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Riverworld #2
The Fabulous Riverboat
THE PLANET IS RIVERWORLD -
A world of resurrection where every soul who ever lived is brought back to indefinite life - where death is a momentary inconvenience. A world of peace and the end of all fear? By no means. Among the billions clawing through warfare, slavery and violent aggression is Sam Clemens; alias Mark Twain. Sam's dream is to build a Mississippi-style paddle boat and to find the source of the River, resurrected Man's focus and Riverworld's artery. But even with the aid of one of the mysterious beings responsible for Riverworld, and of Sam's Neanderthal blood brother, he is hard-put to bring his dream to life. There are others, King ]ohn, for example. who will stop at nothing to steal the Fabulous Riverboat ...
(Source back cover)
In To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip José Farmer introduces readers to the awesome Riverworld, a planet carved into one large river on whose shores all of humanity throughout the ages has seemingly been resurrected. In The Fabulous Riverboat, he tells of one person whose is uniquely suited to find the river's headwaters, riverboat captain & author Sam Clemens, aka Mark Twain. Clemens has been visited by X, a mysterious being who claims to be a rebel among the group that created Riverworld. X tells Clemens where he can find a large deposit of iron & other materials for building the greatest riverboat ever seen. Since there is virtually no metal on the planet, it will also give Clemens an unbeatable edge when it comes to battling the various warlike societies that dominate the Riverworld. But Clemens is not alone in his quest for the iron, which arrives on the planet in the form of a giant meteorite. In fact, Clemens is besieged on all sides by forces determined to seize the precious ore, leading him to make a deadly pact with one of history's most notorious villains, John Lackland. Lackland's crimes during his reign as king of England were so hideous that no other English monarch will ever carry his name, & he's up to equally nefarious tricks on Riverworld. However, Clemens has a guardian angel in the form of Joe Miller, a giant subhuman with a big nose, a serious lisp & a cutting wit. Miller has also been to the very headwaters of the river, where he saw a mysterious tower in the middle of the North Sea & where the creators of Riverworld are thought to reside. He will be an invaluable ally in completing the riverboat & sailing to the headwaters, but even an 800-pound giant may not be enough to help Clemens fulfill X's mission.--Craig E. Engler (edited)
A world of resurrection where every soul who ever lived is brought back to indefinite life - where death is a momentary inconvenience. A world of peace and the end of all fear? By no means. Among the billions clawing through warfare, slavery and violent aggression is Sam Clemens; alias Mark Twain. Sam's dream is to build a Mississippi-style paddle boat and to find the source of the River, resurrected Man's focus and Riverworld's artery. But even with the aid of one of the mysterious beings responsible for Riverworld, and of Sam's Neanderthal blood brother, he is hard-put to bring his dream to life. There are others, King ]ohn, for example. who will stop at nothing to steal the Fabulous Riverboat ...
(Source back cover)
In To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip José Farmer introduces readers to the awesome Riverworld, a planet carved into one large river on whose shores all of humanity throughout the ages has seemingly been resurrected. In The Fabulous Riverboat, he tells of one person whose is uniquely suited to find the river's headwaters, riverboat captain & author Sam Clemens, aka Mark Twain. Clemens has been visited by X, a mysterious being who claims to be a rebel among the group that created Riverworld. X tells Clemens where he can find a large deposit of iron & other materials for building the greatest riverboat ever seen. Since there is virtually no metal on the planet, it will also give Clemens an unbeatable edge when it comes to battling the various warlike societies that dominate the Riverworld. But Clemens is not alone in his quest for the iron, which arrives on the planet in the form of a giant meteorite. In fact, Clemens is besieged on all sides by forces determined to seize the precious ore, leading him to make a deadly pact with one of history's most notorious villains, John Lackland. Lackland's crimes during his reign as king of England were so hideous that no other English monarch will ever carry his name, & he's up to equally nefarious tricks on Riverworld. However, Clemens has a guardian angel in the form of Joe Miller, a giant subhuman with a big nose, a serious lisp & a cutting wit. Miller has also been to the very headwaters of the river, where he saw a mysterious tower in the middle of the North Sea & where the creators of Riverworld are thought to reside. He will be an invaluable ally in completing the riverboat & sailing to the headwaters, but even an 800-pound giant may not be enough to help Clemens fulfill X's mission.--Craig E. Engler (edited)
252 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1971
96 people are currently reading
2523 people want to read
About the author
Philip José Farmer
593 books887 followersPhilip José Farmer was an American author, principally known for his science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories. He was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, but spent much of his life in Peoria, Illinois.
Farmer is best known for his Riverworld series and the earlier World of Tiers series. He is noted for his use of sexual and religious themes in his work, his fascination for and reworking of the lore of legendary pulp heroes, and occasional tongue-in-cheek pseudonymous works written as if by fictional characters.
Farmer is best known for his Riverworld series and the earlier World of Tiers series. He is noted for his use of sexual and religious themes in his work, his fascination for and reworking of the lore of legendary pulp heroes, and occasional tongue-in-cheek pseudonymous works written as if by fictional characters.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 347 reviews
October 11, 2022
The second in the strange yet captivating Riverworld series where every person born on Earth is resurrected on a different, distant planet. Imagine the questions asked but not the answers given, a pretty place of nearby impressive mountains thrusting into the azure skies, green grass sprawling to the limits of the eye and the rolling ubiquitous blue river seems unfathomable. And who pops out in this globe the perfect candidate ...Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) the Mississippi River boat pilot and sometimes writer. However also the despicable King John the British monarch of the Magna Carta fame , is it proper to state not a good guy? The most imposing individual by far is an unknown human in history Joe Miller a species before the Neanderthal ...800 lbs. in weight a giant of immense size and power who brings fear, destruction and death to his opponents the few that do not run fast and Mr.Clemens best friend. Which makes the not brave author feel very contended, as the behemoth swings his huge ax in the turbulent land. Too many wars commence even for Mr. Miller to strike all down as enemies fall they soon arise in the vast planet some millions of miles away. However Mark Twain has a dream if only he with the help of his many friends could build a paddle wheel boat and float it up the stream to discover the secrets of this crazy existence and talk to the Ethicals as the aliens call themselves, who constructed ...whatever this is, a man can dream ? All through the narrative are sprinkled historical figures like Lothar von Richthofen , younger brother of the Red Baron, Goring the Nazi shows up from time to time after numerous deaths preaching the new Second Chance religion. Most shocking Twain's wife Olivia now with the swashbuckler Cyrano de Bergerac, think how devastating the husband feels . But to all those hapless creatures on the sphere the universe is always barbaric, never turn your back to John Lackland. Any reader that likes something outside the norm and thirst for adventure and doesn't care about the real and chooses a less traveled road your walk begins when you open this book. That is the great premise of the story any human or close approximation will literally out of nothing appear and the consumer is grateful, the bad is how to get there...If only a brainy billionaire would make a huge rocket for us to go there, I can dream too .
February 8, 2017
It's a pretty okay novel, but it suffers from being a product of its times. That being said, it's pretty fun to ride with Samuel L. Clemens on his constantly-being-built steamboat, made of "Space Age" plastics! Wooooo that stuff is a pretty neat idea! Ahem. Sorry. I got carried away there.
A lot of the action is mostly finding new ways to build tech on the extremely huge world of reincarnated humans from all time periods showing up at the same time here, but we've moved along far enough that nations are being built and fortresses and boundaries are in full effect. Resource gathering is also a must, especially for a certain Mark Twain if he'll ever live out his dream of captaining his own steamboat. Of course, this is riverworld.
