Rating: 
Summary: Indescribable (see description below)
Review: A winner of the 1997 Arthur C. Clarke Award for best science fiction novel -- but is it really SF? Who knows? But whatever it is, this is a fascinating, head-spinning thriller that slowly reveals a secret history of India, malaria, and a hidden society seeking immortality. Made my top 20 "Best Right Angle, Odd, Sort-of-SF" list.
Rating:
Summary: Bizarre mix of science fiction and history
Review: Ghosh's psychedelic take on the discovery of the malaria parasite in Calcutta of the British Raj, combined with a strange combination of psychology, reincarnation and the future of the internet as the "global mind". If that sounds incoherent, it's just because it's Ghosh's wierdest and coolest venture yet. =)
Rating: 
Summary: A Disappointment
Review: Having read his exquisitely crafted "In an Antique Land" and his almost lyrically beautiful "Glass Palace", which struck a special personal chord as I grew up in Burma and India, I couldn't wait to read "The Calcutta Chromosome". I found it disappointing, not sure if it was history, a medical who-done-it or what. Amitav Ghose is in my opinion one of the most talented writers alive, but this book which is written with his usual gift of language and expression, left me with an incomplete feeling.
Rating:
Summary: Complex, but good if you like to use your brain
Review: I did not enjoy this book when I first began to read it, the reason being that at first it is like a puzzle. There are so many different stories, and you can't peice them together. But the brilliance and beauty behind this novel is that as you read more, you get more interested. It's like a trap really. It gets harder to put the book down, until you reach the point where you have to know what happens at the end, so you read to the end and are happy that you read a good novel. It's that simple. This is a good novel. And while it is in it's heart a mystery, Ghosh does a great job of mixing different fields of science together to create this mystery.
Rating: 
Summary: Malaria and Immortality?
Review: I enjoyed the book thoroughly but I'm left wanting greater closure. The resolution as it is leaves the protagonist knowing more than the reader thus ending in a state of suspense. Calcutta Chromosone will probably be one of those books torn apart and analysed in numerous literature classes. It unfolds its story by theme not by chronology. The path to discovery is perilous and only open to the chosen few. The Calcutta Chromone is about the journey on that path, not about the discovery itself.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I had great expectations from Ghosh when I started reading thisnovel, but in the end, it turned out to a disappointing read. Ghosh tries to brign together the mysticism of India, and the Sci-fi world of Arthur C Clarke, and in the end seems to fall short of capturing either of the two worlds, and brings them together in an incongrous way.
Some points in the novel were interesting enough to make me turn the pages faster, but at most points, I just wanted to finish the book so that I could go on to a next, more interesting read.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful discriptions but hard to digest , scientifically
Review: I like to think of this book as a literary masterpiece rather than a science fiction book. Ghosh, with amazing lucidity creates true to life pictures of New York and British India. The sequence of the ghost train is superb. It is some time since I read the book but I still can remember things from this book as pictures. Ghosh has this amazing ability to paint pictures for you with words.
One amazing fact is indeed Ronald Ross (the discoverer of Malaria parasite) had something to do with a guy named Lutchman (lakshman? Laxman?). I followed a link from the nobel laureates site (www.nobel.se) to info about ross and indeed there is the mention of Lutchman!
But otherwise some of the theories put forward in the book are sort of undigestible for the scientifically literate. Still this is fiction and counting other pluses of this book I give it four stars!!
Rating:
Summary: What a confusing, delightful book!
Review: The Calcutta Chromosome is impossible to categorise. It is partly a thriller, partly science fiction, partly (imaginary) medical history. It moves back and forth in time and in place, from colonial India to near-future USA. After a slow start, the book absorbs the reader in a confusing and multi-layered story. Ghosh writes in an engaging manner, with lots of humour. The protagonist, Murugan, grows on you and you start to sympathise with the poor man's quest. For sure, this book is not for everyone, but I personally regretted when it was finished.
Rating: 
Summary: Too opaque for my tastes
Review: This appears to be a book you either love or hate. It has all the ingredients of a fine novel and a fun read--intriguing plot, exotic (to the Western eye) locales, some history, some mysticism, a little bit of science blended with some speculation--and a juicy conspiracy to tie it all together. Ghosh is a good writer, there's no doubt about that.Nonetheless, I found this book difficult to like. It had its moments--the ghost train scene among them--but overall the plot was too opaque for me to follow consistently. The twists and turns were fun at the beginning, but by the second half of the book I was totally lost. This book has gotten great reviews, but I just didn't enjoy it.
Rating:
Summary: Too opaque for my tastes
Review: This appears to be a book you either love or hate. It has all the ingredients of a fine novel and a fun read--intriguing plot, exotic (to the Western eye) locales, some history, some mysticism, a little bit of science blended with some speculation--and a juicy conspiracy to tie it all together. Ghosh is a good writer, there's no doubt about that. Nonetheless, I found this book difficult to like. It had its moments--the ghost train scene among them--but overall the plot was too opaque for me to follow consistently. The twists and turns were fun at the beginning, but by the second half of the book I was totally lost. This book has gotten great reviews, but I just didn't enjoy it.
|
