The dark design

The Dark Design is a science fiction novel written by American novelist Philip José Farmer, the third part of the River World Saga.

Unlike the first volume (To Your Scattered Bodies), which follows the adventures of Richard Francis Burton's gang, or the second volume (The Fabulous Riverboat), where Through Mark Twain's struggle to build a paddle boat with the iron of a meteorite, the reader witnesses the creation of states and kingdoms scattered along the great river, the third volume contains multiple parallel stories. According to Farmer himself, the third volume was supposed to close the cycle, but its mammoth dimensions forced him to add a fourth volume later (The Magic Labyrinth) to close the story. For the same reason, the third volume is not only the longest, but also the one with the weakest structure of the entire saga.

The third volume begins the final assault on the Tower of Mists, which hides the secrets of the Ethicals (including the identity of the renegade Ethical). The objective becomes more harrowing than ever, since the small resurrections (produced after the deaths of those who have been resurrected throughout the River World) have ceased, and death is now final.

Landless John is still on board the ship that Mark Twain has stolen, while Mark Twain has managed to build a new one in Parolando, and sets out behind to sink Landless John. For his part, Twain's engineer, Firebrass, stays in Parolando to finish the construction of a better project: an airship to reach the Tower of Mists. For his part, Burton continues his expedition, but has been taking note that there are very few resurrected people who died after 1983, coming to the conclusion that those who claim to have died between 1983 and 2008 are actually agents of the Ethical, infiltrated among humans. However, before being able to get hold of his companion, the extraterrestrial Monat (who has reported that humanity was exterminated in 2008 by accident), he disappears.

The airship ruled by Firebrass finally reaches the Tower of Mists, but fails to enter it. An act of sabotage causes it to blow up in midair, while one of its crew (later revealed to be the mysterious rogue Ethical) manages to escape. In this way, those who are left in a definitive position for the assault are the expeditions of Burton, Twain and Juan Sin Tierra, thus closing the novel with an open ending.