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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
A mix of historical, speculative and dystopian fiction, ‘The Immortal King Rao’ follows King Rao from his childhood in a family of Dalit coconut farmers in 1950s India, through the creation and rise of his tech-company-turned-corporate-global-government, to his final years raising his secret daughter, Athena, on a deserted island.
As with most novels with multiple timelines or stories running concurrently, I found myself more drawn to some sections than others. The early scenes of King’s childhood in India are very effective in establishing the background of his character, and these scenes also have some interesting insights into life in 1950s India, though once the other 2 sections start to progress and unravel the story these flashbacks begin to feel a little non-essential, slowing the pacing of the novel.
The second of the parallel timelines, showing King and his wife Margie creating a tech company from her house and their rise to become the most powerful figures in the world, is at its best when it avoids coming too close to reality. Scenes of King and Margie nervously pitching their first computers to potential investors and celebrating minor victories are fun, but Vara uses this timeline to tie into real-world issues in a way that feels a little too heavy-handed - the reference to Goop and Margie befriending Gwyneth Paltrow feels particularly forced, as do multiple references to the “45th President”. Vara’s anti-capitalist messaging is effective without these real-world references, and they slightly feel like labouring a point that was already clear. While her ideas here are interesting, the real-world references serve only to take you out of the carefully-constructed world of the novel.
The final timeline (the latest chronologically, though we are introduced to this section from Chapter 2) opens with Athena being held in the cell of a detention centre three days after her father’s death. The world, at this stage, is run by King’s company ‘Coconut’, and civilians are ‘Shareholders’ who labour in exchange for ‘Social Capital’, determined by the algorithm’s prediction of the value they produced. This is an Ishiguro-esque dystopia, where technology is king and ‘influencer’ is a valuable profession. Athena, raised in secret on a deserted island by her elderly father, seeks to venture out to the world of the ‘exes’, those who have rejected society and claimed a group of large islands for their own, away from technology and the watchful eyes of Coconut. Vara has interesting ideas here about what this dystopian future looks like and feels like, and how the exes’ revolution came to be, though these sections do feel a bit too rushed to be really impactful; Athena gains the exes’ trust too quickly, and few characters on this island really impact the direction of the story. There’s a sense throughout that Vara is building up to something big, though this doesn’t ever really materialise - this plot line, and the novel as a whole, ends quite abruptly and left me wondering if it ever really got to the place it seemed to be building towards.
This is a confident and well-written debut novel packed with interesting ideas, though let down by some questionable execution. Vara has a lot to say about technology and capitalism, but I do think that the novel would have benefitted some more subtlety in places - references to the “algorithm” and “Social Capital” are a little on-the-nose, and there’s definitely room in the dystopian sections to swap some of the world-building for some more character-building.
Thanks to NetGalley and Atlantic Books for the e-ARC!
As with most novels with multiple timelines or stories running concurrently, I found myself more drawn to some sections than others. The early scenes of King’s childhood in India are very effective in establishing the background of his character, and these scenes also have some interesting insights into life in 1950s India, though once the other 2 sections start to progress and unravel the story these flashbacks begin to feel a little non-essential, slowing the pacing of the novel.
The second of the parallel timelines, showing King and his wife Margie creating a tech company from her house and their rise to become the most powerful figures in the world, is at its best when it avoids coming too close to reality. Scenes of King and Margie nervously pitching their first computers to potential investors and celebrating minor victories are fun, but Vara uses this timeline to tie into real-world issues in a way that feels a little too heavy-handed - the reference to Goop and Margie befriending Gwyneth Paltrow feels particularly forced, as do multiple references to the “45th President”. Vara’s anti-capitalist messaging is effective without these real-world references, and they slightly feel like labouring a point that was already clear. While her ideas here are interesting, the real-world references serve only to take you out of the carefully-constructed world of the novel.
