PatternExon

River of Gods – Ian McDonald

// January 10th, 2007 // books, reading, review

Unbeatable. Bold. Flawlessly Researched.

River of Gods is everything that any fiction title could aspire to be; only this one is more. There are few books that I think were, if ever, customized for me ( generally, Solzhenitsyn, Eco & Wodehouse have such insults smeared at them) but Ian Mcdonald has a beautiful & detailed, for me* an all encompassing, novel.

Asimov’s Robots do not cut it, at all. Nor does Cook’s imagination. Not Crichton’s relentless anxiety. Not Clarke’s space travels. Mebbe Adam’s panache may just survive that biggest baddest blow. Ian McDonald is the new Master of Sci-Fi.

This is set in India in 2047. This is set in a world where strong AI exists! where Turing Test is the most common test. Where Medicine & Biotechnology has reached what currently are the undreamt Holy Grails. Where every genetic anomaly has been found and cured. Where Human-Computer-Interaction has reached a level that could only be provincially termed as a Borg-like. Where messages are fed directly into the brain.(& I thought the iPhone was cool!!).

For a generation that learned, smelled & relived India only through the pen of firangs ( EM Forrester, Tully, Dalrymple & Corbett) this is has to be in the same pedestal the only difference is while others speak of what India was & is…. McDonald boldly ventures into what India could be…. the portrayal is stark, precise & gripping. India is broken, well that would be too local ….. the world has restructured in a way that would even make Samuel Huntington’s ideas look secular & unifying.

How Dark ? I am no SPOILER. But this is a must read. There are many that add couple of Hindi words to a foreigner’s travelogue through the Holy heartland of India; its almost a sub-genre of unreadable filth. But not this, yes he uses Hindi exquisitely, almost in a build up that only those who have grown to swear in it will ever understand. The detailed description of characters is phenomenal. Only eclipsed by the pace & enormity with which the plot unfolds.

It is amplification without noise reduction – all of it. India’s obsessions – Religion, Region, Language & Sex. India’s frivolities – Sitcoms, Cricket, & Ever Rising Self Doubt. India’s Mysticism – Faith, Mythology, Family, Ethos & Individuality without breaking away. Technology – AI, Space, Genetics & all communication synced.

The aptness of the title is revealed in the last 10 pages though is The River is Ganga, there are very few that could win the title of THE RIVER from her. The originality that leaves that after taste of a would-be tomorrow played in front of you by an author who is not bitten by the ‘Jetsons Syndrome’ – not everything is futuristic its just the future. People still walk. Not everyone has a robot. Cars do fly, but really expensive ones that only governments can afford. The protrayal of India couldnt possibly be complete without Trains ( Theroux Paul, et al.), and its not. Well actually, McDonald is right about the ubiquity of distributed computing…ill leave it at that.

There is a zeal in his story telling, thats almost unspoilt like that first number by a band that has all its hope pinned on tonite’s performance. Immaculate. Refined. & Supremely Delicious.

My only fright – Half of what McDonald paints could be true…. I dont know which half.

 

 

PS: 600 hundred pages not one worth skipping !

*(to save a hyperlink ) I am an Indian grad student of Computer Science @ Wash U reading about AI since 9^th grade currently working in a Bioinformatics research group.