#62: Blown
Philip Jose Farmer

After reading the first book in this series, IMAGE OF THE BEAST, this one made a lot more sense, and seemed a lot more professional. BLOWN felt a little more maturely done craft-wise than the last book, and had a lot more plot arc and reasons for characters to do things, whereas in the first book, it read more like Herald Childe's crazy weekend, since there was no one he could tell about it, and at the end it was a little vague on the character and plot arc.

BLOWN was fun in a lot of ways. It was a riot to see Forrest J (no period) Ackerman make an appearance as a character. Having only seen him at last year's WorldCon, and knowing only what I read on an on-line bio about him, he still seems like the perfect character to put in this book, and no made-up character would be quite the same. I do wonder what Forry thought of his appearance, though it seems he would have enjoyed it.

This book sort of read like a sci-fi nerd's dream, with all the mentions of SF books and materials, not to mention Forry's own Vampirella series and an obsession about a certain one-of-a-kind painting.

It was also more apparent in this book that the frequent and graphic sex was there to serve the plot, and not just thrown in to titillate. In a way--if one went by the definition that SF revolves around a piece of technology without which the book would fall apart--the sex serves that purpose, since the aliens using it need it to travel from one place to another and it's a major piece of their existence.

So I did enjoy this book, more than the first. And, yes, I did give both books back to their rightful owner tonight, and he was happy to see them. :>)

#61: Image of the Beast
Philip Jose Farmer

I admit to a point of guilt about this book--a friend from work lent it to me well over a year ago, and I'm just now getting to it, because his schedule change after tomorrow means it's going to be hard to return it to him because I won't see him. So, I'm in a mad dash to finish this book and the sequel by my shift tomorrow night.

(Though, if the covers would have been work safe, I would have finished these a couple days after I got them.)

Anyway. Oh, boy. This book is rather graphic, but it's entertaining, about a detective who sees a video where his partner is killed in a particularly gruesome fashion, and then goes in search of the killers, and gets tangled up with a vampire and several were-creatures. It's also mentioned in an essay in a critical book I have about sex with aliens, and how aliens are a reflection of man's own inner demons, which is along the same lines of how the Farmer book actually sums up.

A couple interesting world-building things is the smog (this takes place in L.A. at an undetermined time) which comes in acidic and thick clouds, but sporadically disappears. People want gas masks, which go at exorbitant prices and are stolen from cars.

The other nifty idea was the explanation for vampires and were-creatures and ghosts, something about them having to adapt to this plane and human existence while retaining a few characteristics of their own.

I suppose the jolting thing is that erotica usually doesn't use the clinical, biological terms for body parts, and Farmer unabashedly does. It doesn't detract from the book or the writing, it just takes a little getting used to.

Actually, one of the most interesting things about this book is the afterword by Theodore Sturgeon, a rant against "Labelers" who dared call Farmer's book pornography, and how Labelers can kill art.

Anyway. Good book. Glad to read it, and now I have to get cracking on the sequel.