Review: Kali_Na by Indrapramit Das

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Review of Kali_Na by Indrapramit Das (7558 words)

The Year's Best Science Fiction, Volume 1, Edited by Jonathan Strahan, Purchase Anthology

A cyberpunk style story set in India, Kali_Na focuses on our protagonist, a lower caste girl named Durga, and an AI Goddess simply named Devi. Devi is the Hindi word for Goddess - she is simply that. Not one of the many Goddesses from Hindu culture with a rich and varied life and stories, and this is an important distinction.

No, she is just generic Goddess 2.0, to whom devotees may ascribe any quality they choose, one who will bless everyone with their own particular type of request, instead of having to ask specific Goddesses for specific things. A product of capitalism, she was supposed to be every Goddess in one. But maybe they forgot to code out the qualities of Kali Maa. And then we see a shift.

The sheer power and scale of this story was reminiscent of the scale and scope of Hindu sagas and tales. A truly fantastic story and I hope to be able to read more of this author!


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