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kittykornerlibrarian 's review for:
The Immortal King Rao
by Vauhini Vara
Man, this was a slog that I didn't really enjoy but it was so interesting I couldn't stop reading it. Do I give it four stars because it was well put together and interesting? Or three because I didn't really love it? I'll go with four, I guess, even though I am glad I *finally* finished it. The novel focuses on Athena Rao and her father, King Rao. You get Athena's story in first person, and King's story in third person limited. King Rao grew up as a Dalit on a coconut farm on a river delta in India. He was the favored eldest son of an eldest son, so the family invested heavily in his education and his future. He ends up leaving India to study computer science in the U.S. in the 1970s, when the microcomputer is really taking off. He ends up being this computing genius and revolutionizes his field. This part reads like historical fiction. Athena's part takes place in the near future, in an era called Hothouse Earth, when society has completely changed, mainly due to her father's technological innovations. There were some plot threads that seemed to get lost (whatever happened to Minnu? Did I miss something?). This part is the speculative fiction. This is innovative and interesting, and I should know more about India and Indian immigrants to the U.S. I will probably read another by this author.