Riverworld and Other Stories

by Philip Jose Farmer

Paperback, 1979

Status

Available

Call number

813.54

Publication

Berkley Publishing Group (1979)

Description

 Three stories of a world shared by resurrected humans from all times and places--plus ten more tales by the Hugo Award-winning author of the World of Tiers series.   On author Philip José Farmer's Riverworld, humans from every era and culture have been simultaneously resurrected. Ancient Hebrews, medieval warriors, Spanish Inquisitors, and modern Americans intermingle in this strange new environment, but many still cling to old prejudices.   Tom Mix, a silent-film star originally from early-twentieth-century Earth, is journeying among the vast population along the millions of miles of the River, in search of familiar faces from his own time. He's been traveling the River for five years and believes people are starting to change. But when he's entangled in a brutal clash between states, he discovers that some are slow to let go of the ideas that ruled them on Earth.   This volume includes the novelette "Riverworld," along with two additional Riverworld tales and ten other short stories, all strange, clever, and profound. Farmer's explorations of the wonderful and bizarre--from a portrayal of Jesus and Satan as cowpokes to a reimagining of Edgar Rice Burroughs's Tarzan in the style of William Burroughs--plunge the reader into "one of the most imaginative worlds in science fiction" (Booklist).   This ebook includes"Riverworld," "J. C. on the Dude Ranch," "The Volcano," "The Henry Miller Dawn Patrol," "The Problem of Sore Bridge--Among Others," "Brass and Gold (or Horse and Zeppelin in Beverly Hills)," "The Jungle Rot Kid on the Nod," "The Voice of the Sonar in My Vermiform Appendix," "Monolog," "The Leaser of Two Evils," "The Phantom of the Sewers," "Up the Bright River," "Crossing the Dark River," and Philip JosFarmer's article on the making of Riverworld, "The Source of the River."    … (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member DinadansFriend
This is an anthology of additional material about....Riverworld. Nothing here that I didn't expect, and so I picked it up and passed it on somewhere.
LibraryThing member mbmackay
A wonderfully fertile imagination, but it ain't literature. Mentions that he wrote the Kilgore Trout book!
Read Samoa June 2003
LibraryThing member gypsysmom
The title story did not disappoint. In it, Tom Mix rescues two people from a tyrant and they settle with a colony who soon go to war against the tyrant. Both of the people he rescued are Jewish, one from the time of Moses and one from the time of Jesus; in fact, he is Jesus and he looks just like
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Tom Mix. Unfortunately, they are both recaptured by the tyrant when war erupts.

The other stories are more of a mixed bag. One, in fact, I couldn't even read because Farmer was copying the style of William Burroughs which is not my cup of tea. Some of them aren't even science fiction per se. I would classify them as horror which is not my genre. I think the story I liked best after Riverworld was The Problem of Sore Bridge which involves the fictional gentleman thief Raffles and his sidekick Harry "Bunny" Manders.

Farmer is a master at the short story and this book is worth the read just to see how this type of fiction should be written. Apparently Farmer is still alive even though he was born in 1914 but I don't think he is writing any more.
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LibraryThing member iBeth
I enjoyed the first story with Tom Mix but none of the others held my interest.
LibraryThing member pgiunta
On Riverworld, no one ever dies… well, at least not permanently. Those who do are resurrected a few hours later elsewhere on the planet. Former western movie star, Tom Mix, found himself on Riverworld after his Earthly demise, along with billions of others from various eras in human history. Mix,
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along with his companions Yeshua and Bithniah, are on the run from a marauding conqueror Kramer when they join forces with John Wickel-Stafford, the lord mayor of New Albion and enemy of Kramer. Together, Mix and Stafford lead their forces in an attempt to stop Kramer’s next invasion…

“Riverworld” is, of course, one of the better stories in this collection of eleven. My other favorites include:

“J.C. on the Dude Ranch” – At the XR Dude Ranch in Big Wash, Arizona, two imposing cowboys—the heroic J.C. Marison and the sinister Mr. Bales Bub—square off against one another, but it is truly a battle of Biblical proportions or something more cosmic?

“The Volcano” – Detective Curtius Parry investigates an impossible volcano recently formed in the backyard of Henry and Bonnie Havik. The eruption occurred shortly after hired hand and Mexican immigrant Juan Tizoc vanished. Could there be a burning connection between the two?

“The Problem of the Sore Bridge” – In Victorian England, journalist Harry Manders and gentleman burglar A.J. Raffles team up to investigate the disappearance of enigmatic rare gem dealer James Phillimore. At every turn, Manders and Raffles are merely seconds ahead of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson, who are also on the case. Manders and Raffles soon learn that Phillimore is not at all what he appeared to be, nor are teardrop sapphires in his collection…

“Brass and Gold” – A hilarious romp focusing on a love affair between a Jewish wife and her eccentric Gentile artist neighbor that begins after her husband locks her in the bedroom with three meals per day in order to curb her gluttony and force her to lose weight…

Other stories include “The Jungle Rot Kid on the Nod,” “Monolog,” “The Leaser of Two Evils,” “The Phantom of the Sewers,” “The Henry Miller Dawn Patrol,” and “The Voice of the Sonar in My Vermiform Appendix.”
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Language

Physical description

7 inches

ISBN

0425042081 / 9780425042083
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