Gods Riverworld

The unfavorable reviews of this book kept me from buying it. But finally I couldn't resist finding out how Farmer closed out the series. Buy, was I pleasently surpirsed. Of the 5 RiverWorld books in the series, book 1 was my favorite while book 5 is my second favorite. Book 5 closes the show sure but what leads to the close is fascinating to me. The discussions the characters have is stimulating and the events that occur in the tower are entertaining. Don't let the unfavorable reviews disuade you from reading this book. If you liked the existential undertones in the previous 4 books, you'll really like this one.

This is the 5th book in the Riverworld series.The main character is now only Burton, although the story does focus on other characters in his party for brief amounts of time.The main plot here is having reached the tower and solved its mystery the party must now solve the mystery of a Renegade in control of the tower. The story centers on this and also the pleasures they take by using the almost god-like power of the computer in the tower.This is a pretty good novel but the boring sequences from the last one are here in spades and now come in the form of intricate backgrounds of each of the characters. Also there is a strange weirdness you may feel while reading this because of the fact that the whole book 326 pages takes place in the tower in a relatively short period of time. This is where many other reviewers got the notion that the Author just threw this book in to make some cash.Still it's exciting to follow Burton around without the hindrances of a huge amount of people and one thing I can say about this novel and the one previous is that towards the very end there is a point where everything is explained. It's kind the equivalent of the bad guy in Scooby Doo removing his mask and explaining why he "could have pulled it of if it weren't for those darn kids." And these points are very exciting and make you sit up and pay attention since basically this is exactly what you've been waiting to find out for 5 books.Note: There is one very specific discrepancy I would like to point out. It's around page 28, and it's where the party is talking about living together because of the Renegade, Turpin asks Frigate if he's ever been in the slammer and Frigate replies only in his own personal one. THEN Burton thinks to himself that Frigates statement wasn't true because Frigate had been a prisoner several time including under Hermann Goring(this took place in To Your Scattered Bodies Go, and Burton was there also).....Well this is very strange because it was later revealed (in The Dark Design) that the Frigate that was in Goring's prison with Burton was not the same Frigate as the one in the tower currently! And Burton Knew this! So he should not have thought. Anyone that has read this far will know the story behind the two Frigates I don't want to reveal too much. But that's a pretty bid mistake.----In regards to the other reviews of this series that I've written, I'd like to say a few words concerning the series as a whole...Well over all I'd say this is a pretty good series. I could have used some editing in some places and some more info in others. But I have to say the feeling I had when I finished the last couple lines of the last book was a good one. I wanted there to be more after 5 books I was surprised and saddened that it ended. So unless you have nothing better to do go ahead read through this and skip over the stuff that is boring because believe me you won't be missing anything. Otherwise if your really bored you can just read

As other, less generous reviewers below note, this is not necessarily indispensible-- you can read the 4-book Riverworld series without reading this and feel completely satisfied with its denouement. But Farmer is always thought-provoking, and I was pleased to have read this additional (and unquestionably final) chapter in the saga. As Farmer so often does, here again he completely confounds expectations and reverses the "truth" of the previous books. Philosophizing here as in all his other works, he tackles themes that flow through his entire oeuvre-- morality, immortality, free will, theology... there's little he misses along the way. So, if the Riverworld series is your cup of tea, and the first four books pleased you, this is a solid bet-- don't miss it for the final pieces of the puzzle.

I really liked this one. Farmer ingeniously deals with the questions of free will and the consequences of humans gaining godlike power. Truly insightful.

If you ever read the first book of the Riverworld series, you were hooked. Farmer created a masterpiece with this series. Finally the ends have all been tied together, or have they?