Customer Reviews

To Your Scattered Bodies go

5 star:		(43)
4 star:		(30)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

What captures your attention and holds it is not just the brilliantly creative story premise, which by itself would be worth a read, but the quality of research which Philip Jose Farmer clearly put into creating this novel. By using Burton as his main character, a flesh-and-blood anti-hero plucked straight from history, the fantastic action takes on a very believable feel, being no more amazing than anything else Burton accomplished in life. JPF has done an incredible job of researching Burton and painting him in a completely understandable and human way. I'd almost consider this book a hybrid of science fiction and historical fantasy - the historical characters are generally, more fleshed out and better developed than any of the fictional characters. I highly recommend this book, but suggest avoiding the rest of the series - they are just a series of cliff-hangers clearly designed to milk the River World story for everything it's worth. This first story makes a wonderfully self-contained adventure, and the rest of the books add nothing (and subtract much through revisionist plot-adjustment) that I sincerely wish I'd avoided them myself.

This is the introductory book of Philip Jose Farmer's five volume Riverworld series, books that do not stand alone, and must be read in sequence from beginning to end for the whole story. As an introduction to an outstanding series, 'To Your Scattered Bodies Go' works well, and makes a good beginning.
The premise of the Riverworld books is unique, fantastic, and the hook that will draw you in and hold you. All of humankind, everyone who ever lived, is simultaneously resurrected on an artificially formed world along the banks of a millions mile long river that snakes around and around the planet. Everyone is mid-twenties, ageless, and their needs are supplied by a fantastic technology none of them understand. And everyone is equally ignorant of the who, how, and why of their miraculous resurrection.
Not everyone is equally willing to remain ignorant however. Sir Richard Francis Burton, explorer, adventurer, spy, writer, linguist, swordsman, and self-style rake of the 19th century Victorian British Empire, one of the most restless and adventuring men ever to live, was resurrected naked, along with the rest of humanity. In no time at all, he is off with a group of companions, sailing up river to search for it's source (as he searched for the source of the Nile on Earth) and for the answers to the mystery of their existence in this strange after-life. Slowly, he begins to put together clues that he hopes will lead him to the hidden gnosis of his strange new world.
I would give this book five stars for its concept, but only three for its execution. The scope of the concept is huge, leaving fascinating possibilities to explore throughout the series. (This Farmer exploits well.) The choice of Burton as protagonist was inspired, as the historical Burton was well suited to the task his literary counterpart undertakes here, and he is a most amazing character. The author has studied Burton's life, and provides much biographical material on him throughout the book. (This book was my introduction to Burton when I first read it twenty years ago, and I have since found what a compelling job of capturing him Farmer did.) These are the book's strengths.
The weakness of 'To Your Scattered Bodies Go' is in the writing. Farmer will often break away from the story to give histories on characters (usually actual historic persons of note) or to make philosophical speeches. Though the words are from the character's mouths, and though the information is interesting, the style when he tries this is nearly always stilted. The writing throughout the rest of the book is competent at best. It is only this less than stellar writing which holds this series back from being considered a masterpiece, however, as the concept and characters should rivet your interest throughout the entire series despite any drawbacks the writing style may have.
This is the beginning of as fascinating and unique of a sci-fi series that you will ever run across, and I recommend it despite its flaws.

Theo Logos

Some really scathing reviews here and some quite unfair given that this novel was written 32 years ago. Film, theater, television and, yes, novels all age just as we do. They (like their author)are products of their time. I haven't read this book since the mid-70's and decided to revisit based on some of the reviews here to see if it was all that bad.

Guess what, it's still a pretty terrific book. Science fiction ages a bit less well than most mainstream or contemporary lit. Why? Because you're imagining the future--science fiction is like gambling you know the odds, you know that you could lose or be wrong, yet you do it anyway. Sometimes you're right and sometimes you're wrong. Really, predicting the future isn't the point but observing human behavior because science fiction--the best science fiction--isn't just about doo hickeys and gadets. It's about human behavior.

If Phil Farmer's Rvierworld books are a bit dated, it's because the author wrote the first installment (before it was a novel) in 1966. The only thing that's kept the novel interesting is 1)Farmer's fascinating concept and 2) The general quality of the writing. Sure, it's not the generic formularic writing we've come to expect--it's actually got something missing from much modern writing--character.

That said, the concept and execution are terrific. Sir Richard Francis Burton author of The Arabian Nights and well known explorer is our hero. He dies on the first page. He awakens to what he believes is the afterlife where he sees millions of other bodies suspended in what appears to be hibernation. The next thing he knows he's been resurrected with all of humanity (and one alien creature)along the banks of a great river.

