakup

Dayworld Breakup
Author: Philip José Farmer
Publisher: Open Road Media
Total Pages: 261
Release: 2017-08-08
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1504046056

From the Hugo Award–winning author of Riverworld: The conclusion of the trilogy set on a future Earth where freedom is threatened by an insidious lie. Before the dawn of the New Era, the world was divided into nations with separate governments that engaged in wars, and populations ravaged by poverty, starvation, and disease. After a final bloody conflict, a single government emerged and took drastic measures to control the dangerous overpopulation in the Organic Commonwealth of Earth: Each citizen is “stoned” in suspended animation for six days each week and closely monitored at all times. Thus, resources are plentiful, and there’s peace and prosperity—or is there? It seems the World Council has been lying. Now, rebel daybreaker Jeff Caird and Panthea Snick, formerly of the organic police force, must risk their lives to expose the truth about the corrupt government and rally the citizens of Earth to rise up against the powers that are robbing them of their freedom—and their lives. But what will become of Jeff and his multiple identities as the struggle draws to a close? The breathtaking finale in the Dayworld Trilogy reveals the truth about the perverse government of Earth in the New Era, and the ramifications of its fall, along with a deeper understanding of the man who dares to challenge it.

Venus on the Half-Shell

Venus on the Half-Shell
Author: Philip José Farmer
Publisher: Open Road Media
Total Pages: 205
Release: 2024-05-14
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1504094522

Disaster sends a man across the universe in search of answers to life’s big questions in this humorous classic adventure by a Science Fiction Grand Master. When a massive flood wipes out Earth and spoils his date, lone survivor Simon Wagstaff finds refuge in an abandoned Chinese spaceship, the Hwang Ho. Accompanied by three new companions—a dog, an owl, and a beautiful robot—and his electric banjo, Wagstaff sets off on an extraterrestrial adventure. He travels from planet to planet, seeking the definitive answer to the ultimate question: Why are we created if only to suffer and die? Of course, after he drinks an elixir granting him eternal life, the real question is what to do for the rest of eternity after he answers his first question . . . “Lively and inventive and goes by faster than a holiday weekend.” —The Washington Post “A comedy of sexual mores, an investigative search for Love, a lampoon of people who require answers to imponderable questions.” —Science Fiction Review “Not only a science-fiction epic of the most incredible proportions, but it is also a satiric-fantasy, a clever parody of its own genre.” —The Daily Eastern News

The Adventure of the Peerless Peer

The Adventure of the Peerless Peer
Author: Philip José Farmer
Publisher: Open Road Media
Total Pages: 72
Release: 2024-01-09
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1504090179

Holmes travels to Africa to help Tarzan stop a German spy’s nefarious weapon in this “glorious” sci-fi pastiche by the Hugo Award–winning author (Locus). When the acclaimed science fiction author Philip José Farmer took up the mantle of Sherlock Holmes, he produced an adventure unlike anything fans of the Baker Street detective had seen before. In this far-flung mystery of World War I, Holmes and Watson are sent to Egypt to stop the German spy Von Bork from perfecting a weapon that could destroy all of Great Britain. Along the way, the sleuthing team form an alliance with the famous Lord Greystoke—peer of the Realm and lord of the jungle!

Time's Last Gift

Time's Last Gift
Author: Philip José Farmer
Publisher: Open Road Media
Total Pages: 131
Release: 2024-01-09
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1504090152

Twenty-first-century scientists make shocking discoveries on an expedition to the prehistoric age in the Hugo Award–winner’s “mystery within a mystery” (Wired). In 2070 AD, anthropologist John Gribardsun assembles a team of scientists to travel back in time to the prehistoric world of 12,000 BC. Their unprecedented mission—one that could never be repeated—is to learn about the primitive Magdalenian culture. They are willing to risk anything to finally uncover the origins of human civilization. But they could never have imagined what their findings reveal . . . or the effects they will have on the future. After emerging from their timeship, the other members of the crew begin to suspect something out of the ordinary about their enigmatic leader. As Gribardsun adapts to their primitive surroundings with remarkable ease, it is almost as if he belongs . . . Time’s Last Gift is set in Philip José Farmer’s expansive fantasy world that interweaves the lives of Sherlock Holmes, Jack the Ripper, James Bond, Flash Gordon, and other larger-than-life characters.

The Day the World Came to Town

The Day the World Came to Town
Author: Jim DeFede
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2011-07-12
Genre: History
ISBN: 0062103288

The True Story Behind the Events on 9/11 that Inspired Broadway’s Smash Hit Musical Come from Away, Featuring All New Material from the Author When 38 jetliners bound for the United States were forced to land at Gander International Airport in Canada by the closing of U.S. airspace on September 11, the population of this small town on Newfoundland Island swelled from 10,300 to nearly 17,000. The citizens of Gander met the stranded passengers with an overwhelming display of friendship and goodwill. As the passengers stepped from the airplanes, exhausted, hungry and distraught after being held on board for nearly 24 hours while security checked all of the baggage, they were greeted with a feast prepared by the townspeople. Local bus drivers who had been on strike came off the picket lines to transport the passengers to the various shelters set up in local schools and churches. Linens and toiletries were bought and donated. A middle school provided showers, as well as access to computers, email, and televisions, allowing the passengers to stay in touch with family and follow the news. Over the course of those four days, many of the passengers developed friendships with Gander residents that they expect to last a lifetime. As a show of thanks, scholarship funds for the children of Gander have been formed and donations have been made to provide new computers for the schools. This book recounts the inspiring story of the residents of Gander, Canada, whose acts of kindness have touched the lives of thousands of people and been an example of humanity and goodwill.

The Wind Whales of Ishmael

The Wind Whales of Ishmael
Author: Philip José Farmer
Publisher: Open Road Media
Total Pages: 151
Release: 2024-01-09
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1504090802

A nineteenth-century sailor must navigate a future world of airships and soaring whales in the Hugo Award–winning author’s sci-fi sequel to Moby-Dick. When the whaling ship Pequod is destroyed, Ishmael is the lone survivor to escape a watery grave. But shortly after his rescue, he finds himself slipping through a rift in time and space—into a future Earth. In this strange new world, he encounters bloodsucking vegetation and a blood-red sun. Here, too, there are whales to hunt—but whales that soar like airships through the alien sky. With no seas to sail and no safe harbor to call home, Ishmael must take to the heavens. And so he embarks on wild new adventures that include being hunted by air-sharks, wild aerial battles on floating ships, journeys through booby-trapped labyrinths, hand-to-hand combat, and much more derring-do.

The Other Log of Phileas Fogg

The Other Log of Phileas Fogg
Author: Philip José Farmer
Publisher: Open Road Media
Total Pages: 154
Release: 2024-01-09
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1504090144

The Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author boldly reimagines the Jules Verne classic Around the World in Eighty Days in this outrageous sci-fi fantasy. The famous adventurer Phileas Fogg was not at all what he seemed—and his legendary journey was far more remarkable than previous accounts let on. Fogg was actually a human foster child of an alien race known as the Eridaneans. After being marooned on Earth, they enlisted Fogg as a secret agent in their underground war against their extraterrestrial rivals. Now Fogg himself recounts what really happened behind the scenes of his trip around the world as he executes a major phase of the Eridanean war. Readers will discover the true origins of Fogg, Passepartout, Captain Nemo, and other Jules Verne characters. The Other Log of Phileas Fogg is set in Philip José Farmer’s expansive fantasy world where Sherlock Holmes, James Bond, Flash Gordon, and other larger-than-life heroes all intersect.