In 1971, the time when the novel came out, we're forced to face our worst nightmares (*laugh*) of an entirely black nation wanting to go completely isolationist from the honky. The arabs are too white, too, so even though they make up 1/6th of this separate riverworld nation, they're still getting evicted. "We're not perfect, whitey, but at least it'll be Our Problem. We blame you for everything." Storyline. Ahem. Let me be clear here. Practically EVERY treatment of the issue that I've ever read is better than this one. It's nearly a stereotype of a stereotype of black power, taken so far that it has come out the other side into near satire.
So, yeah, action happens, and tragedies, too, and all the while the mysterious counter-plan alien is trying to help ease our sufferings on this admittedly great-idea world. :)
Not the best novel I've ever read, by a long shot, but not incapable of telling a story, either. :) The first one was a lot more enjoyable. Sam was a bit too whiny for my tastes. *shrug*
I'm going to continue the series. This was hardly a deal-breaker. It's just a cultural-awareness crapfest issue. :)
A lot of the action is mostly finding new ways to build tech on the extremely huge world of reincarnated humans from all time periods showing up at the same time here, but we've moved along far enough that nations are being built and fortresses and boundaries are in full effect. Resource gathering is also a must, especially for a certain Mark Twain if he'll ever live out his dream of captaining his own steamboat. Of course, this is riverworld.
In 1971, the time when the novel came out, we're forced to face our worst nightmares (*laugh*) of an entirely black nation wanting to go completely isolationist from the honky. The arabs are too white, too, so even though they make up 1/6th of this separate riverworld nation, they're still getting evicted. "We're not perfect, whitey, but at least it'll be Our Problem. We blame you for everything." Storyline. Ahem. Let me be clear here. Practically EVERY treatment of the issue that I've ever read is better than this one. It's nearly a stereotype of a stereotype of black power, taken so far that it has come out the other side into near satire.
So, yeah, action happens, and tragedies, too, and all the while the mysterious counter-plan alien is trying to help ease our sufferings on this admittedly great-idea world. :)
Not the best novel I've ever read, by a long shot, but not incapable of telling a story, either. :) The first one was a lot more enjoyable. Sam was a bit too whiny for my tastes. *shrug*
I'm going to continue the series. This was hardly a deal-breaker. It's just a cultural-awareness crapfest issue. :)
December 18, 2018
Oh FFS.
Really?
The only part of this that survived the decades well is the subplot about SamMark and his beloved, obsessed-over Livy. Be careful what you wish for in this life! (I actually mean "Riverworld life," though that hoary old saying is hoary and old because it never stops being true.) The "race relations" aren't new or trenchant, just tediously familiar. The modern then, well-trodden-trail now use of insomnia, depression, and drug use to self-medicate them is gloom-inducing. Heteronormative dreariness is de rigueur, tobacco use is unstigmatized, and the whole damned enterprise has at its core a frustrating reality: THIS IS A HUGE MISSED OPPORTUNITY. There's no essential difference between the various factions scrapping over bits and pieces. There's nothing, in short, new under this brand-new sun.
But DAYUM is the Fabulous Riverboat a spiffy Maguffin. I don't think it's too much to say the ride is worth the journey if only just.
Really?
The only part of this that survived the decades well is the subplot about SamMark and his beloved, obsessed-over Livy. Be careful what you wish for in this life! (I actually mean "Riverworld life," though that hoary old saying is hoary and old because it never stops being true.) The "race relations" aren't new or trenchant, just tediously familiar. The modern then, well-trodden-trail now use of insomnia, depression, and drug use to self-medicate them is gloom-inducing. Heteronormative dreariness is de rigueur, tobacco use is unstigmatized, and the whole damned enterprise has at its core a frustrating reality: THIS IS A HUGE MISSED OPPORTUNITY. There's no essential difference between the various factions scrapping over bits and pieces. There's nothing, in short, new under this brand-new sun.
But DAYUM is the Fabulous Riverboat a spiffy Maguffin. I don't think it's too much to say the ride is worth the journey if only just.
January 24, 2025
Втората част от поредицата е не по-малко динамична и интересна от първата.
За главен герой е избрана друга знакова фигура на XIX век - Сам Клемънс, познат ни с литературния си псевдоним Марк Твен.
Сам и другарите му (Сирано, Одисей, Ливи Клемънс) имат мечта - да построят огромен кораб, с който да достигнат края на вездесъщата река и да потърсят сметка на създателите на този ужасяващ социален и научен експеримент, наречени "Етичните".
Но за да успеят, трябва да се преборят с много проблеми и предателства, защото стоманата и изделията от нея се явяват почти безценни, в този ограничен откъм технологии свят.
Препрочетох я с кеф и подхващам следващата книга в оригинал!
Цитат:
"Когато хората не се нуждаят от боговете, те им се присмиват. Ала щом се уплашат, започват да се отнасят с уважение към тях."
Art by Daniel Romanovsky.
За главен герой е избрана друга знакова фигура на XIX век - Сам Клемънс, познат ни с литературния си псевдоним Марк Твен.
Сам и другарите му (Сирано, Одисей, Ливи Клемънс) имат мечта - да построят огромен кораб, с който да достигнат края на вездесъщата река и да потърсят сметка на създателите на този ужасяващ социален и научен експеримент, наречени "Етичните".
Но за да успеят, трябва да се преборят с много проблеми и предателства, защото стоманата и изделията от нея се явяват почти безценни, в този ограничен откъм технологии свят.
Препрочетох я с кеф и подхващам следващата книга в оригинал!
Цитат:
"Когато хората не се нуждаят от боговете, те им се присмиват. Ала щом се уплашат, започват да се отнасят с уважение към тях."
Art by Daniel Romanovsky.
February 15, 2009
As in the first book, Farmer bites off more than he can chew. By using real individuals and cultures from history as his fodder, Farmer invites close inspection by readers familiar with (and fond of) those characters and cultures.
His protagonist is an unfunny Mark Twain, whose occasional spoutings lack the vitriol for which Twain is renowned. Farmer seems to take direct quotes (often from Twain's books) and place them awkwardly into the conversation, which only makes conspicuous how dull the rest of the dialogue is.
Likewise, the many conflicting cultures are oversimplified and whitewashed. Peace and war both come too easily, and intrigue tends to be replaced by bare conflict. Farmer includes the grandest political players to ever take the stage, and then reduces them to petty warlords.
The whole plot is moved along by a mysterious and literal deus ex machina, and despite the buildup of the first book, Farmer brings us no closer to uncovering the grand mystery. Though I was curious how he meant to resolve the questions raised by his grandiose world, he revealed too little to titillate.
This, combined with the massive influx of minor characters to an already busy and muddled plot did little to keep me reading. Perhaps I will get to the other books at some point, but with my current to-read pile, it doesn't seem worth the trudge.
There is an entertaining throwaway character in this book, a huge pre-human giant. Farmer strains credibility by having him quickly learn human speech (impossible even for normal humans who were not exposed as children, let alone a pre-human larynx). The titan also quickly grasps abstract thought, humor, planning, rationality, and sarcasm. Perhaps Farmer is a hard-line Chomskyan.
Farmer's idea for this series was audacious, but his plotting and characterization are rather bland, and seem even moreso against the unbelievably grand backdrop of Riverworld. Like Feynman said of religion: "The stage is too big for the drama".
His protagonist is an unfunny Mark Twain, whose occasional spoutings lack the vitriol for which Twain is renowned. Farmer seems to take direct quotes (often from Twain's books) and place them awkwardly into the conversation, which only makes conspicuous how dull the rest of the dialogue is.
Likewise, the many conflicting cultures are oversimplified and whitewashed. Peace and war both come too easily, and intrigue tends to be replaced by bare conflict. Farmer includes the grandest political players to ever take the stage, and then reduces them to petty warlords.
