"Riverworld and Other Stories" by Philip Jose Farmer (1979)

"'Maybe this world didn't turn out to be what you thought it was going to be.  So what?'"

The Riverworld series is Philip Jose Farmer's best known creation.  To be honest, the premise behind Riverworld always sounded somewhat retarded to me, and the titular story did nothing to change my mind.

Fortunately there are other stories in this collection, and most of these stories reveal Farmer to have been a writer of surprising talent and versatility.  There is one embarrassingly bad story in this book (The Jungle Rot Kid on the Nod), but it's mercifully short, and easily skipped over.

The best (by far) is The Henry Miller Dawn Patrol, which first appeared in the pages of Playboy.  It follows the adventures of Henry Miller during his final days, and is one of the best things I've read in a long while.

It's only sad that Farmer is best remembered for Riverworld, a sub-par fantasy series if there ever was one.  The guy had talent, the guy had imagination, and it's a shame he felt such a need to pander to his audience, with characters and themes borrowed from more daring writers.  With his skill, he could have done much more than that.