Customer Reviews

Sagramanda: A Novel of Near-future India

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Sagramanda brings back some of ADF's genius. He does not dumb-down India's many religions as other author's would. Many seemingly separate plot threads connect at the end and the mystery of what is being sought is not easily guessed. The characters seemed more real and deeper than those of some of his more recent books. The only negative is that one could not 'bond' with any of the characters sufficiently to care about them too much. As a long-time ADF fan, I enjoyed this book due to 1) the different setting, 2) intelligent relationship between the religions of India and the characters, and 3) ADF's treatment regarding the clash between traditionalism and modernity.

Sagramanda, India is a Megatropolis of 100 million residents; the city like all major urban areas run the gamut of the economic spectrum from affluent international CEOs to those so hopelessly poor one would classify them as being beneath the food chain's lowest rung of wretchedly poor existing in the ooze. Those of wealth would do nothing to hurt their status as all one has to do is look at the legions of poor as a reminder of how good life is for those with money and power.

His family, especially his humiliated father, cannot believe that the heir scientist Taneer Buthlahee ran off for a forbidden love with his Untouchable beloved Depahli. Worse than that shame, he also stole research secrets he was working on; an insult his father plans to correct by having his son killed by company fixer Chal Schneemann before the information is sold on the black market. Taneer contacts street fixer Sanjay Ghosh to help his with the sale that will finance his escape with his beloved Depahli. Complicated as that family squabble may seem, a born again Hindu worshipper whose drug induced brain thinks she must sacrifice people to Kali believes that the two lovers would be a perfect send off while Sagramanda Police Chief Inspector Keshu Singh closes in on the sword slashing serial killer.

This is a wild police procedural crime caper that occurs in a futuristic society in which the gap between haves and the have-nots are wider than the Grand Canyon and the number of the lower class is so great, substrata have been defined within the social group. The superb story line contains several other subplots besides those above, but all are developed and ultimately tie together in a final exhilarating confrontation. Readers will enjoy this strong tale of near future India.

Harriet Klausner

Sagramanda is a novel set in near future India, following several different viewpoint characters in an eventually interlocking narrative. As such it superficially resembles Ian McDonald's brilliant River of Gods. Foster's novel is not so brilliant as McDonald's, and really it makes no attempt to be brilliant at that level. Rather, it is an enjoyable and fast-moving thriller - and quite successful as such.

Taneer Buthlahee is a scientist who has taken a spectacularly valuable piece of new technology from his company. He wishes to offer it to a rival company - for enough money to make he and his fiancée, the beautiful Depahli De, secure for life - away from India. For Depahli is an Untouchable, and a former prostitute, and thus their relationship is unacceptable to many in their home country. Taneer, thus, is a target - his company has sent a specialist to retrieve him, dead or alive. And his father is after him, to prevent the stain on their family's honor of a link with an Untouchable. Taneer also involves a middleman to help him make a deal, a poor merchant, Sanjay Ghosh, who likewise is trying to make a secure life for he and his beautiful wife. At the same time their city of Sagramanda (transparently a fictionalized Calcutta) is threatened by two very different beasts: a man-eating tiger, and a Frenchwoman who has become a serial killer in worship of Kali. The novel follows, in short segments, all these characters - Taneer, Depahli, Taneer's father, Sanjay, the tiger, the serial killer, the policeman investigating the murders, and more. And, as the reader knows from the start, all these threads will converge, some naturally, some by coincidence.

It's quite an exciting read. The plot moves sharply, and quite believably. The characters are engaging enough, though rather two-dimensional. The portrait of fairly near-future India is fairly well-done, though here the book truly does suffer by comparison with McDonald's altogether more complex and deeper portrait. Sagramanda is no masterpiece, but it is fun and not without deeper shadings.

I'm a casual reader of science-fiction and tend to be most attracted to "near-future" scenarios set on Earth (for example, Ian MacDonald's intriguing River of Gods, Richard Morgan's high-octane Altered Carbon,or Paolo Bacigalupi's disappointing The Windup Girl), so this relatively slim book set in near-future India jumped off the shelf at me. To be sure, it's not in the same league as MacDonald's epic River of Godsm, but it has no ambitions to be. Rather, it's a very fun, fast-paced thriller about corporate espionage, a serial killer whose murders are devotions to the goddess Kali, and a man-eating tiger lurking at the edges of the titular megacity (which looks to be modeled on Calcutta).

The main storyline concerns a scientist named Taneer who stole a new invention from his corporate employer and had gone into hiding as he seeks to sell it for something on the order of $100,000,000. Acting as his agent and middleman is the honorable proprietor of a tourist kitch shop, who also dabbles in illegal trade. Unfortunately, for both men, the corporate giant has brought in a highly respected freelance "problem-solver" to track Taneer down and recover the information, alive if possible, dead if not. A further fly in the ointment is the determination of Taneer's estranged father to kill him for taking up with an unsuitable lower-caste woman. Meanwhile, the seemingly unconnected beheadings around the city have attracted the attentions of the police, and an investigation is launched to track down the cruel killer. The book bounces back between the two plots (and the tiger), only to bring them all together in a slightly predictable final confrontation.

The characters are developed in just enough depth for the reader to sympathize with their motivations, but no further. Similarly, the mix of old and new, gods and technology, East and West, is all decently if somewhat predictably, done -- there's not a lot of depth to any of it. However, the story allows Foster to riff on all kinds of technology that's evolved to meet the needs of a 70-million-person megacity. For example, automated transports that gently remove wandering cattle form the streets, high-tech clothing of all kinds, various communication devices, specialized and stylized robots, biometric security systems, self-sealing fast-food bags, and on and on. The thing I liked is that this technology all seemed plausible, while at the same time, there are still teeming masses of destitute people (some so much so that some have become a cannibal gang!) living in the gutter right next to a gleaming 5-star hotel, temples, sadhus, and plenty of street food. It's not a work of genius, but it is an entertaining glimpse of one imagining of a near-future India that would make a great TV miniseries.

Set in Sagramanda, the city of a hundred million, SAGRAMANDA tells of one Taneer, a scientist who has stolen his company's secret project code and is now on the run. There's a host of individuals for and against him; from a beautiful woman from an 'untouchable' class to a traditional father who would kill him out of shame, and a corporation who will do anything to get the code. A unique blend of thriller and science fiction evolves, set in an India of the far future and providing science fiction fans with satisfying adventure.

I expected a science fiction story, therefore I was disappointed that it read more like a mystery novel, or maybe just fiction. Alan Dean Foster is an excellent writer, however, and so I enjoyed the book from that standpoint. I would have enjoyed it more if the characters and the extraordinary events they faced didn't sound like the usual melodrama that I read in the newspapers every day. Sometimes I just like to get a break from the turmoil this world is in and I am afraid this book kept me right here on planet Earth.

I could not get through the first few chapters of this book because the grammar felt so attrocious to me. I grew way too tired of the way the author chose to write the book that I found myself thinking that someone else could've told it way better. It could've been so much better in my opinion.