I love the concept of this work, and loved reading it for the first 200 pages. I barely finished it and yet still maintain that it is a great story. The work as a whole however collapses under its own weight.The culture of India is unique and different. I GET IT. I don't need to be hammered with the idea ever third sentence. You're clever and use a lot of Hindu words. I GET IT. I like a challenging novel as well as anyone, but this was too often like doing a crossword.As it happens I just finished a fantastic execution of the same sort of idea. The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi. I'd never heard of him either, but his latest hits the target that River of Gods misses by a mile.