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...MAGIC LABYRINTH by Philip José Farmer; Berkley/Putnam...
Back in 1971, Philip José Farmer abandoned the sci-fi world of space opera with a book that introduced this "Riverworld," titled To Your Scattered Bodies Go. In a tantalizing curtain raiser, Sir Richard Francis Burton, searcher for the source of the Nile, translator of The Arabian Nights, soldier, swordsman and linguist, dies in Trieste in 1890 (as did the historical Burton). Moments later-or is it millenniums?-he awakens, naked and bewildered, on the bank of the river. Burton's reaction is entirely in character. While other resurrectees stagger about in shock, the world's most...
...Magic Labyrinth charts a territory somewhere between Gulliver's Travels and The Lord of the Rings. It also raises a few moral questions. Is Göring a villain or a political puritan who, "once having given his loyalty ... did not withdraw it"? As for the agnostic Clemens, Farmer writes: "Sometimes, he thought that his belief in determinism was only an excuse to escape his guilt about certain matters. If this were true, then he was exercising free will in making up the explanation that he wasn't responsible for anything, good or bad, that...
...important ends manage to stay untied. But along the way, Farmer offers his audience a wide-screed adventure that never fails to provoke, amuse and educate. Students of religion will find an impressive comprehension of the Judaic, Christian and Islamic ideas of the after life. History buffs should be diverted by the author's ability to mix notables, from Baron von Richthofen to U.S. Grant, like grains of sand in an hourglass. The greatest beneficiaries should be science fiction fans. For too long they have filled their shelves with charmless fantasies and technical jargon that talks to itself...
This is not to say that The Magic Labyrinth is quite the classic it might have been. Like many another puzzlemaker, Philip José Farmer has trouble with his ultimate revelation. The idea of a highly advanced society using its unearthly powers to redirect humanity is neither especially new (2001 hints at a similar solution) nor appropriate. Ten-year followers of the Riverworld are likely to feel that they have crossed deserts, scaled mountains and battled hostile tribesmen for a potty message: Farmer's El Dorado looks suspiciously like Hoboken...