The whole plot is moved along by a mysterious and literal deus ex machina, and despite the buildup of the first book, Farmer brings us no closer to uncovering the grand mystery. Though I was curious how he meant to resolve the questions raised by his grandiose world, he revealed too little to titillate.
This, combined with the massive influx of minor characters to an already busy and muddled plot did little to keep me reading. Perhaps I will get to the other books at some point, but with my current to-read pile, it doesn't seem worth the trudge.
There is an entertaining throwaway character in this book, a huge pre-human giant. Farmer strains credibility by having him quickly learn human speech (impossible even for normal humans who were not exposed as children, let alone a pre-human larynx). The titan also quickly grasps abstract thought, humor, planning, rationality, and sarcasm. Perhaps Farmer is a hard-line Chomskyan.
Farmer's idea for this series was audacious, but his plotting and characterization are rather bland, and seem even moreso against the unbelievably grand backdrop of Riverworld. Like Feynman said of religion: "The stage is too big for the drama".
May 6, 2015
Revisit 2015 via audio file 09:04:17Description: In To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip José Farmer introduces readers to the awesome Riverworld, a planet that had been carved into one large river on whose shores all of humanity throughout the ages has seemingly been resurrected. In The Fabulous Riverboat, Farmer tells the tale of one person whose is uniquely suited to find the river's headwaters, riverboat captain and famous Earthly author Sam Clemens (a.k.a. Mark Twain). Clemens has been visited by "X," a mysterious being who claims to be a rebel among the group that created Riverworld. X tells Clemens where he can find a large deposit of iron and other materials that Clemens can use to build the greatest riverboat ever seen. Since there is virtually no metal on the planet, it will also give Clemens an unbeatable edge when it comes to battling the various warlike societies that dominate the Riverworld.
But Clemens is not alone in his quest for the iron, which arrives on the planet in the form of a giant meteorite. In fact, Clemens is besieged on all sides by forces determined to seize the precious ore, leading him to make a deadly pact with one of history's most notorious villains, John Lackland. Lackland's crimes during his reign as king of England were so hideous that no other English monarch will ever carry his name, and he's up to equally nefarious tricks on Riverworld. However, Clemens has a guardian angel in the form of Joe Miller, a giant subhuman with a big nose, a serious lisp, and a cutting wit. Miller has also been to the very headwaters of the river, where he saw a mysterious tower in the middle of the North Sea and where the creators of Riverworld are thought to reside. He will be an invaluable ally in completing the riverboat and sailing to the headwaters, but even an 800-pound giant may not be enough to help Clemens fulfill X's mission. --Craig E. Engler
These books are standing the test of time, in fact more enjoyable because of the increased knowledge of historical personages over a reading life. Found it exquisite fun that Lackland and Arthur meet. X is enticing too - imagine being able to send a meteorite at will.
River as ouroboros
Samuel Clemens
Eric Bloodaxe
John Lackland, AND...
Arthur I, Duke of Brittany
Lothar von Richthofen
Cyrano de Bergerac
Olivia Langdon Clemens
Author Samuel Longhorne Clemens, better known under his pen name, Mark TwainNEWS 04.05.2015: Hundreds of reports by Mark Twain, describing life in San Francisco for a newspaper in Nevada, have been unearthed by scholars at Berkeley. Source
5* To Their Scattered Bodies Go
CR The Fabulous Riverboat (Riverworld, #2)
The Dark Design (Riverworld, #3)
The Magic Labyrinth (Riverworld, #4)
The Gods of Riverworld (Riverworld #5)
May 17, 2024
„Приказният кораб“ е страхотна втора част от фентъзи поредицата „Речен свят“! Филип Фармър е въвел в сюжета още любопитни личности от човешката история и съответно ги е замесил в нови вълнуващи премеждия в тайнствения живот край огромната река. Основният персонаж в книгата е прочутият пис��тел Сам Клемънс (Марк Твен), като заедно с неговите спътници трябва да създадат подходящ за дългото и опасно пътешествие кораб, опитвайки се да разберат истината за света...
September 15, 2022
The Fabulous Riverboat, book two in The Riverworld series, continues to develop this constructed world of a millions mile long river and its resurrected occupants. Farmer leaves the quest of the first book’s protagonist, Sir Richard Burton, to focuses on another fascinating 19th century personality - Samuel Clemens, AKA Mark Twain. Clemens is driven by a dream of finding iron on this mineral-poor planet from which he can build a riverboat such as he piloted on Earth, to take him to the headwaters of the river. Emerging clues indicate that answers can be found to this confounding after-life, and Sam is a curious creature.
The Clemens we meet here is bitter, angry, and filled with guilt (pretty much real world old Sam Clemens). His ultimate motivation is to find those responsible for the mass resurrection of humanity, and to strike whatever blow he can against them in retaliation for bringing him back from the peace of the grave. With the help of a powerful "Mysterious Stranger", who may be a renegade member of the race responsible for this resurrection and Riverworld, Clemens is able to find the minerals he needs, and to form a colony dedicated to the project of building his fabulous riverboat.
Complications abound, however. The first and greatest is a partnership of necessity that Clemens must form with the deceitful and despicable King John Lackland, the most notorious of the old kings of England. Then there is the need to concentrate on developing the military might to hold and defend this unique area of the river that contains the minerals necessary to fulfilling his dream. And finally, there is Sam's personal, guilt-ridden agony over making the hard, amoral choices that have to be made if he is going to succeed in his quest.
This series strength is the opportunities its premise provides for historical persons from widely different periods to interact. In The Fabulous Riverboat we meet Lothar von Richthofen, brother and flying comrade of the Red Baron, Erik Bloodaxe, 10th century Viking leader, Odysseus, Cyrano de Bergerac, Hitler's toady Herman Goring, mountain man "Liver Eating" Johnson and more. Together with some well-drawn original characters, these make for a fascinating story.
Book two suffers less from stilted writing than did the first book, but great prose was never the reason to read Farmer. The characters and story are the strength of the book, and more than sufficient to provide both the thrills and intellectual stimulation to make reading it worthwhile.
After taking you on a thrill-ride of battles, assassinations, double crosses, and assorted intrigue, The Fabulous Riverboat leaves you with a cliff-hanging ending.
It is only fair to warn readers that the Riverworld series peaks with this book. Though the tale is incomplete, the mysteries unanswered, you may want to ponder whether or not to read on. Books three and four fall off sharply. Book five, which presented a reworked ending (series originally ended with book four) should only be attempted if you are a literary masochist.
The Clemens we meet here is bitter, angry, and filled with guilt (pretty much real world old Sam Clemens). His ultimate motivation is to find those responsible for the mass resurrection of humanity, and to strike whatever blow he can against them in retaliation for bringing him back from the peace of the grave. With the help of a powerful "Mysterious Stranger", who may be a renegade member of the race responsible for this resurrection and Riverworld, Clemens is able to find the minerals he needs, and to form a colony dedicated to the project of building his fabulous riverboat.
Complications abound, however. The first and greatest is a partnership of necessity that Clemens must form with the deceitful and despicable King John Lackland, the most notorious of the old kings of England. Then there is the need to concentrate on developing the military might to hold and defend this unique area of the river that contains the minerals necessary to fulfilling his dream. And finally, there is Sam's personal, guilt-ridden agony over making the hard, amoral choices that have to be made if he is going to succeed in his quest.
This series strength is the opportunities its premise provides for historical persons from widely different periods to interact. In The Fabulous Riverboat we meet Lothar von Richthofen, brother and flying comrade of the Red Baron, Erik Bloodaxe, 10th century Viking leader, Odysseus, Cyrano de Bergerac, Hitler's toady Herman Goring, mountain man "Liver Eating" Johnson and more. Together with some well-drawn original characters, these make for a fascinating story.
