Phileas Fogg, Captain Nemo, Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes, Doc Savage... Book characters familiar from childhood are so dear to readers that other authors are not averse to shaking off the dust from pages yellowed by time and continuing the adventures of imaginary idols, thereby giving new meanings to their loved ones heroes. Philip Farmer is one of the absolute fans of the “revival” of the classics. He came up with a kind of literary game in 1975, asking Kurt Vonnegut for his favorite character, the failed writer Kilgore Trout, on whose behalf “Venus on a Half Shell” was written. Unfortunately, Farmer's grandiose plans to compile a collection in which his fellow writers would create works under the guise of fictional literary figures were not successful. However, the inexhaustible energy of Farmer himself was more than enough for numerous novels and stories in which the heroes of the cloak and the sword, the periscope and the sextant, the blaster and the assegai compete with each other, and their extraordinary adventures are colored with neon by the noble engravings of Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, William Burroughs and others worthy members of the adventure guild. The collection also includes “The Other Diary of Phileas Fogg,” which reveals the secret of the deadly confrontation between two close acquaintances of Jules Verne - Phileas Fogg and Captain Nemo.