Customer Reviews

River of Gods

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Ian McDonald's River of Gods envisions India in the year 2047 - a country still torn between the third and first worlds. In the holy and profane city of Varanasi on the banks of the Ganges, ten people come together come together to start wars, end marriages, commit terrible crimes, fall in love and change the world.

McDonald describes Varanasi in loving, intricate and believable detail. He has a wonderful eye for the way technology changes the way people live and yet leaves them essentially the same as they ever were. As foreign as his future can sometimes be, it is also eerily familiar - you find yourself believing in places like a boat town on the banks of the river where extra-legal organizations conduct remote-controlled gender-nullification surgery and create super-intelligent computer programs. McDonald uses this familiarity to discuss topics that have relevance to our lives today, especially the relationship between India and first world nations such as the US and European countries and the internal divisions that threaten to tear this fledgling nation apart. Although he doesn't spare Western imperialism, McDonald doesn't paint India as a despoiled saint. He sees the country in all its contradictory glory and shame, and gives the Western reader an edifying and fascinating glimpse into the inner workings of this fractured nation.

McDonald's characters span all levels of society, and most of them are fresh and original. There are some beautiful touches here, such as Nandha, a policeman so obsessed with doing his job that he forgets about right and wrong, Najia, a reporter discovering her conscience and her humanity, or Khan, a politician who wants to do the right thing but finds himself struggling with socially unacceptable desires. Some of the characters are a little less involving - Nandha's wife Parvati is a standard under-appreciated, bored housewife, and the American scientist Lisa Durnau never has much more to do than be amazed. Even the least developed characters in River of Gods, however, have the scent of reality about them. They form an intricate tapestry of plot that carries the reader along breathlessly, and although the details of McDonald's world occasionally threaten to overwhelm the plot, he masterfully manages to maneuver the reader towards his satisfying conclusion.

River of Gods is the best kind of science fiction you could find - a view of the future that teaches us about the present while still telling a good story. Highly recommended.

Picture this: A novel set in 2047, just far enough ahead so that the reader can be shown some extremely possible developments of today's society, and not just in technology, but in politics, social structure and sexual relations. But a novel set in India rather then western society so that the developments are thrown into a strange side-lighting where the shadows give shape to events. A situation just different enough to show us something we may not have noticed about western society. A group of characters who are well developed enough that we can empathize with them, even when they seem very different from us. A suspenseful mystery that can keep us turning the pages, even when we want to slow down to understand the characters, the society and the science. That's "River of Gods".

Some of the developments seem to be quite reasonable given our present day world. For example, India is no longer a single nation, but rather, has been balkanized into smaller states similar to those that existed before the Raj. Some humans have found ways to change themselves biologically so that they avoid the problems of being either male or female. At the same time, many elements of this society are recognizable and unchanged like the undercurrent of hatred between Hindus and Muslims on the subcontinent.

And picture a society trying to cope with artificial intelligence, not wanting to abandon it, but not wanting to let it get out of hand. And picture a Hindu policeman whose job it is to track down possibly self-aware a.i.'s and who calls each of the programs that he uses to do the job by the name of a Hindu god whose area of expertise relates to the god's role in the older society.

In this world, there is a soap opera that everyone watches, where not only are some of the characters on the show a.i.'s, but some of the actors are a.i.'s. Moreover, the public seems just as concerned about the private lives of the actors, including the a.i.'s, as any current-day fan.

McDonald writes beautifully, occasionally deliberately confusing us as to what is happening with the result that we have a feeling of insight when we suddenly understand. And luckily the author furnishes us with a glossary of Indian words, although one may want to photocopy the list to avoid flipping back and forth as one encounters unfamiliar terms. McDonald also tells the story from the points of view of several characters that are different enough that we are not confused by them, but rather understand what is going on better than any character. Initially it's hard to see the relationship or purpose of these characters but as the book comes together we see how individual lives shape and are shaped by events and other lives.

As you may have guessed, I enjoyed this book, found it exciting, and had my mind challenged to understand how the future is shaped by the past.

