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The Years of Rice and Salt

Kim Stanley Robinson

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Bookshelf Nominations

* Bookshelf Nominations: NUMBERS [now online]
By Ruby , Mistress of Chaos · 4 posts · 85 views

last updated Dec 03, 2017 09:15AM

* Bookshelf Nominations: IN THE TROPICS
By Ruby , Mistress of Chaos · 24 posts · 45 views

last updated Feb 19, 2014 10:16PM

What Members Thought

Jan 22, 2018 Bradley rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sci-fi, 2018-shelf, worldbuilding-sf, science

This one's going right in the category of OMG this is epic SF of a very serious nature and scope.

It goes well beyond the "normal" subgenre of alternate histories to throw us into a vast and very impressive exploration of China and India as they completely dominate the culture and space of the entire world under the slight alteration: that most of the Caucasian world died off in the Black Plague.

It's really gorgeous and it flows really well. Expect many short novellas giving us snippets of time f ...more

136 likes · Like · see review

Dec 29, 2008 Mosca rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

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What if the White European Christians had almost all died out in in the fourteenth century?

Kim Stanley Robinson has written an Alternative History that isn't steam punk, nor Nazis winning WW2.

This is a smart, well constructed, work of historical inquiry that spans seven centuries without the assumed Caucasian and "Christian" historical domination. There are a small cast of well constructed thoroughly "human" characters who live through those seven centuries i .....................................

What if the White European Christians had almost all died out in in the fourteenth century?

Kim Stanley Robinson has written an Alternative History that isn't steam punk, nor Nazis winning WW2.

This is a smart, well constructed, work of historical inquiry that spans seven centuries without the assumed Caucasian and "Christian" historical domination. There are a small cast of well constructed thoroughly "human" characters who live through those seven centuries in a very different Eurasia, Africa, and eventually the two Americas than the ones with which we, today, are familiar.

These seven centuries are seen in the context of a traditional Buddhist cosmology. This means that a handful of characters live, die, and are reborn through many lifetimes in different cultures, religions, genders, races, and even species. They are almost always unaware of their past lives or their souls' recurrent intentions. And, most times, the reader is also left unaware of these links. These individual karmic paths are not essential to the main intent of this book. They are, however, fascinatingly traceable for the attentive reader. And these paths very frequently and subtly reassemble groups, friendships, and love attachments through the centuries according to Buddhist karmic law. If you read to love characters, you will be well rewarded following the labyrinths of karmic paths that separate souls and reunite them in new cultures and contexts.

These seven centuries of Earth's history rewritten are presented to us in a manner that loves us as humans (and "souls") while walking us through our seemingly eternal karmic traps of wars, domination, disappointments, betrayals, and redemptions.

Of course, those historic scientific discoveries "we all know" are now reworked in new cultural contexts with different results. This is the beauty of Alternative Histories. But with this handful of sleepwalking "souls" reborn repeatedly in their own karmic cycles, this vast history of civilizations reconfigured takes on an unexpected intimacy.

Enjoy this one.
...more

23 likes · Like · see review

Aug 02, 2012 Barrita rated it really liked it

Shelves: history, speculative-fiction, historical-fiction, long-books, philosobooks, alternate-history, reviewed, 4-star, male-authors, barrilibros

Una gran idea que se transforma en una interesante lectura, algo pesada a veces y con ciertos puntos que no convencen tanto. Habría funcionado mejor, creo, sin el tema de la reencarnación.

Pero en general es un muy buen libro, del tipo que es lento pero que te va absorbiendo poco a poco hasta que estás demasiado interesado para dejarlo.

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