"Philip Jose Farmer - 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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PRINTED IN THK UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
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.

Dramatis Personae
Thirty-five billion people from every country and every age of Earth's history were resurrected along the great and
winding River of Riverworld. The reader will be relieved to hear that only a few of them will play a part in this story.
Logo: A grandson of King Priam of ancient Troy, born in the twelfth century B.C., slain at the age of four by a
Greek soldier during the fall of that city. Resurrected on the Garden-world by nonhuman extra-Terrestrials and
raised there. He became a member of the Ethical Council of Twelve, which was charged with creating
Riverworld and resurrecting there all human beings who had died between 99,000 B.C. and A.D. 1983. He