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3.61 AVERAGE
3.61 AVERAGE
The concept offered great scope for the imagination, but unfortunately Farmer's imagination was unable to stretch far enough to consider the possibility that women are people. He seems like a cynical guy, and a bit self indulgent. His story concept allows him to pull the most interesting historical figures (in his mind, anyway) into the novel as characters. Incidentally, the most interesting people in history includes a fictional dude who writes for a living and happens to share Farmer's initials. I don't even want to understand what Farmer was trying to do with Hermann Göring. Satisfying as it was to see that monster miserable and plagued by nightmares and drug addiction, Farmer seemed to be edging him toward a redemption arc, which does not interest me in the least.
This is Farmer's best work. What sort of odd mind comes up with such a concept? Reanimated humans? Alien scientists? Grail slavers? The meaning of life? I got hooked on the series back in my 20s, and still think of it often.
And Richard Francis Burton as a protagonist? Every science fiction tale needs an R.F. Burton.
I recommend this book without reservation.
And Richard Francis Burton as a protagonist? Every science fiction tale needs an R.F. Burton.
I recommend this book without reservation.
Just not getting into it. Will try again sometime, but it's just not doing it for me right now.
Total guff. I'm sure there are some great ideas in here, but the characters and the writing style are awful. The characters aren't evil, I can cope with that, just poorly characterised. The narrative lacks any elegance or style.
To Your Scattered Bodies Go is a book with a fantastical premise brought down by, well, everything but the premise. Humanity, all 37 billion of us, plus some prehumans and alien visitors, is resurrected along an immense river alley, hemmed in by Himalayan mountains. Magitech grailstones provide three square meals a day, along with tobacco, whiskey, and marijuana, as ten thousand years of human history try to make sense of what's happening to them. Our viewpoint character is Richard Francis Burton, Victorian explorer, spy, and diplomat par excellence.
Unfortunately, that's where things go awry. I only know what on Burton's wikipedia page, but he seems like a fascinating character. Unfortunately, his internal voice is as middle-American as it can get. He's a hyper-compentent linguist, leader, and warrior, but there's no sense of the man who infiltrated Mecca in disguise when it was death for a westerner, or who wrote the first frank discussions of homosexuality in the Victorian period. The Robinson Crusoe survival story has little tension, since starvation is avoided through grailstones and death involves resurrection somewhere else along the valley. The maximum allowable technology tops out at the neolithic, with social structure also reaching the warrior-king phrase and stopping. There's little to be said about the recreation of culture in this new place.
Burton encounters Hermann Goring again and again, but the appearance of this villain is another missed opportunity to think about the nature of personality and evil. Is Hermann Goring evil because he's a senior Nazi, or did he become a Nazi because of his personality problems? What does it mean to get a second chance in this place.
There are hints of something bigger here, in the new church that arises among the resurrectees that seems to be the only novel cultural development, and Burton's encounters with the Mysterious Stranger, a representative of the powers that constructed the Riverworld as a moral test for humanity, but as with so much else, the novel backs away from the ambitious to leave us with Farmer doing little more than historical fanfiction, bashing together historical personages like action figures.
Unfortunately, that's where things go awry. I only know what on Burton's wikipedia page, but he seems like a fascinating character. Unfortunately, his internal voice is as middle-American as it can get. He's a hyper-compentent linguist, leader, and warrior, but there's no sense of the man who infiltrated Mecca in disguise when it was death for a westerner, or who wrote the first frank discussions of homosexuality in the Victorian period. The Robinson Crusoe survival story has little tension, since starvation is avoided through grailstones and death involves resurrection somewhere else along the valley. The maximum allowable technology tops out at the neolithic, with social structure also reaching the warrior-king phrase and stopping. There's little to be said about the recreation of culture in this new place.
Burton encounters Hermann Goring again and again, but the appearance of this villain is another missed opportunity to think about the nature of personality and evil. Is Hermann Goring evil because he's a senior Nazi, or did he become a Nazi because of his personality problems? What does it mean to get a second chance in this place.
There are hints of something bigger here, in the new church that arises among the resurrectees that seems to be the only novel cultural development, and Burton's encounters with the Mysterious Stranger, a representative of the powers that constructed the Riverworld as a moral test for humanity, but as with so much else, the novel backs away from the ambitious to leave us with Farmer doing little more than historical fanfiction, bashing together historical personages like action figures.
Imagine you die and you're resurrected naked and hairless floating in an endless river alongside many other naked and hairless bodies.
That's how this book starts.
What it becomes is a unique look at the afterlife, to say the very least.
