First published 1976
Richard Burton opens his eyes beside a vast river. Every person who ever walked the Earth stands around him, resurrected young and healthy but stripped of everything they once knew. The Victorian explorer finds himself among billions spanning all of human history, from cavemen to modern survivors. Food appears mysteriously, but no explanation comes with this second life. Burton glimpses something forbidden that others miss. This sight drives him to seek answers about their strange resurrection. He assembles an unlikely crew for a river voyage: Alice Liddell Hargreaves, the woman who inspired Alice in Wonderland; a Neanderthal who speaks English; a Holocaust survivor; and an alien being. Together they sail downstream toward the truth. Someone or something brought humanity back from death for a purpose. Burton must discover whether their mysterious benefactors mean salvation or something darker. The river stretches endlessly ahead, and somewhere along its banks wait the answers to why every human soul now walks again in this bewildering afterlife.
Genres: science-fiction, adventure, fantasy, alternate-history
Vibes: atmospheric, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, quest
Setting: Earth
Period: 19th-century, 20th-century
222 pages · Mass Market Paperback · Berkley