Riverworld

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Riverworld is a novel series by Philip José Farmer detailing the adventures of humanity in a world reshaped into one long river-valley. All humans that have ever been born are mysteriously restored to life with a body in its prime, and left to live in this world. There are no ores to make tools more advanced than Paleolithic, so humans are incapable of getting to the other side of the mountains that block the sides of the river. Humans that are killed awaken the next day somewhere else on the river. The novels are told from the perspective of different characters, the first is centered around Sir Richard Francis Burton and the second; Samuel Langhorn Clemens.

The books, in order, are:

  • "The Day of the Great Shout" (1965) (Novella)
  • "The Suicide Express" (1966) (Novella. The novellas were later combined into the first book.)
  • To Your Scattered Bodies Go (1971)
  • The Fabulous Riverboat (1971)
  • The Dark Design (1977)
  • The Magic Labyrinth (1980)
  • Gods of Riverworld (1983)

These were followed by a pair of anthologies, featuring short stories by Farmer and a variety of other authors.

  • Tales of Riverworld (1993)
  • Quest To Riverworld (1993)

There was also a GURPS setting adapting the novels; copies of it were given to the writers of the anthology stories as references. There were also two adaptations on the Syfy Channel; aside from the basic concepts, neither had much to do with the original.

Tropes used in Riverworld include:

Syfy Adaptation

The Syfy made two pilots for a possible television series -- one in 2003, the other in 2010.

  • Big Bad: Emperor Nero in the first adaptation, and Francisco Pizarro in the second. Given that King John is just a walk-on role in Robin Hood to most Americans this isn't surprising.
  • Bury Your Gays: Averted; in the 2010 adaptation two of the main characters are a gay couple, but they don't die. They can't die! They do spend all their time running around looking for each other after each not-quite-death though.
  • The Chessmaster

Ellman: Is this another one of their chess games?
Male Ethereal: (appearing) Chess. One of my favourites.
Female Ethereal: (appearing) Mine too.
Male Ethereal: Your move.
Female Ethereal: No. (indicates Ellman) His.

  • Colony Drop: What causes The End of the World as We Know It in 2003.
  • Cool Boat: Averted in 2010; obviously it would be impractical to construct a huge paddlesteamer/aircraft carrier with Steampunk machine-guns, but would it kill them to mock up some armor and gatling turrets, as opposed to a small black powder cannon and sandbags?
  • Did Not Do the Research: Tomoe Gozen uses a two-blade fighting style developed hundreds of years after her death.
  • Evil Brit: Burton is made the villain of the 2010 movie, even though he's the hero of the novels!
  • Femme Fatale: (2010) Allegra. And proud of it.
  • Gladiator Games: (2003) Nero is captured and placed in the arena to fight to the death. Unfortunately he's in his element (a case of Did Not Do the Research as Nero entered the arena to race chariots) and not only quickly defeats his opponent, but also the local Big Bad, taking his throne. In the 2010 movie Burton thinks this is the true purpose of Riverworld.
  • Hey, It's That Guy!: For Battlestar Galactica fans -- Helo and Gaeta.
    • For the 2010 adaptation, Methos is Sir Richard Francis Burton.
  • Historical Villain Upgrade: Burton is made the villain of the 2010 movie, even though he's the hero of the novels!
    • Sir Richard Burton was British. This is an American adaptation. What else could you expect? If there's a Brit, he's a villain...
  • Mechanical Horse: Pizarro rides a horse, an animal which didn't exist in Riverworld in the novels. But when the horse is 'killed' they see it's flesh has been cut open to reveal robot parts.
  • Mind Rape: In addition to the waterboarding, Matt Ellman is tortured by having visions of his beloved Jessie having sex with Burton beamed into his head.
  • Naked on Revival: Averted in 2010 where everyone crawls out of the river in the clothes they died in, but not in the first adaptation.
  • Nietzsche Wannabe: Burton.

"If you had seen what I'd seen, your eyes would be dead too."

  • Scenery Porn
  • Storming the Castle: The 2010 movie has a scene involving jumping from a burning zeppelin onto the deck of the Not for Hire to battle Burton's men. The sequence is rather underwhelming.
  • Suicide Attack: A female suicide bomber kills the protagonist in the 2010 adaptation. She is not happy when she wakes up in the afterlife and discovers it's full of infidels.
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