Philip Jose Farmer - To Your Scattered Bodies Go

Pros: Nostalgia: It attains the flavor of golden age pulp.
Cons: Artlessly written.

The best thing about Philip José Farmer's To Your Scattered Bodies Go is the title, taken from John Donne. It ranks with the likes of Asimov's The Stars, Like Dust as one of the best in the genre. Unfortunately, things went downhill ...

Pros: Unique, enormous premise. Lots of thinking material. Fun adventures.
Cons: Could have explored in more depth some of the ideas touched upon.

A Hugo award winner, this is the first book of the “Riverworld” saga, a series of books dealing with the adventures of different characters in the same strange world. The book opens with the death of Sir Richard Francis Burton, ...

Pros: A sweeping concept; introduces lots of mysteries to perplex you
Cons: Some of those mysteries received very unsatisfactory resolutions (if any) in later books

One day, every human being who ever lived and died between approximately 100,000 B.C. and a mass slaughter of most of the human race in 2008 A.D. wakes on a strange new world.

Actually, it eventually turns out that some humans are missing....

Pros: Excellent writing. Imaginative story. Rich, full world. Great characters.
Cons: Doesn't quite end. A few parts drag a bit.

Philip Jose Farmer can make worlds with the best of them, and this one is great.

The way this story goes is rather difficult to flesh out without really taking a while. Especially since the whole point of the book is to find out what's going...

Pros: Magnificent portrayal of strong historical characters, great conflict and plot! Mysteries galore.
Cons: Open ending bothers some (served as foundation for 5-book series).

"You are in this book!" So says the cover copy on several printings of To Your Scattered Bodies Go. And ... you are in this book, even though you may not appear onstage. So is everyone else who ever lived--up until the year 2005 ......

Pros: a fast read, historical fiction
Cons: none

I stumbled upon Philip J Farmer quite by accident. I had not heard of the Riverworld series or of the the main character, Burton. Since I am a history buff, and have, since a child, loved anything to do with history, I took the book home with me and...

Pros: A series of the imagination
Cons: None

This is the first book in the RIVERWORLD series by Philip Jose Farmer. You've just died and your first experience is waking up in a new body that has no hair. This isn't the afterlife you EXPECTED that's for sure! This is the premise of RIVERWORLD and...

Pros: Interesting concept.
Cons: I couldn't finish it. It didn't keep me wanting to read.

I bought this book because there was so much hype about it on the cover. I had read so many articles and reviews about it, saying how wonderful it was.

I, personally, found it very boring, very uneventful, very uninteresting. I couldn't finish...