Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson

1 review

unsuccessfulbookclub's review against another edition

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challenging emotional slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

It took me more than a month to finish this book, and I’m still not sure how I feel about it. On the one hand, it is ambitious and expansive and absolutely unique. On the other, reading it became a total chore. I wanted to finish it but I didn’t feel like the story gave me much reason to. The premise is so cool - what would happen if the Black Plague killed 99% of Europe instead 1/3? From there we get 700 years of alternate history where China, Dar al-Islam and India (known as Travancore) end up battling for world domination, and the dominant world religions become Buddhism and Islam.

This book is broken into 10 sub-books, each written in a different style and featuring reincarnations of the same souls, each time sharing the same first letters. The main characters are the K-, B-, and I- souls, each represented not only by their name but also a core personality. B- is a loving dreamer, an idealist who wants to bring positivity and gentleness to the world. K- is an iconoclast who is often in charge of things but never happy with the way things are. I- is an intellectual, sometimes an academic, others a scientist. 

Some of the sub-books were propulsive and interesting, while others were painfully dry. To me, although the characters showed up repeatedly, they never seemed to change or improve. And even though A LOT HAPPENED, I was often bored. This was not at all what I expected for a plague novel and I can’t say that I would recommend it.

I listened to about half of this book on audio and the narration by Bronson Pinchot was absolutely excellent. He was able to make the characters much more realistic and exciting than me reading them to myself. If you do take this one on, please check the CW in the comments as it is graphic and includes basically all manner of human violence.
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