The Dark Design

Riverworld Saga, Book 3

By: Philip José Farmer

Narrated by: Paul Hecht

Years have passed on Riverworld. Entire nations have risen, and savage wars have been fought—all since the dead of Earth found themselves resurrected in their magnificent new homeworld. Yet, the truth about the Ethicals, the powerful engineers of this mysterious "afterlife," remains unknown. But a curious cross-section of humanity is determined to change that situation…at any cost.

Intrepid explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton leads the most remarkable voyage of discovery he has ever undertaken. Hot on his heels are Samuel Clemens, King John of England, and Cyrano de Bergerac. Spurred by the promise of ultimate answers, they chart a course across the vast polar sea—and toward the awesome tower that looms above it. But getting there will be more than half the battle. For death on Riverworld has become chillingly final....

Listen to more of the Riverworld Saga.©1977 Philip José Farmer (P)2010 Recorded Books

Critic reviews

“Charts a territory somewhere between Gulliver’s Travels and The Lord of the Rings.” ( Time)

Action and philosophy

Excellent characters, fun hard sci-fi elements, enjoyable mix of philosophy and action. The story of historical figures from all time continues and the cast gets bigger. And the implications of both discovies and consequences loom even larger.

Too much meandering

It just wasn't all that good. Too many characters too much hard to follow. Not enough clarity

Riverworld - the story continues

Any additional comments?

If you have enjoyed the books thus far, then you will probably enjoy this one as well. Personally, I am not sure the story is actually going anywhere any more. I love the world he has built but am waiting for the over-arching story to actually go somewhere. If you are expecting to get some more insight into that aspect of the story - this book is sure to disappoint. If you just love the world the author has created - then keep reading - I expect there is plenty more where that came from.

Pick a Unit of Measurement, Please.

I want to start by clearly saying, the narration was top-notch, and I will be looking for more books read by Paul Hecht. My criticism is solely about the writing.

The book feels like it drags more than the previous books. I wasn't sure why until I walked 20 feet, or 6.096 meters, to my kitchen to put away the gallon, or 3.79 liters, of juice I had purchased earlier in the day. The constant translation of feet to meters and meters to feet was maddening. Please pick a unit of measurement and stick with it. I'll do the math and convert it myself if I feel that I must know or if it impacts the story at all.

At this point in the story, it feels like the basic premise is starting to wear a little thin (even without the measurements). At first, it sounds like a great idea. What if you could pick your favorite person from history and have him or her meet another favorite person from history? And it absolutely is fun, until it happens over and over again. It's like we need to meet every named person from the 36 billion resurrected on this world. Thankfully there seems to be a core set of characters we can try to lock onto, but it feels like we are constantly being introduced to new characters just to introduce new characters.

It's book three, and I've started book four today. I'm invested in the story, and I want to see how it ends, but it's such a slog some days. Hopefully, book four picks up the pace.

This is a great series of books!

Out of the three so far, this one seems to be one of the toughest to get through. But it does start to draw all the players together.