The Years of Rice and Salt - Kim Stanley Robinson

The Years of Rice and Salt

By Kim Stanley Robinson

  • Release Date: 2002-02-26
  • Genre: Fiction & Literature
4.5 Score: 4.5 (From 114 Ratings)

Description

With the same unique vision that brought his now classic Mars trilogy to vivid life, bestselling author Kim Stanley Robinson boldly imagines an alternate history of the last seven hundred years. In his grandest work yet, the acclaimed storyteller constructs a world vastly different from the one we know. . . .

“A thoughtful, magisterial alternate history from one of science fiction’s most important writers.”—The New York Times Book Review 

It is the fourteenth century and one of the most apocalyptic events in human history is set to occur—the coming of the Black Death. History teaches us that a third of Europe’s population was destroyed.  But what if the plague had killed 99 percent of the population instead? How would the world have changed? This is a look at the history that could have been—one that stretches across centuries, sees dynasties and nations rise and crumble, and spans horrible famine and magnificent innovation.  

Through the eyes of soldiers and kings, explorers and philosophers, slaves and scholars, Robinson navigates a world where Buddhism and Islam are the most influential and practiced religions, while Christianity is merely a historical footnote. Probing the most profound questions as only he can, Robinson shines his extraordinary light on the place of religion, culture, power—and even love—in this bold New World.

“Exceptional and engrossing.”—New York Post


“Ambitious . . . ingenious.”—Newsday

Reviews

  • Self indulgent

    2
    By E430doug
    I came to this book thinking it would be an alternate history. Instead it was a long meditation on reincarnation. There really is no story here. What little it does have gets lost 3/4 of the way through. I complete the book hoping that it would get interesting again. It didn’t.
  • Astonishing

    5
    By Captain Marsupial
    I only rate items five stars if they change my life. Yes, I will be the first to admit there are slow passages, but the reimagination of the world is truly mind blowing. The book takes place in a world where European culture became extinct during the black death, and then recolonized by the other great cultures of the world. The depth and examination of other cultures as they evolve into a modern technological culture is brilliant. The whole book is tied together by vignettes of the afterlife, as we see the same characters born and reborn as they struggle towards enlightenment. Truly magical
  • Great!

    5
    By Rob322
    This is a great speculative history imagining Europe completely wiped out by the Black Death and the other cultures carrying on. Excellent read!

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