Re: I packed my bag and in it I put
Posted by:
jon (---.abel.net.uk)
Date: March 19, 2003 11:13AM
Carla;
I haven't finished 'The Years of Rice & Salt' yet, but I am enjoying it very much. I agree that at first the re-incarnation material seemed odd, but after a while I cottoned on to what KSR was trying to do. I like alternative histories, but there is always a danger that they become just that; a history, a dull account of one damn thing after another, and because the history isn't *real*, and therefore doesn't matter, even more dull than such things are in real life. Harry Turtledove is like that. The YoR&S attempts to make a credible (well, fairly credible ..... I'm not sure about that plague) and well researched alt history interesting by giving it this unusual slant (I don't want to give too much away here!) and once I'd suspended my disbelief high enough, it worked. Also, I know very little about Buddhism or Islam, and I found it very informative about them.
I like it; it's well written, intelligent, entertaining, the three central characters are well drawn and sympathetic, the history is fascinating, the philosophy informative without being overwhelming, it's got things to say without becoming a lecture .... recommended. I took it up a little doubtfully, because I found Red Mars quite frankly dull, but this is much, much better. It's something different, which is a rare thing in this predictable old world of ours.
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I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty