Riverworld

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Riverworld is a fictional universe and the setting for a series of science fiction books written by Philip José Farmer.

Contents

[edit] Works

The five novels in the series are as follows :

There are also several Riverworld short stories. The first of these appeared in Farmer's anthology:

  • Riverworld and Other Stories (a Farmer anthology with one Riverworld story, titled Riverworld)

In the early 1990s, it was decided to turn Riverworld into a shared universe anthology series, with numerous authors being invited to participate. Only two volumes were released:

  • Tales of Riverworld (includes one story written by Farmer: Crossing the Dark River)
  • Quest to Riverworld (includes two stories written by Farmer: Crossing the Bright River and Coda.)

[edit] Story

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

[edit] Overview

Located at an indeterminate distance from the Sol system and millennia in the future, the Riverworld is an Earthlike planet whose surface has been terraformed to consist solely of one staggeringly long river-valley. The river's source is a small North Polar sea, from which it follows a course tightly zig-zagging across one hemisphere before flowing back up the other along an equally labyrinthine path to return to the same sea. The river has an average depth of 2.5 km, and is shallow near the shore but plunges to enormous depths towards the channel. The banks are generally smooth and gentle, expanding into wide plains on either side, then climbing into ever more jagged hills before leaping up into a sheerly impenetrable enclosing mountain range, taller than the Himalayas. The valley averages 15km in width, but variations on the basic geography exist, including narrows and occasional widenings into lakes with islands. From source to mouth, the river is 32 million kilometres long (Books I , II, & III state the river is 16.09 million km long). The weather is absolutely controlled; there are no seasons, and daily variations are metronomic. The only animal or insect life consists of several varieties of fish and a few soil worms. The vegetation is lush and of great variety, including trees, flowering vines, several kinds of fast-growing bamboo and a resilient mat of grass which covers the plains and continues on along the riverbed for as far down as anyone has ever been able to reach. The Riverworld has no visible moon, but a great number of stellar objects in the sky, including gas sheets and stars which are close enough to see a visible disk. These objects provide enough light for "valleydwellers" to see at night and have led to speculation, by valleydwellers and fans, that the Riverworld is located in the galactic core.

The story of Riverworld begins when almost the whole of humanity, from the time of the first homo sapiens through to the early 20th century, is simultaneously resurrected along the banks of the river. The number of people is given as "thirty-six billion, six million, nine thousand, six hundred and thirty-seven" (36,006,009,637). Of these, at least 20% are from the 20th century, due to the high levels of population in later centuries compared to earlier ones. There are no people from a time later than the late 20th century (1983, which was still a speculative date when the novels were published), ostensibly because an accident in space wiped out the human race at that time. In each area, there are initially three groups of people: a large group from one time period and place, a smaller group from another time and place, and a very small group of people from random times and places (most of the twentieth and twenty-first century humans are spread across the river as part of this last group).

[edit] Resurrectees

Everyone awakens in a body equivalent to that of their twenty-five year old selves, except in perfect health and free of any previous genetic or acquired defects (for instance, all chemical addictions are gone). Over time it is further discovered that these bodies do not age and can regenerate nearly any non-fatal injury, including dismemberments and blindings. The new bodies are completely free of infection and seem resistant to it (though later it is discovered that this has as much to do with the fact that there are no hostile bacteria or viruses on the Riverworld). Initially completely hairless, the bodies grow head hair and pubic hair at a normal rate. However, men do not have foreskins or grow facial hair. Women are resurrected as biological virgins (i.e, with intact hymens). It is impossible to conceive children on Riverworld, though whether this is because the men, women or both genders are sterile is not revealed until much later in the series.

Anyone who died at an age younger than 25 is resurrected into a body equivalent to that lesser age, which then ages at a normal rate before stopping at 25. No one who was less than five years old at death is resurrected on the Riverworld (it is eventually revealed that children under the age of five were resurrected on another planet, Gardenworld). In addition to all the benefits of their Riverworld-bodies, the resurrected human race is effectively immortal as, should an individual die, they will soon find themselves once again reincarnated, whole in body, somewhere else along the banks of the river. Some people even utilize this "Suicide Express" to travel randomly.

Since all the languages of mankind are represented in Riverworld, Esperanto spreads as a common tongue.

One of the themes of the series is the way historical characters change as a result of this cosmopolitan setting. The Fabulous Riverboat, amongst other threads, portrays a tormented, drug-addicted Hermann Göring who ends up as a missionary of the Church of the Second Chance, a peaceful religion.

Awakening hairless and naked on the alien world without explanation, the psychological shock to the collective human species is staggering. Apparently left to their own devices, the people set about recreating their Earthly societies and coming to terms with an afterlife no religion ever described.

[edit] "Grails"

The resurrected each awake with a container tied to their wrist. Made of a nearly indestructible material, these containers are commonly called "grails" and produce food, drink, pieces of cloth, and occasional luxury items, such as alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, hair care utensils and a narcotic drug called "dreamgum". To operate, grails have to be placed onto large, mushroom-shaped "grailstones", found at regular intervals along the riverbanks, which produce an electrical discharge to power the grails three times per day (corresponding to the times of breakfast, lunch and dinner). As agriculture is absent and impossible on the Riverworld, the grails are vital to an individual's survival (though if they do die, they are resurrected with a new grail). A grail is genetically coded to its owner, thus it is impossible for anyone else to open one. Though "Grail Slavery" is not uncommon, in which a person is held captive and the contents of their grail, after being retrieved by the owner, are taken by force by the captor. The slaver will usually provide the slave with enough food to keep them alive, as once a person dies their grail becomes worthless.

