By Kim Stanley Robinson
With the incomparable imaginative and prescient and breathtaking aspect that introduced his now-classic Mars trilogy to brilliant existence, bestselling writer KIM STANLEY ROBINSON boldly imagines an alternative heritage of the final seven-hundred years. In his grandest paintings but, the acclaimed storyteller constructs a global greatly various from the only we know....
The Years of Rice and Salt
It is the fourteenth century and probably the most apocalyptic occasions in human historical past is determined to occur–the coming of the Black dying. heritage teaches us 3rd of Europe’s inhabitants was once destroyed. yet what if? What if the plague killed ninety nine percentage of the inhabitants as an alternative? How could the area have replaced? this can be a examine the background which may have been–a historical past that stretches throughout centuries, a heritage that sees dynasties and countries upward push and collapse, a historical past that spans terrible famine and luxurious innovation. those are the years of rice and salt.
This is a universe the place the 1st send to arrive the recent global travels around the Pacific Ocean from China and colonization spreads from west to east. this can be a universe the place the commercial Revolution is prompted via the world’s maximum clinical minds–in India. it is a universe the place Buddhism and Islam are the main influential and practiced religions and Christianity is in basic terms a ancient footnote.
Through the eyes of squaddies and kings, explorers and philosophers, slaves and students, Robinson renders an immensely wealthy tapestry. Rewriting heritage and probing the main profound questions as simply he can, Robinson shines his striking gentle at the position of faith, tradition, strength, or even love on such an Earth. From the steppes of Asia to the shorelines of the Western Hemisphere, from the age of Akbar to the current and past, here's the lovely tale of the production of a brand new world.
From the Hardcover edition.
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Additional resources for The Years of Rice and Salt
He fed the slaves barley brownies and led them to at least one of the large constructions subsequent to the mosque. There a few chinese language arrived with their translator, they usually all went within to an internal courtyard of the development, shaded and entire of eco-friendly broad-leaved vegetation and a burbling fountain. A room starting onto this courtyard had cabinets on all its partitions, with bowls and figures put on them in an intricate, attractive exhibit: daring well-known pottery from Samarqand, and painted collectible figurines from Persia, between chinese language white porcelain bowls painted in blue, gold leaf, and copper. “Very elegant,” Zeyk stated. Then they have been to company. The chinese language officials inspected Zeyk's string of slaves. They spoke to the translator, and Zeyk conferred in deepest with the fellow, nodding usually. daring stumbled on he used to be sweating, even though he felt chilly. They have been being bought to the chinese language as a unmarried lot. one of many chinese language strolled down the road of slaves. He seemed daring over. “How did you get right here? ” he requested daring in chinese language. daring gulped, waved north. “I was once a dealer. ” His chinese language used to be quite rusty. “The Golden Horde took me and taken me to Anatolia. Then to Alexandria, then the following. ” The chinese language nodded, then moved on. quickly after the slaves have been led off via chinese language sailors in trousers and brief shirts, again to the waterfront. There numerous different strings and teams of slaves have been accrued. They have been stripped, washed down with clean water, an astringent, extra clean water. They got new gowns of undeniable cotton, ended in boats, and rowed out to the large facet of 1 of the nice ships. daring climbed a ladder 41 steps up the wood wall of the ship's aspect, following a thin black slave boy. They have been taken jointly under the most deck, to a room close to the rear of the send. What occurred in there we do not are looking to inform you, however the tale will not make experience except we do, so directly to the subsequent bankruptcy. these items occurred. four After dismal occasions, a section of the Buddha seems; Then the treasure fleet asks Tianfei to calm their fears. The send used to be so great it didn't rock at the waves. It used to be like being on an is land. The room they have been saved in used to be low and large, extending the width of the send. Gratings on either side enable in air and a few gentle, although it was once dim. A gap below one grating overhung the ship's facet and served because the position of reduction. the thin black boy regarded down it as though judging no matter if he may possibly break out in the course of the gap. He spoke Arabic larger than daring, although it used to be now not his local tongue both; he had a guttural accessory that daring had by no means heard earlier than. “They trot you're keen on derg. ” He got here from the hills at the back of the sahil, he acknowledged, staring down the outlet. He caught one foot via, then one other. He wasn't going to get via. Then the doorlock rattled and he pulled his toes out and sprang away like an animal. 3 males got here in and had all of them stand earlier than them. Ship's petty officials, daring judged. Checking the shipment. one among them inspected the black boy heavily. He nodded to the others, they usually placed wood bowls of rice at the ground, and a massive bamboo tube bucket of water, and left.