The Years of Rice and Salt: A Novel

“A considerate, magisterial alternate historical past from considered one of science fiction’s most necessary writers.”—The New York Occasions Ebook Assessment 

It’s the fourteenth century and one of the apocalyptic occasions in human historical past is ready to happen—the approaching of the Black Dying. Historical past teaches us {that a} third of Europe’s inhabitants was destroyed.  However what if the plague had killed 99 % of the inhabitants as an alternative? How would the world have modified? It is a take a look at the historical past that may have been—one which stretches throughout centuries, sees dynasties and nations rise and crumble, and spans horrible famine and luxurious innovation.  

By means of the eyes of troopers and kings, explorers and philosophers, slaves and students, Robinson navigates a world the place Buddhism and Islam are probably the most influential and practiced religions, whereas Christianity is merely a historic footnote. Probing probably the most profound questions as solely he can, Robinson shines his extraordinary mild on the place of faith, tradition, energy—and even love—on this daring New World.


“Distinctive and engrossing.”—New York Publish



“Bold . . . ingenious.”—Newsday