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The Years of Rice and Salt
''The Years of Rice and Salt'' is an alternate history novel written by science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson and published in 2002. The novel explores how subsequent world history might have been different if the Black Death plague had killed 99% of Europe's population, instead of a third. Divided into ten parts, the story spans hundreds of years, from the army of the Muslim conqueror Timur to the 21st century, with Europe being re-populated by Muslim pioneers, the indigenous peoples of the Americas forming a league to resist Chinese and Muslim invaders, and a 67-year-long world war being fought primarily between Muslim states and the Chinese and their allies. While the ten parts take place in different times and places, they are connected by a group of characters that are reincarnated into each time but are identified to the reader by the first letter of their name being consistent in each life.
The novel explores themes of history, religion, and social movements. The historical narrative is guided more by social history than political or military history. Critics found the book to be rich in detail, realistic, and thoughtful. Robinson had previously published several other science fiction novels and short stories which had won him several Nebula, Hugo and Locus Awards. ''The Years of Rice and Salt'' won the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel in 2003. In the same year it was nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, a Hugo Award, and a British Science Fiction Award.
==Background==
At the time of publication, in 2002, science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson was 49 years old and living in Davis, California. He had conceived of the premise for ''The Years of Rice and Salt'' in the 1970s while thinking about what alternate history scenario would result in "the biggest change that would still work in terms of comparison to our history". He subsequently developed an interest in China and in Buddhism which he would study for this project. Robinson's only other alternate history story prior to this project was the short story "The Lucky Strike" (1984), where the ''Enola Gay'' crashes in a training exercise and the secondary crew must complete the Hiroshima bombing. Robinson also wrote an essay titled "A Sensitive Dependence on Initial Conditions" (1991), comparing different theories of history and laws of science, such as the covering law model, to explain how alternate histories can be arrived at, using "The Lucky Strike" as an example. He explored the idea of non-Western influences creating a new culture while working on his Mars trilogy, which involved a heavy Muslim influence in a Martian colony.〔 The Mars trilogy gave Robinson a reputation for quality of writing and a richness of detail comparable to James Michener, as well as winning him a Nebula Award for ''Red Mars'' (1993) and two Hugo and Locus Awards for ''Green Mars'' (1994) and ''Blue Mars'' (1996). Robinson followed the Mars trilogy with the novel ''Antarctica'' (1997), which won an Alex Award, and two short story collections, ''The Martians'' (1999) and ''Vinland the Dream'' (2001), before publishing ''The Years of Rice and Salt''.
抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』
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