I don't like to get too much into the plot with these reviews to avoid spoiling for other readers who may happen upon my reviews. Just a knee-jerk few words about these Hugo Winners.
What I will say is, that in my chronological reading of the Hugo Award winning best novels, this is one of the most intriguing. I usually read these and sell them, having amassed many of them years ago. I'll be keeping this one for some possible further study.
If there were half-star ratings here, I might go 3.5. With a repeat read, I could see this one going up to a 4 star rating.
If you're at all interested in speculative fiction, you should give this one a look.
*-This book won the Hugo Award for Best Novel, awarded 1972
That's how this book starts.
What it becomes is a unique look at the afterlife, to say the very least.
I don't like to get too much into the plot with these reviews to avoid spoiling for other readers who may happen upon my reviews. Just a knee-jerk few words about these Hugo Winners.
What I will say is, that in my chronological reading of the Hugo Award winning best novels, this is one of the most intriguing. I usually read these and sell them, having amassed many of them years ago. I'll be keeping this one for some possible further study.
If there were half-star ratings here, I might go 3.5. With a repeat read, I could see this one going up to a 4 star rating.
If you're at all interested in speculative fiction, you should give this one a look.
*-This book won the Hugo Award for Best Novel, awarded 1972
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book does a lot of world building and set up for the series, so I would not be surprised if it gets better in the next book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Misogyny, Suicide, Violence, Cannibalism, Murder
For me, the appeal of Speculative Fiction is the breadth and depth of its scope. An author is free to explore the most difficult questions and imagine worlds vastly different from anything we have ever experienced. Though all literature is concerned with what it means to be human, few outside of Sci Fi go to such lengths to ask what it means to be capable of thought and self-knowledge
However, there is a drawback. Often, authors succumb to the temptation to create a world so new, so different, so complex, and so vast that it becomes almost impossible to write it. Farmer has selected too vast a canvas, too great a scene, and so the small (if engaging) story he paints upon it seems a far cry from the overarching premise.
Farmer creates an artificial afterlife, one containing every human being ever born. By using the old Sci Fi trick of 'science did it', he avoids the knee-jerk response many people would have to a book making overt spiritual claims. Since everyone was just recreated by aliens, Farmer is not technically a blasphemer.
Everyone is there; even, as the book jacket likes to point out, 'you!'. Farmer has the grandest possible cast of characters, and does not waste it. His protagonists, their friends, and their enemies are plucked from the greatest and most notorious men in history (as well as Farmer himself). However, we are struck with an immediate difficulty: Farmer is trying to write some of the most remarkable people in history.
Unfortunately for Farmer, many of his characters' real-life counterparts were brilliant, eccentric men. Since they are more brilliant and eccentric than Farmer himself, we end up with fairly standard protagonists saddled with famous names.
For example, he chooses one of the most remarkable men of a remarkable period, Sir Richard Burton. In a time of colonial adventurers, he was one of the greatest and most notorious. He was one of the most adroit swordfighters of his day and braved and escaped death numerous times over his remarkably long career.
He was also a polyglot who knew some thirty languages, making him an extremely convenient hero for a book taking place on a world where every culture was rubbing elbows with every other. He also nearly discovered the source of the Nile, giving him a thematic connection to this 'Riverworld'.
In short he was a real-life hero, straight out of an adventure story. However, he was also a refined and educated man who made a full and unabridged translation of the 1,001 Arabian Nights. Though Farmer's version of Burton is as capable and impressive as we might expect, he does not have Burton's singular and remarkable personality.
Perhaps it was wise of Farmer to pick a man so clearly suited to play the role of the adventure hero. Many authors have tried to create adventure heroes out of small and inexperienced men. However, in this case, Farmer has thrown his net too far, and caught too large a fish for his dinner.
Farmer experiences a similar problem with all of the myriad cultures he writes. Since he is not a historical expert on any of these cultures, their portrayal tends to be rather unremarkable, such that as we travel along the river, we find Victorian Gentlemen, Dakota Indians, and Chinese Marauders are more or less interchangeable.
Beyond this, their interaction with one another becomes likewise simplified. It would be a remarkable feat for any author to be able to write such interactions as might occur between Sumerians and Olmecs, but this hardly excuses Farmer; after all, he was the one who chose to write this book.
Farmer took his inspiration from Edgar Rice Burroughs, who also had a mysterious and mystical river in his John Carter of Mars series. However, Farmer might have taken another lesson from Burroughs. When Burroughs wrote of strange Martian cultures, he could create as he liked without any need for research or knowledge. However, we can see by the wild inaccuracies of his 'Tarzan' that he probably should have stuck with aliens.
