I DNFed the book after reading 3/4th. Tried a lot but just couldn't get myself to enjoy it. It was too verbose and confusing. Sorry..

But if you have the patience and time for it, please do try ....

I switched devices after the archive date due to which I lost the audiobook. This is so sad. I terribly wanted to read this.

I really enjoyed this! I did not find it confusing, even with the narrative moving back and forth between several timelines. I liked the contrast between the traditional Indian village setting and the future PNW setting. And I'm always down for a critique of capitalistic greed.

A winning amalgamation of multiple genres of books. The family story of the immigrant striver married to the story of the tech dystopia he eventually creates. The characters are quite enjoyable and combine well with a story full of enough intrigue to keep the pages turning. It seems everyone knows the world is going downhill, and this is just another dystopian vision that seems all too plausible.

Whatever reason I just didn’t like this from the first page. There’s nothing wrong with it per se it just felt very flat for me

i tried getting into this but i found the tone of the story to be trying too hard to be satirical and clever...i just felt at a remove from it all .

This is without a doubt one of the best audiobooks I've listened to in a few years. What an incredible feat for a first-time novelist. I hope it wins a bunch of literary awards.

This book was a DNF for me. I didn't finish it because the beginning of it was so... slow and uninteresting. I think this book is for someone, but it's not for me.

I'm SO glad I finally finished this. This book disgusted me on multiple levels. First of all, there are tons of gratuitous, gross-out moments. See content warnings for some examples. Second, there is just tons of gratuitous cruelty. It seems completely pointless and is miserable to read. Third, the only reason I didn't dnf this (I definitely should have!) is because the book comes across like it is trying to be super deep and say something profound about human nature or something. I wasn't getting it, but I thought that it might be worth finishing to find out if it does ever say something profound. Nope. It just ends. And oh my god I hated it so much. Do not pick up this book.

This book takes itself way too seriously. I really thought that maybe it would end up being warranted. Anarchism as a term was used correctly. That is rare. Bakunin and Proudhon were name dropped. I had such high hopes that this was going to really explore political/economic systems in a meaningful way. Capitalism is portrayed as dystopic and bad.....but also not? The Indian caste system was portrayed and lightly discussed. Just, absolutely nothing meaningful was said or explored. It was just portrayed in all its boring, miserable glory. Maybe it was just trying to say that humanity is miserable, cruel, and hopeless regardless of any system or accomplishment. Which, puke. That isn't deep and I don't think it is true.

The prose isn't bad, nor is it especially beautiful. I did notice that people's breath was described many times in many strange ways. As a reader, I don't really feel like I need to know what people's breath smells like to begin with, but the descriptions were strange and all very different. The only one I actually remember was "honeysuckle."

The story goes back and forth in time between a couple perspectives. I didn't find that hard to follow. I listened to the audio and it was fine.

Thank you NetGalley for granting my request for this audio arc in exchange for an honest review.

Sexual violence? Yep. Other content warnings? Violent, fatal child birth; gruesome murder; live, human dissection; divorce; torture and murder of lowest caste Indian boys; animal death; needles; medical experimentation; human skin made into a costume; suicide; adoption; gun violence; poverty; racism.

What an interesting concept this book had and I would be lying if I told you that I didn’t think it was possible for our society to move into this direction. I really enjoyed this story and loved the way it moved back and forth through the various time periods. What a full life lived.

Vauhini Vara has written a unique, genre-bending novel packed full of a variety of characters following different timelines. At first, things were a little difficult to keep track of, but once I got the feel for it I was hooked.

The core of this novel grapples with humans and technology. King Rao is a genius who uses his computer skills to change the world. But the ultimate question is did he make things better or worse?

Fans of sci-fi, fantasy, dystopian, or just readers looking for a great thought-provoking book will love this one!

Decidí escuchar este audiolibro por la promesa de una especulación sobre el futuro de la Tierra con un cambio en las formas del gobierno, pero me he encontrado una historia que racanea en la especulación y que prefiere centrarse en las vivencias de una sola persona que cambiará el mundo, un trasunto de Steve Jobs al que conoceremos a través de los ojos de su hija.


The Immortal King Rao nos plantea dos líneas temporales, que nos permitirán conocer a fondo la vida del propio King Rao, desde sus orígenes en la India perteneciente a la casta de los intocables hasta su fulgurante ascenso como figura primordial en la creación de un nuevo orden mundial, basado en el crédito social y los designios de un todopoderoso algoritmo.

La mayor decepción que me he llevado es que la parte especulativa es bastante pobre, el cambio social ocurre prácticamente por que sí, no hay conflicto con ningún país cuando el poder pasa a los accionistas, que son todos los humanos de la Tierra. Es sencillamente inconcebible que un cambio de esas dimensiones apenas cause problemas y que solo una pequeñísima parte de los afectados decida salirse del sistema, aunque siguen viviendo a su sombra como una especie de colonia offshore que permite dar rienda suelta a los instintos más bajos y las necesidades no cubiertas por el algortimo.

No es que el libro esté mal escrito, es que en ningún momento consigue captar mi interés. Además, la historia de origen de Rao comienza con una violación marital que podría haberse avisado en algún lugar al principio de la novela, y la resignación de todos los implicados es totalmente deprimente, aunque reconozco que pueda ser realista.

Soneela Nankani hace una labor muy correcta como narradora del libro, pero no consigue compensar esta mezcla descompensada entre historia alternativa y distopía irrelevante.

