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Shiva 3000
 
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Shiva 3000 (Paperback)

by Jan Lars Jensen (Author)
3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
RRP: £5.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 416 pages
  • Publisher: Tor; New edition edition (9 Mar 2001)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0330392379
  • ISBN-13: 978-0330392372
  • Product Dimensions: 17.2 x 11 x 2.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 936,148 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

This first SF novel from a Canadian author is steeped in the exotic scents, spices and religions of old India--but takes place in a far-future Indian subcontinent where many gods of Hindu myth are literally real. The great wheeled charioteer Jagannath (Juggernaut), for example, who smashes spectacularly through cities when summoned by incautious prayer...

Also real is the implacable pressure of dharma, duty or destiny, laid on the narrator Rakesh by the death-goddess Kali. This drives him on an insane mission to destroy the ape-faced Baboon Warrior, who's a national hero for peculiar reasons: "He killed one of your gods. [...] And this made him more popular with Hindus, not less".

Rakesh is helped and hindered by an irascible engineer companion, "Pragmatic" monks, the sensual Kama Sutra cult that's subverting the state, strap-on appliances that give you six functional arms like the god Shiva, a crazed veteran of the Astrological War, a woman who's made herself pregnant by pure will-power and even monstrous Jagannath himself--or itself. Dung-burning vehicles, turmeric bombs (useful for riot control) and silken passenger-carrying balloons mix with warped remnants of computer technology and genetic engineering. Even dharma may be negotiable, with a little knowledge of what human biochemistry has become. Or, then again, it may not.

Shiva 3000 is colourful, gripping and exhilaratingly different--a memorable SF debut. --David Langford --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.



Product Description

During a quarrelsome journey across India two men in search of very different destinies encounter gods, demons and mythological creatures. The tale is set against a backdrop of animated machines, airships of silk and ancient legends brought to life.

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Customer Reviews

7 Reviews
5 star:
 (3)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (2)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.4 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Indian Fantasy, 8 Nov 2000
By A Customer
Reading this book makes me realise how utterly western is so much SF and Fantasy written today. Shiva 3000 was a complete contrast; thoroughly Indian from its spot-on title through its god machines, rampant Kama Sutrans, and final insane logic. The ideas here are at a complete slant to anything else I've read: the goonda devices, sexual capacitor, the demon birds, spice battle, and vast Jagannath. This was lurid and rich and the images will stay with me for some time. Congratulations Mr Jensen and I look forward to anything else you may produce.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic romp through a transformed land, 23 Mar 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: Shiva 3000 (Paperback)
The narrator of the novel is charged with an unusual task: to destroy someone beloved by his countrymen. Through a transfigured India, he ventures with his reluctant ally in this enterprise, a disgraced Palace engineer, and together they encounter a host of weird wonders, wooden robots, mechanical elephants, a sect of devotees to the Kama Sutra, serpent-Nagas lying coiled in the bowels of old cities, giant cranes pursuing the bliss of numbers, and more. Much of the novel takes place within the hulk of a colossal wooden god, Jagannath, whose will does not match that of the protagonists and which takes them to places they don't necessarily care to go.

Comparisons have been made to the work of Roger Zelazny but "Shiva 3000" more closely resembles some dream-vision of Terry Gilliam, with aspects of Indian culture transformed by retro-mechanical technology. The first chapters of the novel are startling - the author plunges directly into the action and exotic milieu - but I soon settled into the compelling story and pleasures of Jensen's prose. Elements of fantasy and science fiction are woven throughout this entertaining romp, and having finished it, I believe it's one of the best novels I've read in some time. I look forward to more from the author.

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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars demeaning, 22 Mar 2009
what would have been an interesting story is severly let down by the background.......hindu india in 3000. so, with the barest bit of research into mythology (vaishnav hindus made peace with buddhism in 1100 AD and even made gautama the tenth incarnation!!) the author heaps spadefuls of malice on hinduism, which is very much a religion practised today as well.

i can only surmise, that hinduism preaching secularism and peaceful co existence is propbably why this joker got off without a fatwa on his silly head. still no reason to slag a belief so badly
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Let down at the end
This was a great read for most of the book - unfortunately the author seems to set the ending up for a sequel which has never followed. Read more
Published 21 months ago by D. Ford

5.0 out of 5 stars A startling new voice
This book blew me away! I wasn't expecting such a startling combo of ideas with a flashy writing style. Read more
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1.0 out of 5 stars silly, unbelievable bunk
Most science fiction or fantasy at least pretends to be credible. Not this. I doubt that many sober, undrugged readers will think their money well-spent.
Published on 30 Jul 1999

4.0 out of 5 stars An unique change of pace.
If you want something unique, this may be the book for you. I found it vivid and enthralling. That simply.
Published on 6 Jul 1999

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