John Carmody is more than a Father to The Stars. This short and ugly ex-criminal, now a wholly charming padre, has begotton a god: Lockhorn Gerbil Deity. He also can really roll them bones; no snake-eyes for him. How divinely paternal yet infernally un-Fatherly! But he's always on the side of Good, though sometimes he's not too sure where it is.

It's a wise father who knows his own son, and Philip Jose Farmer obviously knows his literary son, Carmody. But when Farmer took off for other universes, he left Carmody hanging in Space with a giant egg growing from his chest. However, he promises to rectify that in the near future. I hope so. A single day is far too long to wait for the Good Father to get out of his latest mess.