The Immortal King Rao was such an intriguing book. Told in the narrative voice of Athena, Rao's daughter, the novel follows the rise and fall of software engineer turned world ruler.
This alternative reality felt very feasible under the hand of Vauhini Vara. I enjoyed both Rao's childhood in India, as well as the development of a corporate world government in which citizens are shareholders and their fate is determined by an algorithm. I also enjoyed the concept of the 'harmonica', Rao's last invention, which allows one's mind to connect directly to the internet.
This book is ideal to discuss both ethics and the responsibility of governments. It would make a great book club pick.

I really enjoyed the premise of this book and won’t spoil it by sharing more than the book’s description already has. I’d consider it less science fiction and more dystopia or unconventional family saga. It includes all the thought-provoking and depressing social commentary I usually enjoy with interesting historical references and context. While I enjoyed the premise and writing of this book, I did find myself annoyed by the pacing. Lately I’ve read several books that felt more like the author was trying to write something that could be easily adapted as a mini series for tv instead of writing for the actual audience, the people reading the actual book.

Thank you to the publisher, author and NetGalley for this ALC.

Content Warnings: Death, Climate Change, Rape, Sexual content, Murder

Vara's Immortal King Rao focuses on family, societal division, and our dependency on social technologies and the ways in which they can recarve the face of our world..

From the coconut farms of dalit families, we follow King as he comes of age among an extended family with all its dysfunction and cooperation. The savvy business moves of his grandfather afforded King quite a comfortable childhood considering his family's caste and this allowed him to attend school and uncover his intellect. Using this fortune, he is able to emigrate to America and launch his ambitious Coconut computer and subsequent software which changed the face of societal interaction and played into the same hierarchies of privileged and oppressed.

Vara has used our own template of social media power to explore how insidious and harmful an unfettered attachment and dependence on social technology can be. We are able to see how the isolationary upbringing of his daughter affects her when she encounters the wider world, attempting to step into an identity all her own, discovering the splinter group who refuse to be a part of the next step in human memory storage and transmission.

This is a clever debut and puts forth a picture of a quite-possible future where social capital will be the currency of choice and will dictate quality of life.

An impressive and well thought out work, on human nature and how this remains (unchanged) throughout time and different communities in upheaval
There is a kind of action that resembles inaction, and it’s the kind of action society is based on

Very impressive, I highly enjoyed this debut that with a steady hand guides the reader from rural post-World War II India to start-up Silicon Valley’s earlier times and then the near future, threatened by climate change.
In my view Vauhini Vara her writing can go toe to toe with the best of Emily St. John Mandel, while being far superior to The Every of Dave Eggers or Booker shortlisted The New Wilderness from Diane Cook.

The Immortal King Rao follows the life of one man, the titular King Rao, from family ties in 1960’s to loneliness and isolation in 2040’s. The chapters intersperse and shed light on his childhood, adolescence and his old age.

Along the way institutional overreach, mind/internet integration, the story of a start-up resembling Apple and the immigrant experience plus sexism against his wife play prominent roles.
Societal upheaval is a theme in all the three timelines, with one character in the near future remarking: I was retrained as a influencer, like everyone in our trait
Also AI has taken on a large role:
It’s the algo that decides
Don’t you think it is strange that we talk about the algo like our grandmothers did about god?

Not sure if the mixed telling of the story works better than the three sections separate, but the whole dynamic of family turning into business, from interactions based on community to transactional, and the wider social order transformation, manages to convey clearly nonetheless.
Struggle for survival also consistently plays a role, more pronounced in the further away past and near future than in the 1980's, but even there in the getting first to market of the computer companies.

There is a Frank Gehry campus and a co-CEO who is best friends with Gwen Paltrow.
Parts of the government being auctioned off to pay for debts, partly caused by Covid-19.
All was once again well in the world after a Board is established of the largest companies, that have amalgamated into a global shareholder government, like an extrapolation into the future of Sally Rooney her vision on economics.

Still there is resistance: For the dead are not powerless one character notes on the Indian expropriation that Seattle is based upon.
Another character observes that Existence is change and even one of the main characters, one of the victors, turns out to be not so sure in victory as expected: That he was capable of all of this scared him

Who in the final analysis should be held responsible? is the uneasy question at the end of this impressive book. In a way it does what the MaddAddam trilogy of Margaret Atwood tried as well: what is human nature, and is there cause for hope or despair?
There is no clear cut answer to the question, but it is clear that Vauhini Vara is an author to look out for and I hope her debut is noted and celebrated!

I requested this one because it might be an upcoming title I would like to review on my Youtube Channel. However, after reading the first several chapters I have determined that this book does not suit my tastes. So I decided to DNF this one.

Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this audio book.

I have a lot of mixed feelings on this one- definitely an interesting, well thought out story, I just didn't find myself connecting with it like I wanted to. The mix of sci-fi and history was very intriguing, and I can see this being a hit with a lot of people! The narrator did a great job.

I enjoyed this audiobook, which tells the story of King Rao. There are three parts to the story: Rao's childhood in India, his rise as a head of a world-wide and powerful company, and after his death and his daughter's life. I really enjoyed the mix of historical fiction and sci-fi/technology focus. It had a good theme of when corporations replace morality in the world. Decent narrator.

This was pretty amazing. It packed in a lot -- family epic, tech criticism, climate change, etc. -- into a relatively short book. Recommended.


Review copy provided by publisher.