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: 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: 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 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~
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~
Rating:
Summary: Do you like adventure and a fast moving story?
Review: Then you'll like this book. Maker of Universes is one of my all time favorite stories. I first read it in high school (1968) and have re-read it several times since. It has a quick hook to catch your interest in the beginning pages of the story, a fast moving/changing developing story and a somewhat of a surprize ending. This particular volume also contains two of Farmer's later related stories, though I don't know why the publisher didn't also include "The Lavalite World". These other two stories are also good, though not in the same class as the blueprint (Maker of Universes). Mr. Farmer does this a lot with his writing, manufacturing sequels after a successful sale. At any rate, this is a worthwhile collection, abeit incomplete, and will give you much reading enjoyment
Rating:
Summary: Never fails to pick the trite cliche
Review: This book presents the first three of Philip Jose Farmer's "The World of Tiers" novels. "The World of Tiers" features a host of alternate universes, all "next door" to Earth and accessed through hidden gates, created and ruled by a decadent and technologically advanced race of Lords. This first novel opens with the Earthman Robert Wolff summoned to one of these parallel universes, to discover his Lordly heritage and to set right the evils of his world. Later installments introduce the human hero Kickaha and other members of Wolff's family. These books are fantasy yarns in the spirit of Edgar Rice Burroughs's John Carter of Mars adventures, and Farmer's Machiavellian family of Lords prefigures Corwin and relatives in Roger Zelazny's Amber chronicles. By comparison with these two siblings, "The World of Tiers" is certainly the runt of the litter. Farmer never fails to choose the trite cliche when confronted with a plot decision. The third novel in the series features the Lord Anana falling in love with the human Kickaha, overcome by his masculine charm, despite her "murderous" nature and previous disdain for lowly humans. No convincing argument for this transformation is presented, and it is clearly intended as a sop for Farmer's predominantly male audience. Similar teenage male pulp fiction conventions crowd the plot, never reworked artfully, and the action drags almost unbearably after several hundred pages. The story also suffers from an odd disjointedness; the characters in the novel periodically become possessed of vast knowledge concerning newly encountered races and cities, unbeknownst to the reader. A paragraph will suddenly contain a multitude of unintroduced terms and names with which the protagonist is intimately familiar, despite his complete ignorance of the landscape in the previous paragraph. Readers who enjoy this style of fiction might derive a few afternoons of enjoyment from Farmer's "The World of Tiers." I'd much rather rejoin John Carter and the lovely Dejah Thoris on Barsoom, or travel with Corwin and Random through Shadow.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Farmer
Review: This book was my introduction to Philip Jose Farmer. Within five pages I knew I'd found something worth reading and by the end I realized that my Sci-fi knowledge was truly lacking prior to having read Farmer. He is undoubtedly a master. Farmer's literary style may seem pulpish but the shear scope of his imagination combined with the unrelenting pace of his naratives leaves one saturated in worlds complex and thoroughly detailed. I've since read the Riverworld Series (a triumph of imaginative literature filled with thought provoking situations and mind expanding metaphisical conotations) and a number of his other works and now consider myself a fan bordering on cult status. Any fan of Sci-fi or fantasy should not be without a collection of Farmer's works.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Farmer
Review: This book was my introduction to Philip Jose Farmer. Within five pages I knew I'd found something worth reading and by the end I realized that my Sci-fi knowledge was truly lacking prior to having read Farmer. He is undoubtedly a master. Farmer's literary style may seem pulpish but the shear scope of his imagination combined with the unrelenting pace of his naratives leaves one saturated in worlds complex and thoroughly detailed. I've since read the Riverworld Series (a triumph of imaginative literature filled with thought provoking situations and mind expanding metaphisical conotations) and a number of his other works and now consider myself a fan bordering on cult status. Any fan of Sci-fi or fantasy should not be without a collection of Farmer's works.
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