WARNING: This review contains spoilers! Read at your own risk!"This fourth book in the classic Riverworld series continues the adventures of Samuel Clemens and Sir Richard Francis Burton as they travel through Farmer's strange and wonderful Riverworld, a place where everyone who ever lived is simultaneously resurrected along a single river valley that stretches over an entire planet. Famous characters from history abound.Now Burton and Clemens, who have traveled for more than thirty years on two great ships, are about to reach the end of the River. But there is a religion, The Church of the Second Chance, that has grown up along the River and its adherents, possibly inspired by aliens, are determined to destroy the riverboats. A coming battle may destroy Burton and Clemens, but even if they survive, how can they penetrate the alien tower of the Ethicals, who created this astonishing world? What can humans do against a race capable of creating a world and resurrecting the entire human race on it?"This book takes an awfully long time to get to the point, namely who are the Ethicals and why have they created this world? There is a LOT of rather pointless fighting, in my opinion, which lends nothing to the plot and includes enough technical detail to send an insomniac into a coma. When we finally get to hear from an Ethical, Mr. Mysterious X no less, it is underwhelming in the extreme. They are basically "advanced" human people, working under another race, who in turn were deputized by the "Ancient Ones." And they aren't so ethical that they can't disagree and squabble amongst themselves--plus they guard their computers with death rays. Still want to call them Ethicals?One blessing is that Farmer finally committed to one measurement system, so the dimensions of everything aren't repeated in both Imperial and Metric. Although I'm glad to know a bit more about the Ethicals and what they were up to, I persist in thinking that so much MORE could have been done with this concept. I finally realized with this (the fourth) book that religion was one of the issues in play in this series (so I guess its good that Farmer really lambastes the reader with it--I finally caught on). Its just so swamped in details--what they are eating, what they are wearing, how they produced this or that item, etc., etc.And I think he did make an effort to produce some characters that women could relate to in this book (although the women are still very focused on the male characters and don't talk to each other). There's only one book left, and what with the abrupt ending of the Magic Labyrinth, I will probably, against my better judgement, read it. Anyone who can explain the title to me, I would be most obliged. I'm probably being as thick about that as I was about the religious themes.Probably more realistically 2.5 stars.Cross-posted at my blog, The Next 50, at:http://wanda-thenextfifty.blogspot.ca...
After three books' worth of setup, we finally get to learn what's actually in the Tower. At least, that's the idea ... but first we have to have the big war between Sam Clemens and King John. Of course they have to meet, which means they have to get pretty far up-River, and both sides have to be somewhat balanced, so we have to read about more people first, which means that we have to read about their stories on Earth and what "actually" happened first, and then we have to re-read any events in which they'd been previously involved on the Riverworld ... yeah. You get the idea.Farmer's habit of explaining everything in detail really starts to become a problem in this book. Everything we've seen before has to be explained again, every character has to go into detail about what they believe is happening, etc. etc. etc. As a result, it's almost a relief to get to the war, which really shouldn't be the point in a series that values ethical behavior so highly. On top of that, as you'd expect, a good number of the characters we've met are killed in the war (otherwise you'd have a party of 40-50 people on those narrow ledges and such), which takes a bit out of the story. Finally, most of the trip to the Tower is simply a repeat of the events from the Egyptians and Joe Miller, so even that isn't as interesting as it should have been. (There isn't much drama about getting to the Tower, either. Of course there will be a way. If there weren't, what kind of book would this have been?)The final section in the Tower itself is interesting ... but even that ends in a very unsatisfying fashion, almost as if Farmer deliberately chopped off the story to prepare for a fifth book. (It also suffers somewhat from the magitech that Farmer had to use: in the late '70s, there would have been nothing even approaching Riverworld technology, and again, even personal technology was quite limited, so much of what the Ethicals have is basically Star Trek-type stuff.)As compelling as the story was in the first three books, The Magic Labyrinth is disappointing. I remembered this book pretty much all the way through, and I expect I felt the same way when I first read it. Other people may find it a more fitting "end" to the story, but I wanted (view spoiler)[at least some kind of idea about the people still in the Valley, and what might happen next for the people in the Tower. Instead, we get nothing (hide spoiler)]
What do You think about The Magic Labyrinth (1998)?
4th in series- The big finale (actually author decided needed 5th book in series, But this one answers all the questions raised in the first 3)A big improvement over Book 3. Lots of exciting actions, great thinking discussions and moral questions. some mental stimulation, some disappointment. This series would be easier to recommend if about 40% of it were edited out. A fabulous underlying story, some really well done development ( and some excessive verbiage) . I enjoyed it- but its not an efficient read- not a worthwhile investment of time for everybody
—Barry
This is the final novel of Farmer's original Riverworld cycle. Like the rest of the series, it is audacious, often fascinating, but also very problematic. "Labyrinth" is often long-winded and unwieldy, particularly in the beginning. But everything comes together as the rival riverboats commanded by archenemies Sam Clemens and John Lackland meet for their final confrontation, after which the survivors struggle on to gain entrance to the mysterious tower in the North Sea. The battle and the final leg of the journey are well-written and full of adventure and mystery. However, once they gain entrance to the tower, the story becomes dull and stagnant. The nature of the Ethicals, their struggle, and the truth about the human soul are presented in a series of interminable conversations. It is very unsatisfying, after having made the commitment to reading over a thousand pages of this series, to have it resolved with the introduction of a character who simply explains away all of the mysteries. Also, by the time the series ends, Farmer has killed off the majority of his most interesting characters, often in rather off-handed ways that are at odds with all the attention, detail, and craft that went into developing them in the first place. Of the final band that reaches the tower, most are relatively minor characters that I really didn't care about and whose personalities had not been well-developed.In my opinion, the Riverworld series has turned out to be quite a disappointment. It does not live up to the high reputation that it has garnered within the SF community.
—David B
Farmer wraps up the four-part Riverworld series and gives it the works: epic battles, arduous journeys, leading character deaths and plenty of philosophy. I liked it, don't get me wrong, I just think he was trying to wrap up too many loose ends. I suppose a fifth chapter would've proved too time-consuming and maybe he was tired of "Riverworld" by this point.I won't add any spoilers - but the 'secrets' of The Ethicals are revealed and one of the characters makes a huge sacrifice.For those who've read the other three - you pretty much know what to expect from the final book. If you haven't - I wouldn't attempt this as a one-off - your head will hurt.
—Sean
