Riverworld and Other Stories

© 1984 by Philip Jose Farmer

All right – here it is. My first PJF book I hated.

Well … there are qualifications to that statement.

First, it’s properly an anthology, eleven stories in all, stories ranging in length from 83 to 5 pages. While I offered a few As and Bs, I easily graded five of them with the dreaded – and rare – Hopper F.

Why?

Well, a combination of subject matter and execution, I suppose. Two tales featured less-than-respectful representations of Christ. One got an F for “blasphemous / depressing,” another for “blasphemous / yuck.” A third story got an F for just “yuck”, being a hyper-sexualized take on life in an old folks’ home. Another F was awarded to a story because I had no idea what happened, why it happened, why it was even written, and for wasting a half-hour of my life. The fifth F was just an excuse to be obscene. Vulgar, obnoxious, disgusting and – boringly obscene.

However … there were a couple of stories I liked. Not a lot, not like, say, the ones in Asimov’s Bicentennial Man, but a lot in relation to this anthology as a whole. There was a mid-sized attempt at an off-kilter revision of a Sherlock Holmes tale which felt properly paced and logically solid, though I am admittedly not a “mystery” connoisseur. But it made me want to investigate Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective work, so that’s something. Another mystery about a missing Mexican and stereotypical bad guys threw out an “obvious” clue right on page 3 which I immediately noted but could not pull out the significance – until the very head-slapping end. The final story involved colorfully ugly characters being stalked by something down in the sewers that would gross out Stephen King. Ugly, cynical and depressing, but well-done for what it attempts to do.

Overall, though, the entire thing was quite distasteful for me. A bad way to end my Philip Jose Farmer experiment, the thirteenth book out of thirteen I read since January. Kinda like going on a pleasant week-long vacation out in the mountains only to come home and find your toilet overflowed.

Riverworld and Other Stories: Won’t re-read it and won’t keep it in my “library.”

Overall Grade: D



“Riverworld” – F

“JC on the Dude Ranch” – F

“The Volcano” – B

“The Henry Miller Dawn Patrol” – F

“The Problem of the Sore Bridge” – A

“Brass and Gold” – B

“The Jungle Rot Kid on the Nod” – F

“The Voice of the Sonar” – B-

“Monolog” – F

“The Leaser of Two Evils” – D

“The Phantom of the Sewers” – A



N.B. In a couple of days I’ll write a lengthy post detailing my experience with one SF writer over 5 months. Not quite sure at the moment how it will skew, but I’m looking forward to seeing what comes out. And I’m even thinking about repeating the experiment, maybe next year, with another author. Hmmm. Heinlein? Wolfe? Someone prolific but who I’ve read very little (Anthony? Norton?). We’ll see. Already I’m excited!