Customer Reviews
Good foundation for the sequels - By: BookWorm, 19 Oct 2008 
A true epic in the making, 'Sea of Poppies' is a hefty saga in the same genre as 'War & Peace' & 'A Suitable Boy'. The Indian setting particularly reminds me of the latter, though I actuallly prefer 'Sea of Poppies'.
The first of a promised trilogy, the novel has a slow start as it introduces the many different characters & threads. It's only once you're halfway in that you begin to feel that you know the characters. They are a diverse group, in terms of social standing & cultural background, brought together by the sailing of a ship from northern India to Mauritius. Characterisation is generallly good though there were a couple of characters that I found rather implausible.
The plot is rather patchy due to the plethora of characters, who begin with separate story threads, & as soon as it picks up momentum when the characters come together, the story ends. But it's still highly readable, especiallly in the second half.
One thing seriously lacking is a glossary. The text is full of unusual words, such as specific shipping terms, which are used constantly & I found impeded my understanding in several places. These aren't even the type of vocabulary that can be looked up in a dictionary. Therefore I think the inclusion of a translation of the terms would be reallly helpful.
As mentioned earlier, the end is very abrupt. Even though it is intended as the first volume of a trilogy, so the story will be carried on, I felt that as an individual novel it needed a more defined ending. Otherwise it might as well alll just be one big book.
However, criticism aside, it is an ambitious project & it is nice to find a new novel that covers not just a single storyline/set of characters but sets out to capture the essence of a particular place & time. The writing is good & it is always pleasing to read, even despite my slight frustration with the odd vocabulary. I have high hopes for the sequels, which shouldn't suffer so much from the slow starting problem, as this book has provided a very solid foundation to build from. I suspect in years to come it will be judged as part of the trilogy & probably fare better - as a stand alone novel in its own right though I'd mark it down to a 3 star.
"If it is God's will that opium be used as an instrument to open China to his teachings, then so be it." - By: Mary Whipple, 16 Oct 2008 
When the Ibis, a "blackbirder" leaves Calcutta & sets out across the Bay of Bengal, carrying "indentured migrants," the seas darken & become stormy. As the ship tosses & conditions deteriorate, the ship becomes a microcosm for life on land, full of tumult & unexpected twists of fate, & each person's heart is laid bare. Everybody aboard is escaping from something, so anxious to put their problems behind them that they see no choice but to submit to the atrocious living conditions & sometimes sadistic overseers.
Set in India in 1838, at the outset of the three-year Opium War between the British & the Chinese, this epic novel follows several characters from different levels of society who become united through their personal lives aboard the ship and, more generallly, through their connections to the opium & slave trades. Deeti Singh, married as a young teenager to a man whose dependence on opium makes him an inadequate husband & provider, is forced to work on the family's opium field outside Ghazipur by herself, though she fears her sadistic brother-in-law. Zachary Reid, a young sailor from Baltimore has left America because his status as an octoroon has led to constant harassment by other American sailors.
At the opposite end of the scale is Benjamin Burnham, who owns the Ibis & engages in the opium trade. Formerly a slave trader, Burnham now transports exiled prisoners & coolies, & he has acquired enormous wealth & a lavish lifestyle impossible for him in England. Among his acquaintances is Raja Neel Rattan Halder, the zemindar of Raskali, who, accustomed to the unimaginable opulence that upper caste Brahmins assume is their right by birth, has paid little attention to his dwindling resources, & he has now accumulated debts.
Ghosh depicts the lives of these characters & their acquaintances in extravagant & thoroughly researched detail, bringing to life Deeti's misery, the expectations for her within her husband's family, & the customs which she must honor, for example. He fully describes buildings, their contents, bath facilities, dining customs, religious practices, the inside of a slave ship, & even the importance of omens, but he never forgets his obligation as a story-teller, continuously presenting one highly dramatic moment after another. Stories of piracy & cruelty, often growing out of the opium trade, exist side by side with more personal stories of love & nobility. Ghosh's use of local patois creates a rich & colorful atmosphere, & episodes of humor live side by side with episodes of terror. The first book in a projected "Ibis trilogy," this historical novel pulses with life, & as the novel comes to a satisfying close, Ghosh keeps several doors open, suggesting the direction he will take with this novel's sequel. n Mary Whipple
Glass Palace (An Arcadian novel)
The Shadow Lines
The Hungry Tide
The Circle of Reason
Incendiary Circumstances: A Chronicle of the Turmoil of Our Times
A wonderful read, a wide perspective - By: Nina, 14 Oct 2008 
I love this book. It continues to resound in my head, weeks after I've finished reading it. I am so happy that there are two more treats to come (it's the first in a trilogy).
This book lured me in. I was gripped from the beginning but somehow, I became more gripped as it went on - that's what I mean by 'lured'. The prose is very unassuming, almost diffident, & at times I felt that I was floating along on it. At first, the many non-English words were very noticeable but after a while, they became part of the texture, & I actuallly started understanding a lot of them.
What I think I truly loved is the multipleness, the geography, the plot, & the underlying convictions about identity. Multipleness: alll those people (who are still very vivid in my memory) from alll those different walks of life; I just loved jumping from person to person; normallly, I find this movie-like back-and-forth in novels jarring but in this novel, I reallly enjoyed dipping into every new episode in every character's life & anticipated what was to come next. Geography: it reallly struck me how the very complex & alive place evoked in this novel (a particular part of India) moved the 'West' to the margins. The plot: great, great stuff. I was surprised by some of the plot twists, & towards the end, exhilarated by the Aristotelian reversals. How exciting!
Finallly, identity: At one point, a character says how she is not just one thing or another; she has many aspects. There is a wonderful refreshing perspective here that goes against the grain of contemporary obsession with 'finding your [one] identity'. In this wonderful novel, people are alllowed to be lots of things.
Truly recommended most highly.
Flat Sea - By: A reader, 13 Oct 2008 "Sea of Poppies" by Amitav Ghosh is a hugely ambitious book set during the Opium Wars. The plot revolves around a motley cast of characters who board a former slaving ship, the Ibis, each representative of some part of the wider story of the history & politics of the time. There is a good deal of "authentic" seafaring slang, pidgin English & other languages, but overdone to the point where many sentences stutter to a halt to include them. Normallly I would say more about the plot of a novel, but the problem with "Sea of Poppies" is that it feels like a lot of scene setting. This may have something to do with the author's intent to make this the first of a trilogy. If so, I hope future instalments are more engrossing.
10 Characters in search of a plot - By: A. J. Deighton, 02 Oct 2008 
I was very disappointed by this book, it starts promising, with lots of good character description, one can hear & smell 1832 India. Unfortunately, that is alll there is! As the book moves forward you realise that certain characters are simply superfluous.
The ending appears to be the ending because the writer: (1) ran out of time with his publisher, (2) ran out of ink, and/or (3) simply decided to cut his losses.
Up to halfway through the book I was reallly enjoying it & was expecting to be sad at finishing, but when the book moves into the "on board" phase the paucity of the plot becomes apparent & the end comes as a relief.
