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Riverworld: To Your Scattered Bodies Go/The Fabulous Riverboat
Title | Riverworld: To Your Scattered Bodies Go/The Fabulous Riverboat |
Writer | |
Date | 2025-06-30 22:29:06 |
Type | |
Link | Listen Read |
Desciption
To Your Scattered Bodies Go & The Fabulous Riverboatcombined for the first time in one volume!Imagine that every human who ever lived, from the earliest Neanderthals to the present, is resurrected after death on the banks of an astonishing and seemingly endless river on an unknown world. They are miraculously provided with food, but with not a clue to the possible meaning of this strange afterlife. And so billions of people from history, and before, must start living again. Some set sail on the great river questing for the meaning of their resurrection, and to find and confront their mysterious benefactors. On this long journey, we meet Sir Richard Francis Burton, Mark Twain, Odysseus, Cyrano de Bergerac, and many others, most of whom embark upon searches of their own in this huge afterlife
Review
(This review covers the series)To the uninitiated, Riverworld is a five-book series written between 1971 to 1983. In order, the books are:To Your Scattered Bodies GoThe Fabulous RiverboatThe Dark DesignThe Magic Labyrinth(The) Gods of Riverworld.(I did not read the fifth book, and you will see why in this review)To sum up quickly and without revealing too much: The Riverworld is a mysterious alien planet on which nearly all human beings have been resurrected (minus very young children). How and why this has happened is a mystery not expained until the climax of the fourth book. The alien planet is a vast river valley, hence Riverworld. I won't go into too many of the attributes of Riverworld, except to say that each human being is supplied with a "grail"-- a device that, when coupled with various artifacts on the surface of the planet, magically produces food, liquid, and various consumable luxuries. The conceit of the story, and one which is well done, is that since EVERYONE who has ever lived is alive again, famous people from history can and are our main characters. Richard Burton (the explorer), Sam Clemens, Hermann Goring, and many others populate the narrative, as does a character clearly modeled after Philip Jose Farmer: Peter Jarius Frigate. This device works rather well, I think: it's clever and there is certainly an element of enjoyment to be had by reading about Mark Twain fighting against King John, for example. The forays into philosophy become more and more frequent and lengthy as the series goes on, but the main themes of the series are redemption and religion, with quite a bit of old-time "can do!" adventure thrown in. There are many rollicking fight scenes, though sometimes individual novels would seem to be built around such fight scenes. Nevertheless, the series is captivating and elusive enough to warrant a go.The entire series is also built around exploring the central, twin mystery of HOW and WHY the Riverworldians (called Ethicals in the story) built this place: what could possibly be the purpose of raising EVERY SINGLE human being from the dead? In a series as long and deep as this one, I don't think it would have been possible to answer that mystery satisfyingly enough. Sadly, Farmer is not able to deliver a solution to the mystery that is wholly satisfactory, though it is thoughtful and rather interesting. In reading multiple reviews of the final book, The Gods of Riverworld, I got the very strong impression reading it would ruin my experience with the first four. I have (so far) decided to avoid the fifth book.So, overall, I very much enjoyed the series. The central idea was and is quite intruiging, and Farmer explores it very well. If you're not a fan of rather long digressions into philosophy, this may not appeal to you. Otherwise, I recommend this series.