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eBook Category: Science Fiction
eBook Description: Revival on the banks of the River was not limited to white Anglo Saxons. This tale reinterprets the Riverworld resurrection through the eyes of a tribe of primitive people, whose beliefs and superstitions blend marvelously with what has happened to them. This tale was singled out by Science Fiction Chronicle for praise as a worthwhile addition to the Riverworld canon. This story, like "The Merry Men of Riverworld," was written with Philip Jose Farmer's permission.

eBook Publisher: Wildside Press, Published: 1992
Fictionwise Release Date: January 2002

This eBook is part of the following series:

• John Gregory Betancourt's Riverworld Series

26 Reader Ratings: Great Good OK Poor

Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [124 KB], eReader (PDB) [42 KB], Palm Doc (PDB) [29 KB], Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [27 KB], Microsoft Reader (LIT) [103 KB] - PocketPC 1.0+ Compatible, Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [97 KB], hiebook (KML) [93 KB], Sony Reader (LRF) [53 KB], iSilo (PDB) [24 KB], Mobipocket (PRC) [30 KB], Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [58 KB], OEBFF Format (IMP) [43 KB]
Words: 9386
Reading time: 26-37 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format:  Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud DISABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED

When you're a kid, reading science fiction is the ultimate escape. You get to explore strange new worlds, boldly go where even television shows can't take you, and meet all sorts of fascinating characters in incredible situations. It's Wonderland.

When you've been writing the stuff for years, though, that initial gosh-wow feeling starts to fade. You become tired, a little jaded, a little unimpressed. Your uncle is an Martian? Aren't they all. Alien fleets are massing near Jupiter? Don't they always. The galaxy's collapsing? It happens a thousand times a year. That's when you have to go back to Wonderland.

When I was asked to write a story set in Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld, at first I was thrilled and excited. Here was a trip to Wonderland already scheduled with the bus parked adn waiting at my door. The books in the Riverworld series--To Your Scattered Bodies Go, The Fabulous Riverboat, The Dark Design, The Magic Labyrinth, and The Gods of Riverworld--are filled with that magic, that sense of wonder, that draws children like moths to its flame.

It was great. I reread the series, picked up the themes I liked, and and refilled myself with that sense of wonder, I wrote the best story I could, full of swashbuckling action, heroic escapes, and favorite historical characters.

It seems critics and fans alike thought "The Merry Men of Riverworld" among the best non-Farmer Riverworld stories in the collection. When the publisher decided to do a second volume, I was asked to contribute another tale. I agreed, since I'd had so much fun the first time.

However, the second story just wouldn't come. It's one thing to play in a famous writer's universe when it's new and fun. It's quite another when you've already done it once and that initial flush of excitement is gone. Can you top your first story? Should you even try? Without inspiration it's hack work, and I would sooner back out than try to foist a bad story off on readers.

Eventually, as the deadline drew near, I decided to hell with it--rather than follow the conventions, I'd do something entirely new in the series that interested me. That's why there are no famous figures from history in "Human Spirit, Beetle Spirit," no treks down the River is search of adventure and answers, no heroic swashbuckling bigger-than-life characters. Instead, my story picks up with a primitive tribe on Resurrection Day, when billions of humans from all times and places on Earth have just awakened along the banks of the River.

It was a second trip to Wonderland, finished, accepted, and officially approved by Farmer. Purists please note: I've borrowed bits and pieces from several different aboriginal cultures for dramatic effect. Allow me this one conceit as you read the story.

--John Betancourt