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River of Gods | 
 enlarge | Author: Ian Mcdonald
Publisher: Pyr
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
Buy Used: $8.44
You Save: $16.56 (66%)
New (21) Used (18) Collectible (2) from $8.44
Rating:  36 reviews
Sales Rank: 478754
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 597
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.3
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.2 x 2.2
ISBN: 1591024366
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9781591024361
ASIN: 1591024366
Publication Date: March 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Withdrawn Library copy with customary stamps or stickers; No marks within the text.Ships within hours from Charleston, SC. Established seller with nearly 10 years of online history.
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Product Description
As Mother India approaches her centenary, nine people are going about their businessa gangster, a cop, his wife, a politician, a stand-up comic, a set designer, a journalist, a scientist, and a dropout. And so is Ajthe waif, the mind reader, the prophetwhen 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. River of Gods teems with the life of a country choked with peoples and culturesone and a half billion people, twelve semi-independent nations, nine million gods. Ian McDonald has written the great Indian novel of the new millennium, in which a war is fought, a love betrayed, a message from a different world decoded, as the great river Ganges flows on.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 31 more reviews...
Outstanding read October 5, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This novel works on many levels. As a top notch thriller, as a character driven novel, as an introduction to both Hindi and Muslim Indian culture, as a thought provoking science fiction novel, with an interesting look at what the future might be (No, where is my jet car? We're all supposed to have jet car thing), in a realistic manner. At close to six hundred pages, if you have the time to wile away the last of summer with a great read, I would recommend it immensely.
 Too Fragmented September 19, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I read half of this book. My rule is if I get through half the book, and the plot is boring, uninteresting, or makes no sense, I stop reading. Too many other good books out there to try out. I think this book had promise, but it was too hard for me to get into. Here's why:
1. Lots of Indian terms/cultural references. I knew this going into it, but the story and plot simply weren't enjoyable enough to get over this hurdle. Yes, there's a glossary in the back, but didn't read it. Shouldn't really have to to enjoy a good sci-fi novel.
2. Too many disjointed plot lines. A couple of the plot lines were good, but the others were boring. It seemed like some of the plots simply existed for the author to describe what the society and culture were like. If you are student of Far East history and culture, then that would probably be interesting. It wasn't for me.
Overall the book read like a cyberpunk novel with foreign cultural references and terminology. Very tough to get through and have a clear understanding of what's going on. There were some interesting characters and mildly interesting plot lines, but they were too disjointed.
I wouldn't recommend this unless you are really into Indian culture or cyberpunk.
 Great Sci Fi but... August 28, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Great, complex tale told amazingly well. One of the most challenging books I've tackled in quite some time.
BUT - when the story veers into sex, my god, it's like walking along a beautiful beach and stepping on a turd. The descriptions of sex are completely gratuitous and just plain - ick!
Don't get me wrong, I'm no prude, but the immersion in the author's carefully wrought world is completely spoiled by these ham-handed attempts at introducing a little sex into the story. It's like his 13 year old got hold of the Word file. "Wanking her"? Doing what with a scarf? Jeez, did the editor fall asleep??
Completely lacking any reason for inclusion, failing to advance any element of the stories themselves, it's like they were lifted from a bad porn script. One only hopes the author was told to include something racy and he was so po-ed that he added these totally tasteless bits to prove a point.
Loved the story and the world, though. My recommendation - read with care and whenever any word starting with a C appears skip to the next section!
Too many plot lines August 11, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Given the excellent reviews, I had great hopes for this book. I was, however, disappointed.
I can appreciate a book with multiple plot lines, but in this book there were simply too many. And since the plot lines was (at least up to where I gave up) unrelated, and since there were so many people to keep apart, it was difficult to follow.
Some of the plot lines were very dull and did not engage me at all. I only found two of the plot lines interesting.
I believe that if this book is read over a couple of days, the plot lines would be easier to follow.
Very good book but takes some work July 19, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I have to say that I enjoyed the author's grasp of India in all its permutations, particularly India in the year 2040. The plot takes a tad long to unfold but the payoff in the end is worth it. This is a very different look at what the future might hold for the US and India when it comes to AI development. Worth the read.
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