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River of Gods
by Ian McDonald
(Simon & Schuster, 485 pages, uncorrected book proof reviewed; available
as hardback priced £17.99, and as trade paperback priced £12.99,
published 7 June 2004. Mass market paperback, Pocket Books, £7.99,
583 pages, 4 April 2005.)
Review by John D Owen
After the success of his African-based "Chaga"  stories
(Chaga, 1996, and Kirinya, 1998, plus the novelette
Tendeleo's Story, 2002), Ian McDonald switches continents for
his latest work, River of Gods, which is set in an India one
hundred years on from its independence from British rule. It is an India
quite different from now, but recognisable as a future projection of
current trends in both Indian and world development. Being Ian McDonald,
of course, the story is much more than a mere extrapolation of trends
for a near-future plotline: McDonald weaves his usual magic with characters
and events, both surprising and delighting the reader with his craft
and his guile.
India in 2047 is a divided nation, with individual states continually
on the verge of war with each other, with water as the prime source
of contention. Inside this tinderbox, McDonald places a large cast of
characters, a diverse collection of movers and shakers, shadows and
investigators, changers and the changed. At first, the connections between
the different storylines are unclear, but as the novel progresses, they
slowly begin to weave together into a coherent tapestry, until by the
end, they all contribute their own distinctive pattern to a glorious
whole.
As readers have come to expect from McDonald, the storyline works so
well because he creates such excellent characters, sharply delineated
one from the other, each an individual that we can understand and empathise
with (even a vicious gangster). By hopping from one character to another
in the early chapters, McDonald both introduces the people of his story,
and sketches in the society which they inhabit. Then he hits the accelerator,
the storyline goes into top gear, and events send his characters into
each others' orbits. Underlying the whole story is the presence of rapidly
developing artificial intelligences, hunted to extinction by Krishna
cops, but central to a number of key elements of the future India.
McDonald captures the turmoil and tumult of India in a time of great
change, taking current trends (India's progress in software and scientific
research) and building on those, while also carrying forward the great
disparity between rich and poor, the caste systems and the religious
prejudices. For McDonald's purposes, India makes for a great melting
pot of ideas, attitudes and aspirations. There is a delicious irony
in the way he uses his storyline to advance the thrust for self-determination
that is so characteristic of the Indian people, through his characters,
the country, the companies and even for the AIs. And that factor is
at the root of the story, how self-determination is achieved or stifled,
leading upwards to greater things, or downwards to destruction. McDonald
being the master technician he is, you can never quite tell which way
any particular character will go, until the author is good and ready
to reveal the next twist in the plot, the next surprising turn in an
elaborate story. As ever, Ian McDonald serves up a thoroughly engrossing
read combined with some thought-provoking settings.
Elsewhere in infinity plus:
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