Rating: 
Summary: one of my favorites to read again and again
Review: A great action sci-fi that keeps rolling through all three volumes. The only drawback is that the hero's are left in the lurch in the final volume. We've waited too long for a concluding volume
Rating: 
Summary: Vintage Silver Age Adventure
Review: For some reason, Amazon is combining the reviews of both volumes of the World of Tiers instead of storing them separately under the actually-reviewed volume... So don't be confused by reviews of the second volume appearing under the first, and vice versa.
The first volume contains the first three books of the series, the Maker of Universes, the Gates of Creation, and A Private Cosmos. People looking for realistic romances or accurate portrayals of human emotion might want to look elsewhere; those in the mood for classic world-spanning science fiction with an emphasis on action have found their grail.
The first two books center on Wolff, a man who starts on Earth and is taken through a Gate to another world where strange Lords rule pocket universes of their own creation and wage a cruel and inventive war against each other. In addition to fabulous landscapes and strange beasts, we have many vintage science fiction ideas and death traps galore. The third book introduces the Black Bellers, creations originally intended to store human consciousnesses for transferring to new bodies, which have themselves evolved consciousness and now present a major threat to all life. Farmer's forte is putting characters in horrible situations and letting them work their way out with wits alone.
The imagery in this book is amazing as we travel through multiple universes, each conceived by a Lord as either a palace of pleasure or one giant planet of destruction. Highly recommended for anyone looking for a great, imaginative thrill ride.
The second volume concludes one of the most entertaining and original adventure/science fiction series in history. The emphasis is on action, conflict, and solving puzzles with the mind alone, said puzzles usually involving Gates that take the main characters to different worlds, often landing them squarely in the middle of a mastermind's death trap. How Farmer weaves his characters into and out of these death traps provided immense enjoyment for this reader.
The second volume, containing books 4-6 of the World of Tiers, focuses on Kickaha's battle against the Lord of Earth, Red Orc. Behind the Walls of Terra is one long action/chase scene as Kickaha lands on Earth after an absence of 25 years to chase down a threat to all life everywhere (the Black Bellers) and find his friends who may have been captured by Red Orc. In the second book in this volume, the Lavalite World, Kickaha and others have been transported to a shape-changing world where the planet itself molds and morphs and breaks apart (and rejoins) like the globules in a lavalamp. You will also encounter man-eating trees with insectoid eyes set among their branches and other products of Farmer's fertile imagination. The last book, More than Fire, is the showdown between Kickaha and Red Orc. In my opinion, the books just get better and better.
Don't expect the prose of Shakespeare or the complex and masterful plots of Ludlum; this is pure action/adventure with a healthy dose of trippy sci-fi ideas.
Rating:
Summary: Simply - The Best book i've ever read.
Review: Hi,This is a must read. The concepts introduced in this book are way ahead of their time. I must commend mr farmer, considering this was wriiten in the 60s! I have got much enjoyment and inspiration from it. Michael Grasso (grassom@smartchat.net.au)
Rating:
Summary: This series is smoothly done, its the best i've read
Review: I don't need to say much. The story is beautifuly told. The scenes are described with the clarity of Michaelangelo's paintings and are so imaginative and varied that they could inspire awe in even the most imaginative of people. The themes that run through the series combine philosophy and survivalisim to create an intensely vigorous and stimulating plot. Yes it's very good indeed!
Rating: 
Summary: don't ruin the good taste from the first three!!!
Review: I read the first three books of the tier world saga, and I really liked it. The characters are interesting, (especially Wolf), and the adventures are gripping and exciting. I gladly bought this volume of the next three, and was really disappointed. The stories are full of high pace action, but the characters aren't convincing and sometimes you just ask yourself "why do I care what will happened to them?". After the adventures on earth that are bareble, the next books just drag on and doesn't seem to get anywhere. I also found a few disturbing mistakes - places where some things don't fit what was written earlier. In the first three books I especially liked Wolf, so I was disappointed that not him nor Kreisais appear in those three, and at the end I was frustrated that there was no ending, and I suspect that the author just forgot that the original reason for Kikaha's and Anana's journey was to find Wolf. To summarize - if you really liked the third book (which is on Kikaha only) and you have a lot of spare time, go for it. Otherwise, don't ruin the good experience from the first three books.
Rating:
Summary: One of the greatest Sci-Fi Fantasy series ever written!
Review: If you like Sci-Fi Fantasy books by Roger Zelazny or Piers Anthony, you have to read Farmer's World of Tiers. Both Zelazny and Anthony acknowledge Farmer as a big influence in their writings. The World of Tiers (WOT) is a non-stop action/adventure/mystery
that takes the reader on a wirlwind tour of pocket universes filled with fantasy creatures and eternal beings. This series is a real page turner and if you
do start reading it, make sure you have all six volumes,
because you will go crazy if you dont read the ending of this exciting story.
Rating:
Summary: Breakneck Speed Leads to Fatal Crash
Review: Meet Robert Wolff: 66, fat, balding, married to a shrew, and ready for retirement - but perhaps not on on earth. Everything starts out promisingly enough when our likeable hero with the unfortunate gap in his past is drawn by a magic horn to a paradise in another universe. Sadly, things go down hill from here as Wolff sort of accidentally gets drawn into a journey and quest of heroic proportions to rescue said horn, win the girl of his dreams, and topple the Lord of the universe.
