questioned, 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, whom the Stranger refers to as "Ethicals", are close to capturing Burton. Desperate to escape, Burton kills himself to be resurrected elsewhere in the river valley, and continues thus to explore it. He often finds himself resurrected near Hermann Göring, who undergoes a moral and religious conversion and joins the pacifist Church of the Second Chance. After many resurrections, Burton finds himself resurrected not in the river but in the Dark Tower at the headwaters, and is interrogated by a council of Ethicals to discover the identity of Burton's "Mysterious Stranger". After fruitlessly questioning him, the Ethicals inform him that they will return him to the river valley, remembering nothing of themselves, and restore him to his friends, but the Mysterious Stranger prevents them from removing his memory and Burton resolves to continue pursuing the truth about the Ethicals and their intentions for the Riverworld. Publication history This novel, and the Riverworld series itself, is based on Farmer's earlier, unpublished novel Owe for the Flesh. It was originally serialized as two separate novellas: "The Day of the Great Shout", which appeared in the January 1965 issue of Worlds of Tomorrow, and "The Suicide Express", which appeared in the March 1966 issue of Worlds of Tomorrow. See also Riverworld References External links To Your Scattered Bodies Go at Worlds Without End 1971 American novels 1971 science fiction novels American science fiction novels Hugo Award for Best Novel-winning works Novels about the afterlife Novels by Philip José Farmer Novels first published in serial form Riverworld Works originally published in Worlds of Tomorrow (magazine) Cultural depictions of Alice Liddell