The Years of Rice and Salt

Hardcover, 658 pages

English language

Published March 2002 by Bantam.

ISBN:
978-0-553-10920-7
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OCLC Number:
47894803
ISFDB ID:
22722

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5 stars (2 reviews)

With the incomparable vision and breathtaking detail that brought his now-classic Mars trilogy to vivid life, bestselling author Kim Stanley Robinson boldly imagines an alternate history of the last seven hundred years. In his grandest work yet, the acclaimed storyteller constructs u world vastly different from the one we know…

It is the fourteenth century and one of the most apocalyptic events in human history is set to occur — the coming of the Black Death. History teaches us that a third of Europe's population was destroyed. But what if? What if the plague killed 99 percent of the population instead? How would the world have changed? This is a look at the history that could have been — a history that stretches across centuries, a history that sees dynasties and nations rise and crumble, a history that spans horrible famine and magnificent innovation. These are the years of rice …

4 editions

Review of 'The Years of Rice and Salt' on 'LibraryThing'

5 stars

A book about our place in the world and the eternal question of how to live well, disguised as a novel. It's a long read, best savoured slowly over a stretch of time. It's too easy to become impatient and rush through to the "good bits" of action and excitement, and miss the thought-provoking substance.

It is less a fantasy or science fiction work than a tribute to our potential as a species, seen through an Eastern lens that is not often considered in Robinson's English-speaking target audience.