The Years of Rice and SaltThe Great Plague destroyed Europe. Now the worlds a different place From the award winning author of the Mars trilogy, the ultimate in future history (Daily Mail), comes the most ambitious alternate history novel ever written. As Bold Bardash, a horseman in the army of Temur the Lame, rides west across the steppe and on to the Magyar Plain, he comes across a town in which everyone lies dead. Long dead. Plague has struck Europe. Kalis black blanket has