Plot
British adventurer Richard Francis Burton dies on Earth. He then wakes up in an alien place. He is floating in mid air in a vast dark room filled with uncountable numbers of human bodies, some of which are only half formed. Before Burton can do anything he is confronted by men in a flying vehicle who blast him with a weapon.
He next awakes upon the shores of a mysterious river. He is naked and hairless. All around him are other people in a similar situation. No one knows where they are or why they have been brought here although it is soon established that the people there had all died. Shortly after they awaken there is a thunderous roar and a nearby structure, similar to a gigantic stone table, emits a massive blast of electricity. They discover that this structure, nicknamed a grailstone, causes food and other supplies to appear in the grails, metal buckets which everyone found with them upon resurrection. Burton quickly attracts a group of companions to him: the neanderthal Kaz, the science fiction author Peter Jairus Frigate and Alice Liddell the inspiration for Alice in Wonderland. The strangest of these is the extraterrestrial Monat Graatut. Monat explains that he had been part of a small group of beings from Tau Ceti who had arrived on Earth in the early 21st century. When one of their number was accidentally killed by humans, their spaceship automatically responded with a death ray which killed all the people on Earth. Frigate and a few others who were alive at the time confirm Monat's story.
Retreating into the nearby woods for safety, Burton's party attempt to relax by chewing some gum provided by their grails. They discover, however, that this gum is a powerful hallucinogen. Under its influence Burton and Alice make love, something which Alice, at least, later regrets.
As days and weeks pass society begins to reform. People's physical wants are provided for by the grails, which eventually produce a set of cloths which can be used for clothing. Rumors reach Burton's region that the river continues on seemingly forever. One night, Burton is visited by a mysterious cloaked figure. This being, who Burton dubs The Mysterious Stranger, explains that he is one of the beings who has constructed this world and resurrected humanity on its shores. However, he disagrees with his people's agenda, which he insists to Burton is sinister. He tells Burton to head towards the headwaters of the river.
The Mysterious Stranger's agenda meshes nicely with Burton's own inability to stay still for long and he enlists the locals to help his group build a boat with which to travel upriver. After setting off, his group encounters many adventures, becoming much closer in the process. One day, however, they are captured by a riverbank kingdom run by the Nazi Hermann Göring. Göring's new kingdom is built on slavery and Burton and his crew soon find themselves enslaved as well. Burton unites with other slaves in the kingdom and leads a successful revolt. Göring himself is murdered by Alice, who had been kept as a concubine by the Nazi. After the revolt Burton is part of the nation's ruling council. He and Alice become closer and eventually become lovers. However, one day they discover a person among them whom they conclude is an agent of the beings who created this world. Before the man can be questioned, however, he dies of no apparent cause. An autopsy reveals a small device planted in the man's brain which apparently allowed him to kill himself at will. Burton is visited by the Mysterious Stranger and is warned that the beings who created this world, to whom the Stranger refers as "Ethicals", are close to capturing Burton. Desperate to escape, and unwilling to expose his companions to danger, Burton resorts to the "suicide express" and kills himself so that he will be resurrected somewhere else in the river valley. Burton continues to wander the river, killing himself whenever he is about to be discovered.
Along the way he often finds himself resurrected in the vicinity of Hermann Göring, who undergoes a moral and religious conversion and joins the pacifist Church of the Second Chance. After several years on the suicide express, Burton finds himself resurrected not in the river but in the Dark Tower which legend says lies at the headwaters. Burton is brought before a council of people who explain that they run Riverworld. They explain that one of their number is a traitor and interrogate Burton to discover the identity of this traitor, Burton's "Mysterious Stranger." They inform him that his "suicide express" trick should not have worked since they can put a hold on an individual's resurrection. The Mysterious Stranger had hacked their computer in order to make it impossible for them to track Burton. After fruitlessly questioning him, the Ethicals inform him that they will return him to the river valley but with the memory of his unusual experiences wiped. When Burton awakes he discovers that the Ethicals have returned him to the same area where his friends are. However, the Mysterious Stranger has prevented them from wiping his memory.
Read more about this topic: To Your Scattered Bodies Go
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