Book two suffers less from stilted writing than did the first book, but great prose was never the reason to read Farmer. The characters and story are the strength of the book, and more than sufficient to provide both the thrills and intellectual stimulation to make reading it worthwhile.
After taking you on a thrill-ride of battles, assassinations, double crosses, and assorted intrigue, The Fabulous Riverboat leaves you with a cliff-hanging ending.
It is only fair to warn readers that the Riverworld series peaks with this book. Though the tale is incomplete, the mysteries unanswered, you may want to ponder whether or not to read on. Books three and four fall off sharply. Book five, which presented a reworked ending (series originally ended with book four) should only be attempted if you are a literary masochist.
October 9, 2012
Well this book was a bit of a disappointment to me. I loved book 1 but book 2 , I do not know, It seems to me it was more a war book. There were still scenes I thought interesting, like the relation ship between Sam and his earth wife and I liked The Big guy but hated the way he talked. It was hard for me to understand what he was saying, but overall I was just glad to end it.
I will give book 3 a try. I am reading it right now and glad to be back with Richard F. Burton to be honest. Maybe that was another reason, so many new people and I did not really like Sam as much.
I will give book 3 a try. I am reading it right now and glad to be back with Richard F. Burton to be honest. Maybe that was another reason, so many new people and I did not really like Sam as much.
September 4, 2025
The Fabulous Riverboat is the second of five books that Farmer wrote about the mega-gigantic, alien-run, life-after-death Riverworld. This one moves from the viewpoint of Sir Richard Burton to Samuel Clemons, who turns out to be less amusing and entertaining than history would lead you believe. The story is more of a quest-for-better-weapons and preparing-for-war tale and lacks the sense-of-wonder air of exploration and discovery the first book had. To Your Scattered Bodies Go won the Hugo award for best novel of the year for 1971, but The Fabulous Riverboat didn't make the ballot. It was originally serialized in If magazine in 1967 and 1971. The first section, with the title The Felled Star, appeared when Frederik Pohl was editor and was printed in the July and August issues in 1967. The second section, with the current title, appeared in the May/June and July/August issues in 1971, by which time Ejler Jakobsson had taken over. I didn't think this one answered many of the questions that were left unanswered in the first book and never got around to reading any further in the series.
February 5, 2021
Second book in the series was as good as the first one. The main idea of the after death world is of course still there. And that world is a pretty fascinating idea. In this book there is a closer look at the society which is something I was missing in the first.
The social issue in the book is racism. I think it is done pretty well. There is this question whether people can change. Then how the idea that society will change when people with prejudices die out doesn't work in their world. It was also well done how people from different times and different experiences with racism were dealing with it. And I must say Farmer kind of predicted what anti-racism will be like in our times. I mean the woke leftist activists have pretty much the same attitudes as Hacker. Won't go into detail to not ruin it with spoilers.
Another interesting storyline was Sam's relationship with his wife from our life. The new group called Second Chancers was also a nice idea. Unfortunately most characters, especially the main one Sam, weren't very developed but this is the case with most old sci fi books and it is mainly about action and the idea of the after life world.
Spoilers for me to remember when I start reading the 3rd book. Don't read them, it tells how it ends.
The social issue in the book is racism. I think it is done pretty well. There is this question whether people can change. Then how the idea that society will change when people with prejudices die out doesn't work in their world. It was also well done how people from different times and different experiences with racism were dealing with it. And I must say Farmer kind of predicted what anti-racism will be like in our times. I mean the woke leftist activists have pretty much the same attitudes as Hacker. Won't go into detail to not ruin it with spoilers.
Another interesting storyline was Sam's relationship with his wife from our life. The new group called Second Chancers was also a nice idea. Unfortunately most characters, especially the main one Sam, weren't very developed but this is the case with most old sci fi books and it is mainly about action and the idea of the after life world.
Spoilers for me to remember when I start reading the 3rd book. Don't read them, it tells how it ends.
March 23, 2016
This is one of those times that a sequel to an amazing book isn't just as good, but far surpasses it. Farmer takes the world he set up in the first Riverworld book and takes the idea of a few select resurrected members of humanity trying to uncover the secrets of how and why they were resurrected. This centers around Samuel Clemens obsession of building a grand riverboat to take them to the headwaters.
Clemens is an amazing main character. He is so neurotic and filled with so much guilt and self doubts that he creates his own antagonists as time goes by, seemingly creating plot after plot. I don't know how to to history this interpretation of him is but as a character in a book he is amazing. There are times where you feel sympathy for him, hatred, and frustration at how he self sabotages himself.
His loyal friend and body guard, the Titanthrop Joe Miller steals the show in every scene he's in, so much so that one of the few complaints I'd ever muster of this book is that the second half uses him less and less for little apparent reason.
And of course there is the main antagonist, King John. Again, I'm not sure how true to history his portrayal here is but Farmer makes him out to be such a devious backstabbing bastard that it's hard not to adore him as Clemens main antagonist.
Clemens is an amazing main character. He is so neurotic and filled with so much guilt and self doubts that he creates his own antagonists as time goes by, seemingly creating plot after plot. I don't know how to to history this interpretation of him is but as a character in a book he is amazing. There are times where you feel sympathy for him, hatred, and frustration at how he self sabotages himself.
His loyal friend and body guard, the Titanthrop Joe Miller steals the show in every scene he's in, so much so that one of the few complaints I'd ever muster of this book is that the second half uses him less and less for little apparent reason.
And of course there is the main antagonist, King John. Again, I'm not sure how true to history his portrayal here is but Farmer makes him out to be such a devious backstabbing bastard that it's hard not to adore him as Clemens main antagonist.
August 11, 2015
The last time I read this book was probably 25 years ago. But for about 10 years - let's say age 14 - 25, I loved these books. If you asked me, I could probably reliably narrate most of the plots of each book in the series, enough to maybe even make YOU want to read it.
Some books from long ago, you go back and re-read and it's a pleasure. You discover new things about the book, you remember why you loved the book in the first place, it becomes even more a part of your heart and soul. Some books, you re-read after many years, and you rediscover new things, or notice things you may have missed (In Judy Blume's Blubber they call the teacher A BITCH. Not a witch, not a hag, not a gritch, not a grump - a BITCH. That was a shocker I did not remember).
Some books, I guess, you re-read, or try to re-read, and realize what a piece of shit taste you had when you were 17 years old. The Fabulous Riverboat is fucking awful. It's dreadfully written, with incredibly stupid dialogue and plot twists. It looks wonderful on paper. The covers are brilliantly rendered and clever. But oh, my brain! It hurts after reading this. So much. I have saved these books for years, moved them from place to place (paid to have them moved several times). No more.
You REALLY can never go home.
Some books from long ago, you go back and re-read and it's a pleasure. You discover new things about the book, you remember why you loved the book in the first place, it becomes even more a part of your heart and soul. Some books, you re-read after many years, and you rediscover new things, or notice things you may have missed (In Judy Blume's Blubber they call the teacher A BITCH. Not a witch, not a hag, not a gritch, not a grump - a BITCH. That was a shocker I did not remember).
Some books, I guess, you re-read, or try to re-read, and realize what a piece of shit taste you had when you were 17 years old. The Fabulous Riverboat is fucking awful. It's dreadfully written, with incredibly stupid dialogue and plot twists. It looks wonderful on paper. The covers are brilliantly rendered and clever. But oh, my brain! It hurts after reading this. So much. I have saved these books for years, moved them from place to place (paid to have them moved several times). No more.
You REALLY can never go home.
