- Hardcover: 336 pages
- Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (Jun 3 1999)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0151004544
- ISBN-13: 978-0151004546
- Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 15.7 x 3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 590 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #607,090 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
In an alternative world where gods are as self-evident as thunderstorms and as destructive as tornadoes, a Baboon Warrior surfaces to save India from marauding behemoths; yet a driven Hindu named Rakesh mysteriously wants him dead. In Shiva 3000, Jan Lars Jensen has cooked up an exotic curry of wonders drawing on Hindu mythology and Buddhist meditative practices. From the sensual antics of Kama Sutrans to Zen-like archery, we sail along in an adventure that is a cross between the Ramayana and Jurassic Park. Belief in gods is beyond doubt, and yet something in the pantheon is amiss. The giant Jagannath turns out to be constructed from planks and pulleys, and a splinter group of Buddhists secretly dissects human bodies in their mountain fortress. Jensen keeps us guessing how it all ties together until the ending reveals Shiva 3000 as an allegory of our own times that is as devastating as it is absorbing. --Brian Bruya
From Publishers Weekly
Projecting exotic, multifaceted India into the far future, Jensen whirls readers off on a colorfully surreal series of peculiar adventures. Young Rakesh, a jilted bridegroom, and his new acquaintance, disgraced Royal Engineer Vasant Alamvala, seek vengeance. Rakesh intends to slay the legendary Baboon Warrior who stole his arranged-marriage bride, and Varent means to obliterate his palace rival Prince Hapi, a devotee of intricate Kama Sutran amatory entanglements, in order to regain his position at court. The two join forces when Brahmins summon the monstrous Jagganath, the earthquake god made visible, to crush the city of Sholapur. After discovering that the Jagganath is a dung-fueled wooden construct, Rakesh and Varent crawl inside it, learn to operate it and smash their way through India, meeting strangers and swapping yarns until each realizes an enlightened goal quite different from his original obsession. By treating India's ancient pantheonAKali the Destroyer, Shiva, Vishnu, Hanuman the money godAas beings created by the human need to worship, Jensen explores some faces of religious intolerance. He also uses India's broad spectrum of religious observance, from the self-denial of ascetics to the intricately implemented sexuality of the Kama Sutrans, to suggest the infinite possibilities of human faith. Individual passages of this ambitious tapestry of spicy sensory overload are briefly fascinating, such as those concerning the erotic temple sculptures at Khajuraho, but as a whole, the book leaves only a nebulous impression of the futility of human life. (July)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A special trip,
By "frequentguest" (Colorado USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Shiva 3000: A Novel (Hardcover)
In this entertaining mix of action, exotica, and psychedelia, readers are plunged into a whirlwind Indian fantasy, a far east that has been enhanced and degraded by technology, so much that the characters believe themselves in the presence of gods. These gods tower over the landscape as huge animate beings, a patchwork of what has gone into their own creation, and (we learn) believing themselves divine. The story concerns a young man who believes he has been appointed the task of killing a popular folk hero of the land. As he travels the transformed subcontinent, he encounters an engineer with a strange gift for seeing the essence of machinery, and who has a past ensnared with those who rule the land. Together, they meet a group of Buddhist monks who have their own interest in the workings of the world and the gods overseeing it. Strangely, nobody seems to know of the world beyond the subcontinent, which leads me to wonder what has gone on to bring this strange time into being. The marvels are continuous - calculating cranes, cities built on mandala-patterns, a serpentine underbelly of the world - and Jensen's style is golden. The novel gets off to a somewhat slow start, but once the plot is rolling, it's hard for a reader to pull out. Fans of better genre material, such as the works of Neil Stephenson and Jeff Noon, will appreciate the writing and characterization. Also highly recommended for fans of Japanese filmmaker Hiyako Miyazaki, who created wonder of a similar caliber in "Princess Mononoke."
3.0 out of 5 stars
Patronising Psychedelic Pulp,
By flying-monkey (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Shiva 3000: A Novel (Hardcover)
Shiva 3000 is a bizarre mixture of good old fashioned pulp fiction combined with psychedelic sci-fi and a dash of orientalist exploitation. It hasn't really got much to do with India as a real place. The 'India' of Shiva 3000 is as unreal as the Raj of Merchant-Ivory films. It is an 'orient of the mind', a western author's romantic and exotic setting for a quixotic quest. It is brim-full of ideas and fantastic devices: a plot by latter-day followers of the Kama Sutra and the out-of-control god-machines being the main examples. It is fun in its own way, but the characters are no more than ciphers, the plot is simply an excuse to pile on the next strange inventions and it is all faintly patronising to India in a way that other sci-fi or fantasy novels set in non-western settings have not been; McHugh's China Mountain Zhang being a worthy example. So, an enjoyable and inventive romp but uncomfortable in some ways.
4.0 out of 5 stars
fantastic future fiction,
By
This review is from: Shiva 3000: A Novel (Hardcover)
I read this entrancing tale in 2 days -- i could not put it down. I have never read sci-fi and I dont think that is what this is.. it is more a modern mythological quest. I found it wonderful. If you are really concerned that the characters stay true to Hindu mythology, dont read this. Lighten-up. This isnt the Gita, this is fiction and it is a lot of fun!
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Want to see more reviews on this item?
|
Most recent customer reviews |
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
