2019 was a year where I got to experience a lot of
alternate history books in audio form for the first time. It was also, like 2018 before it, a year
where I finally got around to listening to several alternate history I'd been meaning
to get around to. Case in point, the
book we'll be reviewing today. We're
taking a look at the classic alternate history novel The Years of Rice and Salt
by Kim Stanley Robinson.
The Years of Rice and Salt takes places in a world
where the Black Death killed ninety-nine percent of Europe's population. The story follows six or seven individuals,
though three in particular, as they are reincarnated over the ages. Robinson makes it easy by having their names
start with the same letter. The main
characters we follow having names starting in K, B, and I. Secondary characters have names with Z, P,
and S. The novel spans hundreds of years
of history, and spans numerous nations, giving it a truly global feel to it.
The novel is divided into ten segments of varying
lengths, and I will discuss each of them individually. For now, I will give some overall
thoughts. I'd been putting off listening
to this one, but I'm glad I finally got around to it. I absolutely loved this book. I loved its vast global scope, and how it
features nations and cultures you don't often see in alternate history. I also loved the use of reincarnation as a
plot device. It was certainly an
interesting twist I haven't really seen in too many other alternate history
novels. The story uses the Islamic
Hegira Calendar for dates. The Islamic
year 1 being when Mohammad felid Mecca for Medina in 622 AD. However, I've rendered the dates in the
Gregorian Calendar for convenience sake.
There's a ton of historical and cultural references throughout the
novel. You don't necessarily have to
catch them to enjoy the novel, but it adds to the experience. Thankfully, the Kim Stanley Robinson website
has this handy reading guide that catalogs and explains them all.
Well, enough of all that, lets dive in.
Our first segment is titled "Awake into
Emptiness." It takes place from
1381-1424. It follows a Mongol warrior
named Bold who is serving in the army of Timur.
Timur has sent Bold to scout ahead into the Hungarian Basin. Bold find a land almost totally devoid of
humans. Bold travels through the
depopulated Balkans until he is captured and sold into slavery by Arab
slavers. During his time aboard a slave
ship he meets an African slave named Kyu.
As the ship makes its way to China, Kyu and Bold discover that their
lives are destined to be intertwined.
This segment sets things up for the rest of the
novel. The descriptions of the
depopulated Europe were evocative and haunting.
There are multiple mentions of cathedrals being only partially built
because everyone died in the middle of construction. Medieval cathedrals took decades, if not
centuries, to be fully constructed.
Often, those who began work on the cathedrals would do so knowing that they
would not live to see them completed.
There's a particularly sad scene where Bold encounters
the sole European in all of his travels.
The man can't speak any of the languages Bold know, but he gets his
point across with gestures. He was just
a fisherman, and was out fishing when the plague hit. He came back to find everyone, including his
wife and children, dead. Now he's all
alone, and due to the language barrier, Bold isn't much company. They share food and camp together, but the
very next day the man is gone. His
footsteps lead to the riverbank, which strongly suggests he might have
committed suicide out of despair. What
would it be like, I wonder, to be like the lone European? What thoughts would go through one’s head as
the sole survive of a once prosperous village?
To know that you might be alone forever?
Chilling stuff indeed.
Bold and Kyu eventually get sold to the admiral Zhang
He. He was the commander of the Ming
Dynasty's fleet of treasure ships. They
were massive ships that traveled everywhere from the South China Sea, to India,
and even East Africa. The goal was to
proclaim China's power and influence to the world, and to collect tribute. Zhang He is a staple in alternate histories
about China colonizing the New World.
Ironically, that doesn't happen in this book til after Zhang He. We'll talk more about that in a bit. We also get a frighteningly detailed explain
of how eunuchs, of which Zhang He was one, are made.
Another significant aspect of "Awake into
Emptiness" is how it sets up the character meeting in the Bardo at the end
of each segment. The Bardo is an afterlife
of sorts in Tibetan Buddhism. It is
where souls go as they wait to be judged and then reborn. I should probably go over the difference
between reincarnation in Hinduism and Buddhism.
