3rd boko in the series. I found the first book OK & 2nd book "meh" at best.

DNF @ 20%. Just wasn’t as engaging as the prior two. Willing to try again eventually but just wasn’t into it at the time. ( )

http://pro-libertate.net/20090905/92-read-dark-design ( )

6th Pearl Ruled (p66)

Rating: 2* of five, all for the Riverworld setting which is tremendously creative and involving

By the end of chapter 12, I was slogging through the prose hating each and every page folio and running head. My eye would catch the author's name on the verso and I'd begin to churn my guts into roiling masses of acid fury; the title on the recto made my rectum clench; and then, as page 66 gave me another bash in the balls with Farmer's name, the next chapter was 13 and, well, I lost the will to live on in Riverworld. It didn't help that this was the last page's last few lines:

"I see that we are getting close to our homes. I bid you adieu then until tonight. I will set out two torches, which you may see from your window, to announce when our little gathering begins."
"I did not say that I was coming."
"But you had nevertheless accepted," he said. "Is that not true?"
"Yes, but how did you know?"
"It's not telepathy," he said, smiling again. "A certain posture, a certain relaxation of muscles, the dilation of your pupils, an undertone to your voice, undetectable except to the highly trained, told me that you were looking forward to the party."
Jill said nothing. She had not known herself that she was pleased with the invitation. nor was she sure now. Was Piscator conning her?

So. Much. NO. I hate the "but she *meant* yes" defense, and this sounds to me like the classic set-up for date rape. "I know you better than you know yourself" is infuriating when your long-term partner says it (probably because there's some truth in that case); when some joker off the street does, it's enraging.

It was 1977 when this marvy came out. It isn't in me to revisit that head-space in this way with that dreadful, stodgy prose as my cicerone. ( )

Third in the series. Good book. What can I say? It's a mystery and an adventure. I Did not enjoy this one quite as well as the first two but still happy there are more to come. I'm looking forward to books 4 and 5. ( )