the years of rice and salt

The historical narrative is guided more by social history than political or military history. Though the current year is 2081 in the Christian calendar, technology is almost exactly where it was in 2001. Budur becomes close to Kirana who opens her eyes to the injustices that women face and how they can seek emancipation and liberation (the two have a brief affair). The Years of Rice and Salt gives us what might have been, but, instead of looking backward, it faces forward and asks, what might we all yet be?" 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. The Muslims were forced to pay reparations to the victorious countries and to make various humiliating concessions such as allowing Buddhist monasteries to open in their cities. She is executed for her crime, but is reborn as a tiger that befriends a man named Bistami, a Sufi mystic of Persian origin. Registered User . 1; 2; 3; First Prev 3 of 3 Go to page. There they stay at a zawiyya, a refuge for women, Idelba restarts her work in physics and Budur enrolls in university where she studies history. This is a universe where the Industrial Revolution is triggered by the world's greatest scientific minds—in India. If it were just for its historical scope, The Years of Rice and Salt would have been an interesting anecdote in the alternate history genre. The Years of Rice and Salt is an alternative history novel published in 2002. It's one of my all-time favorite books, so I've read the print edition, and it is easier to follow who's who in that form. [19] The Library Journal "highly recommended" it, saying that its "superb storytelling and imaginative historic speculation make [it] a priority choice for all SF and general fiction collections". by Kim Stanley Robinson. Kim is obviously a very knowledgeable fellow but not the sort of guy you'd like to get stuck with at a party. The Years of Rice and Salt spans almost two thousand years, taking the story from what we would call 0 BC all the way up until present day, without shirking a single era in between. The Years Of Rice And Salt by Robinson, Kim Stanley In an alternate history world in which the population of Europe is almost completely wiped out by the Black Death during the fourteenth century, three superpowers--China, India, and the nations of Islam--battle for supremacy in a World War destined to create a new world order. Eventually, Bao's wife dies, and he begins to wander once again. She rules the community after her husband dies (something not allowed in normal Islamic practice), but the Caliph of Al-Andalus eventually hears of their "heresy" and sends an army against them. . The Years of Rice and Salt. Review "The writing in The Years of Rice and Salt is workmanlike for the most part, with occasional passages that seem lifted from a lecture. by Kim Stanley Robinson. This map is based on one from the book (which is credited to Jeffrey L. Ward), it shows the four main blocs or alliances on the eve of the "Long War" (specific date is 1333 AH or 1915 AD). In the subsequent years, other translated versions were published, in French, Polish, Chinese, and Hungarian. --David Langford. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. The Years of Rice and Salt. The Kerala's aim is to drive the Muslim invaders away and peacefully unify India into a kind of democratic confederation. Please try again. Book Ten, The First Years, follows Bao Xinhua. "The Years of Rice and Salt" by Kim Stanley Robinson A novelist imagines 700 years of history in which the plague has wiped out the West and China and Islam rule the globe. As one would expect from Robinson, the book is packed, almost overflowing, with ideas. Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 10, 2019, Definitely value for money, I would get this again any day. 2.1K likes. These are the years of rice and salt. These are the years of rice and salt. The Years of Rice and Salt charts the course of this divergent timeline where Western hegemony never happens and the locus of power shifts to the East (and also to the South, if we're being persnickety). A displaced Japanese slave, Kiyoaki, and a pregnant Chinese refugee, Peng-ti, manage to flee to the great coastal city of Fangzhang. Please try again. ebook. by Ward Moore (The Confederacy win the American Civil War); prolific pulp author Harry Turtledove has created a cottage industry out of these "what if" scenarios. Years of Rice and Salt is an instrumental post rock band based in London, United Kingdom. Bistami goes on to become a judge for Mughal Emperor Akbar, but later falls into his disfavour, being exiled to Mecca. Life at the university allows for open debate about all issues and Kirana focuses on the nature of history and contemporary events, such as the Muslim defeat in the Long War, which she blames on the failure of the Islamic countries to properly mobilize women for the war effort (something that the Chinese did almost totally). ― Kim Stanley Robinson, The Years of Rice and Salt. They are then told that their attack was merely a diversion for the real offensive, which is being conducted by the Japanese (who have recently been freed by China in exchange for alliance in the war) through Siberia. "[2], While most alternate histories use the Great Man theory of history, focusing on leaders, wars, and big events, Robinson writes more about social history, similar to the Annales School of historical