The World of Tiers is a series of science fiction novels by American writer Philip José Farmer. They are set within a series of artificially constructed universes, created and ruled by decadent beings who are genetically identical to humans, but regard themselves as superior, and are the inheritors of an advanced technology they no longer understand. This technology enables the "Lords" (or "Thoans", as described by Farmer in his introduction to a role-playing video game)Original introduction to Thoan RPG by Philip Jose Farmer, http://thoan.chez.com to create novel lifeforms, and also to prevent aging or disease, making them effectively immortal. Their technology also allows them to create small artificial universes (see pocket universe), and the planets and stars within them, and modify the physical laws (e.g., changing the behavior of gravity) to create unusual or interesting phenomena within these universes. Instantaneous travel within and between these universes is achieved by the use of "gates" which seem to function as teleportation devices, or as a means of creating wormholes between different regions of spacetime.
The overall series title comes from the main "pocket universe" featured in the books. This consists of a single planet with a green sky, shaped in the form of a huge stepped pyramid on five stages, with each stage being a disk or squat cylinder. A small star and a single moon orbit around this planet (thus, in this universe geocentrism is a correct description of astronomical reality). There are no other stars or astronomical bodies. This world was created by a Lord named Jadawin.
The overall storyline of the series follows the adventures of two people from Earth who independently discover gates into the World of Tiers. The earlier books focus on the character of Robert Wolff as he explores this world and tries to discover its secrets. From the third book onwards the action shifts to Paul Janus Finnegan (known as Kickaha, along with many other aliases), who is drawn into a battle between an ancient enemy of the Lords, and ultimately into the feuds between rival Lords as they try to take over each other's universes.
Novels The novels in the series are:
The Maker of Universes (1965) The Gates of Creation (1966) A Private Cosmos (1968) Behind the Walls of Terra (1970) The Lavalite World (1977) More Than Fire (1993)
The novel Red Orc's Rage (1991) has marginal connections with the series. Although the main characters from the other books do not appear directly, this novel provides some background material on events and characters in the other novels.
Setting The broad setting of the novels is a series of artificially constructed universes. The majority of the stories take place on the world created by the Lord Jadawin. This planet consists of a series of cylindrical layers stacked one atop the other, to form an enormous, approximately conical tower (albeit much broader than it is tall). The top surfaces (levels or tiers) of each cylindrical monolith are densely inhabited, while the vertical sides of the monoliths act as enormous cliffs (30,000-100,000 feet / 9,000-30,000 metres high) which partially isolate the inhabitants of each tier from each other. These cliffs do provide some purchase for climbing, and many specialized creatures live on the cliff surfaces, so this isolation is not complete.
There is no diminution of atmosphere from one level to the next, due to Jadawin's manipulation of the local gravitational fields. The various tiers are populated with plants and animals creating different environments. Some of these were abducted from Earth throughout history, while many were created in Jadawin's biolabs. Many creatures have bodies created by Jadawin to replicate mythological creatures (e.g. merpeople, centaurs) implanted with the minds of abducted humans. The various inhabitants are immortal as far as physical aging is concerned, though they can be killed by most other means.
Structure and scale The pocket universe in which the World of Tiers is located contains only three astronomical objects; Alofmethbin (the Thoan name for the World of Tiers) a single moon orbiting Alofmethbin a single tiny star, also orbiting Alofmethbin
Alofmethbin
The World of Tiers consists of a stack of cylindrical monoliths. The "tiers" of the title are habitable environments on the upper surface of each cylinder. The tiers are, in order from largest (bottom) to smallest (top):
Okeanos – watery, Garden of Eden, populated by people abducted from ancient Greece. Amerind – prehistoric North America, populated by people abducted from North and Central America. Dracheland – medieval/Arthurian, populated by people from medieval Germany. Atlantis – was a major civilization, now ruins and jungle. Palace of Jadawin
and the monoliths on top of which the tiers are located are: Thayaphaeawoed (surmounted by the Amerind tier) Abharhploonta (surmounted by the Dracheland tier) Doozvillnavava (surmounted by the Atlantis tier) Idaquizzoorhruz (surmounted by the Palace of Jadawin)
The exact dimensions of the monoliths are not stated, and so they must be inferred from hints in the novels, such as the quote above. Unfortunately the various statements in the books seem to be inconsistent. For instance, the distance from the outer edge of the Amerind tier to the base of the monolith Abharhploonta is quoted as being 1500 miles (approximately 2400 km), while the surface area of the Amerind tier is quoted as being equal to that of North and South America combined (approximately 42 million square kilometers). From this information it can be inferred that the outer radius of the Amerind tier (and hence the radius of the monolith Thayaphaeawoed) is approximately 4000 km. The next tier down (Okeanos) consists of a circular ocean girdling the monolith Thayaphaeawoed, approximately 480 kilometers wide, and a circular beach and forest. The edge of the Okeanos tier is easily reached by foot from the beach in less than a day. It follows that the outer radius of the lowest (largest) tier of the planet is approximately 4500 km. This disagrees with the quote above, since, in order to have a surface area equal to that of the water surface of Earth, the world of tiers would require a radius of approximately 10,700 km.
