In late 2015, I read "To Your Scattered Bodies Go" by Philip Jose Farmer, the 1972 Hugo Best Novel Award winner and the first book in the Riverworld series. I picked it up with a dual sense of excitement and dread - I remembered dearly loving Riverworld when I first read it back in the early 1980's, and was not sure that the re-read could hold up to the memory. I don't know if it held up to my youthful memories, but I did find it to be a good read, full of interesting ideas and promise, good enough to read the rest of the series.
Enter "The Fabulous Riverboat", the second book of the Riverworld series. This book tells the story of Samuel Clemens' dream to build a mighty riverboat to navigate the River upstream to its source, and uses that narrative to explore issues of human changeability, post scarcity poltics and relations, race and ambition. Along the way, you meet Sam Clemens, his titanthrop friend Joe Miller, Cyrano de Bergerac, King John Lackland, and Lothar von Richthofen (German pilot and younger brother of the infamous "Red Baron" of WWI fame).
The thing that struck me the most about "The Fabulous Riverboat" is the amount of the narrative that is dedicated to a discussion of race relations, reflected in the text as the relationship between Clemens' country Parolando and a neighbor state named Soul City (a country who's stated goal is to be comprised 100% of persons of African descent). I did not remember this from my youthful readings, but it is entirely likely that the discussion slid right past my 12 year old self. I'm not going to pass any judgement or comment further on the discussion, as I'll leave that interpretation to the reader.
The verdict - I'm going to keep following the River.
Rating: 7/10
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