Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyable Adventure
Review: After focusing on Sir Richard Burton in the first Riverworld book, Farmer shifts the viewpoint to Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain). The book focuses on how Clemens tries to find out the secret of Riverworld by building a magnificent steamboat that will carry him to the tower located at the end of the River. This book is about the efforts to build the steamboat, not about the journey. There is a lot of political intrigue in the book, as Twain has to cooperate with others, including unsavory types like the former King John of England. The book held my interest, and I read it almost in one sitting. Since Farmer has literally everyone in human history to draw from, there are lots of interesting characters, and Farmer writes the story competently. I recommend the book, but it would probably best to read TO YOUR SCATTERED BODIES GO first.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing and distracting
Review: After presenting such a wonderfully consistant and believable view of River World in 'To your scattered bodies go', I was repeatedly stunned by the unbelievable circumstances he presented in this, his second installment. JPF managed to make Mark Twain rather boring, and robbed the River World of all it's interesting features by abandoning subsistance living and introducing airplanes and firearms. Like the river it takes its name from, the river world series unerringly goes downhill...Definitely read 'To your scattered bodies go', but avoid this (and the rest of the series) like the plague.
Rating:
Summary: Story ruined by distasteful, unsuccessful social commentary
Review: All of humanity has been resurrected along the shores of The Riverworld, though no one knows why. Guided by a rebel from among the ranks of those who created the place, Sam Clemens and his friends build a riverboat like the ones from Clemens' Mississippi days to search out the headwaters of the river and the mysterious castle which is rumored to exist there. In the process, they build a nation and become involved in war and intrigue with their neighbors. I was enjoying this novel. The prose is unexceptional, but efficient and workmanlike, and Farmer tells a decent story in an interesting setting. Then Farmer introduces the neighboring state of Soul City and its leader, Elwood Hacking, and derails the whole thing. Hacking is a former slave who is founding an all-black state where "soul brothers and soul sisters can loaf and invite their souls." He is irrational and reactionary. One of his final acts is to rape a white woman and a passage describing them glimpsed in a window together contrasts the woman's "long honey-colored hair and very white skin" with "the bushy hair and black face of Elwood Hacking" in a very distasteful way. Given his fair treatment of other black characters such as Hugo Firebrass and Jill Gulbirra (from the next book in the series), I am not convinced that Farmer is an unqualified racist, but I was puzzled and disquieted by this aspect of the novel.
Rating:
Summary: Story ruined by distasteful, unsuccessful social commentary
Review: All of humanity has been resurrected along the shores of The Riverworld, though no one knows why. Guided by a rebel from among the ranks of those who created the place, Sam Clemens and his friends build a riverboat like the ones from Clemens' Mississippi days to search out the headwaters of the river and the mysterious castle which is rumored to exist there. In the process, they build a nation and become involved in war and intrigue with their neighbors. I was enjoying this novel. The prose is unexceptional, but efficient and workmanlike, and Farmer tells a decent story in an interesting setting. Then Farmer introduces the neighboring state of Soul City and its leader, Elwood Hacking, and derails the whole thing. Hacking is a former slave who is founding an all-black state where "soul brothers and soul sisters can loaf and invite their souls." He is irrational and reactionary. One of his final acts is to rape a white woman and a passage describing them glimpsed in a window together contrasts the woman's "long honey-colored hair and very white skin" with "the bushy hair and black face of Elwood Hacking" in a very distasteful way. Given his fair treatment of other black characters such as Hugo Firebrass and Jill Gulbirra (from the next book in the series), I am not convinced that Farmer is an unqualified racist, but I was puzzled and disquieted by this aspect of the novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant
Review: Book 2 of the fantastic Riverworld series. Read in order. A world of resurrection where every soul who ever lived is brought back to indefinite life - where death is but a temporary inconvenience. Among the billions clawing through warfare, slavery and violent aggression is Samuel Clemens, alias Mark Twain. Sam's dream is to build a Mississippi style riverboat and travel to the source of the River (Riverworld's artery). Even with the aid of one of the mysterious beings responsible for Riverworld and his neanderthal blood brother he is hard put to bring his dream to life.There are others, King John for example who will stop at nothing to get the Fabulous Riverboat.
Rating:
Summary: THITH WATH THO DITHRACTING....
Review: I am a huge fan of Mark Twian's books, so when I heard that he was a main charecter of a bok I was very sectical and didn't think the book would be any good. For the most part I was very wrong. The action is fast paced and the ending(although not wholly surpising) was well done. I espically liked the ingenuity the "Riverworlders" displayed at every turn. My favorite part was where they used the fat in the bodies of the dead to make parts for explosives. This didn't hurt anyone because the next day they would be resurrected along another strech of river.
Rating:
Summary: Very Good
Review: I am a huge fan of Mark Twian's books, so when I heard that he was a main charecter of a bok I was very sectical and didn't think the book would be any good. For the most part I was very wrong. The action is fast paced and the ending(although not wholly surpising) was well done. I espically liked the ingenuity the "Riverworlders" displayed at every turn. My favorite part was where they used the fat in the bodies of the dead to make parts for explosives. This didn't hurt anyone because the next day they would be resurrected along another strech of river.
Rating: 
Summary: Good book, terrible ending
Review: I enjoyed reading the book, but the ending was just awful. I don't think I'm going to even bother reading the third book to see what kind of crackpot scheme Twain comes up with. And another thing, enough with The Capital Letters.
Rating:
Summary: Slow Paced and Boring
Review: I had a real hard time with getting past the first half of this book. Maybe because I hadn't read book 1 in the series. Or maybe because the pace is "painfully" slow. I was always a big fan of Mark Twain's work. However, as a main character he is not very interesting. I had a hard time figuring out if the characters were in Purgertory or a forth dimension or Heaven or what. I will try to look for the first book in the series and see if it helps.
Rating:
Summary: Slow Paced and Boring
Review: I had a real hard time with getting past the first half of this book. Maybe because I hadn't read book 1 in the series. Or maybe because the pace is "painfully" slow. I was always a big fan of Mark Twain's work. However, as a main character he is not very interesting. I had a hard time figuring out if the characters were in Purgertory or a forth dimension or Heaven or what. I will try to look for the first book in the series and see if it helps.
| 
