To Your Scattered Bodies Go [Book Review]

I'm pretty diligent about always having a book with me, but sometimes it's kinda fun to be forced to scrounge around someone else's shelves to find something to read. Since all of my books are still in a dozen scattered boxes, I browsed my father-in-law's bookcase and picked out To Your Scattered Bodies Go, an early 1970s SF novel by Philip José Farmer. I really liked Farmer's The Dungeon books (even though he mostly served only as editor), so I thought it'd be worth trying out another. I didn't realize until I got partway through that this was the start of the famous RiverWorld series, in which every single human being who ever died on Earth finds him- or herself resurrected on a mysterious alien planet alongside a seemingly infinitely-long river. The main character in this first book is Richard Burton (the explorer, not the actor!), a man whose real-life exploits seem more fantastical than fiction. Although Farmer is a little weak at believable characterization and dialogue, the book has a fascinating premise--who builtRiverWorld, how did they bring the dead back to life, and why? One of the odder parts of the book is that Farmer doesn't mind skipping years in the course of a single sentence, which can be a little jarring. All in all though, an interesting start to the series--and an intriguing endnote stating that the next book will follow the adventures of the resurrected Mark Twain.