I picked up this game for $2.00 in a second-hand store. I'd never been overly interested in it, but my plan was to learn it, teach it to my nephews, and give it to them at the end of the game (if they liked it).
Components: All the pieces were in the box, and the game was in excellent shape. The components were all of a very high quality, and I especially liked the 'gems', translucent little jagged plastic pieces that looked pretty cool on the gameboard. The boats were a good size, but could have been just a bit smaller to make it easier to crowd 4 of them on a disk.

Rules: Here's where the problems begin. The rules should fit on a two-page piece of paper (4 pages if you use illustrations. Somehow, they manage to use eight pages to explain this game, and frankly my adult son and I bothe read it, and actually came up with different interpretations when we started to play. The game is Not really all that difficult.

Gameplay: while the game can be fun at times, it often seems like you need to force something fun to happen (i.e. stealing a gem). Depending on the play order, its' too easy to plan for this scandal, and the other player often sees it coming. My 9-year old nephew said that the game was 'too easy', noting that he beat my son "which is impossible" (his exact words).
If you play this as a gentleman's game, retrieving gems from the banks without stealing, the game is even more long-paced. The one decent mechanic in the game is the 'cloud' scale, which allows you to alter the speed of the river. This can really catch some people by surprise when timed well.
Playing the game with 4 or 5 players is preferable, in my opinion.

Closing thoughts: I now own the game, only because my nephews really didn't like the game all that much. I plan to trot it out to our usual game group some night to see how it plays there - perhaps the more cut-throat pace of that group will bring out the best in this game. If not, them I'm only out a couple of bucks.