Tuesday 10 August 2010

RIVERWORLD

I've been busy the past couple of days organising Kit and Ellie' work experience so I haven't done much writing. One thing I did do was check out the September edition of SFX which carried the news that a TV mini-series based on Philip Jose Farmer's 'Riverworld' has been screened in the US.

Now the Riverworld is one of my favourite SF books mainly because it has as its central character Richard Burton, the Victorian explorer, reprobate and linguist. I originally came to the books after having read Burton's biography 'The Devil Drives' and judged him to be one of THE great personalities of the Nineteenth century. I would loved to have had Burton appear in the Demi-Monde but Philip Jose got there first (and did him very, very, well).

As the Riverworld is built around Farmer's exploring of Burton's character as much as the titular Riverworld I always thought it to be unfilmable.Apparently not.

It seems that the hero is now an American reporter and Burton is the bad guy so I've got to say I'm not optimistic. The SFX review was pretty damning too. But I really have to see for myself so I'm now trying to get myself a copy.

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