The Dark Design (Riverworld III) by Philip Jose Farmer – Review

What is the “dark design” behind the mysterious resurrection of everyone who has ever lived on Earth on the same day on the planet Riverworld? Who are the Ethicals, and why would they want no one to know about their headquarters at Riverworld’s pole, or their reasons for the resurrection of billions of humans? Why have the resurrections of the dead stopped? What happens when different disparate groups of individuals attempt to converge on the Ethicals’ headquarters, and discover their secrets? As with the first two novels in his Riverworld series, in The Dark Design, Philip Jose Farmer explores the answers to the questions I just mentioned, and many others of a philosophical and ethical nature. This third novel in the Riverworld series has its admirers and haters, and reviews of it are decidedly mixed. Read on to get my opinion of this science fiction classic, and please feel welcome to add your thoughts on The Dark Design by using the Comment form below.

Sir Richard Burton (whom we’re introduced to in the first book of the series, the Hugo Award-winning To Your Scattered Bodies Go) and his group of followers (including the alien, Monat, the Neanderthal, Kazz, his friend Peter Frigate, and his love interest, Alice Liddell Hargreaves), make up one of the groups of people headed to the planet’s pole at the headwaters of the globe-encircling 10,000,000 mile long River aboard the Hadji II. Others are headed there also, like Samuel Clemens and his followers, introduced in the second novel in the series, The Fabulous Riverboat; and we are introduced in The Dark Design to Akhenaten, heretic pharaoh of Egypt, who hopes to discover his one true Sun god at river’s end, and writer Jack London, traveling together with film cowboy Tom Mix.

What’s more, in Parolando (the region Clemens and his forces had taken control over), yet another group of people–led by a friend of Clemens, Milton Firebrass, and including the Austrian engineer David Schwartz, whaling captain Ezekiel “Zeke” Hardy, a very interesting Japanese naval officer known as Piscator (the Fisherman) because of his love for fishing, and Cyrano de Bergerac–have the grand scheme of arriving at the Ethicals’ headquarters far more quickly than anyone else, by flying there via a dirigible they construct. They still need someone to serve as pilot, though, and while they are having an impromptu outdoors meeting under the influence of alcohol, their desire is granted in the form of the strong-willed feminist Jill Gulbirra, who paddles quietly up on them in her canoe. She is undoubtedly the most qualified of the band, having had much experience flying airships on Earth, but she has to earn the trust of Firebrass and the others first and prove her loyalty to them.

Jill is an interesting but very headstrong character, who also happens to have been Jack London’s lover on Riverworld, though in general, she prefers relationships with women. A criticism of this novel and Farmer that I saw several people express online is that they consider Farmer’s portrayal of her to be “sexist” in some way. Personally, I don’t see that, as it seems to me that Farmer goes to great lengths to relate Jill’s history, why she chose her name, and her motivations, and I think he handles the issue of Jill’s sexual orientation pretty well.  There are some males around her that she’s had past experiences dealing with who express hostility or negative viewpoints about lesbianism, but then there are other males who have changed and grown due to their resurrection(s) and the experiences they’ve undergone, and who have gone from being anti-feminist and/or anti-lesbian people while on Earth to being more open and accepting on Riverworld. I think that Farmer was trying, and largely succeeded in doing, to make Jill Gulbirra a tough, strong, but sympathetic female character. Maybe others were commenting on the views of some of the male characters towards her, but their views don’t necessarily equate with the author’s views.

Another criticism some people have is the telling of parts of the novel through means like newspaper reports by Roger Bligh, “reporter for the Daily Leak,” the 5-page newspaper of Parolando, and letters written by Peter Frigate, and Frigate’s dreams. While I would accede the point that there are sections of the novel that could be cut out without much detriment to the overall plot of it, and that it is a rather lengthy novel, I personally didn’t mind any of these methods of advancing the novel’s plot. And, since Farmer admits in his Preface “that Peter Jairus Frigate remarkably resembles the author,” and that he is “the basis for that character,” and Frigate has told Burton he’s a science fiction author, I’d say let him tell the story the way he chooses to do so. Frigate (and Farmer) are both obviously major fans of Burton’s (and Farmer, of all of the characters he writes about in the series), and I think it adds to the coolness of the series that Farmer has written himself into the plot. Many differ with this POV, though….there are those who are: “completely uninterested in the writer’s personal philosophies, thoughts and opinions on matters unrelated to the Riverworld series,” and who “just want to read a good story.” In my opinion, the writer’s personal philosophies, thoughts, and opinions have been written about and have been center stage from the very first book onwards, and are a major reason why I and so many fans love the series.

I won’t get into who gets to the Ethicals’ headquarters first, or the fates of the characters who die, or reveal any answers to the questions I mentioned at the beginning of this review. The adventures of the characters as they seek to make their way to the River’s headwaters and the planet’s pole are suspenseful and fun to read, and I don’t want to reveal (many) spoilers. Of course, their are two novels which follow The Dark Design, so you know by that fact alone that even the people who make it to the Ethicals’ headquarters don’t get all of their questions answered by the end of the novel.

The Dark Design is a richly rewarding work of science fiction that gets even better on re-reading it. When I first read it, I liked it, and was impressed with Philip Jose Farmer’s intensive research of the characters he writes about, but I frankly felt like some other critics of this novel have–that it was too long and could have benefited by a greater degree of editorial pruning.  But as I reread it, and as I kept gaining more understanding into characters that I had read about in the first two novels, I welcomed the length, and wanted to find out even more about the characters and their lives while on Earth. The Dark Design is a SF classic I highly recommend, but it’s probably necessary to have read the first two books in the series to most fully appreciate it and get into it.