Hindu reincarnation is like water being passed from one cup to another;
your outside changes, but the essence of who you are stays the same. Buddhist reincarnation is more like one
candle passing its flame to another; there is a deep connection between you and
your reincarnations, but they are ultimately different people. Tibetan Buddhism differs in that it is a bit
more like the Hindu view of reincarnation.
The character we meet in The Years of Rice and Salt
were part of a Jati in Tibet that got killed in an avalanche. A Jati is type of village or community; sometimes
it can also mean clan or group of that nature.
Throughout the book the Jati constantly find each other, often without
meaning too, across their reincarnations.
East Asian cultures, and other Asian cultures to an extent, place
emphasis on finding your place within the web of other's lives. The part of this section that muse about the
nature of reincarnation and Buddhism have an almost poetic quality to
them. There's also some parts that end
with "but if you want to know what happens next, read the next
part." This is a nod to the classic
Chinese novel Journey to the West.
The second segment is titled "The Haj in the
Heart." The bulk is set in the
1560. It begins in India with two
sisters named Kokila and Bihari. Life is
mostly good, and they get married. Then
Bihari dies in childbirth, and Kokila poisons their husbands, for which she is
executed. Kokila is then reincarnated as
a tiger named Kya, who is also killed, but not before she saves a wandering
Sufi mystic named Bistami. While on a Hadj
to Mecca, Bistami hears of a caravan in North Africa heading to the depopulated
land of Al-Andalus. The caravan is led
by the charismatic sultan Mawji Darya, and his beautiful wife Katima. Bistami finds himself drawn to Katima, almost
as though he knows her from somewhere.
This is the only time, barring the last segment, our
characters get reincarnated multiple times in one segment. Bistami at one point finds himself in the
court of Emperor Akbar. He was a real
ruler of the Mughal Empire. It was an
off-shoot of the Mongol Empire established by Central Asian Mongols who settled
in Northern India. Akbar was a Muslim,
but promoted religious tolerance and understanding. He often held meetings with representatives
of the different religions within his empire.
Unfortunately, subsequent Mughal rulers didn't share his
open-mindedness.
I previously mentioned the poetic nature of this book,
and it's true in this segment as well.
There is a particularly great scene where Bistami visits the tomb of a
great Sufi mystic. He undergoes a
religious experience and has visions, including of his past lives. The poetic nature, combined with the musings
on the nature of reality, reminds me of The Man in the High Castle, another of
my favorite alternate history novels. I
should probably talk about Sufism.
Sufism is a type of Islamic mysticism.
They tend to be a bit more peaceful and less politically inclined than
Sunni and Shia Islam. Most Sunnis and
Shias, the two main branches of Islam, do not like Sufis very much, and don't
consider them real Muslims. If you've
ever heard of the Whirling Dervishes, those are Sufis. The Medieval Iranian poet Rumi is another
famous Sufi.
It does make sense that the Beber, or Amazigh, as they
call themselves, were first to resettle Europe.
Towards the end of its history Al-Andalus was ruled by several
Beber/Amazigh dynasties such as the Almoravids and Almohads. I also liked that the alternate Black Death
hit all of Europe, not just the Christian bits.
Al-Andalus, and the Muslim settlements in the Balkans, were just as
depopulated as the rest of Europe. It
made it feel a bit more realistic.
Granted, having ninety-nine percent of Europe be whipped out wasn't that
realistic, but it is a thing I'm willing to accept for the premise of the
novel. Amusingly, even the characters
discuss how odd it is that Europe was totally whipped out.
Katima and her caravan are shown to be more
open-minded and liberal than most Muslims.
This is partially because they follow Sufism, but also because they are
Berber. Traditionally, most Berber women
have not worn the hijab, and woman have play major roles in Berber life. The caravan eventually moves further north
and founds a settlement at the former site of Bayonne, France. They name their settlement Baraka. Katima's husband dies, but there's no
precedent for women ruling on their own in Islam. In fact, the Hadith even forbids it.
Thus, Bistami and Katima declare that those Hadith's
don't matter and forge their own.