Likewise, if Farmer's book had been about his own made up cultures, there would be little to fault him. However, since he chose such a difficult path himself, I feel no compunction in stating that he was unequal to the challenge. The book is exciting, adventurous, and the writing is not without grace, but it is certainly not what it would promise to be.
The next book in the series is worse, with a hackneyed, unfunny Mark Twain taking center stage.
However, there is a drawback. Often, authors succumb to the temptation to create a world so new, so different, so complex, and so vast that it becomes almost impossible to write it. Farmer has selected too vast a canvas, too great a scene, and so the small (if engaging) story he paints upon it seems a far cry from the overarching premise.
Farmer creates an artificial afterlife, one containing every human being ever born. By using the old Sci Fi trick of 'science did it', he avoids the knee-jerk response many people would have to a book making overt spiritual claims. Since everyone was just recreated by aliens, Farmer is not technically a blasphemer.
Everyone is there; even, as the book jacket likes to point out, 'you!'. Farmer has the grandest possible cast of characters, and does not waste it. His protagonists, their friends, and their enemies are plucked from the greatest and most notorious men in history (as well as Farmer himself). However, we are struck with an immediate difficulty: Farmer is trying to write some of the most remarkable people in history.
Unfortunately for Farmer, many of his characters' real-life counterparts were brilliant, eccentric men. Since they are more brilliant and eccentric than Farmer himself, we end up with fairly standard protagonists saddled with famous names.
For example, he chooses one of the most remarkable men of a remarkable period, Sir Richard Burton. In a time of colonial adventurers, he was one of the greatest and most notorious. He was one of the most adroit swordfighters of his day and braved and escaped death numerous times over his remarkably long career.
He was also a polyglot who knew some thirty languages, making him an extremely convenient hero for a book taking place on a world where every culture was rubbing elbows with every other. He also nearly discovered the source of the Nile, giving him a thematic connection to this 'Riverworld'.
In short he was a real-life hero, straight out of an adventure story. However, he was also a refined and educated man who made a full and unabridged translation of the 1,001 Arabian Nights. Though Farmer's version of Burton is as capable and impressive as we might expect, he does not have Burton's singular and remarkable personality.
Perhaps it was wise of Farmer to pick a man so clearly suited to play the role of the adventure hero. Many authors have tried to create adventure heroes out of small and inexperienced men. However, in this case, Farmer has thrown his net too far, and caught too large a fish for his dinner.
Farmer experiences a similar problem with all of the myriad cultures he writes. Since he is not a historical expert on any of these cultures, their portrayal tends to be rather unremarkable, such that as we travel along the river, we find Victorian Gentlemen, Dakota Indians, and Chinese Marauders are more or less interchangeable.
Beyond this, their interaction with one another becomes likewise simplified. It would be a remarkable feat for any author to be able to write such interactions as might occur between Sumerians and Olmecs, but this hardly excuses Farmer; after all, he was the one who chose to write this book.
Farmer took his inspiration from Edgar Rice Burroughs, who also had a mysterious and mystical river in his John Carter of Mars series. However, Farmer might have taken another lesson from Burroughs. When Burroughs wrote of strange Martian cultures, he could create as he liked without any need for research or knowledge. However, we can see by the wild inaccuracies of his 'Tarzan' that he probably should have stuck with aliens.
Likewise, if Farmer's book had been about his own made up cultures, there would be little to fault him. However, since he chose such a difficult path himself, I feel no compunction in stating that he was unequal to the challenge. The book is exciting, adventurous, and the writing is not without grace, but it is certainly not what it would promise to be.
The next book in the series is worse, with a hackneyed, unfunny Mark Twain taking center stage.
When I first starting reading this book I was disappointed by the writing and the 1970's feel to the plot.
However, I am really pleased I stuck with it. It contains an early version of the teleportation though experiment made famous by Derek Parfit and has proved interesting to think about long after the story has finished.
However, I am really pleased I stuck with it. It contains an early version of the teleportation though experiment made famous by Derek Parfit and has proved interesting to think about long after the story has finished.
Know that the ending to this book isn't quite an ending. It's the start of a series of books. After finding that out, I think I liked this book a lot. The ending (or lack there of) just surprised me.
Good story about every person who ever lived being resurrected on a planet, trying to figure out what the hell is going on, and how they are going to live out their new lives. Keeps you guessing and was an interesting read.
Good story about every person who ever lived being resurrected on a planet, trying to figure out what the hell is going on, and how they are going to live out their new lives. Keeps you guessing and was an interesting read.