The author of the bestselling Riverworld saga presents the second omnibus volume of classic SF novels from his popular World of Tiers series. These three action-packed novels--"Behind the Walls of Terra, The Lavalite World", and "More Than Fire"--are great originals of universe-hopping adventure and were later used as models by Roger Zelazny for his Chronicles of Amber.
The first three adventures set in the amazing realm created by the Hugo Award–winning author of Riverworld and “an excellent science fiction writer” (Isaac Asimov). His past a mystery and his present unbearably mundane, Robert Wolff is simply trying to buy a new house in Arizona when he stumbles upon a secret doorway through space and time and enters the World of Tiers. Made up of ascending levels of jungles, plains, medieval cities, and, at the top, a Garden of Eden, and populated by fantastical creatures, from nymphs and centaurs to merpeople and strange amalgams nonexistent on Earth, it’s beyond anything Wolff could have imagined in his previous humdrum existence. And when his youth is restored in the bargain, it seems he’s truly found paradise. But there are dark forces in this new world, and Wolff is plunged into an epic quest up through the tiers, accompanied by Paul Janus Finnegan, another earthling, now known as Kickaha. Wolff’s journey to find Jadawin, the Lord of this world, will lead to answers about his own identity—and determine his fate. Wolff and Kickaha will face off against feuding Lords—who hold the power to control private worlds of their own design—and the depraved Bellers. Devices originally created in the biolabs of the Lords, the Bellers are now conscious entities waging war on the Lords and their “pocket universes.” As they infiltrate the bodies of creatures throughout the World of Tiers and hunt down the Earth-born, the survival of all the worlds hinges upon the battle between the strangers from Earth and enemies disguised as their allies. This omnibus contains the author’s preferred text, reprinted from the limited edition volumes published by Phantasia Press.
From a multiple Hugo Award winner: Four more novels in a brilliantly imaginative series. In the second half of the World of Tiers series, Kickaha embarks on a journey to the eternally shifting landscape of the Lavalite World of Lord Urthona—and the ultimate clash with his arch nemesis. On Earth, Kickaha and the Lord Anana pursue a rogue Beller called Thabuuz. They thought they had wiped out the last of the biolab-generated artificial intelligences created by the Lords, but it seems one has escaped through a portal to Southern California. Thabuuz must be found before he can spawn more Bellers and revive their war against the Lords. But even though he came from Earth fifty years ago, Kickaha no longer recognizes his former home, now ruled by a hostile Lord known as the Red Orc. Leaving an unwelcoming Earth, Kickaha is trapped on the strange planet he thinks of as Lavalite World, and the only way out is a single gate, located inside Urthona’s palace. But the stronghold moves as readily as the dangerous terrain, making survival an unlikely prospect. After facing harrowing challenges and finally returning home to the World of Tiers, Kickaha is led into one last trap. He’ll have to confront the fearsome enemy who has been hunting him all along—and the fate of the pocket universes lies in the balance. This omnibus contains the author’s preferred text of the novels Behind the Walls of Terra and Lavalite World, reprinted from the limited edition volumes published by Phantasia Press.
The author of the bestselling Riverworld saga presents the second omnibus volume of classic SF novels from his popular World of Tiers series. These three action-packed novels--"Behind the Walls of Terra, The Lavalite World", and "More Than Fire"--are great originals of universe-hopping adventure and were later used as models by Roger Zelazny for his Chronicles of Amber.
When Robert Wolff found a strange horn in an empty house he held the key to a different universe. To blow that horn would open up a door through space-time and permit entry to a cosmos whose dimensions and laws were not those known by our starry galaxy. For that other universe was a place of tiers, world upon world piled upon each other like the landings of a sky-piercing mountain. The one to blow that horn would ascend those steps, from creation to creation, until he would come face to face with the being whose brain-child it was. But what if that maker of universes was a madman? Or an imposter? Or a super-criminal hiding from the wrath of his own superiors...?
From the New York Times–bestselling author of the Riverworld series: An alternate history classic in which the American continents never existed. Two Hawks from Earth, an expanded and revised version of Philip José Farmer’s The Gate of Time, is the story of an Iroquois pilot in World War II. First Lt. Roger Two Hawks is on a bombing run over Romania when his aircraft is shot down and collides with a German plane midair. Two Hawks bails out and survives, but when he reaches the ground, gone are the suburbs he saw from the sky. Instead, there are dirt roads, trees, farms, and an unsettling quiet. Then Two Hawks sees the soldiers: fur-clad men with shiny steel helmets shaped like wolf heads and armed with swords and arrows. Soon he comes to understand that, though a world war still rages, the Americans are absent—because they don’t exist, and neither does the land they’d come from. With his modern-day military and technical knowledge, Two Hawks becomes a prize that both armies covet. But he’ll have to learn to play by the rules of a new realm in order to survive—and live to see another world . . . Praise for Philip José Farmer “An excellent science fiction writer.” —Isaac Asimov “[Farmer’s work is a] blend of intellectual daring and pulp fiction prose.” —The New York Times “Farmer offers his audience a wide-screen adventure that never fails to provoke, amuse, and educate. . . . His imagination is certainly of the first rank.” —Time on The World of Tiers
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “One of the most important books I’ve ever read—an indispensable guide to thinking clearly about the world.” – Bill Gates “Hans Rosling tells the story of ‘the secret silent miracle of human progress’ as only he can. But Factfulness does much more than that. It also explains why progress is so often secret and silent and teaches readers how to see it clearly.” —Melinda Gates "Factfulness by Hans Rosling, an outstanding international public health expert, is a hopeful book about the potential for human progress when we work off facts rather than our inherent biases." - Former U.S. President Barack Obama Factfulness: The stress-reducing habit of only carrying opinions for which you have strong supporting facts. When asked simple questions about global trends—what percentage of the world’s population live in poverty; why the world’s population is increasing; how many girls finish school—we systematically get the answers wrong. So wrong that a chimpanzee choosing answers at random will consistently outguess teachers, journalists, Nobel laureates, and investment bankers. In Factfulness, Professor of International Health and global TED phenomenon Hans Rosling, together with his two long-time collaborators, Anna and Ola, offers a radical new explanation of why this happens. They reveal the ten instincts that distort our perspective—from our tendency to divide the world into two camps (usually some version of us and them) to the way we consume media (where fear rules) to how we perceive progress (believing that most things are getting worse). Our problem is that we don’t know what we don’t know, and even our guesses are informed by unconscious and predictable biases. It turns out that the world, for all its imperfections, is in a much better state than we might think. That doesn’t mean there aren’t real concerns. But when we worry about everything all the time instead of embracing a worldview based on facts, we can lose our ability to focus on the things that threaten us most. Inspiring and revelatory, filled with lively anecdotes and moving stories, Factfulness is an urgent and essential book that will change the way you see the world and empower you to respond to the crises and opportunities of the future. --- “This book is my last battle in my life-long mission to fight devastating ignorance...Previously I armed myself with huge data sets, eye-opening software, an energetic learning style and a Swedish bayonet for sword-swallowing. It wasn’t enough. But I hope this book will be.” Hans Rosling, February 2017.
