the years of rice and salt (part two)

I finally finished The Years of Rice and Salt. It is not a bad read. As the book went on, you get a better sense of how history progressed differently in Robinson's universe. Also, there are characters who spell out some of the political, religious, anthropological and literary ideas which seem to have inspired the work as a whole. I think I understand why the novel got more interesting in the second half but I still wish the flow were more even throughout. Firstly, it makes sense that close to the point of divergence (the Black Death) the world of the novel would be very close to our own and that differences would only be more evident as the centuries passed. Secondly, as a way of depicting the progress of human thought, the more intellectual characters (historians, activists and social scientists who pontificate about past events, human nature and the state of society) tend to be clumped later in the novel. I would say that the second half of the novel was more interesting but also more didactic and that the book might have been more effective if some of the ideas were introduced earlier, or perhaps illustrated through plot and action.

the years of rice and salt (part one)

So I'm in the middle of reading The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson. The book is a work of alternative historical fiction with an intriguing premise: What if the Black Death had been more total in its impact, rendering the Christian West only a marginal actor in subsequent world history? Chinese and Islamic civilizations become dominant in the world. The Americas are primarily settled by the Japanese (but Native American cultures are able to continue in a stronger form than they do in our world). An ex-alchemist plants the foundation for classical chemistry and physics in Samarqand. And so it goes.

To be honest, I'm a little bit disappointed with the novel at the moment. I love the premise, but the book doesn't really seem to make the most of its setting(s). To provide continuity, the novel follows the souls of a small group of associates (a jati) as they reincarnate through multiple times and places through the centuries. But instead of fleshing out the broad trends and events of this alternate history, the novel focuses on the personal development of these souls across lifetimes. The result (so far) is a story which could just as easily been set in our own past. Hopefully, as the story goes on and as the histories diverge more, Robinson will give the reader a greater sense of how this other world differs from our own.

Wikipedia: The Years of Rice and Salt