To Your Scattered Bodies Go is frequently mentioned as being among the best science-fiction novels ever released. To be honest, it wasn't very high on my own TBR. The premise sounded frankly ridiculous and its 1970s release suggested that it might be too out-there for my liking. I even struggled to properly parse its title.

I picked it up because I came across a beautifully cheap vintage edition (who could resist?). Turned out, it was exactly what I needed. Pulpy, but very intriguing because of its mystery-driven plot and challenging ideas. What surprised me even more than that there even was a plot was the fact that many of the big questions are actually resolved in the cause of the story. This is where genuine science fiction comes in.

Apparently, after you die you wake up at this endless river with all the other people from Earth, including what is from your respective perspective (far) past or in the future. I think the main reason why this didn't immediately drew me in was because I couldn't imagine where the story would go from this starting point. I think the nature of the novel is best captured by the mysteries the protagonist pursues. Here is a best-of.

How have they been resurrected?
Who brought them back to life, and is there a reason why?
Where are they now? What's the nature of their environment? Is there a scientific or a supernatural explanation for their existence there? Will there be a revelation (of the Truth)?
How much time has passed since the early 21st century? How long did it take to create their world?
What will happen to people who die in this afterlife?
Would they be bald forever?

Then there is the strong cultural dimension to their challenge. Fully evolved human beings (well, there are others) must now start from scratch. What kind of society will they be able build? Would they end up with political regimes they deemed ideal (or the lesser evil) in their time? Would there bet those who would exploit others? Would they be able to overcome the prejudices of their day, given that they now have the chance to talk to people from other times and geographic or religious backgrounds?

Naturally, the entire situation poses a very difficult question to religion. It's clearly nothing like the aftermath postulated in the holy books. I loved how now even living in the afterlife puts an end to (perhaps literal) eternal theorizing. There is not even agreement on whether their (new) creators are benevolent or whether they now found themselves in purgatory.

Until now I've only talked of the ideas. I think if you enjoy the book then your enjoyment will primarily stem from how the actual turn of events are interspersed with the explicit pondering of the kind discussed above. Our hero is Sir Richard Francis Burton, a British explorer and adventurer who lived in the 19th century, and I think he was chosen as protagonist as he exemplifies strong opinions of his day while you could still assume that he would be willing to change. He's not a bad man, but born later he probably would have thought differently about some matters.

There are minor characters that are well enough developed and that lead to many interesting conversations. It would be an overstatement to say that you will miss them later on – they leave the main events quite unceremoniously – but they and their ideas are recognizable and relevant to what makes the book what it is. They are even involved in some action sequences that are fun in this pulpy way.

It's certainly amusing how Burton later teams up with Nazi leader Hermann Göring. I think the purpose of the character is much less evident – there certainly isn't any clear form of redemption or anything – but taken from the context in which he lived his historically somewhat accurate personality traits appear more tragic than despicable.

To Your Scattered Bodies Go is really something else, even if it doesn't fully stick the landing in the final act. It's certainly not the big reveals that will stay with you (maybe it was built-up for the follow-ups in the series), but for the unique and novel perspective that it offers.

Rating: 4/5

Primo libro dell'immenso ciclo del fiume di Farmer, dove l'intera umanità risorge nella Valle del Fiume, ma a quanto pare è una resurrezione che non ha nulla a che vedere con quanto descritto in alcuna delle religioni conosciute.
Ma soprattutto, l'animo umano non è cambiato, non c'è alcuna salvezza, gli uomini sono risorti immutati, con i loro pregi, difetti e vizi.
C'è chi si dedica allo schiavismo, chi alla guerra, chi allo stupro, e chi, esattamente come faceva quando era sulla Terra, all'esplorazione, utilizzando però uno strano mezzo di trasporto: il suicidio.

I've recently been interested in reading some of the past Hugo winners that I haven't read yet. I admit that I picked up To Your Scattered Bodies Go with high expectations. I had heard of Riverworld before, and, like I said, Hugo.

I'm pretty sure that even if my expectations hadn't started high, I'd have been disappointed. His concept - that people from all across time and every place on Earth wake up together in strange little valleys along a river, could have been interesting. Unfortunately, it wasn't, ultimately. Farmer's writing made me feel like he was mostly excited to be using historic characters as his main figures, and was not nearly so focused on what they were doing or why they were there.

It easily took well over half the book for the main character to have any focused goal. Even though the book starts with a mystery, progress is not really made towards it until close to the end. Then all at once, things seem to happen and it feels very abrupt.

I have a pretty big issue with the depths of his characters too. His main character, Richard Francis Burton, sounds like he could have been extremely interesting, but instead feels very flat. Even accepting that character's personality, the characters around him were, if anything, worse. I cared little about them and had little interest in what happened to them. Again, there were so many opportunities to explore something interesting here, and it just didn't happen.

The book ends by asking more questions than it started with, but I didn't feel tremendously excited to read a sequel. I would like to know the answers, but I don't feel like spending more time with the characters to get there.

Now this, is some creative shit.

The concept of To Your Scattered Bodies Go is that everyone whoever died on Earth is reborn along the shores of Riverworld. Literally this means billions of people awake from their deaths, reborn in youthful bodies, and are confronted with the entirety of human civilizations, from ancient Sumerians to tribal Native Americans to futuristic twenty-first century mankind, as their neighbors. Our point of view character is Sir Richard Francis Burton, who is obsessed with discovering the meaning behind the resurrection. Along the way we meet a colorful cast of character, including a Neanderthal, and actual extraterrestrial, a stand-in character for the author, and Hermann Göring, to just mention a few.

The potential here is huge, Farmer has the entirety of human history at his disposal to explore topics of human nature, morality and death. For example, our protagonist is faced with his past antisemitism (The Jew, the Gypsy and El Islam, which is an actual book from Sir Richard Francis Burton) when a holocaust survivor joins his group. Mankind is not only confronted with their past, but also their future mistakes (such as when Earth is visited by extraterrestrials). Farmer is also not afraid to show the more violent aspect of human nature, as slavery and warfare become commonplace almost immediately in Riverworld, whilst also providing the opportunity for overcoming their past mistakes.

For me I was just blow away by the pure potential of the universe Philip Jose Farmer created in To Your Scattered Bodies Go, and I look forward to continuing the series to see if that potential pays off. I hope it does not get bogged down in explaining the reasons why or how Riverworld was created, and instead focuses on the society created out of the amalgamation of all mankind.

I finished this book a week ago and I'm still not sure how I feel about it. I originally wanted to read it because I watched the tv movie ages ago and loved it, but the books are very different. Though the idea of everyone who ever existed coming back to life at the same time is there the book has a lot of violence and anger and not much else.