Rating: 
Summary: Astounding concept, inept execution
Review: I read this back in 1979, and recently reread the series through "Magic Labyrinth." It was better the first time. This first volume has a gosh-wow factor second to none, but the writing is so amateurish that it could never get published today. That really doesn't improve much as the series progresses, so I must rate the first volume as the best of the bunch. I DO recommend the series as an SF classic, but it also shows how far the genre has advanced in the years since it was published.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but misunderstood
Review: Reading the other reviews, as I usually do, I was horrified to find that no-one seemed to understand the Riverworld series. "Not too deep", "Not really science fiction" ... ?? I don't know if i'm reading a different series than the rest of the people reviewing this book, but it's a very deep, very classic science fiction novel. It's not set on a far-off planet (well, not exactly); no space ships, only one alien; barely noticeably set in the future at all. If that was what made a good SF novel, then Star Trek would be the be all and end all of the genre. Any good SF reader, though, knows that Riverworld is what makes SF great reading: Deep philosophical and sociological questions, answered by way of an artificially created society that tests the author's answers to the questions, or else helps discover the answers. Riverworld, and particularly To Your Scattered Bodies Go (by far the best of them), is an interesting attempt to analyse the creation of civilization from anarchy, as well as being an amusing exploration of several historical characters, probably some of Farmer's favourite personages from history. I say attempt, because it's not perfect; I find myself disagreeing with his ideas of what society would become, mostly because it is a bit too simplistic for my tastes. All in all, it is an interesting experiment, and a thoroughly enjoyable one. Read if you like Asimov's Foundation novels, Clarke's Rama novels, or some of the less academic alternate histories.
Rating:
Summary: Almost but not quite
Review: When Sir Richard died he thought that it was all she wrote. He could not have been more wrong, he had been resurrected on a giant river with most of the rest of humanity. It's a whole new world, so he decides to go up to the source of the river and find out hw had restored them all to life. This was the guy after all who snuck into Meca and got out alive, why should a river 200 million miles long populated by every bad(or good) person in history prove to be any obstacle? Overall-I think that the book is great, though I don't know if I could acuratly describe it as science fiction. The book is wonderful but it has a lot of extra information that takes away from the overall force of the story...
Rating: 
Summary: Great setup But no better than medoicre
Review: This is one of those novels that the simple setup will keep you interested and on your toes long after the author drives the story into the ground. It is dissappointing because at many points I felt that Famer was onto something really special. The idea of having every human for ten thousand years put onto a planet together creates an infinite number of possible story lines. Farmer even sets up some very interesting plot lines with Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, but then fails to treat them in any real intellegent or significant way. It's nice to see Burton meet Goering, I wanted to see into Goering character or into the character of a different society that would use his talents as Germany did. This is not done however, and is what keep this book from being any better than mediocre. The end result is like talking to someone who keeps asking, "What if", but lacks either the words or the imagination to take it any further.
Rating:
Summary: This book was ok
Review: This is fairly run-of-the-mill old-style science fiction. There are two notable shortcomings: first, he doesn't make any attempt to resolve the main questions of the book (who made the Riverworld, and why?). I don't think the book was good enough to bother reading the many sequels to find out the answers. Second, as with much old-style science fiction, the female characters are all more or less helpless. I also didn't really like the use of actual, historical characters (like how Goring kept popping up -- it was just weird).
Rating:
Summary: Great concept, entertaining read
Review: Explorer Richard Burton, along with every other human who has ever lived, is resurrected on the shores of an impossibly long river on an alien planet. His premature awakening among countless bodies connected to some type of machinery prompts him to go in search of the river's source and purpose. The criticisms leveled by other reviewers on this page are well-taken. It is not as enlightened as it could be with regard to women and other cultures, and the prose, though serviceable, is not of literary quality. I'm also surprised that it took the Hugo for Best Novel. However, I was entertained by the concept and Burton's quest.
Rating: 
Summary: Offensively disappointing!
Review: Usually, the Hugo Awards are a good recommendation for entertaining literature.
Not in this case. I really don't understand how this book could have been given an award of any kind. Were there NO other sf novels published in 1971?
Farmer uses historical figures as his characters as an excuse to not bother writing any characterization of any kind. Every character in the novel is completely two-dimensional. It's pretty hard to make such an interesting and multi-dimensional character as the historical Richard Burton dull and flat - but Farmer manages it.
Moreover, the book is offensively, insidiously sexist. By which I don't mean that, in the grand tradition of adventure stories, that lusty buxom babes abound! (if only!) Rather, I mean that not one female character in the book displays any initiative, independence, or intelligence. Men regard them as property, and women's only instinct seems to be to find a male "protector." The stereotypes of women as "prude," "nag," or "whore" are found in abundance. Women are only an accessory to a man, to be admired physically, used sexually, and then tired of.
