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Philip Jose Farmer
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The Dark Design (Riverworld Saga, Book 3) Paperback – July 28, 1998

by Philip Jose Farmer (Author)
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 413 ratings
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Years have passed on Riverworld. Entire nations have risen, and savage wars have been fought--all since the dead of Earth found themselves resurrected in their magnificent new homeworld. Yet the truth about the Ethicals, the powerful engineers of this mysterious "afterlife," remains unknown. But a curious cross-section of humanity is determined to change that situation . . . at any cost.

Intrepid explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton leads the most remarkable voyage of discovery he has ever undertaken. Hot on his heels are Samuel Clemens, King John of England, and Cyrano de Bergerac. Spurred by the promise of ultimate answers, they chart a course across the vast polar sea--and toward the awesome tower that looms above it. But getting there will be more than half the battle. For death on Riverworld has become chillingly final . . .
Previous page
  1. Book 3 of 5
    Riverworld
  2. Print length
    464 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    Del Rey
  5. Publication date
    July 28, 1998
  6. Dimensions
    5.5 x 1 x 8.25 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    0345419693
  8. ISBN-13
    978-0345419699
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The Dark Design is the third book in the epic Riverworld saga, in which almost all of humanity has been resurrected on a strange planet along the shores of a river 22 million miles long. But why have humans been given another chance at life, and who is behind it all? That's what Sir Richard Francis Burton and Sam Clemens set out to discover in two earlier novels, one by riding the "suicide express" (if you die on Riverworld, you're resurrected again at a random point along the river) and the other steaming on the greatest riverboat ever seen. Now Milton Firebrass, Clemens's former enemy and now his No. 1 lieutenant, is planning to use the dwindling iron supply on the Riverworld to create a great airship, which can fly to the North Polar Sea far more quickly than any boat can travel. There he hopes to learn the secret of the mysterious tower thought to house the beings who created this planet.

Jill Gulbirra does not care as much about the mission as she wants the chance to captain the great airship, which in all likelihood will be the last airship ever constructed by humankind. But in landing the coveted role, she faces stiff competition--especially from the greatest swordsman of all time, Cyrano de Bergerac, who turns out to be a natural pilot. But even if Jill can win the command of the airship and even if the ship can reach the river's headwaters, there is no guarantee it can get through the mountain wall that surrounds the tower. And it's likely that one or more agents of the Ethicals--the creators of Riverworld--are on board the airship, plotting its downfall. Worse still, somewhere along the way the airship is sure to encounter the Rex Grandissimus, the steamboat stolen by Sam's archnemesis, King John Lackland. --Craig E. Engler

From the Inside Flap

Years have passed on Riverworld. Entire nations have risen, and savage wars have been fought--all since the dead of Earth found themselves resurrected in their magnificent new homeworld. Yet the truth about the Ethicals, the powerful engineers of this mysterious "afterlife," remains unknown. But a curious cross-section of humanity is determined to change that situation . . . at any cost.

Intrepid explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton leads the most remarkable voyage of discovery he has ever undertaken. Hot on his heels are Samuel Clemens, King John of England, and Cyrano de Bergerac. Spurred by the promise of ultimate answers, they chart a course across the vast polar sea--and toward the awesome tower that looms above it. But getting there will be more than half the battle. For death on Riverworld has become chillingly final . . .

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Del Rey; 1st Ballantine Books ed edition (July 28, 1998)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 464 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0345419693
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0345419699
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1 x 8.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 413 ratings

About the author

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Philip Jose Farmer

Philip Jose Farmer

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Philip José Farmer (1918-2009) is a three-time Hugo Award winner, and Nebula Grand Master. He has long been recognized as one of the foremost writers in the fields of science fiction and fantasy. He is best known for being the author who introduced sex into science fiction in 1952 with his groundbreaking novella "The Lovers"; his biographies of Tarzan and Doc Savage; his love of pulp characters; his Riverworld, World of Tiers, and Dayworld series; and his Wold Newton Family concept.

Visit www.pjfarmer.com to keep up on all the latest news about Philip José Farmer.

Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
4 out of 5
413 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Stephen Minnihan
5.0 out of 5 stars Delivered in good shape
Reviewed in the United States on March 30, 2024
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Delivered earlier than expected and I’m good shape, exactly as described. Seller did what they said they would do, no problems and I would use them again.
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dwall
4.0 out of 5 stars Holds up fairly well
Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2016
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The suspense continues to build as characters from the first two books continue to try to become capable enough to reach the end/beginning of the great river and discover why Riverworld was created, Through three books now, the only things that date the material are the slight racism of depicting Black Power and the condescending view of Women's Lib, both huge topics in america at the time the books were written, Otherwise, Farmer has built a fully fleshed out, rational world which is the primary goal of every science fiction writer. The world is believable and the mystery is compelling. I first read the series in college (almost forty years ago!) at a time when I was also absorbing every Vonnegut novel I could find. Of course, now I have the time to reread it at a more leisurely pace rather than rush through it. It's a brilliant concept that allows the author to bring any great figure in human history into the story with sometimes funny results. I certainly find it worth reading again and I may reread Larry Niven's Ringworld next.
One person found this helpful
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J C E Hitchcock
3.0 out of 5 stars So Dark I Doubt It Owns a Plan
Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2012
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Philip José Farmer originally intended his "Riverworld" series to be a trilogy, but if it had been published as such it would have been a very unbalanced one, with the third volume more than twice as long as the other two put together. Farmer therefore divided his final instalment into two to form the books we now know as "The Dark Design" and "The Magic Labyrinth", and eventually decided to add a fifth volume, "The Gods of Riverworld", to form a pentalogy.

I won't set out the basic concept behind the Riverworld books; anyone reading a review of the third volume in the series is probably familiar with it already. Whereas the two previous volumes concentrated upon a single protagonist, Sir Richard Francis Burton in "To Your Scattered Bodies Go" and Sam Clemens alias Mark Twain in "The Fabulous Riverboat", "The Dark Design" weaves together three plotlines. One involves Farmer's alter ego Peter Jairus Frigate and his adventures on the river with the writer Jack London and the silent film star Tom Mix, both of whom are for some reason travelling under false identities.

The other two plotlines involve attempts by separate parties to reach the headwaters of the river near Riverworld's North Pole; they believe that it is there, and particularly inside a mysterious tower, that they may find the solution to the riddle of why Riverworld has been created. (It appears that those responsible are a group known as the "Ethicals", but exactly who these people are, and what their motives are, remains obscure both to the inhabitants of Riverworld and to the reader). One of these groups is led by Burton, the other by Milton Firebrass who has succeeded Clemens as president of Parolando and has ordered the construction of an airship, which he believes will be able to reach the Pole more quickly than a boat.

Whereas apart from Frigate most of the main characters in the earlier instalments were real historical individuals, in "The Dark Design" there is more emphasis on purely fictional characters. Firebrass is one of these; another is the Australian airship pilot Jill Gulbirra. The book was published in 1977 and Farmer lived long enough to see that his predictions of how technology might develop in the late twentieth century were not always accurate. He foresaw, for example, a major revival of the airship in the 1980s and we learn that Fairbrass, during his terrestrial existence in the 1990s, was an American astronaut involved in manned space flights to Mars and Jupiter.

Jill seems to have been created to answer criticisms that in the earlier volumes the female characters were too weak, but here Farmer seems to have gone to the opposite extreme, making Jill so strident and aggressive that she comes across like a caricature of a seventies feminist.

The title is derived from "The Kasidah of Haji Abdu El-Yezdi", a poem by Burton which contains the following lines, quoted at the beginning of the book:-

"And still the Weaver plies his loom, whose warp and woof is wretched Man
Weaving th' unpattern'd dark design, so dark we doubt it owns a plan".

The significance of these lines is twofold. The words "dark design" can be taken as referring to the unfathomable plans of the Ethicals in creating Riverworld. Burton's "Kasidah", however, has been seen as reflecting his interest in Sufism, a mystical form of Islam, an interest which Farmer may have shared. Certainly, some passages in "The Dark Design" have a markedly mystical tone, and two characters, Frigate's Arab companion Nur ed Din and a Japanese airship pilot who calls himself Piscator (Latin for "fisherman"), are both practising Sufis.

