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A series of novels by Philip Jose Farmer
Riverworld is one of the biggest ideas in the history of Science Fiction. SF is usually about big ideas (or at least, Big Dumb Objects) but this one is unique, a scenario that is huge in scope. In one of the books, the author, or at least his literary clone, muses on the idea and wonders how many books he would have had to write to do the concept justice. He decides that he is fortunate that he never thought of it...
The idea is very roughly this:- Every single person who has ever lived from 100,000 BC to the present (well, not quite - read on!) is reincarnated. They awake naked on the banks of the river, a river that snakes back and forth across a world that is definitely not Earth.
The Riverworld is somewhere much closer to the core of the galaxy than Earth, if it is even in the galaxy we know. Giant stars can be glimpsed at noon, and at night the sky is ablaze with nebulae. Hundreds of thousands of stars can be seen with the naked eye when the sun sets. The planet has no axial tilt (and therefore no seasons) and its day is exactly 24 hours long.
It seems that the whole planet has been designed and molded to house billions of human beings along the length of one rivervalley. There is no other life but fish, and vegetation that has been modified to suit the planet.
On the day of the great shout, people awake from death to find themselves in an afterlife that no earthly religion had predicted.
The billions are fed by what come to be known as grailstones, mushroom shaped stones that flash lightning three times a day and miraculously materialise food for the resurrected.
Everyone who ever lived is reborn, with the exception of those who died before the age of five. Any deformities or disabilities are cured, and the reborn souls are all physically twenty five years old.
But how did this happen, and who or what is responsible? Along the way, the author uses the concept to address some of his own questions about religion, history and society. It also gives him the opportunity to write biographies of some of his literary heroes...
Click on the titles above to find out more...
But the first novel is probably the best place to begin. It was published in 1969, and is called
Warning!!! Reviews contain information that you might prefer to find out for yourself by reading the books!!!