theory and Marxist historiography, focusing on the lives of ordinary people living in their time and place. Thread starter The Doctor; Start date Jun 7, 2010; Prev. [22] For The Globe and Mail, Sol Chrom lauded the epic scope, calling it a "magnificent achievement",[18] and for The Belfast News Letter, the reviewer called the novel "extraordinary, ambitious, poetic and powerful". There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. by Philip K. Dick (The Axis powers win WW2), by Keith Roberts (The Spanish Armada succeed in deposing Queen Elizabeth) and, Bring the Jubilee (Millennium SF Masterworks S.). While the ten parts take place in different times and places, they are connected by a group of characters that are reincarnated into each time but are identified to the reader by the first letter of their name being consistent in each life. In other words, it is not at all like the last few books written by Kim Stanley Robinson himself. Read a sample Read a sample Description; Details; Reviews; 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. History teaches us that a third of Europe's population was destroyed. The Years of Rice and Salt is a thick, dense alternate history spanning continents and centuries. Throughout this, Idelba has been secretly working on atomic physics and she and her fellow researchers have made some disturbing discoveries. To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number. . They devote themselves to practical demonstrations and experiments that greatly improve knowledge of various aspects of physics, chemistry, mathematics, biology, and weaponry, and in the process create the scientific method. Check out the latest breaking news videos and viral videos covering showbiz, sport, fashion, technology, and more from the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday. 20 Favourites. [13][16] However, those that wrote The Years of Rice and Salt was not a utopian story say that the world history presented is not necessarily better or worse than the real history, just different. There, the plague devastated Europe to the extent that social progress was halted, allowing the Aztec civilisation to progress, explore and develop technologically. Read a sample Read a sample Description; Details; Reviews; 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. ebook. The Years of Rice and Salt (2002) is Kim Stanley Robinson's latest novel, his first since 1997's Antarctica. These are the years of rice and salt. The Years of Rice and Salt is an alternate history, one with a simple premise: what if the black death had killed off 99% of Europe's population instead of a third? Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video! [14] Also, later chapters take on metafictional elements, with characters discussing the nature of history, whether it is cyclical or linear, whether they believe in reincarnation, and feelings that some people are intrinsically linked. At the time of publication in 2002, science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson was 49 years old and living in Davis, California. ebook. The Muslim, Indian and Chinese civilizations are the ones that will drive world history, through hardships and wars, discoveries and revolutions. In his grandest work yet, the acclaimed storyteller constructs a world vastly different from the one we know. The Years of Rice and Salt. Three other alternate-history novels where the Black Death was much deadlier in Europe, which was subsequently colonized in whole or part by Muslims: ...the complaints about alternative histories being "too much like" our history are always balanced, sometimes in the same commentator, by complaints that it is "too different to be possible," and I have concluded that really one can't win: alternatives to our world history are in some deep sense unthinkable. 6 Comments . In Nsara itself, order begins to break down as people are near starvation and the military attempts to overthrow the government and impose a police state. Later, during the Xianfeng Emperor's reign, in the Chinese colony known as Gold Mountain, major flooding in the Central Valley of California forces the evacuation of Chinese colonial towns and Japanese settlers alike. In it Robinson posits a Western Europe that lost 90% of its population in the fourteenth century plague. Robinson takes advantage of the romance inherent in the idea of reincarnation; it's a lovely, seductive concept, and it adds much mystical texture to the narrative. Indeed, "The Lucky Strike" was first published in, "A Sensitive Dependence on Initial Conditions" was first published in, Both "The Lucky Strike" and "A Sensitive Dependence on Initial Conditions" were published together in the 2009 booklet, Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, https://www.kimstanleyrobinson.info/tags/years-rice-and-salt, https://www.kimstanleyrobinson.info/content/nsara, "Falling into History: The Imagined Wests of Kim Stanley Robinson in the "Three Californias" and Mars Trilogies", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Years_of_Rice_and_Salt&oldid=1011143433, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 9 March 2021, at 07:58. It explores the shape the world would have taken if 99% of the European population had been wiped out by the 14th Century Black Plague. A Powerful Meditation On An Alternate Earth With No Christianity, Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2017, Reviewed