Customer Reviews

The Dark Design (Riverworld Ser)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This book differs in a couple of ways from the earlier books in the RIVERWORLD series. Instead of focusing on a single character, this book shifts between several points of view. And as previous reviewers have noted, there are lengthy digressions inside the head of Peter J. Frigate, a thinly-disguised version of the series author. As far as plot goes, some of the characters have come up with a much better way to reach the tower at the end of the River--Instead of retracing the twisty path of the River over every inch of the globe, they will just build a dirigible and fly directly there. To make this possible, Farmer had to retroactively lower the mountains of Riverworld--This is rather lamely explained as an error of perspective. We also discover that there is something seriously wrong amongst the secret masters of Riverworld. It's apparent their agents among the resurrectees have lost communication with their bosses, and are desperately trying to re-establish it. Also, the spectre of permanent death has returned once more to humanity. Some of the characters seem a bit retro-70s now. Of course, it can be argued that their personalities ARE from the 1970s! :-) Reading it for the first time in two decades, I enjoyed the book, but it certainly didn't advance the storyline very much.

Farmer's third offering in the Riverworld series, while better than "The Fabulous Riverboat" does not hold a candle to "To Your Scattered Bodies Go". The lenghty sections on Frigate's dreams and thoughts certainly hurt the book. They provide no useful information on a character (Frigate) who is not even a main element in the story. Consequently, this detracts from the book. Also, it seems that every time the story gets some momentum, the author breaks away into some discussion of some topic using his characters to voice his own opinions and thoughts. Many writers do this but not so blatantly and to the extent that is done here. For me, I am completely uninterested in the writer's personal philosphies, thoughts and opinions on matters unrelated to the Riverworld series - I just want to read a good story.

"To Your Scattered Bodies Go" (the first book in the series) set up one of the best science fiction premises that I have read. The potential for a gripping series is lessened by the lack of momentum and sidetracking found in "The Dark Design".

The story is still good but is only slightly advanced in this 450 page book. Few new revelations are made. This book could have been easily decreased by about 150 pages with nothing important being lost.

This is the middle volume of Farmer's ambitious five-book saga of Riverworld, a fantastic planet reworked by a mysterious super race to be one long river valley along a ten million-mile long river, which snakes around the planet. Into this artificially formed world, all humanity who ever lived is resurrected, given perpetual youth, and provided with all their needs through a mind boggling technology. What they are not given is a clue as to who did this, how, or most importantly, why. This book is the weakest of the series so far.

The action of the story follows several groups who are now racing toward the headwaters of the river hoping to discover the mysteries of their after-life and strange, new world, which are rumored to be found there. In addition to Sir Richard Burton and Sam Clemens, who we have met in previous books, we are introduced to Akhenaten, heretic pharaoh of Egypt, who hopes to discover his one true Sun god at river's end, and writer Jack London traveling together with film cowboy Tom Mix, all headed toward the same shadowy goal. The bulk of the book, however, focuses on the building of a huge dirigible that can gain in a few days of flight what would take many years of travel on the river. An exciting account of this airship's mission to river's end provides the cliff hanging ending of this volume.

Part of the charm of the first two books was their protagonists; Sir Richard Burton in the first, Sam Clemens in the second. In 'The Dark Design', the majority of the action is viewed through characters of the author's creation rather than through historical protagonists, and this does not come off as well. Both Burton and Clemens make brief appearances here, but we don't see either of them enough.

The book suffers from two other major flaws. First, it is overlong - nearly as long as the first two books put together. Farmer's writing style is at best competent, and begins to become taxing after 200 pages or so. There are whole chapters here that have no real relationship to the plot and are little more than the author indulging himself. Secondly, there are major plot and character shifts away from what was established in the first two books. These shifts and reversals are awkward, and don't seem to have been thought out well. At times, the author's sloppiness makes it hard to suspend disbelief.

The power of the story, and the possibilities of the concept should keep you reading through this poorly edited mess of a book, but if the first two volumes have not thoroughly captured you, you may bog down and never reach river's end.

Theo Logos

"The Dark Design" is a lot like "The Godfather, Part II" -- when you first read it, you don't care much for it. But then as time passes and you think about it and/or re-read it, you realize that not only does it not stink, but it's probably the best in the series.

There's not much plot advancement in terms of the overall series, but what we DO have is an overall look at the Riverworld, Farmer's greatest creation. Think about it: you've been resurrected on a world where all your physical needs are taken care of, but there are almost no metal resources and the nearest answers are millions of miles of sailing away. What would everyday life be like in such a place? What would become of humanity? And what kind of person would seek those answers? This is why the various characterizations in the book fascinate me -- with dozens of characters in the book (and billions on the Riverworld), it's easy to forget what's so fascinating about the premise of Riverworld: every single inhabitant has at least one full lifetime behind them. (And to those who disagree, you at least have to admit that the Welsh poetry thesis defense story is priceless. :o) To those who complain that nothing interesting happens, I say that PLENTY of interesting things happen -- they simply happen to be subtle.

