The Years of Rice and Salt

By Kim Stanley Robinson, 2002

Yet once more I shall die as Man, to soar

With angels blessed; but even from angelhood

I must pass on: “All save the face of God doth perish.”

Rumi

In this alternate history, a second wave of the Black Death annihilates Europe, leaving the scientific and social progress of our timeline for the Arab, Chinese, Indian, etc. It focuses on the reincarnation of a handful of characters over the centuries.

This novel was a bit long but pretty interesting. It made me think of “Roma Eterna” (R. Silverberg) to some extent.

1. The novel was really long and dense. It actually spans seven centuries of society developement in ten books which is a quite a lot and meant memorizing new context and characters each time. However the parallel story of reincarnation provided a good link between chapters, but I found it a bit messy sometimes.

2. An interesting book nonetheless! The alternate timeline was quite realistic as it focused on general movements in society such as new debates in religion or men/women equality. This timeline was also unique because this new world is shared equally between China, Dar-Al Islam, India and Native Americans contrary to the real timeline where Europe dominated the world. A kind of utopy I would say.

3. It looked a lot like “Roma Eterna” on several points. First the story moved slowly but surely, from a old world similar to ours to the world of the future. Second I think both authors conveyed their vision on history and historical progress. And finally I would say that there is a major mystical dimension in the two novels, with the Exodus that did not happen in “Roma Eterna” and with the constant reincarnations in better selves in “The Years of Rice and Salt”.

Not a favorite but yet interesting. You can see the well-written article on Wikipedia about it.

#question What do you think the background picture (behind the cover!) was initially?

Hint: it is related to the novel