World of Tiers Books In Order

Publication Order of World Of Tiers Books

Author Philip Jose Farmer wrote the “World of Tiers” series of science fiction novels. The series began publication in the year 1965, when “The Maker of Universes”. The series ended publication in the year 1991, when “Red Orc’s Rage”, the seventh book, was released.

The broad setting of the series is a sequence of artificially-constructed universes. These universes are created and ruled by some decadent beings who are identical to humans, genetically, but regard themselves as being superior. They are the inheritors of advanced technology that they no longer understand. Most of the stories take place on the world that was created by Lord Jadawin.

Many of the World of Tiers’ features seems to be pulled from different early cosmological ideas and mythologies. The structure, with either a central mountain or tower, which the sun passes behind during the night is like early Egyptian and Babylonian cosmological theories. Where the Lord’s palace is placed, at the highest level of the world, is just like the gods’ home at the top of Mount Olympus.

The names of the Jadawin family come from William Blake’s mythology. This mythology is referenced by characters in different books in the series.

The star of the first two books is Robert Wolff, who is in his sixties and is a retired linguistics professor. He is married and is looking to buy a house to spend his retirement with his wife. Robert is a heroic character who overcomes obstacles primarily by using both physical and mental strength to face the Thoans. Robert Wolff is also Lord Jadawin.

Another important character is Paul Janus Finnegan (also called Kickaha), who was born in the year 1918 in Indiana. He served in the American army during World War II, and drove a tank. At the beginning of the first book of the series, he had lived on the World of Tiers for about twenty-four years. During this time, he has learned a lot of the local languages, become very skilled at archery, knife-throwing, and other outdoor survival skills and combat. Paul has also lived under many other assumed identities and names.

In what used to be a museum, he found a metal crescent that was made of some apparently indestructible metal, and kept it as a souvenir. It wound up being half a gate to the World of Tiers. The other half was owned by a Thoan who tried to purchase and later steal the crescent from him. Finnegan interrupted the Thoan while he was entering the gate and activated the completed gate himself, transporting himself off to the World of Tiers.

“The Maker of Universes” is the first novel in the “World of Tiers” series, which was released in the year 1965. Robert Wolff found an odd horn in some empty house, and he held the key to another universe. Blowing that horn would open a door through space-time and allow entry to a cosmos whose laws and dimensions were not the same as those our starry galaxy knows.

This is because the other universe was a place made of tiers, world stacked on world piled upon one another like the landings of a sky scraping mountain. Anyone who blew the horn would walk up the steps, going from one creation to another, until he comes confronts the being who created it.

What if that universe maker was a madman? Or impostor? Maybe even a super-criminal hiding from his own superiors’ wrath?

“The Gates of Creation” is the second novel in the “World of Tiers” series, which was released in the year 1966. Wolff-Jadawin, who is a demigod in an Earthman’s guise and is Lord of the World of the Tiers, opened up his eyes to see the Master-Lord Urizen’s symbol floating just under the ceiling. This summons from the cruelest of all of the universe-makers was urgent and direct.

Jadawin’s gorgeous wife was abducted and held prisoner by the satanic Urizen. To redeem her, Jadawin had to go into the many-leveled universe made by Urizen for his own torment. He is with a few of his siblings, but is without his extra-human powers. He is forced to go through world after world, so that he can storm creation’s gates.

“A Private Cosmos” is the third novel in the “World of Tiers” series, which was released in the year 1968. This is the first novel that featured Kickaha, an Earth-born, and is set during the events of the second novel. Jadawin, along with his wife, have vanished, and this leaves the World of Tiers threatened by an invasion and chaos.

Human bodies are taken over by minds of Lords and they are pouring through some uncharted gates. They are seeking two things: the Trickster’s death, who knows way too much, and domination of every single private cosmos.

“Behind the Walls of Terra” is the fourth novel in the “World of Tiers” series, which was released in the year 1970. Paul Janus Finnegan was referred to as Kickaha on the artificial universes made by the always fighting super-race that is known as the Lords. Even though he was just a mortal Earthman, he was able to survive every single intrigue, test, war, and opponent anyone could come up with.

It was when he found his way on back to his home world that Kickaha faced the biggest danger of his whole adventure-filled career. He knows the secrets of the powers that moved these cosmos. It is this that made him a threat, and a target of the horrible hidden forces fighting for this very universe.

“The Lavalite World” is the fifth novel in the “World of Tiers” series, which was released in the year 1977. Urthona’s private world was made up of sudden land shifts: mountains that sank into valleys, and plains that rose right to peaks. Kickaha is trapped there with Anana, and they were all trapped in desperate straits.

There is only a single gate that would take them out of the world, and it is located inside of Urthona’s palace. Finding the palace, something that moved as often as the landscape did, was no simple task at all.