pro libertate net

The third book in Philip Jose Farmer’s Riverworld series The Dark Design differs in several ways from its predecessors.

First, it is almost three times as long. Yet, it is only the first part of a two-book conclusion of the plot started in the first two novels To Your Scattered Bodies Go and The Fabulous Riverboat. A conclusion that will be over 400.000 words long as Farmer himself reveals in The Dark Design’s introduction.

Second, while the two predecessors are self-contained The Dark Design builds on characters and plot lines introduced earlier. To fully enjoy it you have to know the other two novels.

Third, Farmer wants to further develop most of his main characters leading to several changes in the narrative perspective. He switches back and forth the different plot lines. Sometimes he describes the same events from the viewpoint of two different persons thus connecting to two strands of his story. Sometimes he changes abruptly place and persons.

And finally, owing to the circumstance that the series has a two part conclusion the book ends with a cliff hanger, forcing the reader to start reading the last volume if he wants to know the answers to all the questions he has after finishing this tome. And the last few pages raise more questions than the preceding several hundred pages (try to) answer.

The Dark Design is still quite enjoyable. Though I did not like the regular changes in perspectives. Farmer easily could have split this book in 3 separate novels and thus stick closer to the style of the first two volumes. On the other hand, I never complaint about Jordan’s The Wheel of Time, so why start nagging here?

The second Discworld novel is remarkably different from the first. While The Colour of Magic was almost chaotic, the plot a collection of seemingly random episodes of a Discworld-wide journey mixed with some clever puns and references to modern culture, The Light Fantastic is characterized by an almost linear plot, a few running gags, and barely any references to our modern world. Instead Pratchett includes relatively more allusions to ‘standard’ Fantasy novels. By doing so he tries very hard to (re-)define a genre: Comedic Fantasy Fiction.

The Light Fantastic follows the Law of Sequels. It does not achieve the entertainment value, the originality, and the appeal of its predecessor. The attempt to introduce a running gag is too stilted, it fails miserably. If it was not for Pratchett’s skillful writing the Discworld series [csw]ould have ended here. Mercifully, there are still a few rather funny lines that made me laugh out loud and saved the day.

Back to Philip José Farmer’s Riverworld. In The Fabulous Riverboat Farmer continues his use of historical figures for his own fictional world Riverworld. The second Riverworld novel describes Samuel Clemens’, that is Mark Twain, striving for a riverboat.

Since the Riverworld is without own resources and therefore industry Clemens dream of driving up River on a Mississippi-style riverboat is not easily and certainly not fast put into action. Yet, after a long series of hardships he seems to realize his task. Yes, it is not just a personal dream but a task. A task bestowed upon him by a mysterious stranger, one of the Riverworld’s secret rulers who follows his own agenda. While building his ship and an industry to do so, Clemens collects a few other “enlightened” fellows…

Farmer does not reveal more about the mysterious rulers of the Riverworld. Instead his world, or rather its societal conditions are explored in more detail. The babylonian confusion of languages is, for example, resolved by the adoption of Esperanto. A nice idea. Though, the number of people speaking English as first or second language in the real world today would rather hint to English as the universal language. Esperanto is just not known by that many people today (or in the past).

Farmer’s use of a few familiar names is a brilliant move to raise the initial interest in his work. Though the figures are based on their historical counterparts they are soon developed much further and in diverging ways. The Riverworld shapes its river dwellers.

The Fabulous Riverboat is full of espionage, war, and well primed double crossings. There are not many surprises. Yet, the novel is quite compelling.

Concerning the industry and (rather advanced, given the Riverworld’s possibilities) inventions Farmer does not go into much detail, regrettably. This is perfect steam punk material for a role playing game. I almost would like to play one.

Obviously, my vacation reading list contains more books than I could possibly read during one vacation. The idea is rather to get started with a larger set of authors. The final author on my vacation reading list is Poul Anderson. Anderson wrote a lot of different series, primarily Science Fiction. For reading during my two summer weeks off I picked the first Dominic Flandry Novel: Ensign Flandry, first published in the sixties.

The novel describes a military / political conflict between the starfaring earth and some alien nation, mostly from the viewpoint of the young Ensign Flandry. The conflict focuses seemingly on one rather insignificant planet with two sentient races. Both races receive help from one of the two protagonist races, one of which is earth’s mankind. Though this is only a smoke screen. The ultimate goal is galaxy’s hegemony.

The novel is a nice example of the ways of international diplomacy. It is written within a futuristic Science Fiction setting. Yet, it could have been as well set on earth in our current time or immediate past as far as political or military strategy is concerned.

I wonder how Anderson develops his character Flandry in the next novels. So far, Flandry’s success seems to be a result of chance and accidents. Nevertheless – or maybe because of this –, he seems quite likeable.

Next on my vacation reading list is Philip José Farmer’s Riverworld series.

Some time ago – maybe a decade or so – I read a collection of short(er) stories: Riverworld and Other Stories that left me with a very good impression of Farmer and his work. So finally, I decided to read the Riverworld series in its entirety. Again, I start with book one.

To Your Scattered Bodies Go introduces the resource-barren Riverworld were most of mankind is resurrected. A world that is home for some 36 billion humans, a world that is one long river that flows not to a sea but back to its origin, a world that is controlled by some mysterious aliens (?).

Most of the story focuses of Sir Richard Franics Burton’s quest to find the origin / end of the River and confront the secret rulers of the Riverworld. A quest that Burton himself calls the Suicide Train. After each death he is resurrected somewhere else (the same happens to any unlucky river dweller dying), maybe somewhere closer to his goal and so he does not really mind to commit suicide every once in while…

Riverworld has no noteworthy resources, no metal ores, no agriculture. The people are fed by “grails”, a kind of energy-matter-transformer provided by the secret rulers to every river dweller. Nevertheless, the world is inhabited by modern engineers, too. So it makes a very nice background for any steam punk role playing game. And indeed, there is – or rather was; it is out of print – at least a GURPS resource book for the Riverworld.

As a result of a friends recommendation I already have read Terry Pratchett’s The Colour of Magic some 15 years ago. Though I cannot remember wheter it was a German translation or the original I had a faint recollection of what the book is about. Having seen the TV adaption some time ago and having read the more recent Going Postal and Making Money I thought the Discworld novels would make a nice entry on my vacation reading list. I like regularity and structure, so I naturally start with Discworld novel one.

Now, during the last 15 years quite a bit changed and so did I and the way I perceive things. It is therefore not the funny, ironic style and cultural references of Pratchett’s that strikes me most. I first noticed that he really is a professional writer, his rhetoric includes all the moves that you would learn in an academic writing course. My second observation was that already in his first book I has some clever references to economic principles. This time it is the pitfalls of well intended but badly implemented (insurance) policies, how human behavior responses to economic incentives. In short, the unintended consequences of otherwise sound economic policies.