What do You think about To Your Scattered Bodies Go (1998)?
Imagine that you wake up and the last thing that you remember is dying. You're lying on a riverbank surrounded by strangers who are naked and hairless just as you are. As you explore your surroundings, you find that you are no longer on Earth and the people around you are all the people from the beginning of time who have lived and died on Earth. Furthermore, there are no animals or insects, but there are plenty of fish in a river that seems never never to end. Meals and wants like cigarettes, alcohol, and clothing are provided daily from unseen benefactors.The main character of the story is Richard Francis Burton, a famous British explorer from the last half of the 1800s. He's the perfect character to follow around in such a world because of his wide acquaintance with various cultures and ability to speak 29 different languages. Joining him (wanted or unwanted) are characters such as a caveman, an alien (responsible for the destruction of most of the human race in 21st century), the real life Alice who was the inspiration for the fictional Alice in Wonderland, Nazi leader Hermann Göring, and a well-read American.When my husband mentioned the premise of this series to me, I knew I had to read it. He also said that it's going to be a 4-hour movie event on the SyFy channel. Unfortunately, Richard Burton isn't going to be the main character because they were worried that Americans would think of the wrong Richard Burton -- the one that was an actor and Elizabeth Taylor's husband. Are we really so dumb that we couldn't differentiate between a little-known actor and a well-known explorer? Some other things that I bet won't make it into the series are people waking up naked and hairless, marijuana and hallucinates, lots of suicides, lots of love and war, and people's questioning of their religion since the afterlife is different than they were told. Oh, what am I talking about? I'm sure they'll show war. That at least is socially acceptable on television. *rolls eyes*I'm giving this 5 stars because I actually want to read the next book in the series when I'm usually not a reader of book series. The next book in the series The Fabulous Riverboat features Mark Twain as the main character rather than Richard Burton. While the first book gives a small idea of who created Riverworld and why everyone is there, it still leaves enough questions unanswered that I'm curious about. For one thing, there's the end/beginning of the river and a fabled Tower to reach. As for the television series, I'm not nearly as optimistic about it. I'm sure Philip José Farmer would roll over in his grave to see the changes they'll surely make.
—Amy
Famed 19th century explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton dies. When he awakes, he finds himself resurrected, lying naked on the banks of a seemingly endless river, along with every other human being (and non-human sentient) who has ever lived on Earth or ever will. The human race is provided with food that miraculously appears from strange machines, but little else. There are no buildings, no clothes and no instructions. It is clear that this is not the afterlife that most world religions promised. Burton gathers a collection of people from different eras, including Alice Hargreaves (of Alice in Wonderland fame), a Neanderthal, a Holocaust survivor and an alien being from the future and they set off to explore.What they find is that humans will be humans. Along the river, despite the strange dislocation that has occurred, people are setting up civilizations of various types, conflicts are breaking out and leaders both benign and dictatorial are taking charge of various groups. One of these dictators, Herman Goering of the Third Reich, becomes Burton's nemesis, capturing him and thwarting his plans.Burton's goal is to find the source of the river so that he can meet whatever entity or being sent all of humanity to this place and understand the "why" of it all. When this quest proves to be nearly impossible through conventional means (e.g. sailing a boat up the river), Burton comes up with another strategy - one that involves his own willingness to be subjected to death and resurrection, again and again.I haven't read Philip Jose Farmer in a long time, but I do recall that he generally writes a pretty good adventure story. This novel, a Hugo-award winner, has more than a touch of Heinlein in it (e.g. "Glory Road" or "The Number of the Beast"). But he is also a decent world builder, and Riverworld is a unique environment for him to play in. He can literally call up any character from any time in history and set them to work as protagonist or antagonist. I am still waiting for more details on certain aspects of Riverworld, but I assume that that will come as the series progresses.There are a lot of mysteries left unsolved here, and Farmer doesn't give us many clues as to where he is going with this. I had hoped that he would dole out a few more pieces of the puzzle before this first volume of the series was over, but perhaps that is just my impatience speaking. There are a few reveals near the very end of the book and he has done enough to pique my interest; I will likely pick up the next book in the series relatively soon.
—Mark Oppenlander
I feel like giving this a 3/5, but for the plot alone I have to give it an additional star.Even though it wasn't as interesting as it could have been, or written in a style I particularly love, the idea alone is amazing. It has endless possibilities.After reading it at long last, I'm so disappointed that it's television/film adaptations have been so poor. This story has limitless potential and I can't help wishing an amazing film or series would come out of this.Thirty six billion, six million, nine thousand, six hundred and thirty seven people throughout human history are resurrected simultaneously on another planet.Without any additional information, that should be enough of a story to interest anyone.How do these people co-exist, if at all.There were elements of this story that saddened me actually, by how realistic and logical they seemed. The warring and the slavery and the states that cropped up and the way societies began to organize themselves towards defense. The first introduction of Hermann Göring etc.Those aspects of human nature are so ingrained that even resurrected, given new life and apparent immortality --- even then, people would still degenerate into that kind of savagery at some point.
—A
