The Gods of Riverworld (Riverworld Saga, No 5) (Paperback)

~ Philip Jose Farmer (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Thirty-five billion people from throughout Earth's history were resurrected along the great and winding waterways of Riverworld. Most began life anew--accepting without question the sustenance provided by their mysterious benefactors. But a rebellious handful burned to confront the unseen masters who controlled their fate--and these few launched an invasion that would ultimately yield the mind-boggling truth.

Now Riverworld's omnipotent leaders have been confronted, and the renegades of Riverworld--led by the intrepid Sir Richard Francis Burton--control the fantastic mechanism that once ruled them. But the most awesome challenge lies ahead. For in the vast corridors and secret rooms of the tower stronghold, an unknown enemy watches and waits to usurp the usurpers . . .

From the Back Cover

"A FEAST FOR THE IMAGINATION."
--Los Angeles Times

"A virtual playground for SF's growing fascination with history."
--Locus

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Del Rey; 1st Ballantine Books Ed edition (July 28, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345419715
• ISBN-13: 978-0345419712
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #146,845 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #8 in

  Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > ( F ) > Farmer, Philip Jose

• This is item 5 in The Riverworld Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Leaves you wanting even more..., June 27, 2002

By	Joseph Kerr "thebalrog99" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

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 every word of it, that's what I did the first two times I read the series.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Thoughtful Coda to the Series, December 27, 2001

By	Chris Ward (Costa Rica) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Gods of Riverworld (Hardcover)

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.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars He should have ended it with the 4th volume..., March 26, 1999

By	Jens Baumeister ([e-mail]... (Cologne, Germany) - See all my reviews

I really enjoyed the first 4 volumes of the series, even though I had some small gripes about them. This one, however, is simply a book nobody needs. The plot`s basically been finished at the end of No. 4, and though I won't spoil the fun by revealing the gimmick of the this book, I might safely tell you, that it doesn't really offer any great new insight. What we have here instead is a typical sequel: The author doesn't really have anything more to say, but since the readers are willing to buy another volume, the author's gonna write it. The reslt is a book filled with situations that are anything but credible. Would you believe, for example, that people decide not to do anything about an armed takeover of their home, because they don't want to miss a party they've been invited to? Or that they spend days pursuing an unknown person that causes strange things to happen - and then one day they just stop doing so, because they just find something else to do? It just doesn't work - and that goes for the whole book: It just doesn't work. Read the first four and skip this one - or if you must read it, get it from a library.