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Have you ever felt that everything that was happening was preordained, that every action, there, at that time was carefully thought out by an invisible mind in order to lead to a grand finale? I had not, until I read River of Gods by Ian McDonald and it upset me because I wished the book could do much more than fit back every piece of a jigsaw puzzle that was removed after numbering the assembled pieces.

River of Gods looks at what once was India, far in to the past (or is it?) when it has been divided into smaller countries in a world where water is the new precious commodity. Monsoon rained three years ago. The AIs have grown to such a level of sophistication that it has become difficult, if not impossible to distinguish them from humans. Countries, including USA are trying to pass Hamilton Acts, banning all AIs beyond a certain level of sophistication from being used. In return for their support of this bill USA is backing the move of one state Awadh to build a dam over Ganga, leaving the downstream neighbor Bharat gittery. And oh, something unusual has been discovered in the outer space...

Torque Control reviews Michael Cunningham's "Specimen Days". It is a slightly old review of a slightly old book, but still worth the read.

(...)like The Hours, Specimen Days involves three stories linked across time. The differences are of focus and structure. Specimen Days does not stay in the 20th century, it ranges from 1850 to 2150, and its stories are not intermingled, they are arranged in chronological sequence.

(...)

If this is the myth of America it is empty, and it is a shame that Cunningham’s undoubted skill — the first two novellas, at least, are worthwhile — should be used in service of a message so obviously banal. It is also the novel’s ultimate undoing, because such clumsy logic does a disservice to Whitman as much as to the reader. By the end, a great poet is not so much a reference point as a crutch for a narrative that emphatically rejects complexity; and such a crutch can only leave splinters in the reader’s hand.

Russ Allbery is not too impressed with multiple Hugo-winning author Vernor Vinge's latest SF novel after a wait of 15 years, " Rainbows End".

Vinge is consistently, aggressively optimistic about the world and the potential of technological growth and, despite leaving prominant markers in the story, populates the book with characters who seem blissfully unaware of the dangers of this world. This is a world where at least one US city has been nuked by terrorists, there are constant secret raids against countries creating weapons both conventional and electronic, and identity theft has escalated to a level near mind control, and yet the characters in this story are some of the least suspicious and least fearful characters I've seen in near-future SF.