June 23, 2020
I had to DNF this. Since I liked the first book so much, I was surprised how much I disliked this sequel. I was fascinated with the concept that everyone who had ever lived had been resurrected into this strange Riverworld. But as much as I enjoyed To Your Scattered Bodies Go, this second installment just fell flat for me. The characters seemed one-dimensional and I had no interest in the fighting and battles. I should have quit after the first book.
July 30, 2025
To Your Scattered Bodies Go began Farmer's saga of Riverworld and I enjoyed it a lot, while seeing the flaws in the book. Clemens has a buddy in the form of Joe Miller, a giant subhuman whose people initially started near the headwaters of the river, there he saw a mysterious tower in the middle of the North Sea and where the creators of Riverworld may come from, he saw a lot of other things as well that will doubtless tie into future books.
Now, as to this Riverboat, I was disappointed that, essentially, it did not exist. Clemens is obsessed with creating it and when we first encounter him and Joe they are on a bamboo Viking ship in search of more Iron, which Clemens needs to build the boat. I actually liked the Viking ship better than a lot of the later plot.
Why exactly Clemens is so obsessed with the boat was an ongoing question, for me. He wants it because it will fulfil his image of himself as captain? Or to reach the top of the river? Sometimes it is for the benefit of all of mankind on the river? Other times, it is clearly for egotistical purposes? It was a bit of a hit or miss ongoing plot device for me and I am not really sure Farmer has a solid notion about it himself.
OR
MAYBE
He was trying to illustrate the fact that Clemens is insomniac, depressive, more than a little bipolar and just generally a bit of a meh human being. I don't know enough about the historical figure to know how much of that is true, historically speaking, and how much is just Farmer. The descriptions of insomnia hit hard; I would guess Farmer had a nodding acquaintance with it at least.
So a big meteorite hits and wipes out the surrounding population, Clemens swoops in and takes possession of the iron of the meteorite and establishes a whole river segment of industrial revolution in order to build this boat. He does not have it all his own way, a co-ruler of the area is King John, who is the complete villain of history. As they thought of him in Farmer's younger days rather than the more balanced approach modern historians tend to take.
That is the plot in a nutshell - a very small nutshell, there is a lot more that could be said.
I thought it was interesting, and it made me think a fair bit but there were elements I did not love and that I was impatient with.
-The portrayal of Clemens; we have gone from the drooling hero worship Farmer had for Burton in the first book, to this.... contempt? for the protagonist. It was weird. He was unlikable. Not sure 'He' was Clemens or Farmer though.
-I was never convinced that many people would care enough about the boat to slave for nothing in industrial revolution slum factories, just for the chance of entering a lottery to get on the boat.
-Did not enjoy watch a pretty piece of real estate become a polluted hell-hole. Not sure what Farmer was trying to do there, it felt like he was trying to make a point but inadequately.
-We all knew King John was going to betray him. HE knew king John was going to betray him, knowing this the ending was meh because it was expected. And Clemens not doing anything about was... I mean, just why? And why would I care after all that foreshadowing.
-The neighbouring river territory is being established as a black/African/American African province. The social dynamics around that have dated poorly and I found them embarrassing.
-If races description are bad, lets not even mention women and misogyny...
Overall, I guess my main issue was that the riverboat is an ideal, not a plot element. It appears, finished for just a few pages at the end in a largely predictable sequence and the entire book it the politics of building it. A little of the science of building it as well, but not enough for it to feel like a science based book.
I didn't hate it, I didn't enjoy it as much as the first. I will keep going with the series.
Now, as to this Riverboat, I was disappointed that, essentially, it did not exist. Clemens is obsessed with creating it and when we first encounter him and Joe they are on a bamboo Viking ship in search of more Iron, which Clemens needs to build the boat. I actually liked the Viking ship better than a lot of the later plot.
Why exactly Clemens is so obsessed with the boat was an ongoing question, for me. He wants it because it will fulfil his image of himself as captain? Or to reach the top of the river? Sometimes it is for the benefit of all of mankind on the river? Other times, it is clearly for egotistical purposes? It was a bit of a hit or miss ongoing plot device for me and I am not really sure Farmer has a solid notion about it himself.
OR
MAYBE
He was trying to illustrate the fact that Clemens is insomniac, depressive, more than a little bipolar and just generally a bit of a meh human being. I don't know enough about the historical figure to know how much of that is true, historically speaking, and how much is just Farmer. The descriptions of insomnia hit hard; I would guess Farmer had a nodding acquaintance with it at least.
So a big meteorite hits and wipes out the surrounding population, Clemens swoops in and takes possession of the iron of the meteorite and establishes a whole river segment of industrial revolution in order to build this boat. He does not have it all his own way, a co-ruler of the area is King John, who is the complete villain of history. As they thought of him in Farmer's younger days rather than the more balanced approach modern historians tend to take.
That is the plot in a nutshell - a very small nutshell, there is a lot more that could be said.
I thought it was interesting, and it made me think a fair bit but there were elements I did not love and that I was impatient with.
-The portrayal of Clemens; we have gone from the drooling hero worship Farmer had for Burton in the first book, to this.... contempt? for the protagonist. It was weird. He was unlikable. Not sure 'He' was Clemens or Farmer though.
-I was never convinced that many people would care enough about the boat to slave for nothing in industrial revolution slum factories, just for the chance of entering a lottery to get on the boat.
-Did not enjoy watch a pretty piece of real estate become a polluted hell-hole. Not sure what Farmer was trying to do there, it felt like he was trying to make a point but inadequately.
-We all knew King John was going to betray him. HE knew king John was going to betray him, knowing this the ending was meh because it was expected. And Clemens not doing anything about was... I mean, just why? And why would I care after all that foreshadowing.
-The neighbouring river territory is being established as a black/African/American African province. The social dynamics around that have dated poorly and I found them embarrassing.
-If races description are bad, lets not even mention women and misogyny...
Overall, I guess my main issue was that the riverboat is an ideal, not a plot element. It appears, finished for just a few pages at the end in a largely predictable sequence and the entire book it the politics of building it. A little of the science of building it as well, but not enough for it to feel like a science based book.
I didn't hate it, I didn't enjoy it as much as the first. I will keep going with the series.
March 5, 2011
This, the second volume of Farmer's Riverworld series, follows Richard Burton's narrative in To Your Scattered Bodies Go and precedes The Dark Design. Samuel L. Clemens, aka Mark Twain, is the protagonist of this novel.
While the concept of the Riverworld mightily impressed me at the outset of the first volume, successive stories began to drag. Sure, there's a mystery--a lot of mysteries!--to be solved, but nothing was quite so exciting as the concept which set the stage for the series.
While the concept of the Riverworld mightily impressed me at the outset of the first volume, successive stories began to drag. Sure, there's a mystery--a lot of mysteries!--to be solved, but nothing was quite so exciting as the concept which set the stage for the series.
December 18, 2014
IL primo romanzo è meraviglioso.
questi altri interessanti gradevoli
si leggono perché si vuole sapere masochisticamente come ne verrà fuori l'autore.
questi altri interessanti gradevoli
si leggono perché si vuole sapere masochisticamente come ne verrà fuori l'autore.
August 2, 2024
It has some fun moments but it suffers from being quite obviously a transitional book in the series. Depending how the series continues this could feel like the 'meh' book that was only really there to do what was essentially a soft restart with new protagonists from the first book.
I'll continue on but I'll take my time with it
I'll continue on but I'll take my time with it
February 24, 2011
ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.
To Your Scattered Bodies Go, the first of Philip Jose Farmer’s Riverworld novels, was a fast-paced, highly creative, and extremely exciting story, so I was eager to continue the tale in the second novel, The Fabulous Riverboat. This part of the story of mankind’s resurrection onto a million-miles-long stretch of river valley focuses on Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) — one of the people who’ve been contacted by a traitor who hopes to use twelve special humans to disrupt the plans of the creatures (gods? aliens?) who are responsible for the Resurrection.