As an Indian how do I react to this book? On the one hand I like the idea of a work of science fiction set in India. On the other hand the author gets so many subtle details wrong, that I am left irritated and dissatisfied. A good editor with a brutal pen, and a first hand knowledge of India would have done wonders here.

My gripes in no particular order,

a) people and place names are subtly off, not as wildly as Conan Doyle mixing Sikh and Hindu names, but the name combinations, sirnames and spelling don't feel realistic for the setting of Varanasi. This goes for almost every Indian name in the book. Where he gets the names right, the spellings are off and represent how someone in South India would spell the names, highly unlikely in Varanasi e.g. Nandha is more likely to be spelled Nanda, and Najia as Nadiya. People with sirname like Rana are also unlikely to feature big in Varanasi politics. Same goes for place names, especially villages. They are plausible but unlikely.

b) they way india has divided into separate states seems wrong. Not the idea of division, which is a very likely scenario, but how the future state lines are drawn. For example, there is little chance that Awadh and Varanasi would split - not only because they form a uniform ethnic and linguistic group, but also the Ganges-Yamuna civilisation is tied together with in-extricable supply chains, with no natural boundaries between the landmass.

c) the description of india of the future feels antiquated even by existing standards. If you have lived in India you would understand that modes of thought and speech represented in this book have more in common with Kipling's colonial biases than the reality of even contemporary India, let alone the future.

Overall, I'd rate this book in the 'orientalism' mode as critiqued by Said. No doubt it has been popular as it fulfills a deep contemporary curiosity about India, but it ultimately does disservice to the country and the culture. "Lord of light" still remains a reference science fiction set in an Indian context for me. It is a pity as it was written 30 or more years ago.

An impressive work. I enjoy encountering an author that is confident enough to leave the reader to explore the world of his (or her) creation without a map. And what a world McDonald creates... Set primarily in the India of the not-so-distant future, the author masterfully plays our unfamiliarity with Indian culture against our unfamiliarity with the future he creates. The author's skill is evident in the manner whereby our discovery of both the old (Indian Culture) and the new (the future of 2047) progress on roughly the same time frame. On one level the book can be read as a mystery complete with a hardcore police officer out to save the world and bad guys straight out of central casting. On another it is a Stephensoneque ramble about power politics, computer hacking, mass media and the effects of technological and environmental changes upon society. On even another level "River of Gods" is a speculation on the nature of intelligence and the universe worthy of Arthur C. Clarke. Though at times a bit confusing--the author pulls it off and at the end of the book you realize that the themes were infinitely more vast than originally suspected. Much of the pleasure of reading this book is having the disparate thematic threads resolve into a very satisfying whole--the effort demanded of the reader in keeping track of the various plots and subplots is very richly rewarded.

I have read McDonald's previous novels, and found them adept and entertaining, but not breaking any essentially new ground. This one, on the other hand, works at every level. The setting in a future India, fragmented into regional nations, is much more than an exotic backdrop. Great science fiction is a kind of cultural anthropology which brings you to another place, and in the process shows you something essential about the world you live in. The shift to South Asia provides the kind of distance McDonald needs for this task.

The book has everything else you could want. The characters are deep, engaging and thoroughly human. The plot is complex enough, with a wonderful balance between daily detail and broad sweeps of historical forces. Most important. the central issues and dilemmas the characters face are real - so even when the fantastic technology and novelty of events carry you to a far distant place, the emotional force of the book brings you right back.

I usually find the current spate of trilogies and sequential novels tiresome - but this is one case where I really hope that the author thinks about setting another novel in the same place/time and continuing with some of the characters.

Once or twice a year I like to try out a recent science-fiction title people are buzzing about, just to get a sense of developments in the genre. The stellar reviews and near-future Indian setting of this book caught my attention, so I dove into the sprawling story. Featuring ten main characters who appear in alternating chapters over the course of almost 600 pages, it's a lot to absorb. Like a bountiful buffet of Indian food, it's really too much for the senses -- you end up with a plate piled with a plethora of delicious tastes, all competing with and sometimes negating each other.

