Amph RIP Philip Jose Farmer (Was: Riverworld)

Thread on this?

A series of books by Philip Jose Farmer
The concept:

Every single person who has ever lived and died on Earth suddenly ressurected on a giant planet. The planet is a huge valley dominated by a river that goes down the middle, with impassable mountains a few miles away.

All they get is a device every few miles along the river that gives them 3 meals a day, the land grows bamboo for building stuff, and the river.

A given person wakes up in an area with 70% of the people from his nationality/time, 20% some other nationality/time, 10% random

The series is a blend of people dealing with this situation, and unraveling the mystery of why/who ressurected them

I don't know who/if any have read this series, so I'm not doing spoilers. Personally, I think its one of the most original concepts ever, but is really executed badly as it goes through the series. I'd recommend the first book, to get your mind going. The later ones are junk.

The Sci-Fi channel did a movie on it, but I missed it, anyone see it?

Amazon Link

 

I saw the Scfi Channel movie and liked it enough that I wish they would kept on going with it. I read the original Riverworld story and like you thought it was very original, especially the ending. The Scfi channel would have shown some guts if they would have gone the route of the first story.

 

I've read four or five of the books including the climax and enjoyed them thoroughly. I believe there are one or 2 more that have sidetrack plots not relating to the main characters in the main plot line. Great concept and very well written.

 

I couldn't find an author thread so I've unlocked and upped this. Philip Jose Farmer has passed away at the age of 91. I saw the news on a blog I follow but here's a link to the story in his hometown paper.

RIP

 

RIP.

 

A little late, but aw too bad. I was recently thumbing through GURPS Riverworld and imagining how fun the concept would be to play with.