At the beginning of The Fabulous Riverboat, we meet Sam Clemens and his 800 lb Neanderthal bodyguard named Joe Miller. (Note: I highly recommend Recorded Books’ audiobook version narrated by Paul Hecht. Joe Miller’s lisping speech is difficult to read in print, but Mr. Hecht is brilliant with him.) Sam Clemens and Joe Miller are on a Viking ship that is searching for iron-rich meteors (the Riverworld has very few mineral deposits). The Vikings want the iron for weapons, but Sam wants to build a huge steamboat so he can sail up the river to its source and confront the beings who run the planet.
Sam gets some help from the mysterious traitor who tells him where to find required materials, but then he must work with tyrannical humans who want to hoard their countries’ natural resources or promote their political or religious agendas. Thus, there’s a lot more threatening, squabbling, political maneuvering, dealing, double-dealing, and war going on than actual ship-building.
It’s fun to meet real historical tyrants in Riverworld — they tend to rise to the top and become the leaders of aggressive city-states. It’s also amusing to watch the interactions of humans from such a wide range of time periods. For example, we see Joe Miller gradually becoming more cynical and humorous as he spends time with Mark Twain and we watch a 20th century engineer teach Twain how to store electricity to power the riverboat.
What’s not fun is that Philip Jose Farmer takes every opportunity to provide information about each of the characters who’s a real historical figure, and this is inelegantly done:
"I read about him in school!” von Richthofen said. “Let’s see. He was born in 1797, died about 1853, I believe. He was an artillery expert and a good friend of Frederick Wilhelm IV of Prussia. He was called ‘The Warlike Monk’ because he was a general who also had strict religious views. He died when he was about fifty years old, a disappointed man because he had been dropped from favor...
And sometimes the facts are repeated. For example, we’re told at least twice that John Lackland was such a bad king that the English swore they’d never have another king named John.
Also annoying is that Farmer frequently takes the opportunity to address topics such as racism and determinism by either having characters hold long philosophical discourses, or by obvious and clumsy manipulation of the plot. The end result is that there is lots of teaching and moralizing and little action in The Fabulous Riverboat. If you look at the book cover, you’d expect to be exploring Riverworld from the deck of Mark Twain’s steamboat, but the boat finally gets finished at the end of the novel.
It’s the wonderful world-building and intriguing questions that make this series so compelling: Why has humankind been resurrected? Who created this world? Who is the traitor? Is there a way out? What’s the purpose of dream gum? But we don’t get to explore much of Riverworld and we learn very little about it in The Fabulous Riverboat. I’m still so curious, though, so I’m hoping we’ll progress more quickly in the next installment: The Dark Design.
Later addendum: When I began downloading the audio version of The Dark Design, I realized it was 18 hours long — twice the length of the previous novels. I decided to investigate before committing and was disappointed to learn from other reviewers that the series degenerates after The Fabulous Riverboat. Readers cite the same issues I’ve mentioned here and other issues that killed their enjoyment of Riverworld. There was such a consensus that I feel I should believe them and not waste my time on a series that will ultimately disappoint me. I’m sad to say that I’m going to quit here — I just don’t have time to read bad books. This is especially upsetting because I really loved To Your Scattered Bodies Go. I also want to find out the answers I posed in the previous paragraph. If you know the answers, please tell me in a comment below. If nobody knows, I’ll just skim through the last half of book 4, The Magic Labyrinth, to find out. According to readers, that’s where the uninspiring answers are to be found).
To Your Scattered Bodies Go, the first of Philip Jose Farmer’s Riverworld novels, was a fast-paced, highly creative, and extremely exciting story, so I was eager to continue the tale in the second novel, The Fabulous Riverboat. This part of the story of mankind’s resurrection onto a million-miles-long stretch of river valley focuses on Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) — one of the people who’ve been contacted by a traitor who hopes to use twelve special humans to disrupt the plans of the creatures (gods? aliens?) who are responsible for the Resurrection.
At the beginning of The Fabulous Riverboat, we meet Sam Clemens and his 800 lb Neanderthal bodyguard named Joe Miller. (Note: I highly recommend Recorded Books’ audiobook version narrated by Paul Hecht. Joe Miller’s lisping speech is difficult to read in print, but Mr. Hecht is brilliant with him.) Sam Clemens and Joe Miller are on a Viking ship that is searching for iron-rich meteors (the Riverworld has very few mineral deposits). The Vikings want the iron for weapons, but Sam wants to build a huge steamboat so he can sail up the river to its source and confront the beings who run the planet.
Sam gets some help from the mysterious traitor who tells him where to find required materials, but then he must work with tyrannical humans who want to hoard their countries’ natural resources or promote their political or religious agendas. Thus, there’s a lot more threatening, squabbling, political maneuvering, dealing, double-dealing, and war going on than actual ship-building.
It’s fun to meet real historical tyrants in Riverworld — they tend to rise to the top and become the leaders of aggressive city-states. It’s also amusing to watch the interactions of humans from such a wide range of time periods. For example, we see Joe Miller gradually becoming more cynical and humorous as he spends time with Mark Twain and we watch a 20th century engineer teach Twain how to store electricity to power the riverboat.
What’s not fun is that Philip Jose Farmer takes every opportunity to provide information about each of the characters who’s a real historical figure, and this is inelegantly done:
"I read about him in school!” von Richthofen said. “Let’s see. He was born in 1797, died about 1853, I believe. He was an artillery expert and a good friend of Frederick Wilhelm IV of Prussia. He was called ‘The Warlike Monk’ because he was a general who also had strict religious views. He died when he was about fifty years old, a disappointed man because he had been dropped from favor...
And sometimes the facts are repeated. For example, we’re told at least twice that John Lackland was such a bad king that the English swore they’d never have another king named John.
Also annoying is that Farmer frequently takes the opportunity to address topics such as racism and determinism by either having characters hold long philosophical discourses, or by obvious and clumsy manipulation of the plot. The end result is that there is lots of teaching and moralizing and little action in The Fabulous Riverboat. If you look at the book cover, you’d expect to be exploring Riverworld from the deck of Mark Twain’s steamboat, but the boat finally gets finished at the end of the novel.
It’s the wonderful world-building and intriguing questions that make this series so compelling: Why has humankind been resurrected? Who created this world? Who is the traitor? Is there a way out? What’s the purpose of dream gum? But we don’t get to explore much of Riverworld and we learn very little about it in The Fabulous Riverboat. I’m still so curious, though, so I’m hoping we’ll progress more quickly in the next installment: The Dark Design.
Later addendum: When I began downloading the audio version of The Dark Design, I realized it was 18 hours long — twice the length of the previous novels. I decided to investigate before committing and was disappointed to learn from other reviewers that the series degenerates after The Fabulous Riverboat. Readers cite the same issues I’ve mentioned here and other issues that killed their enjoyment of Riverworld. There was such a consensus that I feel I should believe them and not waste my time on a series that will ultimately disappoint me. I’m sad to say that I’m going to quit here — I just don’t have time to read bad books. This is especially upsetting because I really loved To Your Scattered Bodies Go. I also want to find out the answers I posed in the previous paragraph. If you know the answers, please tell me in a comment below. If nobody knows, I’ll just skim through the last half of book 4, The Magic Labyrinth, to find out. According to readers, that’s where the uninspiring answers are to be found).
