River Of Gods
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Product Description
Christopher Priest, Guardian
'A staggering achievement, brilliantly imagined and endlessly surprising...a brave, brilliant and wonderful novel'
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Nick Gevers, Locus
'Hugely adventurous and entertaining, sumptuously inventive and full of heart...it is likely to rank as Ian McDonald's finest creative achievement'
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Three years after the so-so Ares Express, but it's been worth the wait. This is a big steam-roller of a book --you don't so much read it as experience it; it's a shock to the system in almost every way. There's so much going on it it's almost impossible to adequately describe --Mysterious Artefacts in space, artificial intelligences, a completely computer generated soap opera (it's only a question of time really)weater wars, political intrigue, third-sex 'nutes', genetically engineered 'Brahmins': this is wide-screen SF. More than that, it has the feel of John Brunner's classics: Stand on Zanzibar, The Sheep Look Up, --it's a lived in future, not just a wam-bam story. And it's India! This is a world as alien as any you'll read in a wide-angle space-opera...
Great characters, who generate the story, rather than get pushed around by it, and a cosmic-scale denoument that is perfectly set up, but I for one didn't see coming.
Not the easiest book I ever read, but you come out of it with your head reeling and our world seems dull and pale by comparison.
Oh, and there's cricket too!
Great characters, who generate the story, rather than get pushed around by it, and a cosmic-scale denoument that is perfectly set up, but I for one didn't see coming.
Not the easiest book I ever read, but you come out of it with your head reeling and our world seems dull and pale by comparison.
Oh, and there's cricket too!
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
River of Gods marks a return to form for Ian McDonald, after the dissapointing Ares Express. It's set in a near-future India, splintered into smaller states. The book takes awhile to get going as there are several protagonists and we are introduced to each in turn, as the plot starts up. This takes time, but is rewarding as we see a multi-faceted view of the society that Indida has become in the near future, and the changes to the human condition that have come with biotechnology and climate change.
The plot is layered and keeps us guessing to the very end. I can't discuss it much here whithout giving too much away, but it's as satisfying and twisty-turny with the same mythic ties as the original Desolation Road, only the mythos here is Indian, not African, and a great deal more interesting. There are occasional passages where he holds up a latter-day mirror to the current-day West, but it's done stubly and doesn't interfere with a read as tightly plotted as a thriller.
In short, a very rewarding read.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
River of Gods takes you into an alien (at least alien to my western mind) world of India 50 years hence, with a mix of hi-tech gadgets and third-world slums, Hindu mythology and Bollywood artificial intelligences.
The book consists of the lives of several seemingly unconnected individuals all gradually colliding into a crescendo finish.
It takes a little effort to get into the story, especially as the book is littered with Indian terms mixed with future technology. The Glossary at the back was helpful, though even without it the general context of the phrases can be understood. But pretty soon I was hooked.
An excellent read.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Stream of Demiurges (or Danger of Oxbow Lakes)
This is quite a tough book to review. There's much to admire here and it deserves to be a wholly successful piece. But it isn't. Read more
Published 13 months ago by sft
Complex and well written
Complex and well written, with a clever interweaving series of first person narratives I enjoyed this and also purchased Brasyl and Cyberbad days. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Orion
Too many plot threads
The premise behind this book is indeed interesting, and could have made for a very interesting novel. Read more
Published 21 months ago by just another customer
A masterpiece
Ian McD writes beautifully, and has created an incredible vision of India in the future. The characters are full, and real, and his attention to detail to culture in the... Read more
Published 22 months ago by HeecheeRendezvous
Ambitious and mostly successful novel
An vast story set mostly in a mid 21st century India that has split into competing states looking at man's relationship with other intelligences.
Published on 13 April 2010 by Dr Evil
At last.....!
This is the second book I've read of Ian McDonalds, the first being Brasyl, and as inventive and quirky as that was, this book is even better. Read more
Published on 1 Oct 2009 by F. M. Muse
Overambitious and incoherent...
Trully massive in scope, filled with interesting characters and ideas (hence the 3 stars), I nevertheless felt it did not live up to its intentions and my expectations... Read more
Published on 14 July 2008 by selana
Ughh!
It's more than 30 years that i read sf and I rarely write reviews but this i had to do!
Basic Idea is just enough for a short story. Read more
Basic Idea is just enough for a short story. Read more
Published on 3 April 2008 by Antonio Donini
Flawed But Worth Reading
Once or twice a year I like to try out a recent science-fiction title people are buzzing about, just to get a sense of developments in the genre. Read more
Published on 9 Jan 2008 by A. Ross
Good book - too short though
Ok. After over a decade of reading I.M. books I've been completely amazed by this mans imagination, way with words (those adjectives, still can't believe it) and the staggering... Read more
Published on 10 July 2006 by da ding
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