Granted, there's some precedence to this. Muslims believe that the Hadith is less
authoritative than the Koran, but still important. Several Muslim women, in places such as West
Africa and America, choose to ignore the Hadith to justify not wearing the
hijab. The closest the Koran comes is
saying that women must cover their breasts.
Throughout the book there is a theme of trying to reconcile Islam with
women's rights, and secular liberalism in general. The Sufis, and those like them, are trying to
establish a light in the darkness, but these lights can easily be snuffed
out. Case in point, more conservative
Muslims from Al-Andalus come to overthrow Katima, forcing everyone to flee
further north to Nantes. They name this
new settlement Nsara.
Interestingly, when everyone arrives in the Bardo they
perceive it as being similar to the Islamic afterlife. Does the Bardo appear different to
everyone? They do seem to realize that
it isn't the Islamic afterlife, and do start to remember their past lives
before getting reincarnated. We'll talk
more about all that in just a minute.
The third segment is titled "Ocean
Continents." It takes place in the
1620s. Japan has been a thorn in China's
side for centuries. The emperor orders a
huge fleet of ships to conquer the island nation. However, a few ships get blown across the
Pacific and discover two previously unknown continents. The section follows the crew as they explore
this brave new world.
This is the part where China finally discovers the
Americas. Overall, I did enjoy this
segment, but the novel does show its age in places. When the Chinese first arrive, they meet the
Miwok people of Northern California. The
Miwok are overall portrayed well, even if it occasionally dips into "paint
with all the colors of the wind" territory. The narration mentions how the natives barely
use the land, and how everything is pristine.
We now know that Native Americans played a big role in cultivating land,
and played a major role in shaping North America's ecosystem. They just did so in a way that wasn't always
recognizable to the Europeans. In
fairness a lot of this scholarship has only come on in the last decade or
so. Robinson wouldn't have had access to
it.
The bigger issue is when the Chinese arrive in the
Aztec Empire. At first, it looked like
we might get a nuanced look at the Aztecs.
They performed human sacrifice, but they did so because they believed it
was necessary to thank the gods for giving them the world. Those chosen as sacrifices lives like kings
in the year leading up to the sacrifice.
They were also one of the few societies to give mandatory education for
both men and women. I was hoping we'd
see all this, but Robinson fell onto the lazy stereotype of the Aztecs as
bloodthirsty barbarians. It got even
worse when one of the Chinese fired a gun, and the Aztecs ran around like
chickens with their heads chopped off.
There is a reference to something this is claimed to have happened when
Pizarro conquered the Inca. The problem
being that there is no historical evidence that the Inca trampled each other to
death when Pizarro fired his gun. It is
likely a fabrication by post-conquest chroniclers.
Anyway, when we get to the Bardo we see that it is
falling under the sway of the Chinese celestial bureaucracy. Does that mean Chinese Mythology is real
too? Overall, not a terrible segment,
but could have been better.
The fourth segment is titled "The
Alchemist." It takes place in the
Khanate of Samarkand in the 1640s. It
follows three alchemists named Bahram, Khalid, and Iwang. The start off performing experiments to turn
lead into gold. However, they soon start
making discoveries that will overturn all pervious knowledge. The age of alchemy is over, and the age of
science has begun.
I've always loved the history of science, so this
segment was pretty fun for me. The
characters make discoveries in all sorts of fields, but the Khan is only
interested in military applications.
There's a particularly amusing scene where Khalid complains about Sufis
being a bunch of hippies with their heads in the clouds. He's blissfully unaware that he was a Sufi in
a past life. Another scene mentions that
Armenia is a Muslim nation. That's
particularly odd given that pervious segments mentioned them, along with
Georgia and Ethiopia, as one of the few Christian nations that avoid the
plague. There's also mention of small
communities of Christians in Egypt and the Maghreb. The characters do speculate that the
Armenians might be faking it to get better trade deals, but it is still
odd. Samarkand in our world had some
very famous universities, with some very impressive mosaics. All in all, another great segment.