Furthermore, the heights of the various monoliths are not consistent between novels. As one example, in the first novel of the series the monolith Idaquizzoorhruz is quoted as being 30,000 feet (approximately 10 km) tall, while in the third novel it is stated as being 100,000 feet (approximately 33 km) tall. These discrepancies may be explained by saying that the various characters initial estimates of the height of the monoliths are inaccurate, and become more accurate as they learn more about Alofmethbin.
In any case, while the overall shape of the planet is a conical stepped pyramid, it is clearly much broader (several thousand kilometers) than it is tall (around 100 km).
Moon The single moon orbiting Alofmethbin is quoted as being approximately the same size as the planet Mars. The moon as seen from Alofmethbin is described as appearing two-and-a-half times bigger than Earth's Moon. If this refers to the moon's angular width, it can be inferred that the moon orbits Alofmethbin at a distance of approximately 300,000 km.
Story and characters Major characters Robert Wolff/Lord Jadawin Robert Wolff is a retired linguistics professor in his sixties. While inspecting a house to purchase and live in during retirement with his wife, a gate to the World of Tiers opens before him. He passes through this gate, arriving on the Okeanos level. There he regains his youth and health, due to the effects of drugs in the water supply provided by the Lord Jadawin. He meets and falls in love with Chryseis, and when she is kidnapped, he sets out to rescue her, ascending the various levels of the planet. Most of this journey is undertaken in the company of Paul Janus Finnegan, aka Kickaha. Wolff and Jadawin are the same person.
Paul Janus Finnegan/Kickaha Paul Janus Finnegan was born in Indiana in 1918, and served in the American army during the Second World War, driving a tank. In the ruins of a museum in a small German town, he discovered a metal crescent made of an apparently indestructible metal, and kept it as a souvenir. This crescent proved to be one half of a gate to the World of Tiers, the other half belonging to a displaced Thoan who attempted to buy (and later, steal) the crescent from him. Finnegan interrupted the Thoan in the middle of entering the gate and accidentally activated the completed gate himself, ending up transported to the World of Tiers.
At the start of the first novel in the series, Finnegan has lived on the World of Tiers for approximately twenty-four years. In that time, he has learned many of the local languages, become extremely skilled at knife-throwing, archery, and other combat and outdoors survival skills, and lived under many assumed names and identities. In Dracheland, his identity is "Baron Horst von Horstman", whose coat of arms is a red jackass' head surmounting a fist with the middle finger extended. His favourite identity is that of Kickaha (meaning "trickster"), which he uses on the Amerind level.
Paul Janus Finnegan shares the initials of the author (PJF). This is also true of one of the main characters in the Riverworld series, Peter Jairus Frigate.
In The Lavalite World, Philip José Farmer strongly implies that Finnegan is the great grandson of Phileas Fogg, the hero of Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days.
Chryseis Chryseis is a woman abducted from Earth by Jadawin, who has had her mind implanted into a new body created in Jadawin's biolabs. She claims to be the same Chryseis, daughter of Chryses, portrayed in the tale of the Trojan War. The body created for her by Jadawin is essentially human, except that her eyes are exceptionally large in proportion to her face (like a cat's eyes), her legs are exceptionally long, and her hair is tiger-striped.
Anana Anana, also known as Anana the Bright, is a Thoan, sister of Jadawin. She is driven out of her own universe by an ancient enemy that threatens to destroy all the Thoans, and takes refuge in the World of Tiers where she meets Kickaha. She is initially arrogant and cruel, as most Thoans are, but is impressed by Kickaha's resourcefulness, and gradually becomes more sympathetic and humane as she falls in love with him.
Podarge Podarge, a terrible and extremely dangerous harpy, whose fantastic winged body was created by Wolff during his former life as Lord Jadawin, and who was given the brain of an ancient Greek woman by Wolff/Jadawin, appears periodically as both an ally and foe in the World of Tiers series. Podarge and her huge air armada of giant green eagles (and many of the individuals in it), often play pivotal parts in this story. Podarge's face was based on that of Wolff/Jadawin's sister, Anana the Bright.
Storyline The first book in the series opens with Robert Wolff finding a gate into the World of Tiers, which Kickaha opens in order to escape from creatures sent by the Lord of that world. Wolff enters the World of Tiers, arriving on the Okeanos level, and over the space of a few months regains his youth thanks to chemicals in the water and food. He meets Chryseis and falls in love with her, but she is captured by the same creatures who captured Kickaha. Wolff sets out to pursue them, climbing the monolith towards the second (Amerind) level of the planet. On the way he meets Kickaha again, and the two join forces to rescue Chryseis. Eventually they ascend all the levels of the planet and launch an attack on the Lord's palace. It is revealed that Wolff was actually the Lord, Jadawin, who created the World of Tiers, but that he was attacked by another Lord and marooned on Earth, where the shock of being in such primitive surroundings caused him to suffer amnesia.