His journey is dictated by his exploring nature; he plans to get to the mouth of the river and discover who has resurrected humanity and why. The journey allows him to encounter many historical figures and some ordinary folks as well (including a well disguised Phil Farmer).

While the series went on a bit too long (Farmer clearly relished the concept and the challenges it presented), the first three books are like a ride down white rapids and just as fun. Their also full of interesting ideas, characters and strong narratives. The last two books in the series drag out a bit but are still worth searching out to provide closure for the series. I'm usually not much of a fan of series books--it's usually a case of the author having one great idea and dragging it on as long as possible. Farmer's first three books are an exception to this rule and are well written journeys.

Reading the other reviews, as I usually do, I was horrified to find that no-one seemed to understand the Riverworld series. "Not too deep", "Not really science fiction" ... ?? I don't know if i'm reading a different series than the rest of the people reviewing this book, but it's a very deep, very classic science fiction novel.

It's not set on a far-off planet (well, not exactly); no space ships, only one alien; barely noticeably set in the future at all. If that was what made a good SF novel, then Star Trek would be the be all and end all of the genre.

Any good SF reader, though, knows that Riverworld is what makes SF great reading: Deep philosophical and sociological questions, answered by way of an artificially created society that tests the author's answers to the questions, or else helps discover the answers. Riverworld, and particularly To Your Scattered Bodies Go (by far the best of them), is an interesting attempt to analyse the creation of civilization from anarchy, as well as being an amusing exploration of several historical characters, probably some of Farmer's favourite personages from history. I say attempt, because it's not perfect; I find myself disagreeing with his ideas of what society would become, mostly because it is a bit too simplistic for my tastes.

All in all, it is an interesting experiment, and a thoroughly enjoyable one. Read if you like Asimov's Foundation novels, Clarke's Rama novels, or some of the less academic alternate histories.

This book really surprised me. When my wife suggested it to me I wasn't that excited about it, but I trust her literary opinions so I dug in.

Farmer's Riverworld is a world populated by all of the people who have ever existed on Earth. The main character wakes up and finds himself amongst people from other times and places, which makes for the reader's fascinating discovery that a story doesn't really need aliens or elves to have fantastic inhabitants.

Although the book seems to lose focus as you get closer to the end, Farmer does a good job of establishing the rules that the inhabitants of Riverworld must live by and then exploring how people react to these rules, and live within their limits.

I'd recommend this book to fans of older science-fiction (I love Ray Bradbury); genre-lovers probably will not enjoy it.

I wanted to take a minute to write a quick review of the whole Riverworld Saga, which begins with To Your Scattered Bodies Go. I picked up the book because the concept sounded interesting, and it is. Every single person ever born on Earth is resurrected, naked, on the banks of an enormous winding river. Humanities' basic needs for food and shelter are met. The concept is rife with potential, and the author brings back many of history's most famous and infamous characters in his novels. As the novels go on, however, the writing becomes increasingly sloppy. Characters soliloquize about Sufi philosophy, new age metaphysics, and even Scientology. Sorry, but if I was interested in that, I'd pick up Dianetics. Readers drawn in by the first book's adventure and interesting premise may be disappointed. I was. The story drags on, and the author introduces characters, writes extensively about them, and then just drops them, never to be seen again. Even worse is that Farmer, the author, seems to draw his story out by improbable or unlikely circumstances. Characters go insane spontaneously, and cause trouble for the rest of the group; that's one whole book. The Riverworld Saga is a great concept, but the execution was only fair. I can't recommend it unless you're interested in new age philosophy and don't mind a drawn out story with inexplicably disappearing main characters.

The last time I re-read this book was over thiry years ago and the scenes are still vivid in my memory. I was 16 and up until then, the science fiction I read was pretty tame stuff. Although it was beginning to change, most of the material out there at the time minced around or completly avoided subjects such as sex, religion, race, and the possibility that we live in a bizarre and hostile universe. Of course, there was a lot in the book that would appeal to a 16-year old boy. In the first chapter,two Victorians take LSD-laced chewing gum and spend the night coupling like mink. A Neanderthal commits the faux pas of cannibalism and public farting. A Cockney prostitute beats up on a pius philanthropist for throwing cigarettes in the River. And this is Heaven! I was hooked.
After that, I read everything by Phillip Jose Farmer I could find. If you had the misfortune of seeing the awful adaptation of "Riverworld," on the SciFi channel, you really should read this book and the "Fabulous Riverboat" to see how the movie should have been done.I

This is probably one of the most creative science fiction series ever written. All of humanity that has ever lived or will ever live (since the novel is set somewhere in the indeterminate future) are resurrected along a river millions of miles long. All I can imagine is that Farmer saw the Nile River on vacation one day, had his science fiction skullcap on, and thought I'm going to right a science fiction novel using a river like the Nile...hmmm but instead of only egyptians, it'll be all of humanity... hmmm which will mean over a billion people, hmmm then a river millions of miles long... And wow, what a payoff on that creativity. This series really represents 70's science fiction where the skies the limit.

