Assessment: ‘The Immortal King Rao,’ by Vauhini Vara

THE IMMORTAL KING RAO, by Vauhini Vara

The premise of Vauhini Vara’s debut novel, “The Immortal King Rao,” is so simple as might be: A younger girl named Athena, raised in secret on an island within the Puget Sound by an growing older father who has injected her with genetic code that enables her to entry the complete web and likewise all his recollections, finds herself in a jail named after her mom, awaiting judgment by algorithm for a criminal offense she insists she didn’t commit. Whereas she waits, she writes a prolonged self-defense addressed to the Shareholders of the mega-corporation that has changed the U.S. authorities, certainly all governments, simply as “Shareholder” with a capital “s” has changed the phrase “citizen.”

Let me attempt that once more. The premise of “The Immortal King Rao” is so simple as might be: A boy named King Rao is born into a big Dalit Indian household that has gained a foothold within the center class by way of shrewd funding in a coconut farm. King is distributed to check engineering in america, the place he turns into the lead programmer and public face of an early laptop firm turned life-style model turned international superpower, eclipsing Gates, Jobs et al. After falling spectacularly from grace, King retreats to a small island the place his daughter, Athena, performs Miranda to his Prospero: ward, caretaker, secret sharer. He hopes for a day when he would possibly proper the wrongs he dedicated, in addition to these he feels have been dedicated in opposition to him.

As soon as extra, with feeling. The premise of “The Immortal King Rao” is so simple as might be: A phenomenon known as Hothouse Earth, the endgame of local weather collapse, is steadily extinguishing human civilization and possibly all life on the planet. However this concept is simply too large and scary for anybody to cope with, in order that they don’t. The Shareholder Authorities continues to make use of Social Capital rankings to maintain its Shareholders working, consuming and posting. In the meantime, within the Blanklands — formally acknowledged autonomous zones exterior of Shareholder management — individuals who name themselves Exes have achieved one thing like practical anarcho-communism à la Proudhon’s employees’ collectives. The Exes imagine that because the contradictions inherent within the Shareholder system develop into tougher to disregard, extra individuals will embrace their mannequin. Sadly, by the point everybody turns towards their metropolis on a hill, there’s a great probability that hill can be underwater.

At 370 pages, “Rao” is on the quick facet for a multigenerational household saga and sweeping social epic. (To not point out the sci-fi stuff, although the novel is science-fictional solely insofar because it entails some fictional science.) Measured backbone to backbone in opposition to, say, Jonathan Franzen’s “Corrections,” Mira Jacob’s “Sleepwalker’s Information to Dancing” or Min Jin Lee’s “Pachinko” — to say nothing of older, baggier monsters like “A Suitable Boy” or “Independent People” — “Rao” would possibly seem at first like a welterweight amongst heavies. Don’t be fooled.