The final timeline (the latest chronologically, though we are introduced to this section from Chapter 2) opens with Athena being held in the cell of a detention centre three days after her father’s death. The world, at this stage, is run by King’s company ‘Coconut’, and civilians are ‘Shareholders’ who labour in exchange for ‘Social Capital’, determined by the algorithm’s prediction of the value they produced. This is an Ishiguro-esque dystopia, where technology is king and ‘influencer’ is a valuable profession. Athena, raised in secret on a deserted island by her elderly father, seeks to venture out to the world of the ‘exes’, those who have rejected society and claimed a group of large islands for their own, away from technology and the watchful eyes of Coconut. Vara has interesting ideas here about what this dystopian future looks like and feels like, and how the exes’ revolution came to be, though these sections do feel a bit too rushed to be really impactful; Athena gains the exes’ trust too quickly, and few characters on this island really impact the direction of the story. There’s a sense throughout that Vara is building up to something big, though this doesn’t ever really materialise - this plot line, and the novel as a whole, ends quite abruptly and left me wondering if it ever really got to the place it seemed to be building towards.
This is a confident and well-written debut novel packed with interesting ideas, though let down by some questionable execution. Vara has a lot to say about technology and capitalism, but I do think that the novel would have benefitted some more subtlety in places - references to the “algorithm” and “Social Capital” are a little on-the-nose, and there’s definitely room in the dystopian sections to swap some of the world-building for some more character-building.
Thanks to NetGalley and Atlantic Books for the e-ARC!
adventurous
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
this is a solid 4 for me. I was really captivated by Vara’s writing style, and the non linear plot kept the momentum going, as well as took the story in directions I didn’t expect.
The merging of genres is what didn’t quite work for me. This book is half generational family saga set in a rural coconut plantation in India and half techy sci-fi set in a near-future Seattle . While the latter felt current and raised interesting questions about the merging of tech-capitalism-govt, Athena’s voice felt underdeveloped to me, and the world building felt a bit hollow in comparison with the vivid family saga that-according to the author’s acknowledgements-were inspired by her ancestral homeland (but also dragged a bit in parts, tbh). my disconnect with Athena’s character and the distance from the titular one made it hard for me to identify with this novel’s emotional core. the relationship that felt most true to me was actually between sisters, not partners (at all) or father-daughter.
overall this is a strong debut and I recommend for tech-STS peeps looking for a well-written and plot forward novel to chew on.
The merging of genres is what didn’t quite work for me. This book is half generational family saga set in a rural coconut plantation in India and half techy sci-fi set in a near-future Seattle . While the latter felt current and raised interesting questions about the merging of tech-capitalism-govt, Athena’s voice felt underdeveloped to me, and the world building felt a bit hollow in comparison with the vivid family saga that-according to the author’s acknowledgements-were inspired by her ancestral homeland (but also dragged a bit in parts, tbh). my disconnect with Athena’s character and the distance from the titular one made it hard for me to identify with this novel’s emotional core. the relationship that felt most true to me was actually between sisters, not partners (at all) or father-daughter.
overall this is a strong debut and I recommend for tech-STS peeps looking for a well-written and plot forward novel to chew on.
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
reflective
slow-paced
informative
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
In "The Immortal King Rao," the story centers on the life of King, an Untouchable, in an Indian Village, flip flopping between the 1950s and a dystopian future run by a corporation. The book was in depth about the experiences and impacts of the Rao family through multiple generations.
I truly had such high expectations for this book after seeing it on lists for most anticipated books of 2022, but I couldn't get into it, and I tried. The flow of the book was confusing and hard to follow, without enough story in each chapter/timeline on the characters, on the events, etc.. Nothing in this story made me want to flip (the hypothetical) page, and learn more about the life of King Rao, his family, and the future would hold for him.
https://www.howjenexists.com/recent-reads/immortal-king-rao
I truly had such high expectations for this book after seeing it on lists for most anticipated books of 2022, but I couldn't get into it, and I tried. The flow of the book was confusing and hard to follow, without enough story in each chapter/timeline on the characters, on the events, etc.. Nothing in this story made me want to flip (the hypothetical) page, and learn more about the life of King Rao, his family, and the future would hold for him.
https://www.howjenexists.com/recent-reads/immortal-king-rao
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book will haunt me for awhile. It’s a dystopian future that feels frighteningly tangible. I don’t really have words. I’m a little shook tbh.
Technical things: the writing is great. The pov and time jumps made it a little hard to get into IMO but it wasn’t prohibitive. The characters felt a little emotionless, but it served the story well. Overall I definitely recommend reading this.
Technical things: the writing is great. The pov and time jumps made it a little hard to get into IMO but it wasn’t prohibitive. The characters felt a little emotionless, but it served the story well. Overall I definitely recommend reading this.