The fifth segment is called "The Warp and the
Weft." It takes place in North
America and follows a ronin named Busho, but his friends know him as
Fromwest. He is severing as a guest to
the Haudenosaunee people, and tells of how his homeland was invaded by
China. Busho must convince the
Haudenosaunee, and the scattered tribes to North America, to unite and
modernize so they can resist colonization from the Chinese and Muslims.
Overall, I thought that Robinson did a much better
with his depiction of the Native Americans here. The Haudenosaunee people are more commonly
known as the Iroquois. They are nation originally
made of the five tribes: the Seneca, Mohawk, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Oneida. In 1722 they welcomed the Tuscarora tribe to
the nation. Interestingly, this segment
mentions that the Haudenosaunee have expanded to nine tribes. Just who are these additional tribes? The Native Americans were exposed more
gradually to Old World diseases than in our world. They've had more time to recover their
population. This does give them more of
fighting chance than the Native Americans did in our world. Still, I can't help but feel that the fate is
the Haudenosaunee is just a tad optimistic.
Granted, they've got Busho to help them.
Perhaps it is optimistic, but I'm willing to take
it. I've always wished alternate history
featured the Native Americans more. I've
also been fascinated at the idea of Native Americans successfully resisting
colonialism. From what we hear, the
Chinese invasion of Japan was incredibly harsh.
There was no divine wind to save the Japanese this time. Busho wonders if the gods were mad because
of the Muslim missionaries in Nagasaki.
It's a sly joke, because around the same time in our world, Christian
missionaries were in Nagasaki. In fact,
Nagasaki and Hiroshima were the two biggest Christian settlements in
Japan. I wonder if the souls that would
have been those missionaries got reincarnated as Muslims?
The Bardo segment is also interesting. The Jati try to resist drinking the elixir of
forgetfulness to try to retain the memories in their next lives, and find each
other.
The sixth segment is titled "Widow
Kang." It takes place in South China
in the 18th century. The widow Kang
Tongbi has been plagued by strange dreams and strange happenings. She speaks in strange foreign languages, and
finds herself draw to the Buddhist monk Bao Ssu and the Muslim scholar Ibrahim
ibn Hasam al-Lanzhou. It's almost as
though she knows them from somewhere before.
The parallelism was very strong in this story. At times it almost felt more like straight-up
historical fiction rather than alternate history. The Machu overthrew the Ming Dynasty, thus
establishing the Qing Dynasty, just as in our world. There's also a hysteria over supposed queue
cutting, just as in our world. Queues
are long braided ponytails the Manchu pushed upon the Han Chinese. The Han weren't required to adopt Manchu
clothing and hairstyles, but the Manchu put indirect pressure on them to do
so. There were also numerous instances
of anti-Muslim persecution carried out during the Qing Dynasty. Yeah, if the goal of the novel was to
speculate about a world without Europe, this was not one of its better moments.
Now, I must be fair here. Robinson utilizes a more leftist view of
history that emphasizes intangible forces of history over individual
choice. Additionally, there the wrinkle of
people being reincarnated. Reincarnation
might account for why this world had a Renaissance so similar to our
world. Presumably, the Europeans got
reincarnated too. Perhaps the Manchu
were destined to overthrow the Ming Dynasty.
It's interesting to speculate, but let's get back to the story.
Kang eventually marries Ibrahim after he helps her
with some hypnosis exercises. They work
together on try to find a way to reconcile Islam with Buddhism, and Chinese
culture in general. There one scene
where Kang disparages Islam for the way Muslim women are treated. Ibrahim point that Chinese women don't have
it much better. Kang concedes that women
have it pretty bad all the world over.
Kang also takes to collecting poems and mantras. Her favorite?
It has to do with rice and salt.
There's also an amusing scene where, when discussing the possibility of
past lives, Kang insists that she's always been Chinese. By this point, we know she's also been
African, Berber, Muslim, Indian, Iroquois, and even a tiger.
