レビュー

• Boring

  Very boring, very un modern style of writing, maybe good in a literary sense of the terme, but seriously, after an hour you just can't continue

• Exactly what I like from my post-cyberpunk!

  Throughout this epic story, there are 10 main characters, which at first seemed a little daunting. As the story progresses though, I didn't have any problems following along and actually really enjoyed such huge questions being posed to me through multiple perspectives. Counter-balanced with not so big questions, like Parvati's struggles that seem small but are her whole world being given as much agency as her husband, the Krishna cop who hunts rouge aeais (A.I's) and becomes more artificial in his human interactions on a daily basis, alienating the love of his life. I loved that these things were brought into focus even as the story grew to a crescendo (referenced multiple times within the book having a nice meta level I enjoyed) with the start of the book taking long inhalations of fiction for each character that become short, small breaths until the fiction finally shudders and stops altogether. With each chapter growing shorter and shorter until the last part of the book is just one, with each separation between the characters also getting shorter and shorter. It was really effective for me and in a lot of ways I enjoyed it as much as the semi-same writing techniques used in Cloud Atlas, one of my most favorite books of all time, actually. Small events in each person's daily life slowly unravel into a much grander plot that puts these individuals lives in a completely different context by the end. What starts as the slice of life in India and Thailand and Australia, and other places somewhat slowly but without deliberation weaves these people in and out of their own peripheral. Some never meeting at all but all causing ripples that will alter the other individuals in the story. In the end the story ended in a great place, which was a roller coaster ride for me. I was like oh oh oh, this is how I would end it and actually got a little annoyed as it progressed that this wasn't going to be the ending. And felt that it wasn't doing that to pay fanfare to nihilistic readers in the genre, but then managed to exceed my expectations in the deviation anyways. Which, is pretty incredible I think. The author truly knows their craft, in my opinion. This hits all the check marks for me, the human condition, larger questions at play, inclusive and diverse content. Stupendous world building, great prose, and a well loved and realized foreign culture in the future. There is literally like 15 pages of terms he uses all pretty much colloquial to India and it reads so well! Spirituality and religion takes aim against technology, how it shapes and molds us even as we engineer it. How technology could surpass us and yet represent humanity and personify it better then we often do. There's a new gender, treated well (from my lens, hopefully I am correct). lots of cool tech, and cyberpunk doing what it does best with really good extrapolating. For a 2006 especially, this is a staggering achievement. There is a lot predicted in this text with the relationship between US and India, for example.

• Fantastic

  Like a fever dream, one hell of a book.

• This is a great book. It's a bit slow to get started ...

  This is a great book. It's a bit slow to get started and a bit heavy at times, but well-worth the effort. Intriguing ideas and it all ties together well at the end. As one reviewer has said, Indian-themed cyberpunk. Just do it. Another reviewer has complained that it's a British person's lame attempt at representing Indian culture. I'm not Indian myself, but would like to make some comments. For a start, having worked with Indians for 17 years and, for the last 9 years, in a workplace that is about 80% Indian, I've learned that there is no such thing as Indian culture; there are only Indian cultures. There are so many differences in terms of religion, food, customs and language. On top of that, this is set close to 30 years from now. Cultures and values change, especially in countries that are rapidly developing, as is India. The book might not depict his Indian culture, but it might show pieces of one possible future one. As I said, just do it.

• Quite possibly the best science fiction I've ever read

  Quite possibly the best science fiction I've ever read...and I've been reading SF since the early 70s. The author's understanding of India and his ability to capture its flavours, its essence, is very impressive. The central concepts (which i won't mention so as not to spoil it) are amazing but very believable. Totally recommended.

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