I'll admit to being biased -- I like subtlety and characterization in my novels. If you are a purely casual/surface level reader, or are simply impatient to see how things turn out, then you can safely skip this book and pick up "The Magic Labyrinth." You can pick up most of what plot development you missed, and you can always come back to this one later. But if you're patient, thoughtful, and want to find the real Riverworld, then this book is a must-read. ~DH

The part 3 of the Riverwold series. It's nowhere near as good as either of the first 2 books of the series were (To Your Scattered Bodies Go & The Fabulous Riverboat).

One of the main faults of the book is that an excessively large number of chapters deal with science fiction writer Peter Jairus Frigate who by chance remarkably resembles the author Philip Jose Farmer.

The main purpose of this character seems to be to serve as something of a mouthpice for Farmer to vent his views on humanity, the nature of people, religion and Riverworld....And all the subtly of a seal clubbing.

This is worsened by the fact that every time the book really starts to get the reader involved it breaks to a chapter or 4 filled with the musings and incessant ramblings of PJF (you decide which) or filling in the backstory of Frigate WHICH GOES NO WHERE!

I dread to think of what this book would have been like BEFORE it was edited.

The Dark Design - Riverworld Book 3 by Philip Jose Farmer

Book 3 in the Riverworld series, The Dark Design, is a complete departure from the previous two volumes: The Fabulous Riverboat - Book 2 and To Your Scattered Bodies Go - Book 1. The first two books were very good action-adventure science fiction novels. This book utilized the same background and some of the characters from the previous volumes but is primarily a series of philosophical essays and thinly disguised biographical sketches from the author's life experiences. Interspaced are bits and pieces of the Riverworld story line with several chapters at the end propelling the narrative to a cliff hanging ending.

Some readers will be frustrated by what appears to be Farmer's long ramblings before the story line is picked up again, and then dropped. The author anticipated this with his forward where he tells us that he wrote what would amount to over 800 pages to conclude this part of his Riverworld story. Having read this book I could red pencil out about 100 pages and it would read better and the story would be a lot more interesting - for general readers. I suspect the author and the published decided to print the whole darn thing because of Farmer's stature as one the better writers in the field.

I am a fan of Farmer and have read most of his SF novels. I know some of his biography and I enjoyed every pages of this book. I do believe that casual readers may be disappointed by, what would appear to be, meandering excursions from the main story line.

Of great interest to me is that author Farmer includes himself as one of the main characters. I am not making this up - in the forward Farmer states "it is true that I am the basis for that character": Peter Jairus Frigate.

I rated this novel 5 stars, but I can understand why others would rate it with less stars.

The prose is remarkably bad -- remarkably because the first two volumes in this series, while not likely to win an award for style, were written in a solid, brisk and workmanlike way.

This installment, produced about five years after the first two, reads like a first-draft. It is bloated with personal histories of even the most minor characters, pages of repetitious arguments and endless measurements of each and every object (come on, do we need to know that a fictious mountain is 9,144ft or simply that it's higher than our characters can climb?).

Overall, Riverworld would have made a great trilogy. But one has the impression that the publisher, knowing that the first two books had developed such a following, decided not to whittle down Farmer's original 400,000-word manuscript for this book. That's a shame for readers, even if it meant that the publisher could sell more books.

Having read the first two books of this series, I'm now more than halfway through the third. I only rate items as 1 star when I find myself compelled to discard the book during reading. I've read other bad reviews and agree with them. Here's a few items I can add to the list:

1. The author constantly provides both metric and English equivalents when numbers are called for. For example, he mentions the height of a character as "6 feet or 1.8 meters in height." He does this for distances as well--and does it so frequently that one can only imagine that he had a calculator next to his typewriter. Is he trying to teach us the metric system or revive the English system (depending on your point of view)?

2. The irritations continue with colorless biographical data on the characters from history that serves no useful part to creating interest in those characters. While the trick of using characters from history is an interesting technique to provide some connection between our real lives and fiction, and one that helps us get over the hesitation to jump into something totally alien to our experiences, this technique should have been used less once the story line got developed. The focus should have been on the story line and things that would have engaged our emotional interests.

3. For me, the poor continuity, the pulp infusion of dream sequences, and the waiting for action were but three reasons I decided to come to Amazon.com to look at the reviews of the last two books. I sighed on reading the third book would not be improved on by the last two books....

This book was excellent! I am glad I read it as I almost didn't based on other reviews here. Although it is true what most reviewers say here, i.e. the book needed editing, it has strange rambling chapters that are not relevant, etc. But this is the Riverworld and you can't get what this book offers anywhere else. The concept was advanced and I got a lot of questions answered. This book is flawed, but to journey on the Riverworld again was worth it !

I became a PJF fan in the years between this book and the Fab. Riverboat. It was a tough wait, then I saw it show up in the bookstores. Wow!.. Mr Farmer did a fine job in writing this book and in keeping the reader's attention. He went into such character depth that they became "real", even those based on real persons. He did quite a job of writing himself as the character of Peter Frigate. The daunting task of building a dirigible, the nightmares of Clemens, the voyage of the Rex and the Ra and the Snark, all kept me daydreaming of the journey up the mighty River. I could hardly sit still the next 4 years until The Magic Labyrinth finally came out.