The Gods of Riverworld

By Stephen John Hartnett and Laura Ann Stengrim

Book Overview

Gods of Riverwold is the fifth and final chapter in Philip Jose Farmer's New York Times bestselling classic SF series, Riverworld Thirty billion people from throughout Earth's history have been 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, including Mark Twain, Richard Burton, and Peter Jairus Frigate, burned to confront the unseen masters who controlled their fate--and these few launched an invasion that will ultimately yield the mind-boggling truth. The story was chronicled in four previous volumes, and is now concluded in Gods of Riverworld. Riverworld's omnipotent leaders must finally be confronted, and the renegades of Riverworld--led by the intrepid Sir Richard Francis Burton--will control the fantastic mechanism that rules 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.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0817355626
• ISBN13: 9780817355623
• Release Date: April 2009
• Publisher: University Alabama Press
• Length: 408 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.9" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

Very good

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...

Leaves you wanting even more...

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...

A Thoughtful Coda to the Series

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...

Free will and power...

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

A final look into the greatest SciFi adventure story ever

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?