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alexanderp's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Kinda disappointed by this installment. Lots of repetition and pointless asides about characters that I care less and less about as we go on. I wanted more Sam and Joe and less of Frigate and Burton.
Hoping the next volume gets everything back on track.
Hoping the next volume gets everything back on track.
steven_v's review against another edition
3.0
This is the third book in the Riverworld saga. In the first book, we followed 19th century explorer Richard Burton and his band. In the second book, we followed the story of Mark Twain. in the third book, we read a little about these two, but also focus on several new characters, including Jill, an airship pilot, and a more in-depth focus on Peter Frigate, who appears in the first book but is not a viewpoint character until this one.
Overall, this book is longer and more action-packed than the first two. A lot happens, and several plot points advance quite well. However, the book suffers from this as well. There are too many characters, and we switch among them too much. This makes the story unnecessarily hard to follow.
Probably the main issue I have with this novel, though, is that it seems to be long just for the sake of being long. Farmer indulges himself in far too much pontificating about historical events and the various philosophical outlooks of the world. It feels, in many places, like he is showing off how much he knows. I'm suitably impressed with his scholarship, but it has, at best, only a tangential relationship to the story of Riverworld. A few times the scholarship is also misplaced -- interrupting the action with long discourses about the Sufi philosophy, for example. Surely this could have been done at another time (or better yet, entirely deleted).
There is at least one more book in this series and possibly two -- I know there is a 5th book, but according to Farmer's introduction to Book 3, the series will end on Book 4, and then other books will just contain other stories of the Riverworld (prequels, as it were). I suppose I won't know if that is true or not until the end of book four.
This book was fairly good, and it kept me reading, although it took me almost a month to get through, mostly because the long scholarship sections tended to bore me and make me leave it aside for a few days. They were tough to get through. The action scenes were fairly good, on the other hand.
Other than scholarship, one issue this book has is that certain secrets have been revealed here, I think, a little too early. If there really are 1-2 more books to go, then certain goals should not have been reached yet, but already were. I won't say any more about it to avoid spoilers, but there is a certain sense of anticlimax at the end here.
I have to say, however, that I am still intensely curious about the why of Riverworld -- why every human being on earth, except those who died before they turned 5, was resurrected on one giant world, and how the world was even constructed, and by whom. I very much want to know what all the answers were. Hopefully they will be worth the journey.
Overall, this book is longer and more action-packed than the first two. A lot happens, and several plot points advance quite well. However, the book suffers from this as well. There are too many characters, and we switch among them too much. This makes the story unnecessarily hard to follow.
Probably the main issue I have with this novel, though, is that it seems to be long just for the sake of being long. Farmer indulges himself in far too much pontificating about historical events and the various philosophical outlooks of the world. It feels, in many places, like he is showing off how much he knows. I'm suitably impressed with his scholarship, but it has, at best, only a tangential relationship to the story of Riverworld. A few times the scholarship is also misplaced -- interrupting the action with long discourses about the Sufi philosophy, for example. Surely this could have been done at another time (or better yet, entirely deleted).
There is at least one more book in this series and possibly two -- I know there is a 5th book, but according to Farmer's introduction to Book 3, the series will end on Book 4, and then other books will just contain other stories of the Riverworld (prequels, as it were). I suppose I won't know if that is true or not until the end of book four.
This book was fairly good, and it kept me reading, although it took me almost a month to get through, mostly because the long scholarship sections tended to bore me and make me leave it aside for a few days. They were tough to get through. The action scenes were fairly good, on the other hand.
Other than scholarship, one issue this book has is that certain secrets have been revealed here, I think, a little too early. If there really are 1-2 more books to go, then certain goals should not have been reached yet, but already were. I won't say any more about it to avoid spoilers, but there is a certain sense of anticlimax at the end here.
I have to say, however, that I am still intensely curious about the why of Riverworld -- why every human being on earth, except those who died before they turned 5, was resurrected on one giant world, and how the world was even constructed, and by whom. I very much want to know what all the answers were. Hopefully they will be worth the journey.
llona_llegaconlalluvia's review against another edition
1.0
NDF non so nemmeno a che percentuale
più sessista e fastidioso dei primi volumi de "la ruota del tempo"
un idea interessante buttata nella spazzatura, bhà
più sessista e fastidioso dei primi volumi de "la ruota del tempo"
un idea interessante buttata nella spazzatura, bhà
awilderm23's review against another edition
2.0
'If I drew a sketch of the river, it's look like the Midgard serpent of Norse myth, a world-girdling snake with its tail in its mouth.'
olityr's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
emu_reads's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
5.0
nirv117's review against another edition
2.0
not nearly as good as the first two. a lot of rambling and writing that did nothing to move the story forward.
kxu65's review against another edition
3.0
I would like this book better if the characters went in different groups in different directions.
trike's review against another edition
2.0
All these books that have the same date for the summer of ‘22 are because I was locked out of Goodreads and didn’t note the day I read the books.