Status
Collections
Publication
Description
Thirty-five billion people from throughout Earth's history were resurrected along the great and winding waterways of Riverworld. Most began life anew--accepting without question the sustenance provided by their mysterious benefactors. But a rebellious handful burned to confront the unseen masters who controlled their fate--and these few launched an invasion that would ultimately yield the mind-boggling truth. Now Riverworld's omnipotent leaders have been confronted, and the renegades of Riverworld--led by the intrepid Sir Richard Francis Burton--control the fantastic mechanism that once ruled them. But the most awesome challenge lies ahead. For in the vast corridors and secret rooms of the tower stronghold, an unknown enemy watches and waits to usurp the usurpers . . .… (more)
User reviews
I gave it 3 stars: the imagination to pull something like this off, the inner lives of each of the
To read his description of the invitees of Turpin is just downright, blatant racism, even for a guy born in 1918 and writing in the 1980s. Maybe even all that one can expect from someone of that era. The resurrectees of Turpin are all his familiar faces from St. Louis, and they are all whores, drug dealers, and alcoholics. And all of them are black people who have secret desires to murder the whites.
And then there are the women in his world, all of whom he casually mentions as having been raped multiple times. Really? You had to bring that issue in as part of your novel's plan? You couldn't just, I don't know, not write about it as so casually happening on Riverworld itself? There is a single, brutal rape that happens that affects the course of the story and the members of the Tower, thus once again suggesting women's frailty at the hands of big, bad (black) men.
There is also a lot of navel gazing, at the beginning with What happened? Where can we go? Who did this?" that goes on for too many pages, along with college-aged ruminations on the human condition. Ugh. Enough, already.
If you're a fan of Farmer, definitely finish the Riverworld series with this last, fell swoop. If you're ready to taper off, don't bother with this one. Read another book instead.
If there was ever a SF series that sparked my imagination it was this one.