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Philip Jose Farmer
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Venus on the Half-Shell Kindle Edition

by Philip José Farmer (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.1 out of 5 stars 229 ratings

Disaster sends a man across the universe in search of answers to life’s big questions in this humorous classic adventure by a Science Fiction Grand Master.

When a massive flood wipes out Earth and spoils his date, lone survivor Simon Wagstaff finds refuge in an abandoned Chinese spaceship, the Hwang Ho. Accompanied by three new companions—a dog, an owl, and a beautiful robot—and his electric banjo, Wagstaff sets off on an extraterrestrial adventure. He travels from planet to planet, seeking the definitive answer to the ultimate question: Why are we created if only to suffer and die?

Of course, after he drinks an elixir granting him eternal life, the real question is what to do for the rest of eternity after he answers his first question . . .

“Lively and inventive and goes by faster than a holiday weekend.” —The Washington Post 

“A comedy of sexual mores, an investigative search for Love, a lampoon of people who require answers to imponderable questions.” —Science Fiction Review

“Not only a science-fiction epic of the most incredible proportions, but it is also a satiric-fantasy, a clever parody of its own genre.” —The Daily Eastern News
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  1. Print length
    222 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Open Road Media Sci-Fi & Fantasy
  4. Publication date
    May 14, 2024
  5. File size
    3.1 MB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
    Enabled
  8. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Fun to read, and very interesting from the perspective of the history of science fiction." - Pop Mythology

About the Author

Philip José Farmer was a multiple award-winning science fiction writer of 75 novels. He is best known for his Wold Newton and Riverworld series. In 2001 he was awarded the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Grand Master Prize and a World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award. He passed away in 2009.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0CW1GCFB6
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Open Road Media Sci-Fi & Fantasy (May 14, 2024)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 14, 2024
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 3.1 MB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 222 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 out of 5 stars 229 ratings

About the author

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Philip Jose Farmer

Philip Jose Farmer

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Philip José Farmer (1918-2009) is a three-time Hugo Award winner, and Nebula Grand Master. He has long been recognized as one of the foremost writers in the fields of science fiction and fantasy. He is best known for being the author who introduced sex into science fiction in 1952 with his groundbreaking novella "The Lovers"; his biographies of Tarzan and Doc Savage; his love of pulp characters; his Riverworld, World of Tiers, and Dayworld series; and his Wold Newton Family concept.

Visit www.pjfarmer.com to keep up on all the latest news about Philip José Farmer.

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
229 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book fun to read and appreciate its satirical take on 1970s science fiction. However, the story quality receives negative feedback.

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14 customers mention "Fun to read"14 positive0 negative

Customers find the book fun to read, describing it as one of the greatest books ever written and enjoying its silliness.

"In 1977 a friend told me this was the best book he'd ever read...." Read more

"This was a generally amusing book that poked fun at humanity. It was also absurdist and sometimes very silly...." Read more

"Satirical 1970s scifi that is satirizing 1970s scifi... it’s sort of fun...." Read more

"...thousand titles of 50s-90s SciFi, Philip Jose Farmer wrote two worthwhile books, this one and "The Green Odyssey."..." Read more

14 customers mention "Satire"8 positive6 negative

Customers have mixed reactions to the book's satirical elements, with some praising it as wonderful satire of everything, while others find it very silly.

"...KV is, of course, a great satirist...." Read more

"...Literarily they're pure fluff, but they're fun nonetheless...." Read more

"This was a generally amusing book that poked fun at humanity. It was also absurdist and sometimes very silly...." Read more

"Satirical 1970s scifi that is satirizing 1970s scifi... it’s sort of fun...." Read more

3 customers mention "Story quality"0 positive3 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the story quality of the book.

"...that it played out like an adolescent raunch-romp, which so cheapened the story that I gave up halfway through...." Read more

"...but then it all went downhill fast and I thought it had an extremely crappy ending. Save your time, not recommended" Read more

"...The story was not done very well. The main character has no character. The ideas are more silliness than intriguing...." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • invisible
    5.0 out of 5 stars Pure satire! In fact it is even a satire of satire.
    Reviewed in the United States on June 26, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    In 1977 a friend told me this was the best book he'd ever read. I got around to reading it a couple of years later and was amazed that it had captured every lame line and even lamer plot device I'd read to date. It was true satire.

