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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
An immensely satisfying yarn both tragic and hilarious in its constellation of coalescing characters. This monumental undertaking was presented with panache, excellent characterizations, exquisite detail and a very satisfying conclusion.
Ah in hindsight, I might have been a bit too harsh and and hasty in my rating....
Re-rated to 3 stars
2.15 stars
Well...I wished for a grand conclusion for the Ibis Trilogy . The age old adage of be careful of what you wish for came true.
The story was grand indeed so much so that with elements of cliches, coincidences, events that were fantastical to epic proportions, this book reads like a daily soap opera (or a bollywood film?)
Without going into details, the Flood of Fire is perhaps the most disappointing book that I have read in this year till now. After waiting for a couple of years, since the last book was released, this was definitely NOT what I was hoping and looking forward to. Disheartened is what I am, it does not feel that this is the same author who wrote [b:Sea of Poppies|1330324|Sea of Poppies (Ibis Trilogy, #1)|Amitav Ghosh|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327376395s/1330324.jpg|1319808] or [b:The Hungry Tide|822812|The Hungry Tide|Amitav Ghosh|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1344618696s/822812.jpg|981525].
My ratings are only for the historical facts (which were way less as compared to the previous books) that formed the background of the story.
Re-rated to 3 stars
2.15 stars
Well...I wished for a grand conclusion for the Ibis Trilogy . The age old adage of be careful of what you wish for came true.
The story was grand indeed so much so that with elements of cliches, coincidences, events that were fantastical to epic proportions, this book reads like a daily soap opera (or a bollywood film?)
Without going into details, the Flood of Fire is perhaps the most disappointing book that I have read in this year till now. After waiting for a couple of years, since the last book was released, this was definitely NOT what I was hoping and looking forward to. Disheartened is what I am, it does not feel that this is the same author who wrote [b:Sea of Poppies|1330324|Sea of Poppies (Ibis Trilogy, #1)|Amitav Ghosh|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327376395s/1330324.jpg|1319808] or [b:The Hungry Tide|822812|The Hungry Tide|Amitav Ghosh|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1344618696s/822812.jpg|981525].
My ratings are only for the historical facts (which were way less as compared to the previous books) that formed the background of the story.
First, a bit of background not included in this trilogy: in 1660, a nation no bigger than the state of Ohio first chartered a private corporation to deal in slavery (as it had already been doing for 40 or more years). In 1698, England subsequently rescinded that license to take over the very lucrative business of slavery for itself. In consequence, the corporation, established in 1611 as the East India Trading Company, drafted its own private army (think Blackwater, but on an exponentially larger scale) by recruiting impoverished young Indian men from traditionally martial castes. Our trilogy opens about here.
The company then enslaved the rest of India by grabbing up land and forcing its farmers to rent and grow opium poppies (just as medieval masters kept serfs tied to the land but unable to own any, & plantation owners would later keep sharecroppers working in neverending debt). Their target for opium sales was China, then as now the most world's most populous nation.
Up to this point, opium had been unknown in China. China bans sales of the drug but its laws are ignored. Sanctions prove futile. As China continues to object to opium-addled misery and its massive death toll without result, it finally confiscates Indian-grown British opium. Backed by Britain, the East India Trading Company declares war, using low-paid crack Bengali troops to win, not once but twice in 15 years. (India's soldiers are kept at a distance from British troops and suffer systemic racism in lack of equipment, with outdated rifles, inadequate protection from weather, and poor quality of goods in general, while they are heaped with personal abuse as well.) China is forced to remit $21 millions in "reparations," excluding $6 millions in damages for confiscated opium shipments. The company then seizes Hong Kong to have a trading base not subject to Chinese law; China is forced to cede Hong Kong altogether, after the fact.
This is the trilogy's sad finale, the true story of greed and corruption allegedly sanctioned by a Christian god on behalf of its so-called master race. It depicts how private corporations dedicated solely to profits imperil the earth. Here, as an example, one of the wealthiest merchants promulgating war speaks entirely without irony: "'On shoulders such as these will fall the task of freeing a quarter of mankind from tyranny; of bestowing on the people of China the gift of liberty that the British Empire has already conferred on all those parts of the globe that it has conquered and subjugated.'"
