The Fabulous Riverboat (Riverworld #2) (1971)

by Philip Jose Farmer

All of humanity has been resurrected along the shores of The Riverworld, though no one knows why. 

Guided by a rebel from among the ranks of those who created the place, Sam Clemens and his friends build a riverboat like the ones from Clemens's Mississippi days to search out the headwaters of the river and the mysterious castle which is rumored to exist there.

 

In the process, they build a nation and become involved in war and intrigue with their neighbors. 

I was enjoying this novel. 

The prose is unexceptional, but efficient and workmanlike, and Farmer tells a decent story in an interesting setting.

 

Philip Jose Farmer

Then Farmer introduces the neighboring state of Soul City and its leader, Elwood Hacking, and derails the whole thing.

 

"Fairy Ship" (Russian)

Hacking is a former slave who is founding an all-black state where "soul brothers and soul sisters can loaf and invite their souls."

 

"Fabulous Boat" (French)

He is irrational and reactionary.

 

"The Magic River" (Dutch)

One of his final acts is to rape a white woman and a passage describing them glimpsed in a window together contrasts the woman's "long honey-colored hair and very white skin" with "the bushy hair and black face of Elwood Hacking" in a very distasteful way.

 

"Journey Beyond Death" (Portuguese)

Given his fair treatment of other black characters such as Hugo Firebrass and Jill Gulbirra (from the next book in the series), I am not convinced that Farmer is an unqualified racist, but I was puzzled and disquieted by this aspect of the novel.

"The Amazing Riverboat" (Danish)

"The Fabulous Riverboat" (Spanish)

"On the Time Stream" (German)

"Mythical Ship" (Czech)

"At the Source of the River" (Italian)

"The Fairy Ship" (Bulgarian)

"The Miraculous Vessel" (Romanian)

"The Most Wonderful Steamboat" (Polish)