In The Years of Rice and Salt, Kim Stanley Robinson uses the Black Plague to remove the Europeans, leaving the Old World to the Chinese, Islam, and the many cultural groups that end up in India. The Chinese discover the Americas, their diseases spread through the Native American populations, and their armies plunder the Incans. The novel begins with the Plague, but its vignettes move from one period of history to the next until it reaches the end of the 20th century.

How do you write a novel about one set of characters that spans centuries? Robinson uses reincarnation to cast a set of souls in various times and places as he follows his alternate history. The characters can always be told by the first letter of their names. Bold, a soldier, eventually becomes... Read More: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...

Spekulativna (alternativna?) prošlost, na prvi pogled upravo onakva kakva bi morala da mi se dopadne. Kako bi izgledala naša civilizacija, nakon što od kuge u srednjem veku umre 99 posto Evropljana, a koju su dalje gradili istočnjaci?

Ideja odlična, ali roman nažalost dosadan. Koristeći reinkarnaciju kao alat za prepričavanje dešavanja na raznim mestima i u različitim istorijskim razdobljima, kroz svako poglavlje pratimo jedan lik - na kraju tih delova taj lik umire, najčešće nasilnom smrću. Ne samo što se zbog toga ne možemo vezati za njih, pa nam brzo postaje svejedno, već su i te kratke pričice prilično suvoparne. A i liče jedna na drugu. Bezveze.

Dear Kim Stanley Robinson,

I think your Mars trilogy is one of the greatest pieces of science fiction every written. I've read it twice in the past ten years and will probably read it three more times before I grow old. I even read the first book in your eco-thriller trilogy and, though there's not much plot to speak of, thought it was interesting. In short, I love you, man, you're mi hermano.

But, damn, how did you manage to screw The Years of Rice and Salt up? The concept is golden: the plague completely wipes out ol' whitey in 14th century Europe, leaving the rest of history to be written by the Chinese, Arabs, Native Americans, and so on. That is enough alternative history for a trilogy, let alone a single book.

And, yet, it is DULL. I gave this my best effort, patiently wading through 400+ pages in search of a compelling narrative thread before giving up. If you want to write a philosophical treaties on Eastern thought, than please do so and sign me up as one of your eager audience. But don't try to cram it into the guise of novel and string the reader along with the barest of narrative threads...it's just not the right format.

I'm giving you two stars: one for originality and one because, at heart, I'm nostalgic for your earlier work and know that you're down with the program.

Kim Stanley Robinson is one of those rare breeds in SciFi today, he writes what is traditionally called “hard” science fiction but he differs from the likes of Alastair Reynolds, Greg Bear and Peter F. Hamilton in that there is a great deal of focus on the fundamental changes in society that new technological advances bring. In this way, he is very much like Ray Bradbury.

This is a departure from Robinson’s hard scifi though as he branches out to explore the realms of alternative history; but the quality of the narrative does not suffer for the change in genre. This is book that explores and perhaps, gives us a clear indication of Robinson’s personal philosophies. I wasn’t surprised to discover later that Robinson is a Buddhist. Hinted at increasingly through his “Mars” series, this is the clearest indication yet.

Europe has been ravaged by the Black Death far more than it was in reality, so when travellers from the east reach western Europe they see devastation from which the European powers would never recover and the few remaining survivors are reduced to barbarism.

With Christianity and its influence on Europe (and eventually the New World) seemingly dead, we witness the rise of Islam, Buddhism and other eastern religions across the world unrestricted. We follow what at first I thought were the same families through history but are actually the same people reincarnated over and over again (hence his Buddhist beliefs). Far from feeling bludgeoned by his beliefs, Robinson is trying to write the novel as though the world he has created actually happened. Free from Christian traditions and mythologies, this is a world where the major faiths are Islam and Buddhism fighting literally or figuratively for dominance in the world.

The nations that develop go through pretty much the same events from our history: the discovery of the Americas, the enlightenment, reformation in Islamic Spain, world wars, female emancipation, atomic technology, a cold war and the global economy.

This is a heavy going novel considering the subject matter covering over 600 years of alternative history in ten books (chapters set in different time periods). Not for the feint of heart, but a rewarding and enlightening experience nonetheless. Robinson tried the alternate history experiment a second time in Vinland: The Dream

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A very stream-of-consciousness narrative.
I had to put it down when I lost consciousness
which is why it took me three months to get through it.

