What I'm Reading #4

Alternate history, as a genre (or sub-genre, if you prefer) isn't something that I tip-toe into all that much.  I did go on a major Harry Turtledove kick a few years ago.  I've got a copy of Phillip K. Dick's Man In The High Castle (which, if you're going to read a book on alternate history, it should be this one.  Bonus points for throwing this one into the debate as well- I've never honestly seen a copy though.)

I sort of became disenchanted with the genre a few years ago.   No disrespect to the Almighty Turtledove, but I got bored with it, which was a shame.  His series positing what would happen if the South would have won the Civil War was brilliant at first, but it dragged on forever and I just got bored with it to be frank.  The early volumes are pure brilliance though (How Few Remain and The Great War Trilogy (American Front-Walk In Hell-Breakthroughs are well worth a read) However, I fell out of love with the genre when I stumbled across In The Presence Of Mine Enemies.   An alternate history depicting a world where Germany won the Second World War and is now on the edge of a Cold War style Soviet collapse, I didn't have issues with the story as much as I did the history--  the parallels with the fall of the Iron Curtain were almost exact- right down to the Boris Yeltsin-Mikhail Gorbachev doppelgangers.  It annoyed me.  It felt lazy and left a bad taste in my mouth, so I've kind of avoided alternate history since then.

But now, I think I've been drawn back in.  Yes, Kim Stanley Robinson is behind it all (seriously:  if you're not reading his books, what are you waiting for?)  and his alternate history might be the most intriguing one to think about that I've ever read.   Too many in the genre deal with old standbys:  What if the South had won the Civil War?  What if Germany had won World War II?  But Robinson goes big or goes home and the result (at least thus far) is fascinating, engrossing and difficult to wrap your head around, at least at first.

The Years of Rice and Salt imagines a world where Europe was wiped out by the Black Plague.  Now that you've taken Europe out of the equation, imagine the world that results:  the Mongols, the Muslim Caliphate, the Chinese Empire, various Indian Civilizations- all flourish.  (China hasn't discovered the New World yet, but I'm sure it's coming- I'm not that deep into this book yet.)  What stands out to me is the breathtaking ambition behind this concept.  Take what we generally consider as 'western civilization' out of the equation entirely and try and imagine the world that would result.  Conceptions of art, religion, education, politics- everything would be completely and utterly different.  It's got all the hallmarks of KSR:  big, sweeping, epic in scope, meticulously researched and beautifully written.  And it also might be the first 'alternate history' novel that might actually live up to the ideal of being a history that's really and truly 'alternate' in nature.

Stay tuned for the review in a couple of weeks!  I can't wait to get the rest of the way through this one!