Bollypunk and Badmashes

I ran through the 599 pages of Ian McDonald’s River of Gods as if the entire Hindu pantheon were hot on my heels. Compulsively readable, bursting with literary acrobatics, McDonald’s hefty hardcover plunges the reader into the meticulously crafted world of India, year 2047.

India, however, doesn’t exist anymore. Imagined as a fractured patchwork of nation-states, the state of Bharat is just as hectic and multilayered as ever. Bharat still has one foot firmly rooted in the traditions of purdah, religious fervor and caste, and the other dancing towards a dizzying future full of A.I. technology, genetic manipulation and quantum physics. Skyscrapers rise dazzling between one day and the next, ascetics starve themselves on street corners in dhotis, and the entire nation is addicted to a daily soap opera that stars actors who only exist on humming servers.

Navigating their precarious way through the dichotomies of the political, cultural and scientific landscapes are a dozen compelling characters. Some of the most intriguing include an Afghan journalist aching for her big break, a cop who specializes in hunting down rogue A.I., and a genetically restructed “neuter” who writes plots for the nation’s most popular television show. Others include scientists, gangsters, politicians, housewives, and a young woman who may be a little more than human.

This is a world not yet spun out to ridiculous sci-fi proportions, but one yet recognizable to us, its forebears. The most compelling aspect of River is the astonishing depth of world-building, and the amount of extrapolatory thought inherent in Bharat’s creation. Each new technology is based on breakthroughs that could arguably happen over the next forty years, each cultural more is either rooted in Indian tradition or is a realistic possibility. The ease with which McDonald slings Hindi/Urdu words, and his apparent familiarity with the religious currents, customs and history of India all add richness and flavor to this incredible literary tapestry.