I'M FREE! 2.5 stars? It's just so long. Too long. There are a lot of unnecessary details in it that just make it a huge slog the whole way through. I do think the concept is interesting, but it was just not explored in a way that I found interesting at all. I literally would've preferred a fake history textbook of this alternative history than what this book was.

I also think that listening to it as an audiobook might've been a mistake. There were a couple of things that I think would've made more sense if I'd been seeing them, and I didn't like the narrator of the audiobook at all. But dear god, I never would've gotten through this of my own volition.

This isn't an easy book to read, and it's not at all what I expected. The blurb describes a world where the bubonic plague wipes out 99% of Europeans, making European civilization and Christianity a mere footnote of history. This is a super interesting premise, and I expected a sweeping historical tale in the style of A Game of Thrones. Instead, the book itself is divided into ten stories scattered across the world and time. In most cases, the stories are so focused on the characters that it's hard to know where or when the stories are actually taking place. The reader's sense of how the world has changed because of the bubonic plague premise comes in trickles. The author also throws around terms from Buddhism and Islam, as well as names changed because of differing patterns of colonialism, with no explanation or context. As the world becomes more modern, however, and the later stories are more focused on historians, the reader begins to see the whole picture.

This wasn't an easy book to write, by any means, and Kim Stanley Robinson produced something that is interesting and unlike anything I've ever read before... Unfortunately, it requires a lot of thinking, connecting, and even research on the part of the reader, and can feel like a slog through unconnected stories. The book would have benefited from a little bit more perspective.

I hated this book. I liked the potential of the basic premise and the first several chapters were a decent read, but it didn't take too long to realize that there was no real discernible plot, none of the characters were interesting and the pacing was terrible. I finished it only because I was hoping that it would come together in some spectacular fashion and everything would make sense after the fact. I was sorely disappointed when I hit the last chapter and was wondering why it felt like the author had just given up after reaching some arbitrary word count.

I am pretty certain that I was not the target audience for this book but it should suit other's tastes much better than mine. I'm not a fan of extensive philosophical, religious or political subject matter which this book has in spades. I may also have been a little young at the time to really appreciate the bigger picture. Maybe I was destined to detest this book from the beginning.

There were very few things I remotely liked about the book, but the absolute worst part was when during one of the reincarnations, one of the characters invents every damn thing under the sun in some sort of Archimedes/Pythagorus/Gallileo/Da Vinci/Einstein/Newton science orgy. I don't know why the author thought that one person could conceivably be responsible for such significant scientific advancement in a single lifetime in such a broad range of scientific fields. Not only was this bit just ridiculous but it also felt completely out of place. There was no lead-up to it, or even reason for it. All of a sudden I felt like the author just decided to completely derail the book for several hundred pages because he got bored of writing a story, and wanted to write a science textbook.

So to summarize, the book has no real plot, no real conclusion, undeveloped and annoying characters, poor world-building and the nail in the coffin for me was the length of the book. Usually length isn't an issue as I've thoroughly enjoyed longer books (Books by Brandon Sanderson and Robert Jordan for example) but the length of the book isn't justified by the story being told (or lack thereof).

Kim Stanley Robinson may be an excellent writer, but this book is not a showcase for that talent. Unless you are a hard core fan of his I would absolutely recommend that you avoid wasting your time on this book.

The Years of Rice and Salt begins with the premise: what if the Black Plague had wiped out 99% of the European population (instead of the 60% it actually did)? Given this assumption, this book tells the story of a very different unfolding history of the world—with European Christian civilization basically ceasing to exist, leaving China, the Islamic nations, and India the major powers.

The development of science, technology, and knowledge evolved differently in this alternate history, along with the discovery (and colonialism) of the New World, and of course, the politics and actions of the world powers. And that’s the story that is told here in very interesting ways. And you’d better believe there are conflicts aplenty… I don’t want to give too much away!

The book is laid out as individual dramatic and touching stories of various people from different times and places in the world that together paint a picture of the whole of history. There is also a running theme of the afterlife and reincarnation, which provides a fascinating connection between the stories within. In the last chapter, the characters in the story speak profoundly about the philosophy of history, obviously quite important to the conception of this epic work—and also gives the author the chance to comment on the state of our own world.

What an amazing concept for a book, and it is executed most impressively. The amount of thought and research Kim Stanley Robinson had to have put into this is truly staggering. This is the second KSR book I’ve read this year (the first being the magnificent Galileo’s Dream) and both have simply blown me away... he has very quickly become a personal fave, and I’m looking forward to reading more of his work. 5 stars.

