Amazing book! The novel is really ten novellas set in an alternate history where the black plague wiped out 99% of Europe's population (instead of simply two-thirds as it did in our world). You go through 700 years of history as you follow three souls who are reincarnated into ten different lifetimes. As nerdy as that premise might sound, this is a book that will appeal to non-geeks as well as lovers of sci-fi and alternate history.

The author Kim Stanley Robinson shows a breadth of knowledge that is really staggering. In this book he writes about Islam, Taoism, Confucianism, alchemy, native american culture, the birth of democracy and civil rights theory and he shows mastery of every subject. He mines every thread for profound little nuggets of wisdom. He does this without being pretentious or overly prosaic. I'm really impressed by his style and his talent, and even moreso by his scholarship.

But lest you think the book is dry and academic, let me correct you on that point. The characters change from novella to novella but never fail to hook you in. They are funny and brilliant and, at times, terrible. They feel like real people. There is action and adventure -- a neat sequence where Chinese explorers fight to escape an Incan city comes to mind. There are supernatural concepts such as the Tibetan Bardot and reincarnation here, but Robinson interweaves them expertly with the science of the book.

This book gets a five-star rating from me because it really touched me on an emotional level, something few books manage to do. At the same time it gave me lots of lofty questions to ponder and it taught me a hell of a lot about a wide variety of subjects. It was just a big, sumptuous feast of ideas. I give it my highest recommendation.