Sea of Poppies

By: Amitav Ghosh

Narrated by: Kish Sharma

Length: 14 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

At the heart of this epic saga, set just before the Opium Wars, is an old slaving-ship, The Ibis. Its destiny is a tumultuous voyage across the Indian Ocean, its crew a motley array of sailors and stowaways, coolies and convicts.

In a time of colonial upheaval, fate has thrown together a truly diverse cast of Indians and Westerners, from a bankrupt Raja to a widowed villager, from an evangelical English opium trader to a mulatto American freedman. As their old family ties are washed away they, like their historical counterparts, come to view themselves as jahaj-bhais or ship-brothers. An unlikely dynasty is born, which will span continents, races and generations.

The vast sweep of this historical adventure spans the lush poppy fields of the Ganges, the rolling high seas, and the exotic backstreets of China. But it is the panorama of characters, whose diaspora encapsulates the vexed colonial history of the East itself, which makes Sea of Poppies so breathtakingly alive - a masterpiece from one of the world's finest novelists.

©2008 Amitav Ghosh (P)2009 Isis Publishing Ltd

Overly melodramatic

I never really got into this book and was just impatient for it to finish. Not sure I’ll bother with the next two - if it was not so long winded, I feel this would be just another sickly sweet romance novel. The narration was interesting - excellent voices but the delivery of the narration was flat and dull. There were no pauses between many of the different sections, making it confusing to follow at times.

amazing!

and the 2nd time I have listened to it! the next 2 booked are even better.

Excellent story, gripping narration

Amitav Ghosh recreates the colonial world with its conflicting ethos and turbulent commerce in a clash of destinies which converge on a schooner. Narrated with excellent voice modulations at a tight pace.

Wonderful listen 4 a fast ear

Would you consider the audio edition of Sea of Poppies to be better than the print version?

Haven't read the print

What did you like best about this story?

The flow and the life-like description of the characters

What about Kish Sharma’s performance did you like?

The characters' accents

Any additional comments?

Kish at times read too fast to follow.

Excellent book.

i did like this book, it is intelligent, empathic toward those who deserve it and is honest treatment toward the less sympathetic personages.
It gives a good impression of how it was to live in the far east under the British empire from the 19th century.

Rich, Panoramic and an absolute Epic.

This book is unputdownable. The plot is so dense and filled with historical references to Indo China war, and colonial exploitations and deals with issues of exiles and subaltern voices. Ghosh's tremendous talent to make the story profoundly moving is something applaudable. A varied range of characters, settings and descriptions. Explores true human emotions and is very moving.

good beginning gradually decays to nonsense

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Well it's not clear if the recording process was faulty or whether the story actually concludes with the lifeboat leaving in a storm with several main characters on board while several other main characters remain on the ship in various states of unresolved dubious action, but it could have got to maybe 2.5 stars if all this was concluded in some way.

What could Amitav Ghosh have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Make the author sit down and do a serious self critique of his work, modify his objectives in favour of producing a cohesive plausible narrative with consistent characterization, and give it more time, more thought and much hard work rewriting and condensing.

Would you listen to another book narrated by Kish Sharma?

Yes the narration was very good considering the overblown nonsense that the book gradually decended to, and the narrator probably can't be blamed for overdoing it somewhat.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The commencement of the book was excellent The early development of the characters and their origins and the narrative was fine up to maybe one third of the way through. The ingredients were there for a great novel, if only it had continued in that way. Unfortunately the author became overwhelmed by his own characters and quite literally lost the plot.

Any additional comments?

Please convey my comments for what they are worth to the author because in my opinion the author does have talent - currently wasting it.