Rating: 
Summary: Greatest Book I've read in 15 years!
Review: First of all, I'm only 15. Now then, "To Your Scattered Bodies Go" may not be a gramatically correct title (making it hard, in my oppinion to give it a chance in the first place), but it is still the greatest book I've ever read! It starts with the main characters death THE END... actually death is the beginning and the foundation for this book. I like how PJF showed all of the characters going through revelations as a result of their second chance at life... and then their third and fourth and so on... I also like the idea that everyone in creation is in this book, including the readers, if they can find the right ethnic group. One thing that I like in books, as well is being left in the dark at first and being able to read the solutions later. I recomend this book to anyone who likes History, boats, Sci-Fi's, WW2, and about anything else for that matter! It's just plane good! However, I have heard very bad reviews on his later books, except for that annoying person who gives the book a full 5 and thanking Amazon for the convenience of finding books online. Still, I am very tempted to see what Sir Richard Burton does on his voyage. Probably chew dreamgum... Alice in Wonderland is in this book, and it gives a new perspective to her...
Rating: 
Summary: great revelation here is Burton
Review: If forced to choose the single factor (other than crippling lack of ambition) that lead to my posting a 2.42 my Freshman fall of college, this book would be the culprit I'd point to. You see, I made the mistake of reading this book just before finals & immediately followed it up by reading everything about or by Sir Richard Francis Burton that I could find. The central conceit of Farmer's Hugo Award Winner is that everyone who ever lived on Earth is resurrected along the banks of a river on a mysterious world. One of the first people to understand their predicament and take action is the linguist, explorer, translator Sir Richard Francis Burton. Along with Alice Hargreaves (of Alice in Wonderland fame), a Neanderthal named Kazz , an alien from Tau Centauri named Monat Grrautut (who precipitated the Apocalypse that destroyed Earth in 2008) and others found along the way, Burton sets off upriver to try to figure out why they've been brought to this place. But when they figure out that The River may be 20 million miles long and then they are captured by Herman Goring and a band of Ancient Romans, things get even more complicated. Farmer has a wonderful idea here & he plays it to the hilt, dropping in interesting historical characters & playing off cultures and ethnicity's against each other. I especially like the way he's taken his characters to the promised afterlife & instead of finding answers to the question of existence, they find that it's just as confounding as life on Earth. But the great revelation here is Burton. If you've never heard of him, you'll want to read more & if you're familiar with him, you'll want to read about him anew. GRADE: B
Rating:
Summary: The ultimate adventure
Review: This is what science fiction is all about. What could be more exciting than to be "reborn" in a new world with historical characters as your friends and neighbors? Although the idea of rebirth is as old as the Bible, Farmer's Riverworld series has to be the most interesting telling of the story. Instead of a mystical god being responsible for the rebirth, it is instead a science-driven event. "Scattered Bodies" and the rest of the series, shows that the spirit of the adventurer is alive and well in science fiction.
Rating:
Summary: Adventure and the Idea of Immortality
Review: The most interesting book on immortality I have ever read. Farmer took off on this topic in an incredibly creative way. This is the kind of adventure a person would want to live themselves: The ability to be reborn with all the famous characters from history, friends, relatives, etc. The spirit of the adventurer is alive and well in the Riverworld series.
Rating:
Summary: Liberating!
Review: It has been a long time since I have enjoyed a book like I did this one. I can hardly wait to read the other books in the series.
Rating:
Summary: the best sf book of all time!!!
Review: hell, that's quite a plug isn't it? Well this book deserves it!I first read this amazing book in 1979, and have re-read the series many times. I have read an awful amount of sf in my time but I have to say this is the best book ever. The idea is ingenious and Farmer turns it into an exciting mystery-thriller as well as a brilliant work of science ficton.I suppose that if true literary writing ability is your criterion, then Farmer is only an average writer. But this man's imagination and talent for ideas is unmatched in my experience and , taking this into consideration, he is the best sf writer ever! If you never read another science fiction book, you MUST read "To Your Scattered Bodies Go".
Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating premisse doesn't reach it's conclusion
Review: The premisse of this book is fascinating: what if after you die there is nothing. No heaven (or hell, for that matter) no reincarnation. Just nothing. Until someone develops the technology, and the will, to bring back everyone who has ever died on this planet. Bring them back with no possesions, no tools, no clothes, no infrastructure, and not a clue. Just billions and billions of naked confused, semi-immortal, multi-cultural human beings. What will they do? What is the meaning of all this? The actions these resurrected peoples take are very well written and highly believable (unfortunately). The motives of the people who are responsible for all this are the mystery we are trying to solve. Farmer received the 1972 Hugo Award for this book that did survive the test of time, and is still a good read now. Then why not 5 stars? --- This book is not a well rounded whole, with a plot that comes to a resounding conclusion. At 3 quaters of the book the pace changes, slowes down. The answer is pushed further to the future, and it soon becomes clear a further quest will be nessessary, even though the book ends. I suppose you'll (and I'll) have to read the rest of what now turns out to be a series to reach the fullfillment of a filosofical conclusion. That's why I feel a bit cheated.
Rating:
Summary: The best of the series
Review: Ah, what a concept! Just about all the people who ever lived find themselves on the banks of an immense river. People from diverse eras are forced to live together -- if they can. This book, with its huge setting and many viewpoint characters, could have been chaotic. Yet Farmer managed to make it cohesive. We get to run into famous people, particularly explorer Richard Burton. Yet some of the fictional characters are just as real. The later books got bogged down in bizarro plot elements. But the first few books were great. Especially this one. Anne M. Marble Reviewer, All About Romance
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Summary: Okay I'm hooked
Review: I picked this one up at a used bookstore and was pleasantly suprised. It is one of those books where the concept alone is fascinating, that every person who ever lived is reborn somewhere along a seemingly endless river(approx. 36-37 billion in all). They can't reproduce, and they need not work for their food, and neither can they die and stay dead so seemingly they have nothing to do but enjoy peace and pleasure for all eternity....well we are talking about human beings so it doesn't work out that way! It is the questions about this world that pulls the reader along. Who could have built it? What is its purpose? And will it all end as suddenly as it began? And through it all there is The River, it is the central feature of RiverWorld, presumably millions of miles long, one could travel upon it for millenia and never get to the end. For that matter does The River even have a beginning and an end? This novel is very spiritual, what would you do if you had eternal life? Sit back and enjoy it or fight against the current(literally) to find out the meaning of it all? Warning if you read the first book in the series you're going to be compelled to pick the rest up to.
Rating:
Summary: Must reading for SF fans
Review: This volume kicks off the five-book series, and it's a fascinating concept brought vividly to life. Though I'd agree that Farmer might slacken a bit in later volumes, that hasn't prevented me from reading this series twice over the last 25 years...
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