A sprawling historical narrative spanning centuries. The major theme dealt with in this book is the speculative philosophy of history.
Does history as whole have a structure? A direction? Is there a teleological sense to history? Is history a progress? The author’s opinion here seems to be in the affirmative and so he leaves us with a lot of optimism at the end of the story.

This book is set during the period of Christian domination. In this alternate history, a plague kills almost all the Christians. So the Muslims, Chinese, Indians and Native Americans become the major players in this part of history. This is set in Buddhist metaphysical and mythological setting. So our main characters for the whole 700 years are the same people who keep passing through the cycles of birth and death. This aspect of the story highlights the role of individuals in Human history.
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Technological progress here happens at the same pace as our world. The same inventions and discoveries happen. This changelessness in the history of ideas once again, I believe, signifies the author’s view of history as a progress.

Epic in scale and ultimately leaves us with a message of optimism and hope. Shows the interconnectedness of the world and human endaevor.

Christmas 2010: I realised that I had got stuck in a rut. I was re-reading old favourites again and again, waiting for a few trusted authors to release new works. Something had to be done.

On the spur of the moment I set myself a challenge, to read every book to have won the Locus Sci-Fi award. That’s 35 books, 6 of which I’d previously read, leaving 29 titles by 14 authors who were new to me.

While working through this reading list I got married, went on my honeymoon, switched career and became a father. As such these stories became imprinted on my memory as the soundtrack to the happiest period in my life (so far).

2003 was a wonderfully rich and diverse year for Sci-Fi and Fantasy!

My beloved Locus Sci-Fi Award went to this, Robinson’s n  n    Years of Rice and Saltn  n.
The sister award, the Locus Fantasy went to Miéville’s n  The Scarn (which is awesome!)
Gaiman’s superb n  American Godsn took the Nebula.
The prestigious Hugo was awarded to Sawyer’s n  Hominidsn.
n  The Separationn, by Chris Priest picked up the Arthur C Clarke.
The BSFA award went to n  Felaheenn by JC Grimwood.
McKillip’s n  Ombria in Shadown, got the Mythopoeic and shared the World Fantasy.
The other co-winner of the World Fantasy was n  The Facts of Lifen by G. Joyce.

Eight awards – eight different winners. How often does that happen?

I was pretty cautious before starting n  n    The Years of Rice and Saltn  n. I’d only read one other Robinson before – n  Red Marsn, many years before – and found it tough going at the time (but that’s another review).

I chucked this into my suitcase for my honeymoon, content that if it was too much of a grind for around-the-pool reading, my wife was packing plenty of lighter fantasy fare I could borrow.

My fears were all for naught – this is totally different kettle of fish to the Mars Trilogy.

Alternative history premise: the black plague obliterated Europe and the Eastern civilizations scrap over global conquest.

Story lens: reincarnation! A small family (?) of souls reincarnate in different forms and relationships with each other over ten novellas covering seven hundred years in a great karmic cycle.

I like Buddhism. I like alternative histories. I like the interlinked novella approach.

For holiday reading, this was perfect. I devoured a novella every time we took one of Malta’s quirky buses to a tourist trap. I sipped at them leisurely while lounging on the beach. I chatted about the wonderful ideas with my new wife while we enjoyed room service on our balcony. I loved the little between-life moments of the reincarnation.

By turns this book made me excited and tranquil. It reminded me a little of David Mitchell’s brilliant n  Ghostwrittenn with a touch of Wilbur Smith in each little adventure. It was one of those books I didn’t want to end. Surely there could be one more reincarnation? One more story?
I’m surprised by the number of negative reviews I’ve found, I guess it helps that I’ve always held Buddhist inclinations.

I give this five-stars without hesitation.

Not long after we returned from our honeymoon one our cats, Callie, escaped and was killed on the road near our flat. She was the prettiest, most affectionate kitty I’ve ever met – adored by all who met her (even dog people). When I found out that she had died, it was this book that came to mind. One of the stories involves a soul 'demoted' to a life as a tiger for one cycle.

I told my wife that Callie “was just too good to be a cat and they had to call her spirit back so she could be reincarnated as a person”. The idea was comforting. Those words were still in my head when, very shortly after, I discovered we were having a child. When I look into my baby son's eyes now, I wonder if, just maybe, there’s a bit of Callie's endless curiosity looking back. That makes me happy.

Interesting alternative history epic spanning centuries. Very much enjoyed this despite it being far more spiritual than I expected