The Years Of Rice And Salt (2003) - Plot & Excerpts
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 Years of Rice and Salt .The sister award, the Locus Fantasy went to Miéville’s The Scar (which is awesome!)Gaiman’s superb American Gods took the Nebula.The prestigious Hugo was awarded to Sawyer’s Hominids. The Separation, by Chris Priest picked up the Arthur C Clarke.The BSFA award went to Felaheen by JC Grimwood.McKillip’s Ombria in Shadow, got the Mythopoeic and shared the World Fantasy.The other co-winner of the World Fantasy was The Facts of Life by G. Joyce.Eight awards – eight different winners. How often does that happen?I was pretty cautious before starting The Years of Rice and Salt . I’d only read one other Robinson before – Red Mars, 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 Ghostwritten 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.
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 DreamSee more of my book reviews at my blog
What do You think about The Years Of Rice And Salt (2003)?
This is an interesting tale on two levels. The basic milieu is an alternate reality--a world in which the Black Death killed off three times the number of Europeans than it did in our world, 99% of the total population. The role that European nations played in world history is now taken by other nations, other cultures. Mr. Robinson postulates the rise of Chinese and Islamic empires that create a history that only vaguely reflects our own. The other premise that makes this novel worth reading (and rereading) is that reincarnation is real. We follow the lead characters from life to life, with a brief scene in the bardo between incarnations. I suppose there might be some spiritual/philosophical insights in the tale, but to be honest, I was too busy enjoying the variety of stories as the characters progressed through a new and intriguing history. Oh, well, it's a good excuse to keep this one on my shelf so I can pull it down for another read someday.
—The other John
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.
—Bram Wiebe
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.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.
—kaśyap