    Some years later I finished reading all the Vonnegut novels, including his brief references about Kilgore Trout and Venus on the Half Shell. KV is, of course, a great satirist.

    But it was only after re-reading Venus on the Half Shell for the Nth time, with N being found to be an irrational number, that it became clear that the novel was a satire ^2 and quoted satire ^3. Global warming alarmists hate it though, because it explains the effect of human behaviors on stellar phenomena.
    6 people found this helpful
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  • Richard Irwin
    4.0 out of 5 stars If you like satire this is the book for you
    Reviewed in the United States on July 7, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    This was a generally amusing book that poked fun at humanity. It was also absurdist and sometimes very silly. The book was originally published under the name of Kilgore Trout, a fictional writer that appeared in several of Kurt Vonnegut books. It read so much like something Vonnegut would have written that many believed he did write it.

    I guess my biggest complaint was the ending, but upon some reflection I guess the book could not have ended any other way.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Douglas K. Beagley
    3.0 out of 5 stars 1970s Sci-fi Satire
    Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2020
    Verified Purchase
    Satirical 1970s scifi that is satirizing 1970s scifi... it’s sort of fun. A bit like Hitchikers Guide, but messier— sounding very much like a rambling plot summary of Kilgore Trout in Kurt Vonnegut’s books, which is the stated intention. Plenty of sexism and silly sex, but in a satire, how can you tell for sure?
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Mr.E.
    5.0 out of 5 stars Quick prompt delivery. Good service. Good quality item. Good condition. Good price. Good people!
    Reviewed in the United States on June 13, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    Bought it for the contents (to read.)
    Excellent for the purpose and price.
    Thanks! 5-Stars! (I'd give you 10 if I could!)
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  • M. Davis
    5.0 out of 5 stars PJF wrote two good books, this is one of them
    Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2011
    Verified Purchase
    IMO, having read a few thousand titles of 50s-90s SciFi, Philip Jose Farmer wrote two worthwhile books, this one and "The Green Odyssey." Literarily they're pure fluff, but they're fun nonetheless. PJF originally published this under a pseudonym, presumably because of the overridingly sexual nature of the content.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Kat
    4.0 out of 5 stars strange journey
    Reviewed in the United States on November 2, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    Even though this is a fictional book (or rather due to its circumstances,
    a satirical homage of a fictional sci-fi & fantasy book), I find it honoring
    Kurt Vonnegut, the author that inspired Mr. Farmer to create this book,
    but also the author's own writing. It is weird and oddly not as much sex
    as I was hoping for. But it has plenty of action and strange things happening.
    Worth a read.
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  • Tom Ukinski
    2.0 out of 5 stars Promising But Ultimately Tedious
    Reviewed in the United States on July 20, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    "Venus on the Half Shell" was always more exciting in conception than execution. Having in their hands a complete novel written by Kurt Vonnegut’s sad sack author Kilgore Trout constituted utter bliss for sci-fi fanatics in the mid-1970s. Vonnegut was apparently never all that pleased with the project, and he worried that readers would regard this book as one of his. Of course, anyone who had read and appreciated Kurt Vonnegut would not have been so misled.

