Genre: Historical Fiction
Author: Kin Stanley Robinson
Plot
Mongol scouts from the steppe tread softly. Shh, ahead, there! A town. A town of their enemies. Strange. No noise. What is wrong? They are all dead. Dead for a long time. Why? Plague. With one stroke, a vicious plague wipes out nearly all of Europe's population, leaving relatively untouched Asia, North America, and Africa. How will history play out?
First though, Bold returns to camp - the khan, fearful of plague, orders him and the scouting party burned, burned. Like a sign, a lightning bolt saves him and he plunges on a journey into the wasteland until he is enslaved...enslaved alongside an African boy. While the Bold and the boy die, the journey does not end for them. In the bardo, that mysterious place-after-death-of-judgement-before-reincarnation, they see all of their past lives before plunging anew into the next. Can they help guide history to a better world? Make all the world a comedy, even if the actors suffer tragedies again and again?
Brian's Opinion
One of the most creative plots I have read in years. The Years of Rice and Salt is particularly unique because not only is it an alternative history of the world, it is seen through the eyes of the same characters, born again and again. Some of them slip into the animal world but are uplifted again to the human world. This plot style made it okay for main characters to die tragically (again and again) which makes for a terrific plot, but at the same time did not throw me into sadness again and again for they would be reborn to try again, to try making the world better. One caveat - only rarely can they remember who they once were...
Who Might Like It
This is an epic adventure, told over nearly 700 pages. If that sound like you, then it probably is. The writing is beautiful and if you like being impressed by masterful storytelling, then I highly recommend The Years of Rice and Salt.
Read it!
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