Michael's Reviews > The Magic Labyrinth

Book 4 concludes the Riverworld series by finally answering the questions that made me want to keep reading even when the story or the writing bogged down. Much of book 4 is about the riverboat battle between Sam Clemens and King John. I didn't care about Clemens or his boat, and apparently neither did the author since PJ Farmer kills off Clemens (spoiler alert) and returns to original book 1 protagonist Richard Burton in the finale.

Honestly you can skip sections 8 thru 11 -- 140 pointless pages of Clemens vs John dueling riverboats -- and skip ahead to the section 12 "The Last 20,000 Miles" for the good stuff. You won't miss out on anything. Overall the Riverworld books have a great premise but were badly in need of a good editor. Farmer got carried away. There's two short books worth of good material in these four long books.