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A review by finaloption
The Dark Design by Philip José Farmer
4.0
Do yourself a favor, do NOT jump into this third Riverworld novel without taking a break from the series after reading books 1 & 2, which are short (by contemporary standards) comparably breezy reads. THE DARK DESIGN however is about 3x as long in word count and the story gets much denser, more populated with characters and yes, like many point out, it draaaaags. But count me among the minority that found this the best volume in the series, thus far.
The saga still suffers from it's odd pacing issues, anti-climactic climaxes, and often insufferable characterization of real world characters. But this third volume finally begins to feel like an EPIC. It takes more time, builds with many more blocks so that the vastness of the Riverworld is felt. The mysteries begin to feel truly mysterious (and complex, whereas before they seemed merely obscure). And some of the sub-plots are actually thrilling, something that wasn't felt much in the first volume and not at all in the second.
All in all this is the book where things get "real" for the Riverworld. And only one more volume to go! (plus a coda/epilogue book)
The saga still suffers from it's odd pacing issues, anti-climactic climaxes, and often insufferable characterization of real world characters. But this third volume finally begins to feel like an EPIC. It takes more time, builds with many more blocks so that the vastness of the Riverworld is felt. The mysteries begin to feel truly mysterious (and complex, whereas before they seemed merely obscure). And some of the sub-plots are actually thrilling, something that wasn't felt much in the first volume and not at all in the second.
All in all this is the book where things get "real" for the Riverworld. And only one more volume to go! (plus a coda/epilogue book)