"The Dark Design" by Philip José Farmer (1918-2009)

 

Publisher: Berkley Medallion

Copyright: 1977

ISBN: None listed

The Dark Design is the third book in the Riverworld series, and much like the "The Fabulous Riverboat" the story revolves around the building of in this case a Zeppelin for the purpose of getting the source of the river. WE once again meet some interesting characters such as Tom Mix (1920s &30s Hollywood movie star), Jack London (Author), Nur el-din el-Musafir as 12th Century traveller who wrote extensively about his exploits, and many others. Hermann Goring once again makes a brief appearance, as do a few other from the first two books.

I personally found this book to be well written, but once again had some trouble believing the premise behind the various developments the Riverworld residents made. Yes, I realise that "the willing suspension of belief" is a key component to science fiction, however when you have scenarios which have people developing 20th century technology without the background or specialized equipment to doo so, it simply stretches believability a little too much in my opinion.

Once again in this novel I felt that the characters weren't as well developed as they were in the first.

This book overall was good, but no, as I've said before a good as the first "To Your Scattered Bodies Go", and considering the amount of potential the premise had it could have been exploited in many ways rather than as a goal to see who could reach the polar sea first, no matter who suffered.

It has been many years since I first read this book, and while it was a good read I'm still out on a limb as to whether it's a good as some people say.