I agree with Kent's description of both book and film. It's easy to see why
"Sam" in the film isn't recognizable as there was no effort to capture any
flavor of Sam's mannerisms, speech, wit, anything. The dinosaurs on
"Dinotopia" had more character.



While Kent may howl, below is my overview of the Riverworld books published
years and years ago for a sci-fi encyclopedia. As Salem Press doesn't love
me anymore, let 'em howl.





THE RIVERWORLD SERIES

Series chronicles adventures of humanity reborn in future on distant planet
where various characters seek the creators of Riverworld and answers to the
meaning of their new existence

Author: Philip Jose Farmer (1918- )

Subgenre: science fiction--future history

Type of work: novels

Time of plot: 2246-2307 A.D.

Location: Riverworld

First published: To Your Scattered Bodies Go (1971), The Fabulous Riverboat
(1971), The Dark Design (1977), Riverworld and Other Stories (1979), The
Magic Labyrinth (1980), Riverworld War: The Suppressed Fiction of Philip
Jose Farmer (1980), The Gods of Riverworld (1983), River of Eternity (1983)

The Plot: The Riverworld series is set on a distant planet where all humans
ever born are resurrected along a ten million mile river near
mushroom-shaped grailstones that provide food and drugs. When humans die
they are reborn again a day later at another location. Twelve unseen,
ancient Ethicals oversee the system whose purpose and character is revealed
throughout the series. A rebel Ethical called X chooses human agents to
spoil the Ethicals' plans to limit humankind's chances "to go on" past
terrestrial existence.

To Your Scattered Bodies Go focuses on nineteenth century explorer Richard
Burton who awakens in a chamber, one of countless human bodies suspended in
mysterious columns. He is put back to sleep, and then awakens on the shore
of an endless river with scores of other humans from a variety of cultures
and times. Burton gathers a group of friends including the alien Monat.
Burton's group travels down the river encountering many warlike cultures in
groups sixty percent from one Earth culture, thirty percent another, and ten
percent random choices. Ex-Nazi Hermann Goring runs a slave state that
captures Burton's band. Burton's group kill and overthrow Goring.

They learn that Ethicals, agents of their unseen overseers, disguise
themselves as humans to monitor their activities. Burton learns mankind has
been given a second chance and decides to follow the river to its source to
find answers. He also learns the Ethicals seek him because of his memory of
the pre-resurrection chamber. He repeatedly escapes his pursuers and comes
close to the river's headwaters.

The Fabulous Riverboat begins ten years after Resurrection Day with Sam
Clemens, alias Mark Twain, building a riverboat to sail to the Ethicals'
Misty Tower. He learns he is a chosen agent of X. Clemens and King John
Lackland of medieval England create a heavily armed, industrial state named
Paralando. As the boat sets sail, King John steals the boat and throws
Clemens' crew overboard.

The Dark Design chronicles three teams' attempts to reach the Misty Tower
after resurrections have mysteriously ceased. Jul Gulbirra, a feminist
aviator, comes to Parolando where Clemens has launched his new riverboat,
the "Mark Twain." Fellow X agent Milton Firebrass supervises building two
airships, one to fly to the Misty Tower, the other to destroy King John.
Richard Burton's party travels north, and Burton learns that Monat and Peter
Frigate are Ethical spies. They disappear before he can question them. A
second Peter Frigate joins actor Tom Mix and author Jack London, both agents
of X. The three build a balloon and fly toward the Tower.

One dirigible sails to the Misty Tower, lands, and explores the unyielding
walls. On the return trip, an Ethical spy destroys the dirigible. Frigate's
balloon also fails.

The Magic Labyrinth follows the travels of King John's "Rex Grandismus" and
Clemens's renamed boat, the "Not For Hire." Burton's group joins King John
before Clemens finds the "Rex," and an apocalyptic battle destroys both
boats and their captains. Burton and eleven survivors from both boats join
together and successfully reach the Tower. Inside, they find bones of dead
Ethicals and meet Loga, the Ethical known as X. He reveals the resurrections
stopped when Monat, an alien who helped design Riverworld, shut down the
main computer. Burton's group helps Loga repair the computer, restore
resurrections, and give humanity more time to spiritually evolve.

