"Farmer, Philip Jose - Riverworld 5 - Gods of Riverworld" - читать интересную книгу автора (Farmer Phillip Jose)

A limited first edition of this book has been published by Phantasia Press.

The author gratefully acknowledges permission from Charles Scribner's Sons to reprint a line from "Luke Havergal" from The Children of the Night by Edwin Arlington Robinson (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1897).

This Berkley book contains the complete text of the original hardcover edition.

GODS OF RIVERWORLD

A Berkley Book / published by arrangement with G. P. Putnam's Sons

PRINTING HISTORY

G. P. Putnam's edition / October 1983 Berkley edition / January 1985

All rights reserved.

Copyright й 1983 by Philip Jose Farmer.

This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part,

by mimeograph or any other means, without permission.

For information address: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 200 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016.

ISBN: 0-425-07448-X

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To those who won't knuckle under.

Author's Preface

I

Those who have not read the previous volumes of the River-world series, To Your Scattered Bodies Go, The Fabulous Riverboat, The Dark Design, and The Magic Labyrinth, should go to the outline at the back of this book. There the reader can acquaint himself or herself with some events and items only referred to en passant in the book at hand. I have written the outline to avoid lengthy recapitulation. Those familiar with the series so far might also want to read the outline to refresh their memories about certain matters.

I stated in the fourth volume, The Magic Labyrinth, that it would be the final book in the series. I had intended it to be so, but I did leave myself a tiny escape hatch in the final paragraph. My unconscious knew better than my conscious, and it made me (the devil!) install that little door. Some time after the fourth volume appeared, I got to thinking about the vast powers possessed by the people who had entered the tower and how tempting the powers would be.

Also, as 1 knew and some readers pointed out, the truths revealed in the fourth volume might not be the final truths after all.

The opinions and conclusions about economics, ideology, politics, sexuality, and other matters re Homo sapiens vary according to the characters' knowledge or biases. They are not necessarily my own. I am convinced that all races have an equal mental potential and that the same spectrum of stupidity, mediocre intelligence, and genius runs through every race. All races, I'm convinced, have an equal potential for evil or good, love or hate, and saintliness or sin. I'm also convinced from sixty years of wide reading and close observation that human life has always been both savage and comically absurd but that we are not a totally unredeemable species.