I don't know if it's the one L or his middle name being Jose, but in my mind I have always pronounced his name Phi-LEAP. It's probably why I had his books in my collection and never read any until last September. To Your Scattered Bodies Go was excellent. It was the first volume of the Riverworld series, since I don't [yet] have The Fabulous Riverboat, it took me a few months to pick up another of his books.

In The Gate of Time, Roger Two Hawks is recounting his tale. He was on a mission to bomb some refineries in Ploesti during World War II when his plane was hit, the plane was going down, he felt a lurch, and then he and one other surviving crew member, O'Brien, parachuted to the ground. while they are going down they see a German plane also crashing.

After a couple of chapters it become apparent that they are on some sort of parallel Earth, one that was maybe 30-50 years behind technologically. Later we find out that there is no American Continent on this world, just a few islands where the Rocky mountins are. This has affected the migration pattern from millenia ago. The [he doesn't say Indians, but uses a diffent term] istead of going into the Americas, go the other way and settle somewhere in Europe. We find out there there is some sort of war going on, but the participants are slightly different, and the technology is inferior.

At one point Two Hawks is put into a mental hospital and he takes that time to learn a lot about this world, and that's how we [the reader] learn.

At another point he is captured or enduced to work for the German counterparts of this world. He meets who we presume is the pilot of that other plane that went down. This German has been helping them start an airforce. These countries have been using dirigibles, a plane would be a major tactical advantage.

I'll stop there, but you know from the beginning that Two Hawks is talking to a reporter/writer, and it's not in the same world where they are right now. It was a very enjoyable book, but I was thinking the title was kind of misleading. So I'm at the used book store and I see Two Hawks from Earth. It's the same book, Farmer has added 10,000 words. So don't bother with The Gate of Time, pick up Two Hawks from Earth instead.