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The Years of Rice and Salt | 
 enlarge | Author: Kim Stanley Robinson
Publisher: Spectra
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
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You Save: $7.98 (100%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  147 reviews
Sales Rank: 46437
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 784
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 6.9 x 4.2 x 1.4
ISBN: 0553580078
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780553580075
ASIN: 0553580078
Publication Date: June 3, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Review
Award-winning author Kim Stanley Robinson delivers a thoughtful and powerful examination of cultures and the people who shape them. How might human history be different if 14th-century Europe was utterly wiped out by plague, and Islamic and Buddhist societies emerged as the world's dominant religious and political forces? The Years of Rice and Salt considers this question through the stories of individuals who experience and influence various crucial periods in the seven centuries that follow. The credible alternate history that Robinson constructs becomes the framework for a tapestry of ideas about philosophy, science, theology, and politics. At the heart of the story are fundamental questions: what is the purpose of life and death? Are we eternal? Do our choices matter? The particular achievement of this book is that it weaves these threads into a story that is both intellectually and emotionally engaging. This is a highly recommended, challenging, and ambitious work. --Roz Genessee
Product Description
With the incomparable vision and breathtaking detail 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....
The Years of Rice and Salt
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? What if the plague killed 99 percent of the population instead? How would the world have changed? This is a look at the history that could have been–a history that stretches across centuries, a history that sees dynasties and nations rise and crumble, a history that spans horrible famine and magnificent innovation. These are the years of rice and salt.
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. This is a universe where the Industrial Revolution is triggered by the world’s greatest scientific minds–in India. This is a universe where Buddhism and Islam are the most influential and practiced religions and Christianity is merely a historical footnote.
Through the eyes of soldiers and kings, explorers and philosophers, slaves and scholars, Robinson renders an immensely rich tapestry. Rewriting history and probing the most profound questions as only he can, Robinson shines his extraordinary light on the place of religion, culture, power, and even love on such an Earth. From the steppes of Asia to the shores of the Western Hemisphere, from the age of Akbar to the present and beyond, here is the stunning story of the creation of a new world.
From the Hardcover edition.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 142 more reviews...
 great premise, poor follow-through November 19, 2008
I thought this was a great premise for a book, but the execution was more than a little disappointing. There are just too many ways a civilization can change for anything to seem realistic. Just as the black plague was a historical turning point that ended European influence in this book, couldn't something else have changed the world the writer created into something completely unrecognizable? The world the writer created here seemed too much like the world we know today, with a different accent -- like throwing curry powder on a food to make it "Indian" or chili powder on something else to make it "Mexican." I did enjoy the earlier chapters, but they seemed more appealing on their own than having to follow the conceit of having them reborn over time. Getting familiar with the world was difficult enough -- to have to relearn who was who in the story was more work than I was prepared for.
 "Will you come with us? Will you do that?" July 8, 2008
alt.history generally doesn't do it for me. I really love authors like Tim Powers who pick more obscure moments in time, but I really don't like the seemingly ubiquitous what if the Nazis weren't defeated books which seem to dominate the alt.history market.
In that sense, Robinson's book was a relief. The premise question of "What if the plague destroyed 99% of the European population?" is an interesting question, and open to a lot of good themes. Robinson is clearly alive to the endless possibilities, because he unfortunately tries to stuff every answer/theme he can think of into this book's 763 pages of itty bitty type. Although the reincarnation device serves as a unifying principle, it is pretty difficult to unify this much stuff and you practically need a reader's guide to get all the recurring souls and the various ideas straight in your head.
I started off really resisting the book, but by 100 pages in I was really enjoying the experience. Unfortunately, my interest started to flag again somewhere around page 500 and by the "Nsara" chapter I was fairly actively bored and annoyed. This may make me a shallow person, I suppose, but it was just plain old too much of a muchness for me. (And to give you context, I was kind of sorry that the Baroque Cycle didn't have more pages, so it isn't an issue with long books in general.) I think that it is also that in the latter portions of the book I felt Robinson pushing more to get his agenda heard and something about the politics took a weird left turn into wishful thinking at the end. Too bad.
The writing is skillful, although it did not set me on fire. I would recommend the book, particularly to someone with a specific interest in alt.history fiction. I'm not dying to run out and read the Mars trilogy based on this however-- should I change my mind about that or not?
 An alternate history that really is an "Alternate History" April 14, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
To many alternate histories fall into two categories "What if the South Won the Civil War?" or "What if the Nazis Won World War II?"
In this case "What if Europe were decimated by the Black Death?"; now there are times when the story (which is very long) is in danger of collapsing under the weight of its own narrative. There are even times when you need a rolodex to keep track of all of the characters (there are sites on the internet dedicated to this) the simplest advice in this case is to follow closely the characters starting with "B", "P" and "K"
Overall-If I had read this a year ago when I expected everything I read to be a great work of literature I would have given this a much lower rating, however in the little while since I have had a revelation I was entertained and my intelligence wasn't insulted so I had a good time.
 interesting premise, awful execution April 4, 2008
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
Reading the summary of this book, it sounded really quite interesting. European society had been killed off by plague and thus Islamic and Chinese societies were the dominant ones on Earth. The book was divided up amongst several stories detailing various time periods and the ways in which scientific discoveries - flight, gunpowder, trains, telescopes, etc were "discovered" in this alternate history. But these stories just got boring and I found myself wanting to skip large sections of them in the hope that the book would get better, unfortunately it didn't.
Didn't live up to expectations November 29, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
As an alternative history of what would have happened if Europe had been depopulated by the Black Death this book had some real possibilities. Would Islamic civilization, which was still thriving at the time, have taken the lead in the world? Or might China have rose to the challenge? Through the use of reincarnation the author attempts to explore the possibilities but never really succceeds in pulling the reader in, at least not in my case.
A great idea for a book, though.
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