This book is huge, the cast of characters is extensive, and there are several plot lines on the go. Even so, Ian McDonald's brisk pacing and remarkable ability to immerse the reader in his rich and textured future India make "River of Gods" read like a much shorter novel. I was unable to put it down, and felt immensely satisfied and rewarded at the end. Highly recommended. ( )

This book is certainly as imaginative as the back cover reviews say, but if felt disconnected to me. There were so many characters that it took me a few pages into each chapter to remember who I was reading about now. Even at the end of the book, I still didn't understand how some of the characters fit in -- they just seemed superfluous.

River of Gods is an exciting and imaginative read, but I think it lacks the big picture needed to make it a _great_ book. ( )

'What is going on here?'Mr Nandha demands as he walks through the scrum of police, Ministry warrant card held high.
'Sir, one of the factory workers panicked and ran out into the alley, straight under,' says a police sergeant. 'He was shouting about a djinn; how the djinn was in the factory and was going to get all of them.'
You call it djinn, Mr Nandha thinks, scanning the site. I call it meme. Non-material replicators; jokes, rumours, customs, nursery rhymes. Mind-viruses. Gods demons, djinns, superstitions. The thing inside the factory is no supernatural creature, no spirit of flame, but it is certainly a non-material replicator.

Set in 2047 in an India that has fragmented to separate states just 100 years after gaining independence, this story is told from the point of view of about a dozen very different people. But who or what is manipulating them all? Could it be N.K. Jivanjee, leader of a Hindu fundamentalist group that threatens to destabilise the state of Bharat? Or perhaps a mysterious company called Odeco, which has fingers in a lot of very interesting pies?

The way that Mr Nandhu's security programs are displayed as avatars of the Hindu Gods really reminded me of David Brin's novel "Earth", as did the multiple viewpoints and the environmental theme, with water-shortages in some of the Indian states caused by the damming of the River Ganges upstream, and Bengal's plan to change the climate by towing an iceberg all the way from the Arctic.

I wonder why they didn't bring the iceberg from the Antarctic. Surely it would have been a shorter and more direct journey than towing it from Arctic Canada, all the way down the Atlantic, round Africa and across the Indian Ocean (or round South America and across the Pacific if they went the other way). I can only think that they would have been hampered by unfavourable winds and currents. ( )

Absolutely loved this book. It's set in India 100 years after independence, and follows a number of intertwining characters and stories through a very atmospheric India. ( )

as for the book, i definitely loved it and would be reading more mcdonalds soon. i loved the hindu gods there (i have a soft spot for them) and i loved mcdonalds way of looking at gods/god, loved his future and what might/can be, loved the way the story flowed and the characters were shown bit by bit and how they grew. that said i must admit that it was not 5 stars for me and that's i think was because of the ending. compared to the rest of the story and it's lovely flow i thought that it just ended too abruptly, the charactes grew dim in the last part, the last part was mostly all action and also there was an answer there (admiting that i didn't really understand it) and yet i didn't like the idea of an answer to a question like "the meaning of life" or maybe i really, really like an answer or actually like to "know" BUT i don't want some else's answer, i wouldn't mind to know what they think, but only what they think (though what mcdonald proposed was very interesting) and then they can leave me and let me decide. what i thought was that the story was too lovely and too perfect to end with everything answered and solved! so it's not 5 stars but definitely a big 4, cause in all the other ways i thought it was absolutely perfect and i loved every minute of reading it. ( )