Originally in : Cyberabad Days
I don’t read many novels, but I did read ‘River of Gods’, having been hugely impressed with the short story ‘Little Goddess’ that appeared in Asimovs in June 2005. The collection ‘Cyberabad Days’ brought together a number of stories in this sequence which subsequently appeared, and most of which I’ve reviewed on Best SF. This is an original story from that collection, and neatly puts a seal on this story sequence, whilst potentially opening up a whole new ball game.
The protagonist is a ‘brahmin’, a young child with a huge amount of in-utero genetic modification. We listen to him in his older age, as he relates how his parents were brought together, the events that led to his mother deciding that her second son must have all the advantages possible (and the reaction of the first son). As with all the stories, it is rich in its description of the setting, and also the characters that populate it. There’s a lot to like in the story, and the final few pages ramp up the ante as the young man sees that he is in fact far from the future of humanity.
If you have a long holiday and want some reading, you couldn’t do much better than getting a hold of the novel ‘River of Gods’ (amazon.com | amazon.co.uk) and the collection ‘Cyberabad Days’ (amazon.com | amazon.co.uk)
Yes, I’m reading River of Gods right now – about half way through. It is everything I hoped after my first encounter with McDonald in Cyberabad Days. It’s forced me to Google countless Indian/Hindu terms; and I consider the work-out to be a good thing.