To Your Scattered Bodies Go is the first book and is the only stand alone novel. This is recommended for anyone serious about science fiction. It won the 1972 Hugo Award for best novel, and deservedly so, if not just for creativity. And not just about the Riverworld, but also in *how* all of humanity that ever existed are able to resurrect... well that's possible if human souls are 1) actual entities, but 2) can be harnessed somehow. And the scene in the novel where the protagonist wakes up during the harnessing process made me recall it when I saw the scene in the movie The Matrix where that protagonist wakes up from his virtual reality in a tank suspended high above the ground amongst many others like him. If you decide after reading TYSBG that you don't want to continue the series, or even if you disliked it, you can end right there with a stand alone novel. If you do decide to read on, be prepared to read through all five, since each subsequent book ends with a cliff hanger.

The Fabulous Riverboat, book 2, was written about the same time as TYSBG and sections maybe even earlier, and is similar to book 1, only with a different protagonist. With the Riverworld series set up in book 1, book 2 is all along the river with the manufacture of a riverboat. Continuing with this book through the rest of the series be prepared for treachery, back-stabbing, and double-crossing. I read where this may be written for male adolescents. Well as fate had it, that's when I did read it and got hooked on the series so there might be something to that statement.

The Dark Design, book 3, was published in 1977, five years after books 1 and 2. Starting with this book in the series, you can sense that they were written years apart and if fact, I'm not sure Farmer knew where he was going with the series when he finished writing one book, but before starting the other. Actually I find this one of the great aspects of the series. Each novel is *NOT* a cookie cutter of the previous one and actually conceptually could stand alone. I read each book several years apart from the other, so it suited that process. If you read all the books one right after the other, you're probably going to notice the difference. Best to know that now. The series also reflect the times the were written in. In The Dark Design, instead of just cigarettes and alcohol (and oh yeah food) being materialized by the grails, now there are marijuana cigarettes. This book also highlights the times of publishers and the start of their marketing techniques (one could say greed). The Dark Design differs from the previous two books in being twice as long as each one of them. The series was supposed to be a trilogy, meaning that book 3 was supposed to be the last one and was actually considerably longer, in fact too long so it had to be broken up into two books, and thus a book 4 was formed. The Dark Design is my personal favorite of the series, in that not only is there the creative idea of a dirigible to travel to the River headwaters, but it is also the only book or movie I've seen that really covers the essence of the 1970's. Some movies like Dazed and Confused and some others have tried, but have failed. Yes, it was about music in the 70's but in the novel, the scenes of friends/colleagues hanging out together in the evening was just as much. In the 70's there was a clothing style, a sweatshirt with a hood, a jean jacket over that, with the hood hanging over the jacket. Sometimes people wearing these were called `parkies' and somewhat appropriately so since in the summer you would get out of the house, get together with friends, head to the park with a tape player and hang out listening to Black Sabbath or Rainbow. This novel captures the spirit of those times. Of course what that means is that most people won't give a crap about that and that sure is understandable. I read a review where someone wrote that Gibson's Neuromancer was a good SF book to read coming down the next afternoon after a rave party which was mildly amusing. So you may not enjoy this book in the series as much. but if not mostly probably because of it's length not it's lack of concepts. It is more of a laid back novel and all more I can say is that if you're watching The 70's Show, shut that crap off and read this, it'll be far more creative and entertaining.

The Magic Labyrinth, book 4, is the weakest book of the series. There is considerable treachery in this book, but this time it's committed by the author. I was on a long bus ride home once when I happened to see someone else reading this book, and I could tell the moment he read that section because he groaned loudly in disbelief. The series does continue, and is indeed worth reading, but you may want to get up and pace off your anger and frustration after that part. And ha, this was supposed to be the ending of the trilogy, that got extended to a quatrology because book 3 was too long. Ha! don't believe it, it's another publishing gimmick. It wouldn't have pissed me off if they just came right out and said it's a five book series instead of being devious and underhanded about it. They said you could end the series if you wanted, but by this time that would be like finishing off a novel somewhere in the middle.

