Ian McDonald's River of Gods

As Mother India approaches her centenary, nine people are going about their business - a gangster, a cop, his wife, a politician, a stand-up comic, a set designer, a journalist, a scientist and a dropout. And so is Aj - the waif, the mind-reader, the prophet - when she one day finds a man who wants to stay hidden.

In the next few weeks, they will all be swept together to decide the fate of the nation.




I do not really enjoy sci-fi. The high blown physics tend to sail over my head, making me think of school and the utter humiliation I felt when I don't understand what the hell is being written on the blackboard.

But this book sheds sci-fi for humanism, physics for religion, and higher mathematics for faith. Amid the newsreels of waterwars and high politics, between the puujas on the Ganges, there is a story of people caught up in the flow of fate.

This is India, this is Bharati, this is Varanasi, as seen through the eye of its citizens, 39 years from now. The smell of rotii, the stink of traffic, the hooting of phatphat horns, temples and Gods, all seven million of them. The crowds and riots and beautiful sari's, jawans and jai Bharat!.

And through it, between it, among it, flows the Ganga Mata, Mother of Rivers, life-giver and life-taker.

Yes, there is physics; M-Star theory and physical manifestations of higher level aeiai consciousness, parallel universes and zero-point energy math models, but it fits. It is merely a part of the larger story, and not the whole of it.

Read this book, you will not be disappointed.

An update.

It has been a while, hasn't it? In the time I have been away, I travelled to Cambodia (which I promise I will write about someday), and to London (which, again, I promise to write about), worked, played, wrote much illiterate nonsense, even more extremely boring non-literary commisions, and generally, did this whole living thing that people are so hung up about.

To those people who are still waiting for the next installment of Shadows, well, I suggest you go to http://www.jim-butcher.com/ . This is what I was going for, and my artistic vanity suffered no end when I saw that someone else has done what I had thought of doing, and did it better than I ever could.

No worries, as soon as the sting of utter humiliation has left me, I'll continue writing it (or rewriting it, as the case may be).

In other news, I started writing romances, and I have no idea why. Bachelorhood makes for good muses is my guess. Expect a snippet or so within the next few days.

Other than that, well, time will tell.

p.s. Damn you Rhino, and thank you very much for the video that made me laugh for hours!

The End

And a grand end it was; shocking, moving, a bit dragged out and maudlin, but beautiful nonetheless.

Rowling finished her series with surprising panache. Clocking in at merely 600++ pages, it is not the longest book by far, but what it lacks in pages, it more than makes up for it substance. Questions and plotholes alike are dug up, explained, seen in the clear light of day.

It all makes sense, now.

Swordfights and dragons, battles and magic and wands, power and its price. Growing up, falling in love. Family, friendship. The death of many and the death of one.

Yes, it's a children's book. But read it anyway. Because you will regret it if you don't.

(Bah, I'll rewrite this article when my head cools off a little)