Lord of the trees Book

Reviewed for Hearts on Fire Reviews.

As many decades as I've been reading Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction, I'd never read any of the works of Philip Jose Farmer, so "Lord of the Trees" was quite an introduction. I marveled at the depth and breadth of Mr. Farmer's imagination. Not content to dabble in just one Universe, he has created several different, and often Parallel, Universes. This novel happens to fall in the "Wold Newton Family" collection: stories of heroes and heroines, larger-than-life individuals, and even villains, all of whom are genetically linked to a diverse collection of individuals radioactively affected by a meteor landing near Wold Newton, Yorkshire, England, in 1795.

In addition to the "Wold Newton Family," there exists-possibly in this Universe, possibly in a parallel, possibly in more than one-a group of immortals or near-immortals known as The Nine, who periodically accept new candidates, and some of whom are diligent manipulators of genetic trees, appearing, for example, as great-grandfathers, grandfathers, and so forth. As immortals, The Nine have their own agendas, which don't necessarily dovetail with the good of humanity.

That's where heroes such as Lord Grandwith step in. Whether he is the actual Tarzan, or whether he is the actual Doc Savage, or neither, he certainly has the background: raised in Africa, feral, super-powerful and meta-human; and he is unafraid to face off with The Nine. "Lord of the Trees" is Volume X of The Memoirs of Lord Grandwith, as edited by Mr. Farmer, and a rip-rollicking adventure it is. Readers who fondly dwell on the decades of Classic Pulp Fiction of the 1920's and 1930's will find a home here.