Some pulp fans may be aware of Philip José Farmer‘s 1969 book “A Feast Unknown.”
This book pitted two pulp icons — Tarzan and Doc Savage, here renamed (recast?) Lord Grandrith and Doc Caliban — against one another. Each thought the other had killed or kidnapped someone close to them, when in fact they had been pitted against one another by The Nine, a group of ancient immortals who ruled over a secret society of which both men are a part of. It was meant to test them and see who would take a seat on their high council. But it instead caused the two to decide to team up when they learned of the deception and nearly killing each other, and go after the leaders of The Nine, which would be the plot of the following books.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that this is a pornographic novel, originally published by a “high class” publisher of porn novels, with lots of graphic sex scenes.
The novel had two parallel sequels in 1970: “Lord of the Trees” and “The Mad Goblin,” which were initially published as an Ace Double, with the two novels back-to-back with their own covers. (I got a subsequent printing which had them together, but didn’t bother doing flipped covers).
I call them “parallel sequels” as they occurred side-by-side in terms of the overall story. “Lord of the Trees” focused on Lord Grandrith after “A Feast,” and “The Mad Goblin” on Doc, with the two meeting up together at the end of the two novels. Also, these two books are not soft porn, in case you were wondering.
The storyline was to be concluded in the next volume, which never appeared. A fragment of the planned novel was written, “Monster on Hold,” which appeared in a couple of places (probably the most accessible is “Myths for the Modern Age” from 2005). Another fragment is “Down to Earth’s Centre,” (Farmerphile #12) but it’s harder to find, so far (but hopefully it will be reprinted). However, it has now been announced that Win Scott Eckert will finish this work, to be published in 2016 by Meteor House.
Now, these three books appeared before Farmer wrote his Wold Newton works “Tarzan Alive” and “Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life.” So are they Wold Newton works? I read them around the same time and thought so. But no. They should instead be thought of as occurring in a separate, but perhaps parallel universe to the Wold Newton universe. Here is why.
In the Wold Newton universe, Tarzan and Doc are the result of the Wold Newton meteorite causing mutations in the genes of their ancestors. Further, we learn that Tarzan and Doc are related, being cousins.
In the universe of The Nine (for lack of a better term), Lord Grandrith and Doc Caliban are instead “caused” by the influence of The Nine.
The Nine have been alive since before the dawn of recorded history, being the last of very ancient tribes long gone — something like 20,000 years or more. One of them had been interbreeding into the family that would produce both Lord Grandrith and Doc Caliban, almost like they were trying to breed a superior human. Further, we learn that the two are not cousins, but half-brothers. Their father was given the immortality serum of The Nine, which caused him to become temporarily insane. He was, in fact, Jack the Ripper during that time. He was the younger brother of the man most think was Lord Grandrith’s father, and had raped his mother. He then fled to America and recovered, where he fathered Doc Caliban, and to make up for his actions, had Doc go through his training.
So far, only one other work ties in directly to the “universe of The Nine” and that is “The Wild Huntsman” by Eckert. This tale deals with a member of The Nine from the Wold Newton universe crossing over to the universe of The Nine. This individual will also appear (or be alluded to) in further Wold Newton tales, most by Eckert. These include stories dealing with The Avenger, Sherlock Holmes, and others. I recommend reading this story only after reading the other Nine novels. It can be found in “Tales of the Wold Newton Universe.”
As noted in my posting on Farmer, Titan Books has reprinted all 3 books with introductions that add to the works, so I’d recommend getting those editions. The series is now been dubbed “The Secrets of the Nine”, a term that will continue with Meteor House’s volume.
While I will warn people in advance about the sex and violence of “A Feast Unknown,” I think all three (and soon four) novels serve as pretty good pastiches of Tarzan and Doc Savage.