The story is far too complex to summarize adequately, but here are a sampling of the elements: A strange alien artifact older than the solar system is discovered in an asteroid and an English AI researcher is brought to space to examine it. Meanwhile, her former mentor and lover hides out in India as various powerful entities try to track him down to tap his expertise. At the same time, an Indian "Krishna cop" goes about his duties locating and destroying rouge AI entities while his wife seeks romance with her gardener. Also at the same time, the benevolent founder of a large Indian energy company suddenly resigns, leaving his sons to run it. One of the sons is a standup comedian, the other a cunning business shark, leading to an unexpected power struggle. Then there's Shaheen Badoor Khan, the top advisor to a prominent politician, and his secret sexual attraction to "nutes" (gender neutral people created through painstaking -- and painful -- microsurgery). There is a new caste of genetically engineered "Brahmins," a popular TV show starring digital personalities, wars conducted via weather, black market AI, ethnic street battle, and much much more.

Some of this stuff is great, and some of it isn't. Particularly compelling are the strands of the story that deal with the attempts of various AI entities to avoid being wiped out by humans who are afraid of losing control of the world. This touches on politics, society, morality, and also makes for some pretty nifty action sequences. The Indian setting is great, clearly well-researched, and vividly described. However, like a great deal of science fiction, the book is just too sprawling and unwieldy for its own good. There are far too many major characters, and several of them have little to no bearing on the main story. It seems like the author fell in love with each of them to such an extent that he wanted to explore the lives of even the more peripheral ones in much more detail than was necessary. All of which has the effect of dragging the book to a halt at times. Cutting several main characters and about two-hundred pages would improve it a great deal.

It also has to be said that the manner in which all the various storylines are suddenly tied together is both abrupt and underwhelming. And yet, despite these various flaws, it is worth reading if you're into contemporary science fiction. Structural problems aside, McDonald has a pretty deft way with words, and his ability to paint an imaginative near-future scene is fairly impressive. All in all, it's good enough for me to take a look at his other books and possibly give him another whirl.

Nominated for Hugo and Arthur C. Clarke awards, British writer Ian McDonald's ambitious, sprawling novel of 2047 India demands a certain patience from the reader but rewards that patience with a feast for the imagination.

The book opens with the measured introduction of eight major characters - and each character gets a full chapter to him or herself. There are no explanations or even hints as to how these disparate characters will relate to one another or the story. What the story itself will be is also pretty much a mystery at this point.

A painterly, colorful writer, McDonald's introductory portraits of these characters arouse immediate interest, but the sheer number grows daunting. It's 100 pages before their paths begin to cross and a tantalizing multi-layered plot begins to coalesce out of all the personality, mystery and information we've been gathering.

However, these characters emerge from a background that grows more vivid, complex and alive with every page. India - crowded, smelly, scheming, opulent, impoverished, filthy, opportunistic - India with all its contradictions, in-fighting factions, mysticism and ingenuity, seizes center stage and engages the characters in a dance beyond their understanding. India dazzles and its position in the world plays a direct role in the complex plot.

The major players cover a wide spectrum. One of the most interesting is a Krishna Cop whose job it is to hunt down rogue ais - artificial intelligences - that have turned on their human masters. Another is a stand-up comedian whose CEO father renounces his worldly position to embark on a Hindu pilgrimage, leaving his sons in charge of his power company. There's also an ambitious Swedish journalist of Afghan blood undergoing an identity crisis, a surgically androgynous "nute" set designer on the country's most popular soap, a gangster on the skids with a bit of a conscience, a cabinet ministry adviser with a secret, a reclusive scientist approached by a strange girl with seemingly telepathic powers and a deep naivety, and his ex-lover and colleague who makes a baffling discovery in an ancient space artifact.

