Michael Goodine's Reviews > The Magic Labyrinth

In honor of the 50th anniversary of Farmer's Hugo win for "To Your Scattered Bodies Go" I've been rereading his famous Riverworld series. I suppose this is still his best known work, but perhaps it has been eclipsed by his Wold Newton stuff.

"The Magic Labyrinth" was the original ending of the series (but Farmer returned to write one more, which I've got coming in the mail). The big reveal at the end of the book is satisfying enough, but this is probably the weakest of the four main books in the series. The problem I have is that Farmer doesn't really seem to care about his characters. Some of the characters we've been following for the past three books die between books. Other favorites die between chapters. A whole bunch of favorites we've been following since book one just disappear since their deaths were in a chapter that Farmer cut from the book (you can find it in "Riverworld War," a hodge-podge of Farmer's literary leftovers that had a small print run in the early 1980s).

The book is still decent enough. It moves a lot more quickly than "The Dark Design." The premise is still great. I still want to see a TV adaptation of the series.

I'll pen a few notes about the fifth book in the series next month.