2.5 stars, Metaphorosis Reviews

This second volume follows closely on the model of its predecessor, but with more assurance. It’s less concerned with laying out the structure of the world than in sending its protagonist through a series of adventures. It’s smoother but less interesting reading.

While Farmer clearly put some thought into how Dayworld works (stoning, shared spaces, different styles), a good deal is left to implication – and it’s not always credible. That’s true for its lead characters, as well. Caird (let’s call him) has a fixation on Panthea Snick that’s simply not explained. It cropped up in the first volume, and it’s not explained here. Instead, she and another larger-than-life character traipse around in Caird’s wake for no good reason. The action moves Caird from place to seemingly at random, and the two follow along as good sidekicks do.

We do get a few revelations here (about immers and rebels), but they’re more muted than they might be. Caird & Co decide to bring things to a head with a series of irrational actions, and just barely get out of more scrapes than a comic-book hero, based only on .. nothing in particular, in fact. But get out they do.

Dayworld Rebel aimed to be the centerpiece of a clever, insightful series examining human nature and an instinct for freedom. Instead, it’s an adequate, largely forgettable chase novel that neither provokes thought nor offers an exciting escape.

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.

Dayworld Rebel by Philip Jose Farmer- In this sequel to Dayworld, Jeff Caird, main character from the first book, has escaped from the autocratic world government prison and changed his identity. He's done this by deleting all his former personalities that he used to work around the Dayworld rules and even lost his main personality in an effort to protect himself, so he remembers nothing except that he's being hunted and he's on the run. Now he is William St.-George Duncan and he has fallen in with a rebel undercover group in the wilds of New Jersey. You might ask yourself, how can there be "wilds of New Jersey" if overpopulation has driven people to live only one day a week? That is one revelation in many that begin to pile up as Duncan tackles the government and learns more about the rebels he has just joined. Also, He gradually realizes that something important was lost when his personalities were submerged from his conscious. He spends a lot of time trying to coax out a memory that if it could be revealed, would be earthshaking.
Much like the first book, the going is fast and holds your attention, Farmer is so good at this and has such a deft touch, but the tail end of the book is a big slow down. It makes you wonder if Farmer should have just written one great novel instead of parceling and padding out the plot to involve three complete stories.