It seems that Ibrahim, and a few other Muslims, believe in
reincarnation. In our world, there are
some Muslims who believe this, but they are fringe groups, and don't represent
mainstream Islamic thought. Granted,
with the changes to history, maybe their beliefs became mainstream. I just loved Kang and Ibrahim's constant
back-and-forth. They argue, but they
also clearly care about each other. We
also hear that many Sufi settlements have gotten crushed by Wahhabis. They're a brand of ultra-conservative Islam;
Saudi Arabia is run by them. Sadly, this
isn't too dissimilar to what happened in our world. Attempts to reform Islam pretty much always
ended badly.
Our seventh segment is titled "The Great Age of
Progress." It takes place from
1829-1864. The Ottoman Empire has long
thought of itself as invincible. That all changes when they get into a war with
the League of Travancore; an alliance of states in India. Travancore is a land of mechanical wonders
and scientific advancement. The segment
follows an Ottoman doctor named Ismail as he is taken to Travancore to
experience these wonders firsthand.
Well, this certainly made up for the parallelism of
the last segment. I love seeing
industrial revolution alternate histories in non-Western nations. I also like that Travancore is an alliance of
Indian states rather than a single nation.
India is just as ethnically and culturally diverse as Europe, after
all. The scene where Travancore invades
Konstantiniyye is an ironic echo of the Ottoman's sack of Constantinople in
1453 AD. Of course, this time the
Ottomans are in the role of the Byzantines.
Wouldn't it be ironic if they were the Byzantines reincarnated? We also see that the Haudenosaunee League is
an ally of Travancore, and are doing quite well for themselves. Several Buddhist monasteries have also become
centers of science and learning.
Buddhism originated in India, but faded away due to the actions of
Brahmins, that is, Hindu priests. They
knew they had to try to discredit Buddhism, or they'd be standing in the
unemployment line. It is fitting that
Buddhism has returned to the place of its birth here.
We also find out that some European survived in the
Orkney, Shetland, and Faroe Islands. A
few also managed to survive in England.
Unfortunately, the Ottomans prized these surviving English for their
exotic beauty. The Ottomans made a point
of keeping the English members of their harams ethnically pure. Eventually, this resulted in some pretty
nasty inbreeding. Yeah, those poor
English would have been better off if the plague had taken their ancestors.
We skip ahead a bit where Ismail is serving as
Tranvancore's ambassador to Yingzhou.
It's China's colony on the west coast of North America. We discover that the Japanese people and
culture have survived in spite of China's efforts to whip them out. There's even a strong underground resistance
movement brewing in Yingzhou. There's
mention of flood occurring in California, and interestingly enough, there was
indeed a flood in California around the time this segment is set.
The eighth segment is titled "War of the
Asuras." It is set in the
1950s. Tensions between China and
Dar-Al-Islam have been brewing for years.
Now they've finally boiled over into an all-out war. In time, this war will be known as the Long
War. The segment follows three Chinese
solders named Bai, Kuo, and Iwa.
This segment was maybe not my favorite, but all the
same, not terrible. The Long War can
best be described as World War I leading directly into World War II with no
break in-between. The Long War lasted
sixty-seven years in total. The war is
so intense that our character beginning to lose their grasp on reality. Also, apparently the Muslims blew-up the top
of Mount Everest so that K2, a mountain in Afghanistan, would be the tallest
mountain in the world. There was no real
point to this, and it probably didn't effect Chinese moral very much. It probably also wasted time and resources
for the Muslims, and seemed more petty than anything. On a brighter note, Japan has used the chaos
of the war to regain their independence.
The ninth segment is titled "Nsara." It takes place from 1999-2002. Budur Radwan is a young woman living in the
United Alpine Emirates. She longs to be
free and independent like her aunt Idelba, who works as a physicist in
Nsara. Budur decides to sneak on a train
bound for the great Sufi city. She finds
Nsara to be a land of wonders, and is drawn to the study of history and
archeology by one of the city's madrasahs.
Life is good, but the effects of the Long War still linger. How long can this temporary peace truly last?
This segment gets fairly metafictional as Budur and
her classmates discuss the nature of history.