The Gods of Riverworld, book 5, is the fantastic ending to the Riverworld series. As unsatisfying book 4 was to be called the end, book 5 is indeed a worthy ending. And again new fantastic concepts are introduced, some of which I consider the greatest in all of SF. Hanging out in the control room, cut off from his colleagues, one understands the statement made that human lives are like inverse dog years, seven year in adulthood becomes like one year from childhood and years can go by before you even think of contacting former good friends. Book 5 again shows the greed of publishers. I collected the hardcopies of the series, and all the previous four books had a certain styled bluish theme to them. All of a sudden book 5 becomes this oversized white and colored graphic cover, completely different in style to the others so that you feel as if you have to buy all the previous books in the new printing style. And it's size was completely different from what was standard for all other books, including oversized paperbacks, at the time, so that when my book collection outgrows my bookcase and the put the books in horizontal, the new books have to teeter on book 5. Ok, that's my pet peeve against the publishers, but this is a great book; it's a great ending to a great series.

Something you have a book that has such an amazing concept that the entire book can be carried on just that one concept, regardless of how stirring the plot is or how deep the characters are or how exciting the prose is. With the concept that Farmer introduces in this novel he sure comes darn close but he really needed just a little extra to boost this novel into "true classic" status. What's the concept? Basically every human that has ever lived wakes up alongside a seemingly endless river on some strange planet for no apparent reason to basically do what people do. Food and even clothing is provided for, but really it's just a big question mark. Enter famous explorer Richard Burton who very quickly decides that he must penetrate the center of this mystery and try to find exactly what this is all about. Along the way he meets bunches of people from different times, some famous some not, gets involved in a series of adventures and sort of figures it out. But not quite. Burton is probably the best character in the book in the sense that he's supposed to the hero and yet there's quite a few reasons not to like him (he's a bit racist and a tad sexist, among other things . . .) which is good because being a historical character it shows Farmer was at least doing some research. The other characters don't make out so well and being that most of them seem to drop out halfway through the book, you really don't miss them since the focus really is squarely on Burton (the alien in particular seems to have just been included because he could make important revelations and thus it would make sense because he's an advanced alien and thus knows everything . . . not explained why he was resurrected though . . . also Peter Frigate mostly cries unless he needs to fight and then he kills with reckless abandon, er, mood swing anyone?) and as long as it stays there you can overlook things like that. Farmer has great fun with the concept and frustratingly gives us just a taste of the Riverworld, bypassing entire communities in a sentence that he could have spent a whole chapter on. The plot moves swiftly, with the usual absurd coincidences that only occur to you after you stop reading because he keeps the story moving so fast there's no time to think, which is good. Sometimes it's a mite too swiftly, subplots start but don't go anywhere (there's hints of romance that never turns into anything) and imminent revelations either are ignored or turn out to be nothing special. But the book is way too short and the ending is basically just a "To Be Continued" that reveals a bunch of stuff that may or may not be true. In the end it feels like the world's longest prologue and while enormously entertaining as such, doesn't leave you with a whole lot to take away from the book. Still the concept is one of the greatest in SF and just watching Farmer pull it off and lay down the foundation for the rest of the series is great fun. But his inability to really turn the book into a standalone epic on its own keeps the book from achieving truly classic status. But, like I said, it's worth a read simply for the concept itself.

To Your Scattered Bodies Go was a very riveting and mysterious novel to read. The novel examines the aspects of being resurrected after life on Earth has expired. The story is based around Sir Richard Burton, a 19th century English explorer. Burton is awakened, from his last breath of life on Earth, to be surrounded by swirling bodies floating upon rods which are capable of being broken. After free falling from the rod, Burton is disturbed when he awakes upon a planet which is occupied by people from every time era that have ever lived on Earth. The people of the planet are given all of life's neccesities, however the reason for their being is still uncertain. Burton befriends a prehuman, an alien, another American and several others who set out on an endless journey along the million mile long river to find the answer to that question. Burton, himself, becomes frusterated when he is given chance after chance to redeem his life, yet does not know how to do that. The novel shows that during each resurrection, people are given the chance to correct the mistakes they had made in their past lives and it allows them to judge themselves before they are eternally judged in the after-life. Burton had trouble realizing his past mistakes and became prematurely judged. I thought the novel was very descriptive, and easy to read. Philip Jose Farmer did an excellent job of keeping the reader entertained. From reading the novel I am now interested in reading the other novels in his series to find out what happens after the end of To Your Scattered Bodies Go.