books: Gods of Opar

I have been very excited about this book for a long while, first seeing it mentioned online as a proposed novel. I was seeking, like many have, the expected conclusion to the Opar trilogy. Unlike most, my timing was especially lucky, and the conclusion was being prepared at that time. I am very glad I ordered the limited edition hardcover of Gods of Opar, even though it was much more expensive than I am used to ($65). In reality though, since the book contains three novels, that makes each novel a quite reasonable price ($20, since shipping was included). Gods of Opar was published by the Subterranean Press just this past month, and includes two novels of fictional prehistoric high adventure (by Phillip Jose Farmer) plus a third just-written novel (by Farmer and Carey) that concludes the trilogy that was left dangling by the original author. All three novels were written to honor and imitate the style of pulp novels, which are known for being adventursome, gratuitios, sensational, and generally over-the-top. The book is most genreally about Opar, an "ancient lost city" invented for the old Tarzan books. It was referred to as a "lost colony of Atlantis" and was described in a few Tarzan books in the 1910s. Then comes Farmer, publishing Hadon of Ancient Opar in 1974. Then comes Carey, expanding the Farmer books with Song of Kwasin, the third book in Gods of Opar. However, ironically, Opar is little seen or spoken of. Rather, the captial island of pseudo-Atlantis (known as Khokarsa) is the focus, an island on an inland sea (now more or less vanished) within Africa. I've had an interesting time listening to some files I found online, called "podcasts", a radio show of sorts, in which the book is discussed by the authors and publishers. http://allpulp.blogspot.com/2012/04/farmerians-reveal-big-news-for-farmer.html http://thebookcave.libsyn.com/webpage/the-book-cave-episode-174-philip-jose-farmer-the-song-of-kwasin- http://thebookcave.libsyn.com/webpage/art-s-reviews-episode-3-philip-jose-farmer-renaissance-2012 (to listen to the above podcasts, you may need to scroll around on http://thebookcave.libsyn.com/) I ordered a follow-up novel (or rather a prequel) to Gods of Opar called the Exiles of Kho, an solitarily written novel by Carey. Since this author, Carey, is an unknown to me and much of the world, I was skeptical at first. But I think I will be mightily pleased. Brobdingnagianly, even. An informal pronunciation guide gleaned from Carey via podcast: Hadon: "Huh-don" Kwasin: "Kwaa-seen" Lalila: "Lah-Lee-Lah" Paga: "Pahgah" Lupoeth: "Loo-Poth" Dythbeth: Sahhindar: "Sah-Heen-dar" Hinokly: "Hee-nokly" Resu: "Ray-zoo"