May 28, 2024
Groan. Barely finished this one
December 15, 2014
This is the second installation in the Riverworld saga. In the first, Richard Burton (the English explorer, not the actor) was the primary character. In this book, it is Samuel Clemens who is front and center. He is on a mission to find some iron so he can build (and captain) a riverboat to the end/beginning of the river. He gets some help from "X", one of the "ethicals" (nonhuman) who is responsible for the rebirth of all the people on Riverworld, but one who disagrees with what's going on. Apparently, there are a total of 12 people among the humans who have been chosen to assist X and his cohorts. X says he arranged for a meteor to land on Riverworld so that Sam would have a sufficient source of iron and other ores to get his riverboat built.
Sam's attempt to build the boat runs into lots of trouble, including from John Lackland (King John), with whom Sam finds it necessary to partner. On Riverworld, Sam has acquired a blood brother -- Joe Hill. Joe is a pre-human from about a million years ago. He is huge (but has flat feet) and scares the crap out of most people.
There is a fair amount of action in this story, but much seems repetitious. I think this book could have used a bit more editing to make it tighter. Sam's rather pessimistic (ok, he has reason to be) and spends a far amount of time reflecting back on his prior life. As with the first book in the series, the book ends with a cliffhanger.
Sam's attempt to build the boat runs into lots of trouble, including from John Lackland (King John), with whom Sam finds it necessary to partner. On Riverworld, Sam has acquired a blood brother -- Joe Hill. Joe is a pre-human from about a million years ago. He is huge (but has flat feet) and scares the crap out of most people.
There is a fair amount of action in this story, but much seems repetitious. I think this book could have used a bit more editing to make it tighter. Sam's rather pessimistic (ok, he has reason to be) and spends a far amount of time reflecting back on his prior life. As with the first book in the series, the book ends with a cliffhanger.
April 25, 2024
Well, as it turns out, Herman Goring was in this book bedevilling Sam Clements, just not as much as I remembered from the first reading this so long ago. Got the first and second books mixed up, I guess.
I had also forgotten all about John Lackland, and what a stabbing-in-the-back-fest this book was. Had a good time, though.
Farmer was a cynical guy and this is classic science fiction. I’m looking forward to finally reading the rest of this series after all these years.
I had also forgotten all about John Lackland, and what a stabbing-in-the-back-fest this book was. Had a good time, though.
Farmer was a cynical guy and this is classic science fiction. I’m looking forward to finally reading the rest of this series after all these years.
February 1, 2010
Adds a new dimension to the expression "sell someone down the river". Oh, and in this novel Hermann Goering is a good guy.
May 5, 2021
Einfach großartig:-)
January 9, 2020
What a pleasure after my disastrous end of the year experiences to read a competently written novel by a writer I've known about for years but never taken the plunge on.
The story, which is considered sci-fi but clearly testing Clarke's third law, is about the dead of earth who find themselves resurrected on a massive alien—we'll call it a planet—which consists of a giant river flowing tens or hundreds of thousands of miles and is banked on either side by impossibly high mountains. Every one has a magic "grail" that provides them with sustenance, and healing is generally always possible, but even if a person dies, they're just reborn at an apparently random alternate location on the river.
Death is still essentially death, in other words, though the characters wrestle with that fine line as to whether killing someone who comes right back still counts as murder. It's a violent world full of slavery and war, with many of the character of Earth history rising to similar positions as they had in life.
Our hero is Samuel Clemens. Yeah, Mark Twain, which is the sort of thing that generally makes me queasy (along with including lots of historical characters in novels, generally) but Farmer does a very good job shaping out a plausible character for Clemens, so he won me over. Clemens is visited by an Ethical—a member of the alien race that has rebirthed all the dead, and who objects to the ethicality of the "experiment". Or maybe he's just yanking Clemens' chain, we don't really know.
But the alien (named by Clemens The Mysterious Stranger, amusingly enough) has arranged for a meteor to strike the river, and in that meteor is enough iron for Clemens to accomplish his dream of building a Riverboat. (The river is home to bamboo and wood and fish but not much else in the way of resources.) With that riverboat he plans to journey up to the headwaters and...well, find out what's going on.
It's a big river. And a 40 year trip. And that's when he actually manages to build the boat, which isn't easy because, as I've mentioned, everybody's always fighting and jockeying for position on the river, and while Clemens manages, through an act of treachery, to secure the iron, the other minerals require negotiating with other colonies and they have both a strong interest in gouging him and in stopping him from making this boat, which could be the ultimate war machine.
I've commented on this many, many times, but it's amazing how much old time writers crammed into 250 pages, especially as compared with today's authors. And this book doesn't feel rushed, or poorly fleshed out. Besides Clemens, we get very good character development for Joe Miller, Clemens' right-hand man (who is a literal giant proto-man from ancient history), John Lackland (the treacherous former King of England), Firebrass (an African-American engineer), Clemens' former-wife Livy, who has taken up with Cyrano—yes, that Cyrano, who is also well drawn. And there are many more!
Racism figures hugely into this story, but it's very nicely used for the larger question: Can man change? We know what Twain thought from "The Mysterious Stranger". But we can see that Farmer doesn't agree with him, as the displaced earthlings from various time evolve out of their prejudices—or they don't! The choice is the thing.
I really didn't know how it was going to turn out. It was clear to me at the halfway point, the building of the boat was the central issue. The actual journey would have to come at a later time. But again, a salute to the old writers: I didn't actually mean to read this book for my F. I'm not sure if I have #1 (or the rest of the series) but I don't feel ripped off. It's a good, complete, satisfying story.
The story, which is considered sci-fi but clearly testing Clarke's third law, is about the dead of earth who find themselves resurrected on a massive alien—we'll call it a planet—which consists of a giant river flowing tens or hundreds of thousands of miles and is banked on either side by impossibly high mountains. Every one has a magic "grail" that provides them with sustenance, and healing is generally always possible, but even if a person dies, they're just reborn at an apparently random alternate location on the river.
Death is still essentially death, in other words, though the characters wrestle with that fine line as to whether killing someone who comes right back still counts as murder. It's a violent world full of slavery and war, with many of the character of Earth history rising to similar positions as they had in life.
Our hero is Samuel Clemens. Yeah, Mark Twain, which is the sort of thing that generally makes me queasy (along with including lots of historical characters in novels, generally) but Farmer does a very good job shaping out a plausible character for Clemens, so he won me over. Clemens is visited by an Ethical—a member of the alien race that has rebirthed all the dead, and who objects to the ethicality of the "experiment". Or maybe he's just yanking Clemens' chain, we don't really know.
But the alien (named by Clemens The Mysterious Stranger, amusingly enough) has arranged for a meteor to strike the river, and in that meteor is enough iron for Clemens to accomplish his dream of building a Riverboat. (The river is home to bamboo and wood and fish but not much else in the way of resources.) With that riverboat he plans to journey up to the headwaters and...well, find out what's going on.
It's a big river. And a 40 year trip. And that's when he actually manages to build the boat, which isn't easy because, as I've mentioned, everybody's always fighting and jockeying for position on the river, and while Clemens manages, through an act of treachery, to secure the iron, the other minerals require negotiating with other colonies and they have both a strong interest in gouging him and in stopping him from making this boat, which could be the ultimate war machine.
I've commented on this many, many times, but it's amazing how much old time writers crammed into 250 pages, especially as compared with today's authors. And this book doesn't feel rushed, or poorly fleshed out. Besides Clemens, we get very good character development for Joe Miller, Clemens' right-hand man (who is a literal giant proto-man from ancient history), John Lackland (the treacherous former King of England), Firebrass (an African-American engineer), Clemens' former-wife Livy, who has taken up with Cyrano—yes, that Cyrano, who is also well drawn. And there are many more!
Racism figures hugely into this story, but it's very nicely used for the larger question: Can man change? We know what Twain thought from "The Mysterious Stranger". But we can see that Farmer doesn't agree with him, as the displaced earthlings from various time evolve out of their prejudices—or they don't! The choice is the thing.
