re:mote voices

Title: River Of Gods
Author: Ian McDonald
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

McDonald transports himself from Mars (Ares Express, Desolation Road) and Africa (Chaga, Kirinya) as featured in his previous works to India. The year is 2047 and the state of India has dissolved into 5 sub nations, several of which are on the brink of war thanks to the failure of the monsoon season to arrive for 3 years, and the damning of the river Ganges. Against this backdrop we are presented with a range of characters, each of whom plays a role in events as they reach the brink of full on conflict. Within which lies a greater struggle, that between humanity and the other - the suggestion that artificial intelligence or aeias have reached an unprecedented level of independence, versus the ancient alien artefact floating in Earth orbit.

With River Of Gods, McDonald provides a bigger cast of characters than the Chaga series. The gangster Shiv, who reminds of the African gangs of Chaga, and finds himself with a sudden crash thanks to the bottom falling out of the organs market. Mr. Nadha Krishna Cop, who enforces legislation against artificial intelligences, and is hot on the trail of a rumoured third generation; while his neglected wife flirts with the gardener and tries to fit in with high society ladies. Shaheen Badhoor Khan is the chief-advisor to the Prime Minister, who is on the brink of greatness, assuming his secret perversions don't come out. Certainly N.K. Jivanjee, an expanding cult leader for the opposition is likely to be a problem in an increasingly volatile region.

Vishram Ray an Indian stand up comic in Glasgow, called home to take over his father's power company as he retires. One of the other complications of this age is the addition of a fourth sex, Tal is a nute, neither male nor female, an extreme level of body modification, including dials to allow for mood/sex control. Thomas Lull and Lisa Durnau are old colleagues in the field of artificial life systems, but Lull disappeared and Durnau has been taken into space to investigate the anomalous space rock. Then there is Aj, who manages to find Lull despite his attempts to remain hidden, and seems to be connected to a higher state of consciousness.

Obviously with this amount of characters, and the sheer level of background that comes with each of them and the convulsions of plot and political/technical advances there is a lot to take in. Alternating through the cast of characters, the book is split into 5 chunks, each going through the latest events. Initially this does create a certain difficulty, it can be difficult to keep up, and at times it seems like a long time since you last encountered an individual. Of course, for this to work, the story starts to cohere, characters start to meet each other, and events take on a definite momentum. By which point the Ian McDonald mindset has kicked in, doing the exotic and unique brand of SF that he does - even where there are territories that may have been covered by other writers, the way McDonald tackles them is in his own way.

My one caution with approaching River Of Gods has little to do with the writing itself, rather with the book itself as an object. The copy that I got had a dozen or so pages that were stuck together along a perforated edge, along with which the binding feels uneven and warped. Additionally the actual editing of the novel is poor, so that the end result is riddled with errors - while there is a great amount of references that come from Indian culture which could distract an editor, there are a lot of blatant mistakes which really should have been picked up before publication. Which is a great pity, because I am a big fan of Ian McDonald and River Of Gods is probably his most ambitious work to date.