The Years of Rice and Salt

Langue : English

Publié 30 juillet 2003

ISBN :
978-0-553-58007-5
ISBN copié !

Voir sur Inventaire

5 étoiles (1 critique)

The Years of Rice and Salt is an alternate history novel by American science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson, published in 2002. The novel explores how world history might have been different if the Black Death plague had killed 99 percent of Europe's population, instead of a third as it did in reality. Divided into ten parts, the story spans hundreds of years, from the army of the Muslim conqueror Timur to the 21st century, with Europe being re-populated by Muslim pioneers, the indigenous peoples of the Americas forming a league to resist Chinese and Muslim invaders, and a 67-year-long world war being fought primarily between Muslim states and the Chinese and their allies. While the ten parts take place in different times and places, they are connected by a group of characters that are reincarnated into each time but are identified to the reader by the first letter of …

3 éditions

a publié une critique de The Years of Rice and Salt par Kim Stanley Robinson

Review of 'The Years of Rice and Salt' on 'LibraryThing'

5 étoiles

A book about our place in the world and the eternal question of how to live well, disguised as a novel. It's a long read, best savoured slowly over a stretch of time. It's too easy to become impatient and rush through to the "good bits" of action and excitement, and miss the thought-provoking substance.

It is less a fantasy or science fiction work than a tribute to our potential as a species, seen through an Eastern lens that is not often considered in Robinson's English-speaking target audience.