The Dark Design (Riverworld Saga, Book 3)

Rating:
Summary: Was great in the beginning then the end.......
Review: This book was great in the beginning then it just lagged on in the end. I like the part where there was this girl they introduced. She was gay so it was neat but shocking. Then after that chapter he totally got rid of the character. It took me awhile to finish the rest of the book and it wasnt worth it. My favorite book is the first book in this series.

Rating:
Summary: Good Series Hits a Low Point
Review: This is the middle volume of Farmer's ambitious five-book saga of Riverworld, a fantastic planet reworked by a mysterious super race to be one long river valley along a ten million-mile long river, which snakes around the planet. Into this artificially formed world, all humanity who ever lived is resurrected, given perpetual youth, and provided with all their needs through a mind boggling technology. What they are not given is a clue as to who did this, how, or most importantly, why. This book is the weakest of the series so far.
The action of the story follows several groups who are now racing toward the headwaters of the river hoping to discover the mysteries of their after-life and strange, new world, which are rumored to be found there. In addition to Sir Richard Burton and Sam Clemens, who we have met in previous books, we are introduced to Akhenaten, heretic pharaoh of Egypt, who hopes to discover his one true Sun god at river's end, and writer Jack London traveling together with film cowboy Tom Mix, all headed toward the same shadowy goal. The bulk of the book, however, focuses on the building of a huge dirigible that can gain in a few days of flight what would take many years of travel on the river. An exciting account of this airship's mission to river's end provides the cliff hanging ending of this volume.
Part of the charm of the first two books was their protagonists; Sir Richard Burton in the first, Sam Clemens in the second. In 'The Dark Design', the majority of the action is viewed through characters of the author's creation rather than through historical protagonists, and this does not come off as well. Both Burton and Clemens make brief appearances here, but we don't see either of them enough.
The book suffers from two other major flaws. First, it is overlong - nearly as long as the first two books put together. Farmer's writing style is at best competent, and begins to become taxing after 200 pages or so. There are whole chapters here that have no real relationship to the plot and are little more than the author indulging himself. Secondly, there are major plot and character shifts away from what was established in the first two books. These shifts and reversals are awkward, and don't seem to have been thought out well. At times, the author's sloppiness makes it hard to suspend disbelief.
The power of the story, and the possibilities of the concept should keep you reading through this poorly edited mess of a book, but if the first two volumes have not thoroughly captured you, you may bog down and never reach river's end.



Rating:
Summary: I really liked it...
Review: Unlike most readers of his novel, I came across The Dark Design by accident. I had no idea about who Philip Farmer was, and had never read any of the other Riverworld books. I read the novel and was very pleased and so moved by it that it inspired me to try to write a sci fi novel of my own that was loosely based on his concept.

Unfortunately, I read the book like 4 years ago and can't add any specific details about why I liked it so much, but I'll just say that I loved the book and it awakened a part of me that I knew nothing about at the time.