The Magic Labyrinth (Farmer)

The Magic Labyrinth is a science fiction novel by Philip José Farmer, which makes up the fourth volume of the River World Saga.

According to Farmer's own confession, the saga was initially supposed to cover three volumes, but the unusual length of the third (The Dark Design) made him decide to split it into two, thus creating the fourth volume that should close the story (later I would add a continuation: Gods of the River World). For this reason, this volume does not have a definite beginning, and it does not work well except in light of the previous three; most of the volume is dedicated to closing the multiple subplots opened in the previous volumes.

After the destruction of the Firebrass airship, the mysterious renegade Ethical is supposed to have boarded one of the two riverboats heading towards the origins of the gigantic River. Both ships reach Virolando, the first of the states of the River World, the place where a savage battle between Juan Sin Tierra and Mark Twain takes place. Finally, Juan Sin Tierra ends up sinking, locked in his own ship, while Mark Twain dies of a heart attack, after having saved himself from serious dangers, by accidentally meeting Erik Hachasangrienta, whom he had killed years before in Parolando..

Richard Francis Burton takes a group of expeditionaries, all survivors of the gruesome battle, among whom theoretically is the renegade Ethicalist. Thus, he undertakes a risky journey beyond the geographical barriers created to prevent human access to the Tower of Mists. Overcoming obstacles one after the other, he manages to reach the mysterious fortress of the Ethicals, only to find it deserted. Burton discovers the identity of the renegade Ethicalist, but at the same time he faces a gruesome problem: the supercomputer that controls the resurrections from the Tower of Mists is about to die, which would cause a catastrophe of proportions for the inhabitants of the World of the World. Rio, since the computer controls the wathans, the synthetic souls that humans have been provided with in prehistoric times, and therefore the destruction of the computer implies the death of all Humanity. At the same time, all the Ethicals have been exterminated by the renegade. Finally Alice (the Alice who on Earth has served as inspiration for Lewis Carroll, to write Alice in Wonderland) discovers the way to repair the computer and save the wathans of all Humanity, so Burton and his mercenaries remain as absolute owners of the Tower, and with them the 36,000 million human beings resurrected by the Ethical on the banks of the River World.