The Fabulous Riverboat
Written by Philip Jose Farmer
www.ink2quill.com

“The Fabulous Riverboat” is a scifi gem of a scifi novel written by American writer Philip Jose Farmer. It is the second book in “The Riverworld Series”. The author is a man who aspired to write works the caliber of authors like Bloch and Heinlein. The title of the novel is inspired from the poem, named Holy Sonnets, by the English poet, John Donne.

As I said in the previous post, this novel is a similar journey continued from the first novel called “To Your Scattered Bodies Go”. The protagonist of this novel is none other than Sam Clemens, yes Mark Twain himself. Basically he builds a Riverboat to reach the end of the long River to get some answers. He spends his lives into acquiring resources and building a riverboat that will achieve his objective.

“The Fabulous Riverboat” is the story of Samuel Langhorne Clemens trying to build a riverboat to sail upriver and get some answers, if not freedom, from the re-incarnation cycle of Riverworld. He discovers a city/ colony named Parolando, after the esperanto words meaning twin places or twin cities. Sam encounters a being who claims to be one of the creatures who runs the Riverworld Project. This man tells Sam that he brought down a comet that was rich in the metals he needed to build his riverboat. The tricky part for Sam was to mine the minerals and create all the subsidiary industries necessary to build his ship. There is also the past time of war that demands creativity, people, time and resources. Add the sociopathic John Lackland who is co-ruler with him and we understand all the varying dimensions of Sam’s obstacles. As a side note, Sam meets his wife Livy who leaves him to be with the dashing Cyrano de Bergerac. This leaves him heartbroken and unwilling to pair up with someone else.

I liked this story as much if not more than the previous one because the character of Sam Clemens seems more focused and knowledgeable of what has to be done. I even found the character of Joe Miller very interesting although his story was not developed enough. I liked the way he had to deal with all the different personalities from different times, cultures and mentalities. Most characters struggled, with great difficulties, to communicate and get along with their fellow people who were as different as could be. (Some of the stereotypes were a bit much though).

Of all the people in history to choose as a protagonist/ hero, Sam Clemens would not have been my first pick but this works surprisingly well. He is smart and focused and has good social skills, all of which I would expect Sam Clemens to have. He is the talent nobody would have thought of for picking as a protagonist. I have to call this as brilliant.

One thing that is interesting in this re-incarnation cycle mystery is how things like war, slavery, oppression, ignorance and a criminal mentality hold people back from striving for the goal that really counts. I think of people like John Lackland who is clearly disturbed and a dangerous person.

John Ink2Quill

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