A Feast Unknown (1969)

Sci-fi meets gritty, erotic horror in the Hugo Award–winning author’s controversial pastiche of mid-twentieth century pulp fiction icons. Philip José Farmer took the art of literary mashups to an epic new level with his novels of the Wold Newton Universe, in which fictional characters such as James Bond, Sherlock Holmes, and Philip Marlowe crossed paths in a complex narrative web. In A Feast Unknown, he presents thinly veiled versions of two iconic characters—Tarzan and Doc Savage—in a dark tale of psychosexual ferocity. Lord Grandrith, the fabled “king of the jungle,” is endowed with special powers that come at a terrible cost. He can only experience sexual pleasure while engaged in acts of violence. His affliction is shared by his nemesis, Doc Caliban, the legendary Man of Bronze. These two titans are also half-brothers—progeny of the infamous serial killer Jack the Ripper. As they face each other in an epic battle for immortality, they discover a common the dark manipulators behind their tragic fate.