In Gods of Riverworld, an unknown Ethical traps Burton's group in the Tower,
kills Loga, and overrides his computer commands, stopping the resurrections.
Burton's band explores the vast Tower and kill the unknown Ethical. They
unlock the secrets of the Ethicals' machines, and begin resurrecting people
into the Tower. Corruption sets in, and an insane woman kills most of the
humans and destroys the well containing the souls of all mankind. Loga
returns, revealing the Tower troubles had been a test of Burton's group's
worthiness to oversee the Tower before the ultimate exodus back to Earth.
After resurrecting humanity on Riverworld, Burton's group decides to leave
and explore new planets.

In Riverworld and Other Stories, "Riverworld" is the only tale connected to
the series. Tom Mix escapes from Kramer, a sixteenth century Inquisitor. Mix
and a despondent Jesus Christ join Stafford, leader of a neighboring colony
at war with Kramer. Kramer captures both Mix and Christ, denouncing the
latter as a fraud, and puts the pair to the stake.

River of Eternity is a 1953 version of the first Riverworld story. Richard
Black and his possessive mate, Phyliss, learn of Joe Caveman, a Stone Age
man who had been to the river's headwaters. Black, aided by Charbrass,
fights a war with Murel, a neighboring dictator. Black, Charbrass, Caveman,
Murel and Phyliss are killed.

The group is resurrected together and discover Charbrass is an agent of the
builders. They follow him into the white Grail Tower where Charbrass
explains Riverworld's history and the powers of the Tower. Murel kills
Charbrass and Caveman, is killed by Black and Phyliss, and Charbrass returns
revealing the adventure was a test. He sends them to the Transition Planet
for further growth.



Analysis: Farmer states in his various introductions that the series evolved
and took on many forms, The River of Eternity the best published,
self-contained version of the series' inception. The five "mainstream"
novels, to use Farmer's term, depict his vision of mankind as essentially a
proud, quarrelsome and warlike people with rare and seemingly futile
attempts at spirituality or selflessness. This vision, seen through a
variety of alternating perspectives, rises to a logical climax in The Magic
Labyrinth, a novel originally part of the Dark Design but made into a
separate book due to the adventures' length. But the series' themes, first
and last seen through the eyes of Richard Burton, are underlined in The Gods
of Riverworld in which Burton, who has seen and learned more than any other
human, decides to continue adventuring rather than develop spiritually. The
Magic Labyrinth was intended to be the series final volume, but The Gods of
Riverworld became the mainstream series culmination, emphasizing the added
themes of the corrupting nature of power and the ultimate restlessness of
the human spirit that is not satisfied even with all questions answered.

Overall, the impressive, cohesive series has earned critical praise for its
wide scope of morality plays interspersed with adventure plots, and is
considered as important as Isaac Asimov's Foundation series or Frank
Herbert's Dune books. The series importance is indicated by the Hugo given
for To Your Scattered Bodies Go and the publication of The Riverworld War
and River of Eternity, both volumes published primarily for scholars and
literary historians rather than entertainment for the general reader.
Riverworld War: The Suppressed Fiction of Philip Jose Farmer, for example,
contains battle scenes and lulls-in-the-action passages deleted from The
Magic Labyrinth. This edition provides insights only for those interested in
studying the changes in the text or for those curious about how Tom Mix and
Jack London die in the riverboat battle. Farmer has promised more
"sidestream" stories set on Riverworld but not part of the major plotlines,
and the short story "Riverworld" points to the wealth of intriguing
possibilities available in a setting with such a vast scope and potential
cast of characters.

Farmer's entire body of work is noted for his original and thought-provoking
synthesis of history, science, philosophy, literature and, in his
non-Riverworld stories, his use of popular culture, especially fictional
characters like Sherlock Holmes and Tarzan. Literary critics have made
detailed explorations of various topics in Farmer's fiction, including his
use of women. On Riverworld, female characters are often little more than
prizes for men to fight over with occasional, exceptional, more developed
characters such as Jul Gulbria in The Dark Design and Phyliss Black in River
of Eternity. Other critics have explored Farmer's use of religion, perhaps
the most important motif throughout the series, a subject giving the books
much of their depth. Other scholars have been interested in Farmer's use of
technology, noting the development and warlike uses mankind makes of
available tools on primitive, "second-chance" Riverworld. For Farmer,
industry begins and ends in armed human conflicts, the greatest
accomplishments of Riverworld's industrial age mutually destroyed in the
pointless, vindictive battle of the riverboats. Farmer's interwoven
storylines and detailed character development keep up reader interest,
although some passages tend to digress and distract from the action. Readers
knowledgeable about specific historical figures may question Farmer's
depictions that do not reconcile with their actual biographies, notably Sam
Clemens who is distinctly unliterary on Riverworld.--Wesley Britton