Wold Newton Woes!

Gray Morrow's Grim Ape-man

Gray Morrow's Evil-looking Doc

Above are the most excellent flip covers for the Ace Double Novel presentation of Philip Jose Farmer's Wold Newton classics Lord of the Trees and The Mad Goblin. These are two novels which tell two sides of a single narrative involving Lord Grandrith and Doc Caliban, Farmer's Wold Newton dopplegangers for Tarzan and Doc Savage. I've never ever read these tales labeled Parts Two and Three of the "Secrets of the Nine", being a follow up of sorts to the epic A Feast Unknown. A few years ago, I was lucky enough to buy the original Ace double novel from sometimes blog commenter Steve Thompson, but it was such a valuable gem, I'm afraid to actually read the darn thing, but merely admire it for the compelling Gray Morrow cover art.

That meant I've been waiting patiently (more or less) for Titan Books to finally reprint these stories. They soon will with The Mad Goblin due out this coming week. The Lord of the Trees was released last fall. And there's the rub. I thought I bought one when it came out, but I'll be darned if I can find it now. I went to dig it out and can find no trace of it in the admittedly voluminous stacks of books I have overwhelming a back bedroom of our quite small home. I've looked high and low, but no luck. And now I can't even remember if I've just lost track of it, or if I just forgot to get a copy.

Either way, with its mate soon to be here, I have to order up a copy. Because by this time next week, I plan to be reading these twin tales which have called out to me for so many years.

UPDATE: It turns out I never picked up my copy when I ordered it months ago from Barnes and Noble. Sheesh! I suspect they never e-mailed it was in and I lost track of it, thinking I'd gotten it and filed it away waiting for the second part. I checked in the store yesterday and my copy was still there, tucked away on the shelves months after it had arrived. So now I have two copies. That's better than none. 

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