They even speculate on how things might have gone had history turned out
differently. One of the class's first
projects is considering women's role in history, particularly as it relates to
Islam. Their professor, Kirana Fawwaz, is
convinced that it is possible to reconcile Islam with feminism if you throw out
the Hadith. She even claims Mohammad was
a feminist. Yeah...she must be using a
different translation of the Koran, because everything I've read of the Koran
paints a rather unflattering picture of the prophet. Feminist is...not a word I'd use to describe
him. For example, he once ordered a
village of Jews to be put to death for refusing to convert to Islam. Then there's the whole marrying an underage
girl and consummating the marriage with her thing. There's a little old lady in the class who
says that religion has brought nothing but suffering to people, especially
women, and should be done away with.
Well, I guess I know what happened to the soul that would have become
me.
As someone with a history degree, I can attest that
many of the conversations Budur and her classmates have are quite accurate. There would certainly be even more
archeological sites in Europe than there already ate in our world. We even get to briefly see some surviving
Native Europeans in the Orkney, Shetland and Faroe Islands. They're under the watchful eye of the Haudenosaunee. So, we've got Native Americans overseeing what
is, essentially, a European reservation.
Oh how the tables have turned.
One of Budur's friends is named Tristan, and he makes music based on
that of Medieval Europe. Strange that
more isn't made of his status as one of the only ethnic Europeans we meet. Unless his name isn't really Tristan, and
he's The Years of Rice and Salt version of a weeaboo, but with European culture
rather than Japanese.
I probably should have mentioned before that the Muslims
renamed Europe as Firanja. Well, the
Middle Eastern and North African ones did.
The Central Asian one's call it Firanjistan. Most of Western Firanja speaks a language
that, while similar to Arabic and Berber, is unique to Firanja. Though, Skandistan speaks a separate language
related to the Turkic languages of Central Asia. Firanja was placed under heavy reparations
following the Long War. The terms also
forced them to allow Buddhist monasteries to be established in their
cities. I guess it makes a sort of sense
that Muslim madrasahs and Buddhist monasteries became centers of learning. In our world, many universities, such as
Oxford and Cambridge, started off as places to train/educate Christian clergy.
Budur travels to a science conference in Iran to help
deliver a message to her aunt's colleges.
Specifically, about the potential to split an atom, and create new
bombs. This is presented as something
that the world must not know of, but I'm not sure about that. Mutually Assured Destruction, and thus
deterrence, could have saved quite a few lives during the Long War. From what we hear, it got so bad that women
and children got drafted. On the other
hand, Dar-Al-Islam does seem just crazy enough to push the button. Don't forget what they did to Mount
Everest. On a happier note, we do see
that the Buddhist monasteries are making bricks to rebuild the summit of Mount
Everest.
Budur also attends an archeology conference. One of the presentations is of a village in
Tibet that got caught in an avalanche.
It is the very village the sent the Jati on their journey across the
ages. I also liked how the Middle East
is called the Middle West, as a nod to how Sinocentric this world is. There's mention of scientists wanting to
create a new calendar, with the date of their meeting being year one. Something similar happened in our world, but
the Apollo 11 mission was used as the year one.
Post-war Firanja bares more than a passing resemblance
to Germany during the Weimar Republic.
It is mentioned that the Sultanate of Rum has experienced particularly
bad hyperinflation. As the segment
progresses, there's increasing political turmoil, and many radicals begin to
blame minorities such as Christians, Jews, and Armenians for Firanja losing
the Long War. There's mention here, and
in several other segments of a people called Zotts. Apparently, that's the Arabic word for
Gypsies/Romani. With all the political
chaos brewing, it's a good thing the Haudenosaunee keep a military presence in
Firanja.
It would seem the Sufis' efforts weren't in vain after
all. Nsara appears to be a liberal
modern city. And yet it is also
mentioned that several parts of Firanja, such as the United Alpine Emirates and
Skandistan, are rather conservative. It
goes back to the theme of trying to reconcile Islam with liberalism, pluralism,
and multiculturalism. Quite forward
thinking for a book published in 2002.
