Between the Rivers

By Harry Turtledove

Book Overview

At the sun-drenched dawn of human history, in the great plain between the two great rivers, are the cities of men. And each city is ruled by its god. But the god of the city of Gibil is lazy and has let the men of his city develop the habit of thinking for themselves. Now the men of Gibil have begun to devise arithmetic, and commerce, and are sending expeditions to trade with other lands. They're starting to think that perhaps men needn't always be subject to the whims of gods. This has the other god worried. And well they might be...because human cleverness, once awakened, isn't likely to be easily squelched.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0812545206
• ISBN13: 9780812545203
• Release Date: April 1999
• Publisher: Tor Books
• Length: 408 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 4.2" x 6.7"

Customer Reviews

Before the Bicameral Mind

This is a fantastic book. I was overjoyed to discover that Turtledove took the trouble to imagine the hypotheses of Julian Jaynes, a psychologist who suggested that once, men really did hear the gods speak to them. Jaynes suggested that humans have evolved significantly over the last 8 to 15 thousand years, primarily in terms of the integration of their cerebral hemispheres. In earlier times, when poor integration was more common, most people could hear the words spoken by their gods; really their own learned rules and beliefs spoken compellingly and very hard for them not to listen to because it was actually the things they themselves were conciously thinking. Jaynes said that the only people today who hear such things are called schizophrenics. Be that as it may, Turtledove's book makes this come alive in ancient Mesopotamia. Besides all that, this book is an excellent story!

Turtledove's best book so far

I normally enjoy books by Harry Turtledove, but this one is much funnier than the rest. It's fast-moving and the humour is nearly British. I really hope that he will write more books like this one!

Impressive

I think that Harry Turtledove is a writer of uneven talent. In my opinion, his novels alternate between the brilliant and the banal. Between the Rivers is one of the former. The core concept of the book, alone, deserves high praise for its innovativeness. Such a high-concept plot, by itself, could make a book worth reading. Turtledove takes the story to a higher level by brilliantly capturing the feel of what it would be like to live in the early bronze age. Under his authorship, he turns what could have been a simple story about simple folk into a complex tale of faith and reason. Most importantly, he shows that, in their own way, the people of that time were extremely sophisticated and that they were undergoing the equivilant of high-tech revolution in their culture. This is certainly one of the better books that I've read this year and I'm certain that I shall long remember it.

Terrific! Highly inventive!

This is one of the most creative and entertaining worlds I've seen outside of hard SF. This is the best Turtledove book I've read to date.

Turtledove does it again!

Harry Turtledove's work has certain characteristic strengths -- solid characterization, realistic motivations, good description, and fast-paced action. BETWEEN THE RIVERS adds a witty, intriguing look at the Bronze Age... in a world much like ancient Sumeria, but one where the gods are very real. Turtledove's extrapolations from this idea are solid, down-to-earth and a mixture of the hilarious and the horrific. For as one character says, to be a god you don't have to be very smart -- just very _strong_. His hero's adventures in a world where humans are still -- literally -- as insects beneath the feet of a very solidly realized pantheon are a treat for any reader of SF, fantasy or historical fiction. Highly recommended!