Perhaps the most iconic image of Jim Morrison – the photograph of him in a 1967 shoot by Joel Brodsky prior to The Doors releasing their debut self-titled studio album

(7) MICK FARREN –

JIM MORRISON’S ADVENTURES IN THE AFTERLIFE (1999)

The title alone should be enough to tantalize and titillate – even more so, as the subject of the novel is indeed Doors’ singer Jim Morrison’s adventures in the afterlife, effectively a posthumous fantasy replay of Mick Farren’s earlier psychedelic science fiction DNA Cowboys Trilogy.

In the DNA Cowboys, reality was plastic as a result of hyper-technology, that can effectively produce almost limitless amounts of anything at will – with the more dominant inhabitants of that reality shaping it to their beliefs, or more usually, will to power, so that it resembles a shifting fantasy landscape of human imagination, loosely arranged around various city-states (or perhaps more precisely mind-states), from technofantasy Western or kung-fu wuxia.

In Adventures in the Afterlife, reality is plastic simply as the nature of the afterlife, to much the same effect as in DNA Cowboys.

But “when you start building an existence” in the afterlife, “a billion other sons of bitches are trying to do the same thing” – add in supernatural entities (and aliens) and you have a roller-coaster ride of sex and violence through a fantasy landscape of the survival of the fittest, where various dystopian fantasy city-states, empires and adventurers strive for supremacy.

Not to mention the other half of Jim Morrison’s adventures – Semple, one of the sexiest female characters in science fiction and one half of the psyche of former evangelist, Aimee Semple McPherson, split between her two personalities in the Afterlife.

FANTASY & HORROR

The first of four posthumous fantasies by SF writers in my top ten.

No substantial horror elements.

RATING: 5 STARS*****

S-TIER (GOD TIER)