The Immortal King Rao: A Novel
Ratings6
Average rating3.8
15
Ratings6
Average rating3.8
One of Vulture's Books We Can’t Wait to Read in 2022 One of The Millions' Most Anticipated Books of 2022 One of The Observer's Fiction to Look Out for in 2022 One of Ms. Magazine's Most Anticipated Books of 2022 One of Literary Hub's Most Anticipated Books of 2022 A Times of India Most Anticipated Book of 2022 In an Indian village in the 1950s, a precocious child is born into a family of Dalit coconut farmers. King Rao will grow up to be the most accomplished tech CEO in the world and, eventually, the leader of a global, corporate-led government. In a future in which the world is run by the Board of Corporations, King’s daughter, Athena, reckons with his legacy—literally, for he has given her access to his memories, among other questionable gifts. With climate change raging, Athena has come to believe that saving the planet and its Shareholders will require a radical act of communion—and so she sets out to tell the truth to the world’s Shareholders, in entrancing sensory detail, about King’s childhood on a South Indian coconut plantation; his migration to the U.S. to study engineering in a world transformed by globalization; his marriage to the ambitious artist with whom he changed the world; and, ultimately, his invention, under self-exile, of the most ambitious creation of his life—Athena herself. The Immortal King Rao, written by a former Wall Street Journal technology reporter, is a resonant debut novel obliterating the boundaries between literary and speculative fiction, the historic and the dystopian, confronting how we arrived at the age of technological capitalism and where our actions might take us next.
Reviews with the most likes.
The whole naming conventions in this book and the dystopian ultra capitalistic system were definitely not the strong parts, but I surely enjoyed all the story in the past, especially in the coconut plantation and then Rao's development of his business. It may have all the trappings of sci-fi but where the writing shines is in the human story - the exploration of the emotions and relationships. I may not have been fully satiated with it but I definitely enjoyed the writing and look forward to what the author publishes next.
