Dayworld: A Hole in Wednesday

Best known for his Riverworld and World of Tiers series, Farmer (1918–2009) also created the fascinating Dayworld trilogy. His great-nephew Adams (Lest Camelot Fall), a PW reviewer, attempts to live up to that legacy in this posthumous collaboration, with uneven success. In Farmer’s vision of the future, the problems of overpopulation and resource scarcity have been solved through the use of “stoners,” machines that essentially freeze time for anyone inside. Every person in the world has been assigned one day of the week and is “stoned” for the other six. Jerry Carson lives on Wednesdays. His wife miscarries so often that Carson begins investigating suspicious phenomena that he thinks might be related. In doing so, he becomes a Daybreaker and uncovers warring conspiracies that threaten to destroy his world. Adams’s greatest triumph here is in capturing Farmer’s 1980s prose style, creating a compelling narrative that could easily have been crafted alongside the previous three novels. Unfortunately, Adams also captures vintage gender roles; his female characters are mainly supplied to motivate the men, and/or used for procreation. Those in search of a period piece need look no further. Agent: Chris Lotts, Lotts Agency. (June)