Here's one direct quote: "She was the product of her society - like all women, she was what men had made her."
One cannot excuse this attitude in writing as being a product of its time - check out what Ursula LeGuin was publishing in the late 60's and early 70's!
Sexist stereotypes are not the only ones found... they're practically incidental to the ethnic and cultural stereotypes! In a world supposedly populated with people of all cultures, time periods, and places, everything seems to run in a remarkably Eurocentric manner. To regard cigars as a universal luxury item is particularly bemusing.
Still, all this would be excusable, if only the story was fun, exciting and interesting. Not so. For such a short (222p.) novel, the plot was inexcusably meandering and dull. I fell asleep on it last night, and finished it this afternoon out of some sort of sense of obligation. I think I'll be sending the copy of World of Tiers on my to-read shelf straight to the recycle bin.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Well Done!
Review: This is the 1st Riverworld book and probably the best at least in terms of originality. The Idea is that everyone who ever lived is resurrected on a planet with a huge river. Pretty simple, the main character is Sir Richard Francis Burton (a real life explorer who spent much of his life searching for the nile) and he forms and leads a party that includes a Neanderthal, an alien, and Alice from Alice in Wonderland. The rest of the book is spent with them journeying towards the headwaters of the river to try and find out the mystery of how their situation (i.e. being resurrected on the vast river planet) came to be. As already said this is most likely the best book in the series. The idea is fresh and the character of Burton who was a real person is a good one to have lead an adventure. The story is also fleshed out well with the assistance of the interesting supporting cast. I especially liked the inclusion of Alice. The major enemy in this book is Hermann Goring another person of historical fame, who provides the readers with an exceptionally good and real antagonist for Burton, who is a very well done hero. Despite the questionability of the later books(I've written reviews on them as well) this one is exceptionally well done.
Rating:
Summary: If this won a Hugo...
Review: ...perhaps there's no point to the award. I am stunned by how bad this book is. I will work hard to be succinct so as not to waste neurons on it: (1) I like "boys in space" as much as the next woman, but this is horribly sexist in a way that angers me, given that it was written as late as 1971. Women are for sex, or are killed when no longer useful to the (nominal) plot. Heinlein, with all his sexism, at least reflected the mores of his times, and provided us with numerous excellent "juvenile" novels that avoided the egregious bad taste of this one by virtue of including no females whatsoever. (2) It contains more uncalled-for violence than anything I've read in the last few years. (3) Do we really think mysterious saviors would provide steak, marihuana (sic), and LIPSTICK in our lunch-buckets? Who's catering this resurrection, anyway--McDonald's? Mary Kay? The Grateful Dead? (4) Even leaving the deplored-yet-articulated anti-Semitism, this book is rife with cultural stereotypes. (5) I kept stumbling over plot problems. To name one: Gee, if you only get fed by putting your "grail" in the "grail stone," and only you can open your own grail, I'd assume that beings intelligent enough to put lipstick in lunch-buckets would be able to track Burton's grail if they wanted to find him. Perhaps Farmer suffered a lack of imagination because he wrote the book before ATMs. (6) I would be impressed with the prose if a 6th grader wrote this. Perhaps that is the intended audience. I can't believe a publisher printed such a wooden, poorly-structured piece. I am ASTOUNDED that it won the Hugo. Compared to the winners on either side of it, it stinks even worse. I am a book packrat, but I'm seriously considering throwing this one away because I'd feel terrible if I donated it to charity and some other poor sucker accidentally read it.
Rating:
Summary: Great Concept
Review: This science fiction classic is based on a fascinating premise. The world has been destroyed. All of mankind has been resurrected by unseen all-powerful aliens on a strange planet. They are given the minimum requirements for survival and are secretly observed as they fight, make love and build communities. No one can die (not for long, anyway) or grow old. All people from prehistory to the present day are resurrected together with geographic considerations preventing complete mingling of peoples. The hero of this novel is Sir Richard Burton, the 19th century writer. In a scene that the makers of The Matrix must have cribbed from this book, Burton awakes just prior to resurrection and sees endless rows of unconscious bodies tethered to strange machines stretching out in every direction as far as the eye can see. The memory of this makes him unwilling to accept his condition and he travels the length of the endless river that snakes over the surface of the planet to try to find the aliens and determine their motives So far so good. The story bogs down in fleshing out of what must have been a great short story. Burton is interesting enough choice as the protagonist but given that Farmer had all of mankind to choose from, why not Alexander or Caesar or Napoleon? Why choose Hermann Goring as Burton's archenemy? How about Hitler or Attila? There are far too many actions scenes that end with Burton killing himself or being killed in order to pop up re-resurrected at another spot on the planet. My only interpretation of this childish literary "device" is that Farmer couldn't think of any other way to have the story move forward. Despite these stylistic flaws, the central conceit of life after death as a space alien's science project makes this book worthwhile reading.
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