This is an alternative history -which I usually enjoy. The premise is that the Black Plague virtually wiped out all the Christian and Western European population, leaving the world to be dominated by, primarily, India and China. The novel is episodic, and takes us from the time of the Black Death to an era that is roughly comparable to our own. The device is that a group of six or seven souls are continually reincarnated together in each new era. Most retain the same individual characteristics and foibels; the reader can recognize each one by the first letter of their name, which is always the same. Interesting is the portrait of a North America that was never conquered by Europeans. Japanese colonize the Western coast, while Chinese settlements are on the East coast. The native Americans eventually come into their own, however.
There’s a lot in this book. Nations in Europe are primarily Islamic. The inevitable clash is between China and the world of Islam, leading to a war larger and longer than we have seen in present day. India and the North American amalgamation are voices of reason and individuality – especially in terms of women’s rights. The final section of this book waxes philosophical on human nature and war.
Kim Stanley Robinson is undoubtedly a brilliant man, and writes books that are vast in scope (The Mars Trilogy is another prime example). My own complaint about Robinson is that, in the end, I don’t find his books particularly memorable. They don’t engage me, because I don’t feel connected to the characters.
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