- Paperback: 368 pages
- Publisher: Collins; paperback / softback edition (22 Nov 1984)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0586062327
- ISBN-13: 978-0586062326
- Product Dimensions: 17.5 x 11.2 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 553,167 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
Fifth in the "Riverworld" saga, the chronicle of the planet Riverworld, this book follows the adventures of the 35 billion men and women who woke there one morning to begin the first day of life after death.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Many of us were intrigued by the Riverworld, as it was presented in the short story, 'Riverworld', and 'To Your Scattered Bodies Go'. Why was everybody who had ever lived resurrected, in a world where death was only a temporary setback, and where cultures clashed on a daily basis? Who had terraformed the river planet, and where were they? How would they react when their fortress at the north pole was threatened?
By the end of the fourth book, all these mysteries had been answered. There were some inconsistencies and plot holes, but it had basically been a thundering good adventure story and character drama. Now, our heroes find themselves inside the citadel of the people who had set everything up. They have incredibly complex machinery at their disposal, and vast powers as a result. What will they choose to do?
As it turns out, not very much. The travails that the surviving characters face in this last Riverworld book are trivial; even comical. An adventure that started with an interesting juxtaposition of stone age and ultra-tech falls flat once the Big Secret has been resolved. We're left with a third-rate whodunnit and some computer blather. A real disappointment, to round off a story that had kept me guessing and wondering for ages.
Only buy this book if you really, really feel the need to complete your collection. Otherwise, leave things as they are at the end of The Magic Labyrinth.
By the end of the fourth book, all these mysteries had been answered. There were some inconsistencies and plot holes, but it had basically been a thundering good adventure story and character drama. Now, our heroes find themselves inside the citadel of the people who had set everything up. They have incredibly complex machinery at their disposal, and vast powers as a result. What will they choose to do?
As it turns out, not very much. The travails that the surviving characters face in this last Riverworld book are trivial; even comical. An adventure that started with an interesting juxtaposition of stone age and ultra-tech falls flat once the Big Secret has been resolved. We're left with a third-rate whodunnit and some computer blather. A real disappointment, to round off a story that had kept me guessing and wondering for ages.
Only buy this book if you really, really feel the need to complete your collection. Otherwise, leave things as they are at the end of The Magic Labyrinth.
12 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I really enjoyed the first 4 volumes of the series, even though I had some small gripes about them. This one, however, is simply a book nobody needs. The plot`s basically been finished at the end of No. 4, and though I won't spoil the fun by revealing the gimmick of the this book, I might safely tell you, that it doesn't really offer any great new insight. What we have here instead is a typical sequel: The author doesn't really have anything more to say, but since the readers are willing to buy another volume, the author's gonna write it. The reslt is a book filled with situations that are anything but credible. Would you believe, for example, that people decide not to do anything about an armed takeover of their home, because they don't want to miss a party they've been invited to? Or that they spend days pursuing an unknown person that causes strange things to happen - and then one day they just stop doing so, because they just find something else to do? It just doesn't work - and that goes for the whole book: It just doesn't work. Read the first four and skip this one - or if you must read it, get it from a library.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I really enjoyed the first book 'to your scattered bodies go' and thought it was an amzing read, but found as I read the sequels to this they became less and less interesting.
This is one book I felt shouldn't have been written. Some of the other books had racial comments, but these were in the frame of the story. The author himself said that some of the comments made by people should only be attributed to the person who was saying them - ie if you had a eigteenth century slave trader talking he's unlikely to have 20th century ethics. Indeed the second book with Samuel Clemens made the point that racialism can occur on both sides and that sadly it can be the person being racialised in the past that can turn into the agressor because of fear.
I know he's basing the story on historical figures and that they would necessarily act in the spirits of their times but in this (last) book though I couldn't see the reasons for the stereotyping and it made me uncomfortable. I also felt there was a lack of a coherent story.
I'd say by all means read the first 4 books, you'll enjoy an amazing story, but you don't need this one to complete the saga despite some revelations.
This is one book I felt shouldn't have been written. Some of the other books had racial comments, but these were in the frame of the story. The author himself said that some of the comments made by people should only be attributed to the person who was saying them - ie if you had a eigteenth century slave trader talking he's unlikely to have 20th century ethics. Indeed the second book with Samuel Clemens made the point that racialism can occur on both sides and that sadly it can be the person being racialised in the past that can turn into the agressor because of fear.
I know he's basing the story on historical figures and that they would necessarily act in the spirits of their times but in this (last) book though I couldn't see the reasons for the stereotyping and it made me uncomfortable. I also felt there was a lack of a coherent story.
I'd say by all means read the first 4 books, you'll enjoy an amazing story, but you don't need this one to complete the saga despite some revelations.
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