The Years of Rice and Salt (Hardcover)

But there are two fundamental flaws, in my opinion. Firstly, the device of reincarnating the same set of characters fails; none of said characters are distinctive or memorable enough from life to life, and so end up being effectively 'new' in every section/time period. There's little chance for the reader to develop any emotional investment before the section ends and the whole thing starts again, and it becomes difficult to truly care.

Its second problem is, curiously, its lack of scope and vision. While the novel's stage is an entire world over six or so centuries, the device of keeping the characters together in each incarnation means that each section concentrates on one small area, robbing the narrative of the benefits of multiple, varied viewpoints. The scale is narrow rather than epic, and the action tends to get bogged down in details. This would be fine if the details were used to build character or illuminate the larger picture - the themes of this alternate, Europe-less world - but a lot of it reads like navel-gazing.

Many of the truly interesting implications are skipped over in favour of scientists ahead of their time discovering exactly the same things at almost exactly the same time their counterparts did in the non-fictional world, as if Robinson feels that certain universal boxes must be checked along the road to 'development', whatever the structure or imperatives of a society. (Meanwhile, literature, drama and art get short shrift). Often even the same words are used - I know little about the history of scientific thought, but would a world whose development was shaped by Arabs and Chinese still have used so many Greek and Latinate constructions to label their deeds? (okay, so he can get away with Greek, Islamic scholars were big on Greek. but still).

While there are glimpses of greater things - Buddhist attitudes and beliefs are used very well, and the different trajectory of American history is intriguing, but frustratingly underexplored - Robinson seems to be more interested in following a pretty conventional path. Perhaps dictated by his reincarnation device, he surrenders to the temptation to work towards a conclusion, as if human history could have ultimate purposes or goals. (I imagine one could argue that this reflects the world-view of those he writes about, but intentional or not it doesn't work!). Ultimately, this is too big a topic for one novel, and in trying to cover everything the author spreads himself too thinly, and ends up short-changing a fascinating world.

Despite these caveats, this remains a hugely enjoyable and memorable read, a rich tapestry of cultures and ideas rarely explored in genre fiction. Worth a look.

The book starts very slowly, following a single individual as he treks through the incredibly deserted lands of the newly depopulated Europe, and really doesn't pick up speed until we reach The Alchemist, where we see a grand flowering of scientific investigation, paralleling the accomplishments of Newton, Leibnitz, and other European researchers, but from a Muslim viewpoint. Here for the first time in the book do we get some depth to the characters, and a first peek at the overriding theme of the book, on the power and obligation of the individual to do his utmost to change the world for the better, even if only by a miniscule amount.

From here on the book is very uneven. Some sections, such as the ones detailing the events in the New World, are fascinating for their different development from our own history. Others bog down in debates over very foreseeable changes in and clashes between various religions (mainly Islam and Buddhism) and their sub-sects.

Part of the problem here is his set of continuing, re-incarnated characters between each major section. At just about the point where you become interested in these people, where they have real faces and recognizable emotions and problems, that section will end, and in the following section you have new characters, who have some of the traits of the earlier ones, but often the relationship is not obvious, and the character's names are strange enough to cause additional problems in recognition. Another problem is KSR's depiction of the bardo, where souls go prior to re-incarnation. His description of this spiritual plane never made a concrete image for me, nor did it seem to make much logical sense. And finally, KSR's commitment to the ideal of communism at times becomes too strident, with too much of a sugar-coated outlook on the possibility of changing human nature to where that ideal could really form a workable society.

So what is good? The grand sweep of this book will eventually catch you up in its implacability, the sense of inevitableness as KSR's imagined world shows so many striking, logical, and ultimately depressing parallels to our own. And by presenting some of the basic tenants of Islam in this fictional form, the reader will come away with a better appreciation of this religion and the possible power of its adherents as a force for good and enlightened investigation into all aspects of the world. Some of the poetry within these pages will evoke an awed feeling of 'this captures this feeling, this moment, exactly.'

A grand idea, an impressive attempt, but with too many flaws to be considered great. Still, it shows that KSR is not afraid of attempting something new, something that would give most authors a bad case of palsy to even consider.

--- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)

Alternating workman-like prose with prose "poems" and, occasionally, stories and legends, Robinson crafts a fast-paced history of a different world, creating two characters who appear and reappear in different incarnations from 783 a. H. (after Hegira), roughly the late 14th century, to the present day. Keeping basically the same personalities, regardless of their incarnations, Bold Bardash (Bihari, Bistami, Butterfly, Bahram, etc.) and Kyu (Kokila, Kya, Katima, Kheim, etc.) travel through time, experiencing life under the Mongols, Indians, early Chinese emperors, Muslim leaders, and Japanese sailors during their discovery of the New World.

Some episodes are much more vivid, and ultimately more enlightening, than others, and as the cultures are brought to life, along with their different views of man's place in the universe, Robinson shows how the desire to impose one's own religion or beliefs on the outside world is the basis of some of the cruelest violence throughout history. Ultimately, the Great War, lasting sixty-seven years and costing one billion lives, pits the rulers of Dar al-Islam against the Travancori League (India), China, and the Hodenosaunee League (Native America).

While it is intriguing to contemplate alternative history, Robinson's goal--the alternative history of the entire world for the past six hundred years is an enormous subject, one which, because of its breadth and scope seems to lose focus and pace as the book progresses. And while the reincarnations of Bold and Kyu help to bridge many gaps and avoid some problems of character development, the device becomes a bit tired by the end. Still, in showing us how all aspects of our current knowledge might have developed in other societies if western civilization had not existed, Robinson goes a long way toward reducing intellectual arrogance and increasing empathy for other cultures. Despite the book's limitations, Robinson succeeds in creating an alternative history which offers much food for thought and considerable narrative excitement. Mary Whipple