River of Gods is a 2004 science fiction novel by British writer Ian McDonald. It depicts a futuristic India in 2047, a century after its independence from Britain, characterized both by ancient traditions and advanced technologies such as artificial intelligences, robots and nanotechnology. The novel won the British Science Fiction Award in 2004 and was nominated for a Hugo. It was followed by a short story collection called Cyberabad Days in 2009.
Sprawling story of AIs, posthumans, and multiple universes all entangled. The concepts are great but the tone irks me. Too sexual, although I suspect that's meant to mirror the varied gender types.
Wanted to like this -- the guy can write, and literary sci-fi is my kind of genre -- but I couldn't keep the uninteresting characters straight and there's insufficient plot to keep me going. Abandoned halfway through.