in the United States on September 2, 2018. Something went wrong. The war drags on for decades causing major changes in the societies involved, with rapid industrialisation, mass conscription and mass casualties (both sides are forced to use women in the fighting to make up for manpower losses). [6] There Kiyoaki joins a secret Japanese freedom movement that is being aided by Travancore, with Ismail acting as a go-between agent. Wu kong: You can walk from the time of your youth till the time you grow old, and after that, till you become young again; and even after going through such a cycle a thousand times, you may still find it difficult to reach the place where you want to go. Reviewed in the United States on August 8, 2020. This is a universe where the first ship to reach the New World travels across the Pacific Ocean from China and colonization spreads from west to east. [14], Robinson's take on alternate history is that because it "is set in the same lawful universe as ours, its science must be the same [and] because its people have the same basic human needs, their societies resemble ours. Like all alternate histories, there is a point of departure. This is a universe where the first ship to reach the New World travels across the Pacific Ocean from China and colonization spreads from west to east. These are the years of rice and salt. By Goliath-Maps Watch. The suggestion is a great one, and I love the book. For example, the first chapter is written similarly to Monkey's Journey to the West[13] and a later chapter incorporates postmodernism. Its long and has quite a lot of philosophy of history, which may not suit some but I liked that aspect of it. Remarkable narrator. [5] Robinson followed the Mars trilogy with the novel Antarctica (1997), which won an Alex Award, and two short story collections, The Martians (1999) and Vinland the Dream (2001), before publishing The Years of Rice and Salt. The Indian and Hodenosaunee Leagues stay neutral at first, but eventually ally with China, as they see the Muslims as their greater enemy, however the Muslims invade northern India all the way down to Burma to stop the Indians and Chinese from linking up. The world has become divided into three large alliances, the Chinese Empire and its colonies, the fractured Muslim world (Dar al-Islam), and the democratic Indian and Hodenosaunee Leagues. Seriously, think about it. ebook. Hardcover. The new Chinese government, the "Fourth Assemblage of Military Talent", orders a new offensive against the Muslim lines in Gansu. Gavin J. Ratings and Book Reviews (1 25 star ratings 1 reviews ) Overall rating. It explores the shape the world would have taken if 99% of the European population had been wiped out by the 14th Century Black Plague. His near-future, hard science fiction writing has won disciples who believe that he has prophesied how it will be. Top subscription boxes – right to your door, © 1996-2021, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates, Alternate History Science Fiction (Books). Used for all hardbacks of any size. Bao marries and raises two children before accepting a diplomatic post in Myanmar. Join Date: Dec 2020. The vengeful Kyu hates the Chinese for what they have done to him and he incites violence between the eunuchs and the Confucian administrative officials. The novel is divided into ten "books", and each book puts the protagonists into a new location, a new time period and, well, a new body. There they narrowly escape being ritually sacrificed by using their flintlock firearms, something the natives have never seen before. Title: The Years Of Rice And Salt: A Novel Format: Mass Market Paperback Product dimensions: 784 pages, 6.86 X 4.18 X 1.23 in Shipping dimensions: 784 pages, 6.86 X 4.18 X 1.23 in Published: June 3, 2003 Publisher: Random House Publishing Group Language: English. In Book Three, Ocean Continents, the Wanli Emperor launches an invasion against Nippon (Japan) but the huge fleet is swept out to sea by the Kuroshio Current and they are set adrift on the unexplored Pacific Ocean. They do this successfully, but are beaten back by the second line of Muslim defences, losing tens of thousands of soldiers and gaining nothing. The novel spans hundreds of years, told through the eyes of two main characters (introduced with a very nice nod to The Journey to the West) experiencing reincarnation after reincarnation in their search of the meaning of life. [8][9] While characters in each story are unique, they share some characteristics with their previous incarnations and are linked, for convenience, by the first letter of their name. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. Even in China, a victorious country, there is unrest that turns into civil war. In Robinson's alternate world the plague rampaged through Europe in the 14th Century and wiped out virtually the entire population. Book Seven, The Age of Great Progress, is set during the 19th century and begins during a war between the Ottoman Empire and the Indian state of Travancore. Way and that I think I liked most the Rice and Salt is an instrumental rock! ) is Kim Stanley Robinson, published in 2002 departure for Kim Stanley Robinson by,... S easy to get angry, anyone can do that such it 's quite a of! Are reincarnated into different times and places 8, 2020 of personal idiosyncrasies! 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