- Paperback
- Publisher: Avon Books (Mm) (June 1978)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0380000954
- ISBN-13: 978-0380000951
- Product Dimensions: 17.8 x 10.4 x 1.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 159 g
- Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
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Most helpful customer reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
What was once groundbreaking is now horribly dated,
By
This review is from: Strange Relations (Mass Market Paperback)
For anyone who's unaware, Strange Relations is a collection of two novellas and several short stories, all of which were originally published in the 50s and 60s. At the time, they were considered groundbreaking and incredibly controversial, and they've been said to belong in every science fiction library. Well, I just so happen to have a science fiction library, so I figured I'd better check 'em out.
Strange Relations is essentially a series of stories about first contact between humans and aliens. They take place on different worlds with different life forms, but each one entails the struggles of man when he comes up against something for which he has absolutely no frame of reference. The results are always perilous and often deadly to one side or the other. Farmer seems to hold a dark view of humanity, and his characters act accordingly, making them hard to like. I'm honestly not sure if we're expected to like the characters, but we're clearly meant to understand and sympathize with their actions and decisions. I just found myself appalled by most of them. Instead of sympathizing and rooting for the protagonists, I felt bad for the secondary characters who had to deal with them. Perhaps this is Farmer's point, though: when we feel nobody is looking, the decisions we would make are selfish, the sorts of choices we wouldn't want others to know we secretly want to make. Farmer has a fantastic imagination. Each alien species is unique, not only unlike anything on Earth, but vastly different from each other. Since these are short stories, the alien worlds are not explored as fully as they might have been, but the small details thrown in make them memorable. Something to be noted is that all the characters are very much a product of the time in which they were written. Every character is middle-class, caucasian, and Christian. Homosexuality is right out. All significant characters are male, with female characters relegated to hysterical young girls, unfathomable aliens, or overbearing mothers. To be fair, the men don't seem dismissive or contemptuous towards women, they're just never the strong adventurous kinds, the way the men are. For the record, I can see how these would have been groundbreaking at the time they were written and published. However, that doesn't necessarily mean they remain relevant today. It's perhaps unfair for me to hold something written 50 years ago to today's standards, but I'm not only a modern critter, I'm woman, so my bias is going to be very different from Farmer's. They're not a bad read, and I do admire the different cultures and alien species he's created, but the flavour of the 1950s is so strong in these stories, it's sometimes hard to look past.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.6 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews) 16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Early Farmer at is Very Best,
By Paul Cook - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: STRANGE RELATIONS (Paperback)
This is a collection of three books, the novels THE LOVERS and FLESH and a loose collection of stories called STRANGE RELATIONS, one of which has a Father Carmody story. This handsome edition from Baen should be in everybody's library, everybody, that is, who claims to be a student of science fiction. Farmer was at his best when throwing humans up against alien races in sexual (or reproductive) situations. THE LOVERS, I think, stands as one of his very best novels overall. I had a lot of fun rereading these stories in this new edition. I highly recommend this book.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Spacemen gone wild,
By Pinner Blinn "skyisland" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Strange Relations (Mass Market Paperback)
I bought this book after hearing of Philip Jose Farmer's death and reading of how he supposedly broke the taboo of sexual themes in science fiction. This book contains the groundbreaking story "The Lovers" (for which publication/expansion dates of 1952, 1961, and 1979 are given). It's a very good read. Central character Hal Yarrow escapes a hellishly frustrating marriage by volunteering for service as a linguistic specialist on mission to a planet populated by bug-like aliens. He cannot as easily escape the bonds of his dogmatic and suppressive religion. Once on the ground, Hal begins to stray from his mission...
Two more "novels" are included in this volume. Of the three, "Flesh" is the raciest. There is no material here that could be called explicit, but this bawdy comedy centers around Peter Stagg who leads a crew of space travelers returning to a future Earth transformed into tribal countries, one of which surgically attaches fleshy antlers to Stagg's head making him their "Sunhero" who must romp around the countryside impregnating crowds of eager virgins. Modern sensibilities might be offended by the episode involving the Pants Elves (the tribe that rules Pants-Elf-vania, and who are all homosexual males). The apparent fury with which Stagg dispatches them in making his escape might be considered gay-bashing. On the other hand, Stagg is pretty much out of control when his antlers are pumped. Make your own allusions. The third "book" is called "Strange Relations" and is a collection of short stories. The first two are connected. In "Mother", an Earthman participates in an alien's reproductive process, and in "Daughter" one of the progeny heeds well the advice of her "dad". The next segment "Father" is a bit of a tease since you might imagine that it is a further continuation, though not obviously so, as we see a planet where a god-like Father holds sway. In the end, no connection to the first two parts is evident, but the story stands on its own as a broad spoof of Christian themes. The fourth part "Son" leaves no doubt. Very straight sci-fi compared to the rest of the book. The final segment "My Sister's Brother" is perhaps the most satisfying story in the volume. While on a spooky rescue mission on a fanciful Mars, spaceman Lane is thrown into a situation both seductive and well outside the bounds of his by-the-book sensibilities. Typical of Farmer's protagonists, he is a musclebound doofus who just might avoid disaster despite himself. All in all, an interesting and entertaining collection of stories. 7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Three groundbreaking works under one cover,
By D. Donovan, Editor/Sr. Reviewer "California B... - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: STRANGE RELATIONS (Paperback)
Philip Jose Farmer is another name from the past strongly associated with powerful writing, and STRANGE RELATIONS is an excellent compendium of three of his groundbreaking works under one cover: THE LOVERS, FLESH, and STRANGE RELATIONS. A starship captain sent by Earth's religious rulers discovers a human fugitive hiding in an ancient ruins and finds love too strong to ignore, however illogical or forbidden. His adventures with his new love will change worlds.
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