To Your Scattered Bodies Go

To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip Jose Farmer

All those who ever lived on Earth have found themselves resurrected--healthy, young, and naked as newborns--on the grassy banks of a mighty river, in a world unknown. Miraculously provided with food, but with no clues to the meaning of their strange new afterlife, billions of people from every period of Earth's history-- and prehistory--must start again.

Sir Richard Francis Burton would be the first to glimpse the incredible way-station, a link between worlds. This forbidden sight would spur the renowned 19th-century explorer to uncover the truth. Along with a remarkable group of compatriots, including Alice Liddell Hargreaves (the Victorian girl who was the inspiration for Alice in Wonderland), an English-speaking Neanderthal, a WWII Holocaust survivor, and a wise extraterrestrial, Burton sets sail on the magnificent river. His mission: to confront humankind's mysterious benefactors, and learn the true purpose--innocent or evil--of the Riverworld...

A very exciting and fascinating novel,winner of the Hugo in 1971,which became famed for tthe grandeur of its worldbuilding.Using Sir Richard Burton,intrepid explorer,linguist,,translator of 1001 Arabian Nights and the Kama Sutra,with an insatiable curiosity about the world,and a restlessness which led him away to adventure in Victorian times,as the hero is a brilliant stroke.We eagerly join in Burton's quest for the truth about this strange world.

There are some faults,of course,and some longueurs at times,plus an awful lot of fighting,and outdated sexism to some degree,but the lure of learning more about this stupendous resurrection,who is behind it,and what is their purpose,keeps us reading.

Interesting today when even mentioning smoking is a taboo in books to see that tobacco is up there as a necessity with food in this bookIt always seems a little odd reading older books and seeing the prominence of smoking.