Disclaimer: I received an e-ARC of this book from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This is the first three books in the World of Tiers series by internationally famed author, Philip José Farmer. A solid work for fans of fantasy and science fiction. I give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Maker of Universes
Pretty much my entire, limited knowledge of Philip Jose Farmer comes from the Riverworld series. I thought those books were mostly very good. But it turns out that the bits I didn’t like – the macho tone, the occasional lack of logic – are very much a part of the Farmer approach. In this book, they’re the main part.

It appears Farmer had a modestly intriguing idea – the stacked world of tiers, and ran with it. This is pulp fiction, but not in a good way. It’s all manly men, beautiful, obedient women, and a very thin plot tied together with an almost complete lack of logic. In the hands of someone like Zelazny or Anthony, this could have worked. For Farmer, it feels like a seat of the pants project written to deadline. I just can’t recommend it.

The Gates of Creation
This book is better than its predecessor, The Maker of Universes, but only because there are more and different worlds to explore. They’re only slightly interesting, but happily Wolff and crew spend only limited time in each, saving themselves by an improbable series of happy accidents and lucky guesses.

The characters are only barely credible, and the cast continues the machismo of the first book. It’s hard to be interested in any of them, and the resolution mostly left me happy the book was over.

A Private Cosmos
Kickaha (aka Paul Janus Finegan) as Philip Jose Farmer notes, is a thinly disguised alternate self who has by now become the focus of the series. He’s a relatively amoral trickster-type, constantly getting into scrapes, but escaping through native cleverness and charm. He’s not, unfortunately, likable or credible.

The situation isn’t helped by Farmer’s fairly impractical teleportation mechanism – pairs of match metal arcs. It doesn’t make much sense, and Farmer essentially recognizes this, allowing the once-rare arcs to multiply without regard for logic. At certain points, the action was unclear enough that I lost track of what was happening, but didn’t particularly care. All in all, a haphazard and uninteresting sequel.

It was a mistake to request all of these PHF books at once because reading them all together recalls how old they are and how tastes have changed. These books were revolutionary and fun at the time but they have been so widely imitated that they have lost their specialness. This is too bad because really, PHF sampled a little bit at a time can be quite a treat.

I received a review copy of this and five other volumes of the works of Philip José Farmer through NetGalley.com.

The World of Tiers, Volume 1 by Philip Jose Farmer- This omnibus collection contains the first three novels in the World of Tiers series: The Makers of Universes, The Gates of Creation, A Private Cosmos.
The Maker of Universes- Robert Wolff, bored with his stagnant life, blows a horn that opens a portable to another universe. He finds there a world split into levels like a pyramid with its own sun and moon and in it's own "Pocket Universe". He meets a woman who quickly captures his heart, but when she is taken away, he enlists the help of another Earth-expatriate, who calls himself Kickaha now. They begin a desperate climb through the levels, with many strange and odd discoveries, to confront the Lord of this universe, Jadawin. There is a great reveal near the end that you can probably guess if you've ever read much Philip Jose Farmer before.
The Gates of Creation find Wolff called upon by one of the dreaded Lords. He must travel through this Lord's multi-tiered world in order to save a loved one and see some of the strangest sights along the way. Each Lord has the power to change the physical properties of his own universe and this makes for some crazy goings on, but the entire plot premise is really quite close to the first book, so I think this is mostly Farmer having fun with his creation.
A Private Cosmos is Kickaha's story as Wolff has disappeared and their multi-tiered world is being invaded by bodies controlled by other Lord's. Again we get a lot of action but little resolution and the premise is beginning to get confusing and over wrought. The series is fun to read if you don't take it too seriously and don't worry about the plot snafus. I read these back in the 70's when they first came out and thought they were fun then, but reading them back to back just points out the flaws in their construction. Still, Philip Jose Farmer knows how to juice up a great idea.