What follows is, in 652 pages and 10 chapters, a history of seven centuries “on an alternate Earth in which Islam and Buddhism are the dominant religions. It’s what’s called an alternative history.Īs a starting point Robinson lets the black death wipe out 99% of the European population, instead of – current best estimate – 65%. The Years of Rice and Salt is no dystopian near-future story, nor an account of prehistorical homo sapiens, nor a clifi thriller, nor an hard SF tale of terraforming or interstellar travel. Still, his topics remain steadfast: the evolutionary & ecological nature of humans, what human societies could amount to – progressive, utopian thinking – and how science and technology ties into that. If you just look at the novels, you see a wide variety of angles. He has published 19 novels, 2 works of non-fiction, 8 short story collections and 4 novellas. One has to admire Kim Stanley Robinson for the breadth of his work.
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