All of these characters come alive as they act and interact - pawns, schemers, lovers and sometimes all three - all of them caught up in teeming India. India in 2047, approaching the centennial of its independence form Britain, is a nation of 12 semi-independent nations, one and a half billion people and 9 million gods. There has been no monsoon for three years and the sacred Ganges has been dammed and is drying up. A water war is imminent.

Technology has made possible a new caste of genetically engineered children who age at half the rate of normals and a shady riverside boat town where computer-conducted surgery allows foreign doctors to get rich doing things that are illegal in their home countries. There are lots of things permitted in India that are not permitted in other places.

The US, for instance, has mandated that no artificial intelligences above a certain level be created. Though India has signed on to that agreement, it routinely, clandestinely sidesteps it. A familiar story? Not in McDonald's capable hands.

McDonald ("Desolation Road," "Kirinya") manages to slot together the many puzzle pieces of his plot in coherent, clever bursts of illumination so that the ending is as inevitable as it is surprising. Adventurous, mysterious, suspenseful and engagingly speculative, with steamy sex scenes and a redolent, eye-popping atmosphere, "River of Gods" should have appeal well beyond sci fi fans.

--Portsmouth Herald

'Ambtious' is probably the biggest praise I can give River of Gods. This is an enormous book, not in length, but in scope and a plotline that covers an entire nation.

Set in future India, McDonald shows off the extensive research needed to complete a novel of this depth, immediately immersing the reader in a believable world torn apart by political strife and the threat of a war for water. Given all this I know you're wondering why I gave it two stars instead of five. The answer is simple; I didn't really enjoy the book despite all it had going for it. The reasons are simple:

First, McDonald has no mercy for the slow learner; he throws in Hindu words and phrases at the reader left and right with only an inadequate appendix to help along, which, many times, is no help at all. I would say that about 20% - 30% of the words he uses in this novel are not found in his appendix, leaving me to guess at the meanings.

Another problem I had with this book, (and I find this to be a problem many writers have), is his characterization. To put it simply, I couldn't really find any character in this book that actually stood out and captured my attention. This is partly because McDonald juggles so many different characters - 11, at last count - that he threatens to unravel the entire novel by jumping back and forth every few pages. It's hard to keep track of everyone, and McDonald could have solved this problem by cutting down half the characters and not really losing much for it. If he had concentrated on fewer characters, this novel would have been much more tightly drawn and interesting.
I did eventually adjust to all this jumping back and forth, but I felt it was done at the cost of any emotional impact this novel could have had. Consequently, the story lags quite a few times and I found it harder and harder to regain my interest until the last few chapters.

Very disappointing, as I was expecting something much more better considering all the good things I've heard. This is not to say I didn't find anything to enjoy out of this novel; it is, as I said, an ambitious novel, and I can admire that if nothing else. But, in the end, it's not enough to save it.

When I first started to read River of Gods, I made it about 5 chapters in, gave up, and gave the book a 2 star rating on Amazon. It's a very difficult book to get into. Part of this is because of the disjointed narrative that skips between seemingly unrelated characters for about the first 3rd of the book. Part of it is because McDonald's "future vernacular" gets almost no explanation and makes the writing difficult to follow at times. For instance aeai=AI=artificial intelligence and yt=it=third person singular for a gender neutral person. These terms are interwoven with not just regular English but Indian terms as well, which can make the book maddeningly incomprehensible at times.

Thankfully though, I returned to the book several months later. The seemingly disparate plot lines eventually intertwine, and by the second part of the book the vernacular starts to fall into place. And what you begin to see is a future world of extra-ordinary vision and creativity.

Don't know why it seems to be necessary to look up Ian McDonald to find out when one of his new books comes out, but B&N and Borders don't seem to do much in-store promotion for him. He gets a lot less publicity and shelf space than Terry Pratchett (of course) but, man, what an excellent writer.

It's always worthwhile to track down and read whatever he writes, but "River of Gods" may be the most memorable since "Desolation Road" and therefore a true classic. Why summarize? Read, enjoy, and be swept away by the stylings of a prose master. Not only that, he knows how to tell a tale AND bring it to a satisfying conclusion.

Most highly recommended.