The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson

Through the eyes of soldiers and kings, explorers and philosophers, slaves and scholars, Robinson renders an immensely rich tapestry. This is a universe where Buddhism and Islam are the most influential and practiced religions and Christianity is merely a historical footnote.

This is a universe where the Industrial Revolution is triggered by the world’s greatest scientific minds–in India. This is a universe where the first ship to reach the New World travels across the Pacific Ocean from China and colonization spreads from west to east. But what if? What if the plague killed 99 percent of the population instead? How would the world have changed? This is a look at the history that could have been–a history that stretches across centuries, a history that sees dynasties and nations rise and crumble, a history that spans horrible famine and magnificent innovation. History teaches us that a third of Europe’s population was destroyed. It is the fourteenth century and one of the most apocalyptic events in human history is set to occur–the coming of the Black Death.

In his grandest work yet, the acclaimed storyteller constructs a world vastly different from the one we know. With the incomparable vision and breathtaking detail that brought his now-classic Mars trilogy to vivid life, bestselling author KIM STANLEY ROBINSON boldly imagines an alternate history of the last seven hundred years.

The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson