Reviews

• This is book 1 of a five book series, the Riverworld series. First published in 1971, it is the most well known work of one of the great Sci-Fi writers. Luckily, the publishers have seen fit to keep these and many other classics in print to the benefit of all lovers of great classic Sci-Fi. The basic premise here is that everyone who has ever lived and died, from modern humans to pre-homo-sapiens humans who lived millions of years ago, have been mysteriously resurrected on an alien world, the surface of which comprises a single wide, deep river that flows from a lake on the north pole, all the way to the south pole and then back up again to empty back into the same lake from which it originated. It the center of the lake is a tall, dark tower, the supposed home of the unknown entities conducting this great experiment for purposes of their own. All are resurrected naked and bald, each with a ‘grail’, through which they are able to obtain food from magical dispensers set every kilometer along the river. It is up to them to survive and “find salvation”, but not all is utopia as some believe. Awakened with humankind is every prejudice, bias and fear of millions of years of evolution. This first book tells the story of the awakening, and follows Sir Richard Burton (no, not the actor, the famous explorer who discovered Lake Tanganyika) as he builds a bamboo catamaran and sets of up the river in search of the source, battling numerous enemies including the infamous Herman Goering, who is determined to repeat upon this new world the horrors he unleashed in his old life. TYSBG is a Sci-Fi adventure of the old school, but more than stacks up against the writings of today. You will enjoy it, and you will want to continue the series.

• This is an original book, told in an engaging way that keeps you turning the pages from the moment you start reading. It's kinda post apocalyptic in as much as everyone has to fend for themselves and start from scratch in a new environment, and it also looks at ideas of the afterlife and different perceptions of heaven. It is fascinating to read about the different people and how they react to one another with different social conventions, and how they utilise the skills they used in their own periods of history. This is a great sci-fi novel, but once you start reading one, you're going to want to track down the complete series! Great Sci-fi! Feel free to check out my blog which can be found on my profile page.

• Th book arrived in great condition.

• I read this series years ago in paperback and wondered if it would hold up now that I'm 40. Well, it does. It's well written, full of interesting ideas like all those great pulp sci-fi novels of the 60's and 70's and it makes for a good easy read, perfect for on a plane or on holiday. I think one issue these old books had is that they had to fit into a small page-count but the editors demanded a lot of action and interest throughout which is fine, but this novel and the themes and even scenes therein could have been explored in more detail. The story moves a bit TOO fast and the characters don't really get much chance to be fully fleshed out. So it's a strong 4 star book that could have been 5 stars if it had been just a little slower paced. Now I'm going to look for the rest of series in pulp paperback because £4.99 seems a tad high for the Kindle versions.

• Anyone who knows the author, needs no intro to his work.

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