"The strangest part of it was that the British accepted no blame for their crimes: they made no acknowledgement of their smuggling, their repeated provocations, or their refusal to abide by Chinese laws on Chinese soil. Instead they placed the blame entirely on [Chinese] Commissioner Lin, accusing
him of criminal conduct and unlawful seizures. It was as if the firepower of their ships had given them the right to dictate that night was day."
"Despite all their cacklings about Free Trade, the truth was that their commercial advantages had nothing to do with markets or trade or more advanced business practices – it lay in the brute firepower of the British Empire’s guns and gunboats.”
No one who reads this can fail to see history repeating itself exactly, right now, in the terminal phases of capitalism and the Southern Plantation Mentality erupting as white nationalism across the globe.
The company then enslaved the rest of India by grabbing up land and forcing its farmers to rent and grow opium poppies (just as medieval masters kept serfs tied to the land but unable to own any, & plantation owners would later keep sharecroppers working in neverending debt). Their target for opium sales was China, then as now the most world's most populous nation.
Up to this point, opium had been unknown in China. China bans sales of the drug but its laws are ignored. Sanctions prove futile. As China continues to object to opium-addled misery and its massive death toll without result, it finally confiscates Indian-grown British opium. Backed by Britain, the East India Trading Company declares war, using low-paid crack Bengali troops to win, not once but twice in 15 years. (India's soldiers are kept at a distance from British troops and suffer systemic racism in lack of equipment, with outdated rifles, inadequate protection from weather, and poor quality of goods in general, while they are heaped with personal abuse as well.) China is forced to remit $21 millions in "reparations," excluding $6 millions in damages for confiscated opium shipments. The company then seizes Hong Kong to have a trading base not subject to Chinese law; China is forced to cede Hong Kong altogether, after the fact.
This is the trilogy's sad finale, the true story of greed and corruption allegedly sanctioned by a Christian god on behalf of its so-called master race. It depicts how private corporations dedicated solely to profits imperil the earth. Here, as an example, one of the wealthiest merchants promulgating war speaks entirely without irony: "'On shoulders such as these will fall the task of freeing a quarter of mankind from tyranny; of bestowing on the people of China the gift of liberty that the British Empire has already conferred on all those parts of the globe that it has conquered and subjugated.'"
"The strangest part of it was that the British accepted no blame for their crimes: they made no acknowledgement of their smuggling, their repeated provocations, or their refusal to abide by Chinese laws on Chinese soil. Instead they placed the blame entirely on [Chinese] Commissioner Lin, accusing
him of criminal conduct and unlawful seizures. It was as if the firepower of their ships had given them the right to dictate that night was day."
"Despite all their cacklings about Free Trade, the truth was that their commercial advantages had nothing to do with markets or trade or more advanced business practices – it lay in the brute firepower of the British Empire’s guns and gunboats.”
No one who reads this can fail to see history repeating itself exactly, right now, in the terminal phases of capitalism and the Southern Plantation Mentality erupting as white nationalism across the globe.
adventurous
informative
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
Ibis triology is one of the most beautiful historical fiction series i have ever read.All the protoganists are magnificiently portrayed by amitav & gradually caricatured into larger tha life like image.
I've been unwell and haven't been reviewing this year. I'm uploading all my reads now and maybe someday I'll write a proper review here.
I think my expectations were too high for this book. While I enjoyed several instances of beautiful language and some of the characters plot lines, the overall tone of the book was disappointing. Many of the plot lines felt extremely soap opera-ish, lacking in depth and relying too much on coincidence. Granted, this last novel in the trilogy dealt more directly with warfare which is a heavy subject, but I felt a lack of the humor and wonder that made the first 2 books such a delight to read.
challenging
informative
reflective
tense
slow-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:
N/A
There almost not enough words to describe how much I love this book. This whole trilogy. I loved it all. The storytelling, the characters, the complexity of the situation, and the wide variety of cultures the author introduced us to. I'm with a fellow reviewer who suggested we keep this going! I also agree with him about rereading all of these over again
Meticulously researched, this is a somewhat baggy conclusion to the Ibis trilogy that doesn't quite manage to wrap things up for the large cast of characters even as it brings together most of the surviving ones in Hong Kong/Guangzhou. There's a Dickensian element to the way Ghosh draws connections between people from different strata of society, but there's a multicultural melting pot element that Dickens could never have conceived of, and it is this that is one of the trilogy's main points of fascination for readers. Timothy Mo covered this area in An Insular Possession but Ghosh adds in an Indian connection and shows the complexities of globalisation and world trade aren't a recent phenomenon.