[edit] Natural Resources and Travel

Though the grails provide for all needs and the climate is hospitable, any further attempts to affect the environment are frustrated by the near-complete lack of metals and ores on the planet. The only building materials available are bamboo, wood, human or fish bones and hides and occasional pockets of flint. With technology limited to the paleolithic level, the bordering mountains are completely impassable, thus the only possible directions of exploration are either upriver or downriver.

However, even this travel is hindered as the Riverworld soon finds itself divided into thousands of tiny nations; empires, monarchies, republics and every other social system ever invented, each only a few kilometers long (though still with high populations; the Riverworld averages 90 people per square kilometer). Because the distribution of populations along the river seems to have been random, the character of these nations can vary wildly within a very short span. Thus, one can enter dangerously unknown and potentially hostile territory in less than a day's journey.

[edit] Purpose

The reason behind the existence of Riverworld is initially a complete mystery. In Farmer's books a number of historical figures - including Sir Richard Burton, Alice Hargreaves, Samuel Clemens, John I of England, Tom Mix, Mozart, Jack London and Hermann Göring - interact with fictional characters in a quest to discover the purpose behind the creation of Riverworld and their reincarnation. Another character, Peter Jairus Frigate, bears a striking resemblance to Farmer himself, and shares his initials. There are two versions of the character - one who appears early in the sequence, and another, being the "real" version, who concludes that the first was his brother who died as a baby, resurrected and used as a spy by the creators of the Riverworld.

During the course of the story it is revealed that the Riverworld had been created as a form of moral test for humanity. In the Riverworld universe sentience is not a naturally occurring phenomenon but is the result of a type of artificially created soul, known as a wathan. Wathans are created by a generator, a technology developed and seeded among various worlds by an unknown ancient alien race. Wathan generators create wathans which attach themselves to sufficiently advanced biological beings. Wathans are indestructible but become detached from the body upon physical death and wander the universe aimlessly. Some beings attain a level of ethical understanding which allows them to transcend this fate and "pass on".

The Riverworld was created by a race of aliens known, among their human allies at least, as Ethicals. The only alien Ethical who is seen in the stories is Monat Graatut, who poses as an ally and friend of Richard Francis Burton. Monat is a tall long limbed alien who would be instantly recognizable as non-human. The Ethicals were the ones who originally brought Wathan technology to Earth, installing both a generator and a collector. The collector would catch and store Wathans for later retrieval. The Ethicals considered the wandering nature of post-death Wathans to be a horrific fate and wanted to help people learn to transcend this fate. For this purpose they started the Riverworld project for Earth. Deeming that children who died before age five had not had a sufficient "chance" at life on earth they resurrected these children early on a planet known as "Gardenworld". Gardenworld was a physical paradise where the children would be raised as Ethicals by the aliens. Eventually the human and alien Ethicals began work on terraforming the Riverworld. The idea was that everyone who ever lived would be resurrected on this planet and given another chance to learn to live an ethical life, and hopefully pass on. It is noted in the book that some humans, such as the Buddha, had already attained this level of understanding while on Earth and so were not resurrected. The entire construction of the Riverworld ecology was meant to help further this process of moral contemplation. The repetitive nature of the physical environment was supposed to encourage a concern with inward rather than outward issues. The poverty of natural resources was meant to prevent the development of a modern society, and the food provided by the grails and the resurrections were meant to obviate the need for an economy or the need to strive for survival.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Origin

The original Riverworld story was titled Owe for the Flesh and ended with the protagonist (called Richard Black in this version) finding the tower at the end of the river. Farmer entered a scifi contest run by Shasta Press and subsidized by Pocket Books, submitting his 150,000-word entry. He won the contest, but received no money. The work was never published and was lost in its original form. A later, revised manuscript (itself lost for decades) was discovered and published in 1983 as River of Eternity.

[edit] Derivative works

Since the publication of the original books, several authors have used the Riverworld setting for their own stories.

A licensed guidebook outlining the setting for use in the GURPS role-playing game was released by Steve Jackson Games. Copies of this guidebook were provided to the authors of the stories published in Tales of Riverworld and Quest To Riverworld, as this book summarizes the chronology, characters, geography and technical details of the Riverworld universe.

A TV series loosely based on the Riverworld saga went into production for the Sci Fi Channel in 2001 but only the feature length pilot episode was completed. It was first aired in 2003. It used elements from the "Fabulous Riverboat" and replaced King John with Nero as the villain.

A PC computer game version of Riverworld was released in October 1998 by Cryo Interactive. The soundtrack was by Stephane Picq and published as a CD by Shooting Star Music.

[edit] Fan Fictions

The Official Philip José Farmer Homepage (see link below) has published some stories written by fans, taking place in the Riverworld universe.

[edit] Scholarly studies

Antoine Ruiz, from Université d'Avignon (France) wrote a Masters Degree memoir entitled Redemption in Philip José Farmer's Riverworld in 1995. This work is available online on the Official PJ Farmer's Homepage.

[edit] External links

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