What do they wear in the books? A fig leaf?
Riverworld on SyFi, Worth a Series?
- Thread starter Nomad V
- Start date
Aren't they all supposed to be reborn at like 25 years old, too? Do they age from that point or do they remain perpetually 25?
IIRC they don't age.
Yep. No aging. No beards. And I believe, for whatever reason, all the men are circumcised. Which freaks some people out.
There was a distinct lack of cybernetic creatures roaming the River bank, too.
I thought it was OK... Although the lead actor just isn't charismatic enough.
At least it delved more into the purpose/workings of Riverworld than the previous SciFi effort a couple of years ago.
I have not read the books, for what it matters.
At least it delved more into the purpose/workings of Riverworld than the previous SciFi effort a couple of years ago.
I have not read the books, for what it matters.
You had a better chance of enjoying this if you didn't. For those of us that did-let's just say ScyFy kept to its usual high standards of movie-making.
and wern't there suppose to be some hugh fish in that river....
If I remember right.... (its been a long time since I listened to the audiobooks) they discarded their dead in the river so the fish could eat them.
To recap the world of the books:
Everyone wakes up naked, all at once, on the banks of the River. They don't take this well at first, because every last one remembers dying and there's the biggest freak out in history.
The grails dispense food, liquor, weed, tobacco, a narcotic chewing gum, and towels with magnetic tabs that can be used to make clothes, tents or whatever.
There are no land animals whatsoever. There are some really big fish in the River, though.
Everyone is resurrected at the age of 25 and stays that way, and all deformities are corrected. Fat people are no longer fat, etc.
There's almost no metal, anywhere. Things are made of bamboo using stone tools.
Everyone who died between approx. 2 million BC to 2008 AD ends up on the Riverworld. It is presumed people from after that time, a much larger population, were resurrected elsewhere. No one who died before the age of 5 ended up on the Riverworld. They were resurrected on a world called Gardenworld. Resurrectees included Neanderthals and a previously unknown species of hominid, giants called titanthrops.
People who died on Riverworld were almost always resurrected a day later, at another random spot on the River. Some people used suicide as a way of travel. This was called the Suicide Express.
People from one era and one particular time period generally end up resurrected in the same spot, with a minority from another area/time and a small scattering from other time periods. People from the late 20th - early 21st were scattered, however, presumeably because the Riverworld's creators considered them a threat because of their technical knowledge.
Riverworld's creators intended the place as a kind of Purgatory, but there was some dissent, and the dissenters contacted some of humanity's best and brightest and told them to try to get to Riverworld's control center, an enormous construct known as the Dark Tower, located at the north polar sea and the headwaters of the River. These included Burton, Clemens, Cyrano De Bergerac, Odysseus and Jack London.
These same dissenters managed to divert a very large metal-rich meteorite and had it impact the Riverworld. Clemens, aided by King John (of Robin Hood fame) found it and formed the state of Parolando (a joke in Esperanto, which became the official lingua franca of Riverworld; literally, "Twain Land") They collected scientists, engineers and techies from the 20th-21st centuries and introduced guns, swords, and high tech to the Riverworld.
Clemens oversaw the building of a huge, high-tech Riverboat, the Not For Hire, which was stolen by King John, so Clemens built a bigger one and set out after John and the Tower. After he was gone, the 20th-21st century people shook their heads and built a dirigible as the fastest way to get to the Tower.
I don't see how they couldn't have done much of that. As you can see, they dumbed down a lot of the book, which was an epic statement on human resourcefulness and sheer cussedness, and also the ultimate cultural collision tale.
Everyone wakes up naked, all at once, on the banks of the River. They don't take this well at first, because every last one remembers dying and there's the biggest freak out in history.
The grails dispense food, liquor, weed, tobacco, a narcotic chewing gum, and towels with magnetic tabs that can be used to make clothes, tents or whatever.
There are no land animals whatsoever. There are some really big fish in the River, though.
Everyone is resurrected at the age of 25 and stays that way, and all deformities are corrected. Fat people are no longer fat, etc.
There's almost no metal, anywhere. Things are made of bamboo using stone tools.
Everyone who died between approx. 2 million BC to 2008 AD ends up on the Riverworld. It is presumed people from after that time, a much larger population, were resurrected elsewhere. No one who died before the age of 5 ended up on the Riverworld. They were resurrected on a world called Gardenworld. Resurrectees included Neanderthals and a previously unknown species of hominid, giants called titanthrops.
People who died on Riverworld were almost always resurrected a day later, at another random spot on the River. Some people used suicide as a way of travel. This was called the Suicide Express.
People from one era and one particular time period generally end up resurrected in the same spot, with a minority from another area/time and a small scattering from other time periods. People from the late 20th - early 21st were scattered, however, presumeably because the Riverworld's creators considered them a threat because of their technical knowledge.
Riverworld's creators intended the place as a kind of Purgatory, but there was some dissent, and the dissenters contacted some of humanity's best and brightest and told them to try to get to Riverworld's control center, an enormous construct known as the Dark Tower, located at the north polar sea and the headwaters of the River. These included Burton, Clemens, Cyrano De Bergerac, Odysseus and Jack London.
These same dissenters managed to divert a very large metal-rich meteorite and had it impact the Riverworld. Clemens, aided by King John (of Robin Hood fame) found it and formed the state of Parolando (a joke in Esperanto, which became the official lingua franca of Riverworld; literally, "Twain Land") They collected scientists, engineers and techies from the 20th-21st centuries and introduced guns, swords, and high tech to the Riverworld.
Clemens oversaw the building of a huge, high-tech Riverboat, the Not For Hire, which was stolen by King John, so Clemens built a bigger one and set out after John and the Tower. After he was gone, the 20th-21st century people shook their heads and built a dirigible as the fastest way to get to the Tower.
I don't see how they couldn't have done much of that. As you can see, they dumbed down a lot of the book, which was an epic statement on human resourcefulness and sheer cussedness, and also the ultimate cultural collision tale.
Well he does say recap of the books in the first line. People can just not read it. (Given how long it is, that's easier than reading it!) 
Yep, if anything his description is just enough to make me want to read the books.
Makes me want to read them again.
The movie was so-so. Not the worse I've seen, but hardly great. And how could they make the hero of the books, Burton, into a villian?
*ducks and covers* Sorry-I just like to discover things myself. I rarely read the backs of paperbacks prior to buying unless the cover/title are completely confusing. I just thought he was doing some of the author's work for him, that's all-but like Temis said, it's easier to Not read it given the length of the post.
Since the whole thread is about the miniseries, I didn't really think I'd be spoiling much by providing details of the world Philip Jose Farmer created, to illustrate just what the miniseries missed.
I have my own idea how Riverworld: The Series should be done, but I'm going to make a new thread. And I'll be sure to put spoilers on it.
I didn't hate the movie, but I didn't exactly love it either. The first half was pretty awful at times, but the second improved on it. The bleakness of it all was a little much at times, even the landscape couldn't really make up for it. And the aliens were cheese to the extreme.
I have really loved Tahmoh Penikett in other things he's done, but without the quality writing that (usually) accompanied BSG and Dollhouse, he was a complete mess here.
Reading through this thread, I'm far more interested in sitting down and reading about the world created by Philip José Farmer than further exploring Wolfe & Badat's take on it.
I have really loved Tahmoh Penikett in other things he's done, but without the quality writing that (usually) accompanied BSG and Dollhouse, he was a complete mess here.
Reading through this thread, I'm far more interested in sitting down and reading about the world created by Philip José Farmer than further exploring Wolfe & Badat's take on it.