Personally, I'm not sure it's really possible. Of course, I'm not sure any religion can
truly be reformed. Better to discard
them and find our truths and meanings in something more solid and rational.
Our final segment is titled "First
Years." It takes place from
2030-2088. The segment follows a Chinese
man named Bao Xinhua throughout his life.
He participates in a democratic-ish/socialist-ish movement lead by the
Chinese-Japanese philosopher Zhu Isao.
We then follow him as he is assigned to a diplomatic post in Burma, gets
married, and then moves to Yingzhou and becomes a history teacher.
I know that doesn't sound very exciting, but I promise
this is a good segment. It appears that,
despite winning the Long War, China wasn't much better off than Firanja. Of course, it was less than China won and
more that Dar-Al-Islam lost. It might
seem a little odd that the book doesn't really give as much attention to the
social revolution China experienced, but it makes a sort of sense. The wheel symbol is very important in
Buddhism and religions like it. It
symbolizes reincarnation, rebirth, and the cycle of ages. As you get closer to the center, the arc of
the wheel gets smaller. So, there's that,
or perhaps Kim Stanley Robinson felt that, much like this review, the book had
gone on for long enough and it was time to wrap things up. The revolution has aspects of socialist
movements, but the philosophy behind it is very much a product of the world of
The Years of Rice and Salt.
The real winners of the Long War seem to be the
Travancore and Haudenosaunee leagues.
Though there were times where the characters referenced Yingzhou as
though it comprised all of North America.
From what I've gathered, Yingzhou seems to refer to China's colonies in
America, and North America as a whole.
Sort of like how America can mean either the Untied States, or the
Americas as a whole. Similarly, Inka
seems to be South America as a whole, and the Inka Empire. Anyway, there certainly does appear to be a
growing sense of multiculturalism, pluralism, and international cooperation. All things that are founding principles of
Travancore and the Haudenosaunee. In
general, though not completely without flaws, the world does seem to have
become a more peaceful place. There's
also reference to a United Nations analogue called the League of All Nations.
Based on what we've seen both here and in the previous
segment, it seems that this world is less technologically advanced than
ours. Airships are the primary civilian
aircraft, and there doesn't seem to be much mention of any nation having a
space program. There's also not really
any mention of television, movies, or computers. Granted, maybe the characters we follow don't
watch much TV, or go to the movies very often.
Still, the lack of computers and the Internet is pretty notable. It also a shame that, throughout the book, we
never really get to see what sub-Saharan Africa is like. How did they evolve in a world without
European colonialism?
It's mentioned that places, such as much of Firanja
and Inka, still suffer from widespread poverty, but on the flip side, much of
the world has improved quality of life.
In the last segments we did see some Inka in Firanja, so it does seem
that they and their culture have survived.
There's certainly a sense of cautious optimism for the future throughout
the world. Bao himself finds a sense of
community and belonging in Yingzhou. His
housing complex is much like a modern-day village. He and his fellow Jati members might not have
achieved Nirvana, but they did pretty well for themselves. It kind of reminds me of the ending of
Candide. Despite all of the hardships,
the Jati made it out alive, and are happily tending to their garden, literally
and metaphorically. Well, everyone but
the K character. Of course, Bao does
find himself with a new student named Kali towards the end of the book. Perhaps she'll come around in time.
I'd say, overall, the world of The Years of Rice and
Salt isn't necessarily better or worse than ours, but it is very
different. And so, at least for now, the
journey of the Jati is at an end. Well,
I think at this point it is pretty obvious that I loved this book. I also loved the audiobook adaption narrated
by Bronson Pinchot.
This was truly epic alternate history. It spanned, continents, cultures, centuries,
and lifetimes. It shinned a light on
cultures and peoples you don't often see in alternate history. It was an amazing journey, and I'm glad I was
along for the ride. I'm glad I finally
got around to listening to this book. I
can't recommend this book enough. Check
it out today, you'll be glad that you did.
Well, I think that's
enough from me for now. I will see you guys next time.
