The years of rice and salt

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Kim Stanley Robinson: The years of rice and salt (2002, HarperCollins)

669 pages

English language

Published Nov. 2, 2002 by HarperCollins.

ISBN:
978-0-00-224679-8
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5 stars (3 reviews)

With the incomparable vision and breathtaking detail that brought his now-classic Marstrilogy 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 SaltIt 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 …

4 editions

Uchronie : la Peste Noire fait de l’Europe un désert.

5 stars

L’idée est simple : au lieu de liquider un tiers de la population européenne, la Peste Noire de la fin du Moyen Âge ne laisse personne, et l’Europe devient un désert. Évidemment l’Histoire prend une toute autre tournure : le Nouveau Monde est envahi par les Chinois et les Arabes ; la France est recolonisée depuis l’Andalousie par les soufis et la Scandinavie par la Horde d’Or ; la science moderne apparaît à Samarcande ; les Indiens font la révolution industrielle et s’étendent aussi vite que les Européens au XIXè siècle ; la Guerre Mondiale est pire que celles que nous avons connues…

Comme dans la trilogie de SF martienne, Robinson veut que le lecteur s’attache aux personnages malgré une histoire étalée sur des siècles. En science-fiction il pouvait allonger leur vie grâce à la médecine, mais ici l’expédient est plus radical : ils se réincarnent. Après tout, le bouddhisme …

Review of 'The Years of Rice and Salt' on 'LibraryThing'

5 stars

A book about our place in the world and the eternal question of how to live well, disguised as a novel. It's a long read, best savoured slowly over a stretch of time. It's too easy to become impatient and rush through to the "good bits" of action and excitement, and miss the thought-provoking substance.

It is less a fantasy or science fiction work than a tribute to our potential as a species, seen through an Eastern lens that is not often considered in Robinson's English-speaking target audience.

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4 stars