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