I really didn't know how it was going to turn out. It was clear to me at the halfway point, the building of the boat was the central issue. The actual journey would have to come at a later time. But again, a salute to the old writers: I didn't actually mean to read this book for my F. I'm not sure if I have #1 (or the rest of the series) but I don't feel ripped off. It's a good, complete, satisfying story.
May 27, 2021
In honor of the 50th anniversary of the first Riverworld book, I'm continuing my reexamination of the series.
"The Fabulous Riverboat" is the second book in the series, and it has a somewhat confusing publication history. The story here was originally published in four parts - two parts in 1967 and more two parts in 1971 (all in "If" Magazine). These parts were combined (and somewhat revised) for the book-length version, which was also published in 1971... the same year as "To Your Scattered Bodies Go" (the first book in the series).
Do you got all that?
I wonder if Hugo voters who named "To Your Scattered Bodies Go" best novel gave Farmer credit for the second book as well. It did beat out a very deserving novel by Ursula K Le Guin.
Anyways, this is a somewhat better book than the first. Some decades have passed since Resurrection Day, and kingdoms have popped up along the river. Our protagonist this time is Sam Clemens, who dreams of building a mighty riverboat to sail upriver where he figures he will learn the secrets of the planet. He is accompanied by a cast of historical and fictional characters, most of whom want the same thing.
Farmer's strength remains his pulpy prose, which moves along at a quick pace. For me it is weird, though, reading about a "Game of Thrones" style setting where life is cheap and characters are casually brutalized written in such a zippy style. I guess that was the norm in earlier generations, but it can be off-putting in 2021.
Speaking of "Game of Thrones," I can totally imagine this book as season of big budget genre TV. The governments, the battles and the scheming would make a great series. Alas, the Science Fiction Channel tried twice to turn this into a TV show (failing both times) so I don't think anyone will try again soon. If only they had waited a decade.
"The Fabulous Riverboat" is the second book in the series, and it has a somewhat confusing publication history. The story here was originally published in four parts - two parts in 1967 and more two parts in 1971 (all in "If" Magazine). These parts were combined (and somewhat revised) for the book-length version, which was also published in 1971... the same year as "To Your Scattered Bodies Go" (the first book in the series).
Do you got all that?
I wonder if Hugo voters who named "To Your Scattered Bodies Go" best novel gave Farmer credit for the second book as well. It did beat out a very deserving novel by Ursula K Le Guin.
Anyways, this is a somewhat better book than the first. Some decades have passed since Resurrection Day, and kingdoms have popped up along the river. Our protagonist this time is Sam Clemens, who dreams of building a mighty riverboat to sail upriver where he figures he will learn the secrets of the planet. He is accompanied by a cast of historical and fictional characters, most of whom want the same thing.
Farmer's strength remains his pulpy prose, which moves along at a quick pace. For me it is weird, though, reading about a "Game of Thrones" style setting where life is cheap and characters are casually brutalized written in such a zippy style. I guess that was the norm in earlier generations, but it can be off-putting in 2021.
Speaking of "Game of Thrones," I can totally imagine this book as season of big budget genre TV. The governments, the battles and the scheming would make a great series. Alas, the Science Fiction Channel tried twice to turn this into a TV show (failing both times) so I don't think anyone will try again soon. If only they had waited a decade.
April 29, 2021
I swear, for such a short book, this took me way too long to read. It was just such a slog and I really really wanted to DNF it several times throughout my read.
It's surprising to me too, given how much I kind of enjoyed To Your Scattered Bodies Go, but this dod a couple things that just made it hard to get into. The biggest one was to start with a whole new cast and setting rather than continue the adventures of Burton and crew. The other big one was to do that after leaving the previous book with an ending that felt like it would be continued in the next book, but yeah, no, we get a 257 page aside that I presume will continue into the next book rather than bring us back to the first cast.
I might have been okay with this too, but the characters just didn't do it for me this time. Samuel Clemens was just so annoying with his worrying over things. Others that I can't name were too one-dimensional to be interesting, and while I probably would have enjoyed Joe Miller, trying to read his, I guess it's lisping speech though it's not totally made clear, as it's written was just too hard sometimes. There are a few places where I never really did figure out what he meant to say.
Then there's the story, which was honestly pretty boring. The whole thing boiled down to "We're building a boat, but first we need to become an industrialized nation and build all the tools of war, otherwise this book doesn't have an ending."
Yeah, I know this isn't supposed to be a masterpiece, but it was just so disappointing to read after a fairly enjoyable trek through the first book. I'm not sure if I'm going to read the next one. But then I paid a pretty penny to even get the books, so we'll see if I feel like suffering more of this or not.
It's surprising to me too, given how much I kind of enjoyed To Your Scattered Bodies Go, but this dod a couple things that just made it hard to get into. The biggest one was to start with a whole new cast and setting rather than continue the adventures of Burton and crew. The other big one was to do that after leaving the previous book with an ending that felt like it would be continued in the next book, but yeah, no, we get a 257 page aside that I presume will continue into the next book rather than bring us back to the first cast.
I might have been okay with this too, but the characters just didn't do it for me this time. Samuel Clemens was just so annoying with his worrying over things. Others that I can't name were too one-dimensional to be interesting, and while I probably would have enjoyed Joe Miller, trying to read his, I guess it's lisping speech though it's not totally made clear, as it's written was just too hard sometimes. There are a few places where I never really did figure out what he meant to say.
Then there's the story, which was honestly pretty boring. The whole thing boiled down to "We're building a boat, but first we need to become an industrialized nation and build all the tools of war, otherwise this book doesn't have an ending."
Yeah, I know this isn't supposed to be a masterpiece, but it was just so disappointing to read after a fairly enjoyable trek through the first book. I'm not sure if I'm going to read the next one. But then I paid a pretty penny to even get the books, so we'll see if I feel like suffering more of this or not.
May 19, 2019
I really liked the first Riverworld novel, so I got the other three in Famer's original series right after I finished that book. I didn't dislike The Fabulous Riverboat, but it was a very different reading experience from To Your Scattered Bodies Go. While that novel was about Burton constantly moving to an objective, experiencing the new and fascinating Riverworld, and trying to understand what's happening to him and those around him, TFR was much more static and closed - Clemens spends the whole book essentially in one place (emotionally if not physically) trying to build his riverboat, and when he finally succeeds, it was all for nothing (in this book, anyway). Now, that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the book - I just think it serves a different purpose, zooming in where book 1 zoomed out, and that zoomed-in story was sometimes harder to read. The first book has some dated (but not really offensive) stuff on gender; this book has less, but more dated stuff on race. Farmer is obviously trying to say good things about how people should work together, but the way he does it hasn't aged all that well. Still, I enjoyed the book and will definitely continue with book 3 in the series.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 6, 2025
In this novel, we follow Mark Twain who at the behest of the mysterious stranger, tries to build a steamboat to voyage the totality of The River and find the Ethicals secret lair of operations and thwart their experiments on the human resurrected. However, the building of the boat is often put at risk by treachererous characters.
We no longer follow Sir Robert Francis' journey in this sequel, but his fate is nonetheless tied to Mark Twain's due to both being selected as part of the "12" by the Mysterious Stranger. We are bound to see him return to the fray in a subsequent novel.
We do meet multiple historical figures such as Cyrano De Bergerac, Mozart, King John of England and Erik Bloodaxe to name a few.
We no longer follow Sir Robert Francis' journey in this sequel, but his fate is nonetheless tied to Mark Twain's due to both being selected as part of the "12" by the Mysterious Stranger. We are bound to see him return to the fray in a subsequent novel.
We do meet multiple historical figures such as Cyrano De Bergerac, Mozart, King John of England and Erik Bloodaxe to name a few.
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