Pun Salad

Well, to quote Pepper Potts from Iron Man 3: "Oh my god... that was really violent...".

This is the second book in Philip José Farmer's Riverworld series, and I read the $1.95 paperback I got back in 1973 or so. I think I read it back then as well, but did not remember anything about it if so.

The main character this time around is Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain. He, like most of the the rest of humanity who have ever lived, have been resurrected on Riverworld, for unknown reasons, along the banks of the millions-miles-long River. Supplied daily with food, drink, tobacco products. After twenty-odd years, humanity has settled into their Edenic utopia…

Nah, just kidding. They've reverted to mass bloodshed, and treachery; breaking themselves into little fiefdoms based on race. And (since there are a lot of savvy resurrected engineers) they've developed impressive levels of technology.

Sam is obsessed with finding out who's behind this scheme; but he's even more obsessed with doing it by his (see the title) fabulous riverboat, modeled after the ones he used to pilot on the Mississippi. He plans on driving it upriver to the River's source, where (he's told) the mystery might be revealed. His dream only wants raw material, which is provided via a "Mysterious Stranger" who's powerful enough to divert a metallic meteor to impact near Sam's location.

Sam's allies include "Joe Miller", a giant prehistoric human, Cyrano de Bergerac, Mozart, and (oops) wicked King John, a persistent thorn in Sam's side. There's a lot of conflict, both internal and external. Alliances are formed, most ending in betrayal and (as Pepper notes) violence. And the ending is kind of a cliffhanger. There are, after all, three remaining books in the series.