Ian McDonald - River of Gods

Praise for River of Gods

"{A} bold, brave look at India on the eve of its centennial, forty-one years from now. McDonald has become increasingly popular in recent years, and it's easy to see why in this novel, his first to earn him a Hugo nomination? McDonald takes his readers from India's darkest depths to its most opulent heights, from rioting mobs and the devastated poor to high-level politicians and lavish parties. He handles his complex plot with flair and confidence and deftly shows how technological advances and social changes have subtly changed lives. River of Gods is a major achievement from a writer who is becoming one of the best sf novelists of our time." Washington Post

"This ambitious portrait of a future India from British author McDonald (Desolation Road) offers multitudes: gods, castes, protagonists, cultures? [R]eaders will become increasingly hooked as the pieces of McDonald's richly detailed world fall into place. Already nominated for both Hugo and Arthur C. Clarke awards, this is sure to be one of the more talked-about SF novels of the year." Publishers Weekly

"That River of Gods deserves your attention goes without saying. Since Ian McDonald won the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer back in the mideighties, he's won a Locus Award? a Philip K. Dick Award? and won or been nominated for a host of other awards. River of Gods itself won the British Science Fiction Association's Best Novel award in 2004. So take it as a given that if you haven't read River of Gods, you should have already, and what are you waiting for?? River of Gods is a complex, architectonic novel of great complexity? [W]hat McDonald has done, and what creates the meaning and importance of the novel is this: River of Gods is a work of mature science fiction, presented in a new context? [It] takes ideas introduced elsewhere and develops them to a rich and logical extent? The result is a layered, philosophical work. Read it. Enjoy it. Visit River of Gods." New York Review of Science Fiction

"River of Gods ? is? perhaps [Ian McDonald's] most accomplished novel to date. It's a dense and sometimes difficult read, reminiscent of William Gibson in full-throttle cultural-immersion mode, packed with technical jargon, religious and sociological observation, and allusions to art both high and low. But River of Gods amply rewards careful consideration and more than delivers its share of straight-ahead entertainment. Already a multiple-award nominee following its British publication, McDonald's latest ranks as one of the best science fiction novels published in the United States this year." San Francisco Chronicle

"Every so often there comes along a novel, William Gibson's Neuromancer, say, or China

Mille's Perdido Street Station, or Richard K. Morgan's Altered Carbon, that seems to do it all. Extrapolation, a sense of wonder that grabs you by the throat and won't let go, lush carpets of setting, a profusion of ideas, complex representations of characters, soundings of society at every level, all the resources of language. River of Gods is such a novel." James Sallis, Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction

"Ian McDonald's newest novel is one of the best blends of literary and science fiction writing I've read. River of Gods is full of the descriptive writing that permeates literary novels? McDonald unveils the plot in flashes of evocative phrasing? But the novel's true richness comes from offering an immersion in Hindu and Muslim mythology and social norms? a realistic vision of a future driven by technology." San Antonio Express-News

"An ambitious science fiction thriller set in a futuristic India that is fabulously rewarding? [I]n terms of risk-taking, sheer scale, ideas, detail, inventiveness, and intellectual scope there are few recent books to match River of Gods, and as a novel about India, there is nothing like it? [It's] not just the definitive thriller set in India but the most richly imaginative thriller about India." The Hindu (India's national newspaper)

"Ian McDonald's River of Gods has already won the BSFA 2004 Best Novel Award; now it finally comes to US shores in a beautifully designed package from Pyr, featuring a cover by Stephan Martiniere. McDonald throws wide the scope of characters in this one, which allows the reader to really see how far ranging the story is that he wants to tell? an extremely rewarding novel that almost begs to be reread, with its wide swath of characters and great sense of wonder. I plan [on] diving into the river again." SFFWorld.com

"Every library should purchase this multitextured tale of future perils and possibilities in the land of a thousand gods. Highly Recommended." Library Journal Starred Review

"Easily trumping any speculative fiction from the past couple of years, River of Gods is an exuberant leap into the future of India through the eyes of nine disparate characters. As their stories mingle and merge, McDonald not only weaves a tremendous yarn of mysteries and technological magic, but he truly illustrates the dilemmas lying in wait for humanity as we continue to leapfrog from one discovery to the next, inevitably toward a future we could never predict? [R]eaders are left needing more, despite the fact that, unlike certain doorsrop-sized tomes of recent years, McDonald knows how to end a story. Revelation after revelation resolve themselves in a cascade of denouement that is at once thrilling and sorrowful, as if the author wants to stay in 2047 as much as the reader does." Ryun Pattetson of Bookgasm.com

"With concepts exploding from every page, McDonald has crammed in reams of social detail, conjuring up a convincing picture of the future that melds myth and politics alongside speculation about the development of artificial intelligence." SFX

Published 2007 by Pyr, an imprint of Prometheus Books

River of Gods. Copyright 2006 by Ian McDonald. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, of transmitted in any form or by any means, digital, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or conveyed via the Internet or a Web site without prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

McDonald, Ian, I960-.

River of gods / by Ian McDonald.

p. cm.

Originally published: London : Simon & Schuster, 2004.

ISBN 978-1-59102-436-1 (hardcover : alk. paper)

ISBN 978-1-59102-595-5 (paperback : alk. paper)

1. IndiaFiction. I. Title.

PR6063.C38R58 2005

823'.914dc22

2005035110

Printed in the United States on acid-free paper

PART ONE: GANGA MATA

1 Shiv 2 Mr. Nandha 3 Shaheen Badoor Khan 4 Najia 5 Lisa 6 Lull 7 Tal 8 Vishram

CONTENTS

PART TWO: SAT CHID EKAM BRAHMA

9 Vishram 10 Shiv 11 Lisa, Lull 12 Mr. Nandha, Parvati 13 Shaheen Badoor Khan, Najia 14 Tal 15 Vishram

PART THREE: KALKI

16 Shiv 17 Lisa 18 Lull 19 Mr. Nandha 20 Vishram 21 Parvati 22 Shaheen Badoor Khan 23 Tal 24 Najia 25 Shiv

PART FOUR: TANDAVA NRITYA

26 Shiv 27 Shaheen Badoor Khan 28 Tal 29 Banana Club 30 Lisa 31 Lull

32 Parvati 33 Vishram 34 Najia, Tal 35 Mr. Nandha 36 Parvati, Mr. Nandha 37 Shaheen Badoor Khan 38 Mr. Nandha 39 Kunda Khadar 40 Vishram 41 Lisa 42 Lull 43 Tal, Najia 44 Shiv 45 Sarkhand Roundabout

PART FIVE: JYOTIRLINGA

46 Ensemble 47 Lull, Lisa Glossary

PART ONE GANGA MATA

Contents - Prev / Next The body turns in the stream. Where the new bridge crosses the Ganga in five concrete strides, garlands of sticks and plastic snag around the footings; rafts of river flotsam. For a moment the body might join them, a dark hunch in the black stream. The smooth flow of water hauls it, spins it around, shies it feet first through the arch of steel and traffic. Overhead trucks roar across the high spans. Day and night, convoys bright with chrome work, gaudy with gods, storm the bridge into the city, blaring filmi music from their roof speakers. The shallow water shivers.