    In Venus, the Space Wanderer flees a deluged Earth in a Chinese warp-dive ship and acquires with a dog, an owl and a beautiful female robot as he crosses space at multiples of the speed of light in search of answers to fundamental questions among increasingly crass alien civilizations, The plot promises to be a wonderful satire of everything. Unfortunately, Philip José Farmer, the author, has an obsession with sex and bodily functions that soon overwhelms the story and becomes extremely wearisome. (Maybe living with creatures that can have sex with their tails and genitals, for example, is hilarious.) I recall thinking that it was a fun book the last time I read it twenty-plus years ago. But on the second time through the novel, I felt that it played out like an adolescent raunch-romp, which so cheapened the story that I gave up halfway through. It made me appreciate how Vonnegut could describe sex so clinically that it was funny (for example, in Slaughterhouse Five, in which Billy Pilgrim “had just emptied his seminal vesicles into Valencia,” his wife), or so poetically (in in Breakfast of Champions, in which Trout is watching a pornographic movie in which “[p]hantasms of a young man and a young woman sucked harmlessly on one another’s soft apertures on the silver screen”) that it made you realize how amazing sexuality is. But that level of humor and poetry emanates from the kind of maturity, compassion and wit that were some of the many components of Vonnegut’s genius. Too bad he wasn’t interested in writing a Kilgore Trout novel. THAT would have been something to read.
    6 people found this helpful
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  • David Lintner
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent SciFi Humor
    Reviewed in the United States on March 17, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    I first read this book when it was published under the name Kilgore Trout, an homage to Kirt Vonnegut and his fictional science fiction writer character. I thought the book was hilarious, and just as audacious as Vonnegut. I was unaware at the time that the book was written by Phillip Jose Farmer. Now, returning to the work after so many decades, I find I love it as much now as I did so long ago. It is a masterpiece, and I highly recommend it.
    16 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Showmaster
    5.0 out of 5 stars Long lost treasure rediscovered.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 16, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    I read this in the 70's having sought it out as a Vonnegut fan and lover of the idea of Kilgore Trout. Now that I am nearing 70 the inner Kilgore is the dominant aspect of my character. The love that PJF had for Trout/Vonnegut comes through in spades and controversy or not I have to believe that Vonnegut came round to accepting it as a genuine homage.
    Read and enjoy.
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  • Perceptive Reader
    4.0 out of 5 stars Breath-taking!
    Reviewed in India on July 27, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    This book had been published ahead of its time, and that's why it still remains relatively obscure (except among the readers of science-fiction who know & appreciate the book as what it is: a classic). Yes, the deployment of the erotica is rather 'diverting' at times. Yes, the protagonist really has a terrible name, and somehow he does full 'justice' to that name. But, in the garb of depicting his adventures among various alien races, the author shows the absurdity of mores & conventions, and does all of it in a thoroughly tongue-in-cheek manner. It remains a thought-provoking book even after all these years because of its philosophy, which is very sympathetic, very curious, and very humane. Recommended.
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  • J Gilbert
    4.0 out of 5 stars Imaginative and sometimes silly from one of the greats
    Reviewed in Australia on February 8, 2025
    Verified Purchase
    Philip José Farmer is one of the great sci fi writers and one of my favourites. This is the first book I've read by him in over 40 years. I loved the Riverworld series, World of Tiers and Dayworld, but this farcical journey around the universe in a found spaceship by Simon with his dog and owl that can travel at 69,000 times the speed of light, while looking for the answer to why the universe exists. I will not bore you with any details, just be prepared for a wild sexual romp with aliens and philosophical musings that are both creative and tedious. Fun, but it does grow a bit thin by the end.

    "People in ships going at lightspeeds, or faster, aged very slowly. Everything inside the ship was slowed down. To an observer outside the ship, a passenger would take a month just to open his mouth to ask somebody to please pass the sugar. An orgasm would last a year, which was one of the things the passenger liners stressed in their advertising." pg 40. 3.5 stars rounded up for creativity and the fact that Farmer is a legend.

    "“And what’s a real woman?” “One who’s intelligent, courageous, passionate, compassionate, sensitive, independent, and noncompulsive.”"

    "“That’s right,” Mofeislop said. “Wisdom consists of knowing when to avoid perfection.”"

    "“Today, I’m surprised, too. That’s the first woman I’ve seen in ten years. Women don’t come here seeking the Truth, you know. That’s because they think they already know it. Besides, even those women who have doubts aren’t likely to go through the Yetgul Forest to ask a man what it’s all about. They know that most men are pitiful creatures and not too bright, no matter how proficient they might be in science and technology and the arts.”"
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  • Goochoid
    5.0 out of 5 stars This is brilliant, and I have no idea why this book ...
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 31, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    This is brilliant, and I have no idea why this book is much more tightly rated, very funny, easily as good as good Kurt Vonnegut (who PJF was trying to emulate or parody) and just a great fun sic-fi space opera.
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  • who is he
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 16, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    A great book by a S.F master
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