The main problem here is that Farmer bit off more than he could chew, shoving a plot that Robert Jordan would have spun out into a dozen massive volumes (at least 6 of which would have been worth reading) into a bare 270 pages. I kept finding myself looking for the name of the abridiger on the cover! As a result, there is no time or space for niceties such as character development, suspense, or an examination of motivations, let alone some inkling that the book might *mean* something. The plot rushes on and on, with frequent references such as "3 months later" or "after a long hard journey." Foreshadowing, flashbacks, and other key revelations are handled clumsily at best - as if Farmer had forgotten to tell you something earlier (say, about Wolff's near super-human strength) and is slipping it in now in hopes you won't notice the omission. When he stops to deal with motivation or character development at all, his characters are likely to spill in one succinct paragraph their longstanding battle with alcoholism and apathy to a perfect stranger. When he does stop for breath, it is only to describe in gory detail a battle of some sort in which characters are killed off like so many Starfleet Redshirts (except for the important ones, of course, who escape with nary a scratch.) When we reach the inevitable confrontation between Wolff and the Lord, it is as if Farmer suddenly realized he needed to finish up in just 20 more pages, and shoves in the last dozen revelations in anywhere he can cram them, tying up everything in a neat little package as he reaveals that.... no, I won't ruin the plot for you. I'll just say that if you didn't see it coming, it's probably just because like me you were reading too fast so you could finish and pick up something with a little more meat.
Rating:
Summary: Breakneck Speed Leads to Fatal Crash
Review: Meet Robert Wolff: 66, fat, balding, married to a shrew, and ready for retirement - but perhaps not on on earth. Everything starts out promisingly enough when our likeable hero with the unfortunate gap in his past is drawn by a magic horn to a paradise in another universe. Sadly, things go down hill from here as Wolff sort of accidentally gets drawn into a journey and quest of heroic proportions to rescue said horn, win the girl of his dreams, and topple the Lord of the universe.
The main problem here is that Farmer bit off more than he could chew, shoving a plot that Robert Jordan would have spun out into a dozen massive volumes (at least 6 of which would have been worth reading) into a bare 270 pages. I kept finding myself looking for the name of the abridiger on the cover! As a result, there is no time or space for niceties such as character development, suspense, or an examination of motivations, let alone some inkling that the book might *mean* something. The plot rushes on and on, with frequent references such as "3 months later" or "after a long hard journey." Foreshadowing, flashbacks, and other key revelations are handled clumsily at best - as if Farmer had forgotten to tell you something earlier (say, about Wolff's near super-human strength) and is slipping it in now in hopes you won't notice the omission. When he stops to deal with motivation or character development at all, his characters are likely to spill in one succinct paragraph their longstanding battle with alcoholism and apathy to a perfect stranger. When he does stop for breath, it is only to describe in gory detail a battle of some sort in which characters are killed off like so many Starfleet Redshirts (except for the important ones, of course, who escape with nary a scratch.) When we reach the inevitable confrontation between Wolff and the Lord, it is as if Farmer suddenly realized he needed to finish up in just 20 more pages, and shoves in the last dozen revelations in anywhere he can cram them, tying up everything in a neat little package as he reaveals that.... no, I won't ruin the plot for you. I'll just say that if you didn't see it coming, it's probably just because like me you were reading too fast so you could finish and pick up something with a little more meat.
Rating:
Summary: good clean old fashioned fun
Review: Mr. Farmer is one of these guys whose writing i love (for the most part), but yet am sort of irritated with. he conceived one of the most fascinating and original ideas ever conceived in Fantasy Literature in To Your Scattered Bodies Go, and then completely screwed it up in the sequels... this series, with a setting and central idea vastly inferior to RIVERWORLD is still good, a lot of fun, exciting and all that and the first four books are still fun to read and nothing has been screwed up yet, the fifth one (the lavalite world) bungles it though. still hats of to Mr. Farmer.
Rating:
Summary: Good follow-up to the first volume
Review: Not too much really to say about the stories themselves. A reader either likes the series or he/she doesn't. If you haven't read any of Farmer's "World of Tiers" books yet, by all means be sure to read the first one first (Maker of Universes). A new reader will be lost in the plot otherwise. This particular volune (#2) consists of Farmer's 4th, 5th and 6th tales of Kickaha, Wolfe and the race of lords. "Behind the Walls of Terra" is a well done story centering on Kickaha's return to earth to search for the last living beller and his friend Wolfe (Jadawin), tangling with earth's lord, Red Orc and an interloper. The second story, "The Lavalite World", drags and is probably the weakest of the series. Readers will want to go thru that one only because it's part of the collection. The last volume, "More than Fire" I cannot comment on at this time since I haven't read it yet. The set of stories by Farmer are imaginative, fast moving (for the most part) and handily available in the two paperback volumes. The book price, while not really cheap is not out of line for paperbacks sold today. Folks who enjoy tales of fantasy, other worlds or dimensions, and science fiction should pass many pleasant hours with the collection -- but read it in sequence to understand what's going on. ** Recommended ** ~P~
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