I must admit that I did not enjoy this book as much as its two predecessors. While the basic Riverworld concept is still an entertaining one, the structure of "The Dark Design", jumping from one plot-line to another without warning is an over-complicated and confusing one, especially as the timescale is not always made clear. At around twice the length of either "To Your Scattered Bodies Go" or "The Fabulous Riverboat", the novel is overlong and at times Farmer's prose becomes ponderous and heavy-going. That quote from Burton is perhaps, unfortunately, appropriate in a way the author did not intend. "The Dark Design" can seem unpatterned and I found myself doubting whether it owned a plan.
3 people found this helpful
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Brian K. Miller
4.0 out of 5 stars Well worth reading, but only for fans
Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2010
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The " Riverworld: Including To Your Scattered Bodies Go & The Fabulous Riverboat " series has fascinated me ever since the first book was published while I was in high school. I have read them all, more than once. " The Dark Design (Riverworld Saga) " does not reach the literary heights of the first book, but then, follow up books seldom do. As in any long-running, multi-book series by a modern author, the prose in this one needs a good copy editor. There are a number of useless scenes and meaningless dialogues. Still, for someone who loves River World and wants to spend as much time as possible exploring it's landscape, The Dark Design will provide the exhausting immersion they are looking for. The Dark Design is well worth reading, but only a true fan will have the patience for it.
3 people found this helpful
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Franco
5.0 out of 5 stars Good
Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2023
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Good
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Richard Albanese
3.0 out of 5 stars Meandering like a river without an editor
Reviewed in the United States on August 8, 2017
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Not sure if JPF thought this to be an important work or a contractual obligation, but this one (and I assume the next) could have used some editing. Lots of meandering off topic and attempts at deep meaningful musings and flourishes that catch you in an eddy while the story stalls, only to be picked up and rushed through rapids again to the next slow-flowing section. Ok, maybe this was intentional, but it was very distracting to the underlying plot lines and even left a plot line about agents identified totally dropped mid book. Will think long and hard before I pick up the fourth book, but may do so just to finally get to the ending of this saga. Then again..l
2 people found this helpful
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Lynda Newman
5.0 out of 5 stars Great
Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2013
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I LOVED this series as a preteen. I bought this and the first two books for my older sister for Christmas, and she was so excited, as she also had loved this series as a teenager!! --- My brother also loved it. I bought it for him a few years ago, and mentioned it to my sister, and she seemed a little miffed I had not bought it for her. I had not really paid that much attention to what she liked when I was a kid, as she was 4 years older. SOOOO, it was a really big Christmas hit with her this year!
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Top reviews from other countries

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Jarrod Major
5.0 out of 5 stars One of my favourite sci-fi authors
Reviewed in Canada on December 7, 2016
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One of my favourite sci-fi authors, the Rverworld series is one of his best. An essential read in my opinion. Happy there are Kindle versions of some of his books.
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Anon
5.0 out of 5 stars So delighted to be able to read these again
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 7, 2014
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So delighted to be able to read these again. Characters from history in an out of this world setting, simply perfect. Richard Burton (the Victorian explorer and translator of 1001 nights, Samuel Clemens aka mark twain, Hermann Goring an airship, a river steamer and a world that is a single river
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patidi
1.0 out of 5 stars Science fiction?
Reviewed in France on January 28, 2013
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Très déçue par ce livre. A part le début il ne s'agit pour son auteur que de faire une énumération de tous les grands hommes de l'histoire. c'est prétentieux et ennuyant, pas d'imagination, il ne fait que se faire plaisir en énumérant ce qu'il sait de leur histoire et ça n'a rien à voir avec de la science fiction, à part le fait évidemment qu'ils sont de nouveau vivants!
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265bhp
4.0 out of 5 stars Continuing the story
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 14, 2014
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You feel you're going to get some really revelatory answers but they're just not that amazing. I still enjoyed this book, and continued to buy the next in the series but I was starting to tire. I feel you have to approach these books in the context of the world/time they were written. Today we are bombarded with ideas and TV programmes/films. Perhaps we expect more as a result. This is good but maybe not so cutting edge?
One person found this helpful
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M. Bayliss
3.0 out of 5 stars Three Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 4, 2015
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It began to get tedious after the first two books.
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