Over at the LOCUS web site, there’s a fascinating Roundtable discussion going on all about the works of our client Ian McDonald (whom we reported recently had been nominated for this year’s Arthur C. Clarke award) with a number of learned folks taking part – including Ian’s US Editor, Pyr’s Lou Anders, authors Cat Rambo and Rachel Swirsky, editor and translator Fabio Fernandes and our very own web guru, moonlighting as a learned genre commentator Paul Graham Raven.

Roundtable: Ian MacDonald’s Developing Economies Stories

The prize is awarded annually for the most distinguished original science fiction paperback published for the first time during the previous year in the U.S.A and Ian was on hand to receive his citation, which was presented at Norwestcon 2010 in Seattle. (See here for Ian’s short blog post on the subject).

Ian previously won the award in 1992 for KING OF MORNING, QUEEN OF DAY and his novel SCISSORS CUT PAPER WRAPS STONE, was nominated in 1995.

CYBERABAD DAYS is published in the UK by Gollancz and in the US by Pyr. Congratulations to all involved.

We’re delighted to report that we’ve just got word that Ian’s recent short story collection CYBERADBAD DAYS is one of seven works to be shortlisted for this year’s Philip K. Dick Award,  the prize to be awarded at Norwestcon 33 in April and one which he has, of course, won previously back in 1992 for his novel KING OF MORNING, QUEEN OF DAY.

CYBERABAD DAYS is published in the UK by Gollancz and in the US by Pyr.

“All in all, Cyberabad Days is a terrific book and a satisfying return to the world of River of Gods. Ian McDonald is a genius, pure and simple.” — PAT’S FANTASY HOTLIST

“McDonald’s India engulfs you with an overwhelming, perfumed, stinky embrace. A hugely impressive collection. Seven nifty, witty stories.” — Dave Langford in SFX

“Ian McDonald is one of science fiction’s finest working writers, and his latest short story collection Cyberabad Days, is the kind of book that showcases exactly what science fiction is for. ”

Read the full article here.

‘The title Cyberabad Days is a deliberate echo of the Arabian Nights. The stories are fairy tales of New Delhi. River was an Indian—novel, fat, many-voiced, wide-screen; Cyberabad Days is tales. Mumbai movies tell stories in ways that challenge our Western aesthetics and values. They’re not afraid of sentiment, they’re not afraid of big acting, or putting in song and dance, because Bollywood cinema’s not supposed to be a mimetic art form. It’s not about realism—that most pernicious of Western values—it’s a show. I wanted these stories to have a similar feel. There are dance routines in the ‘The Djinn’s Wife’ (and it ends in a Bollywood melodrama bloodbath). There are indeed princesses who fall from power and exact revenge on their enemies. There are brothers whose feud plays out over decades.‘

Read the full article here.