BRASYL, one of Ian McDonald‘s critically-acclaimed sci-fi novels, is now available in Russian! Published as Бразилья by ACT, here’s the synopsis…
2032 год. Случайная встреча вовлекает Эдсона, молодого человека, пытающегося выбиться из нищеты, в опасный мир квантовых хакеров, таинственных двойников и паранойи. Он узнает секрет, способный изменить всю историю человечества, но куда бежать в стране, где царит тотальная слежка? 2006 год. Марселина, амбициозный телепродюсер, в поисках материала для реалити-шоу наталкивается на свидетельства древнего заговора, и вскоре мир вокруг начинает рушиться, угрожая не только ее рассудку, но и жизни. 1732 год. Иезуит Луис Квинн отправляется в Бразилию, чтобы по заданию Святого престола призвать к ответу священника, преступившего законы церкви. Но задание оказывается куда сложнее, и в дебрях Амазонки Луис находит то, что ставит под сомнение не только его веру, но и взгляды на устройство Вселенной. Три героя, три истории, три Бразилии, связанные через пространство и время, в эпическом романе о природе самой реальности, где ничто не случайно, и даже название с секретом.
BRASYL is published by Gollancz in the UK, and by Pyr Books in the US. The novel has also been published widely in translation (see some of the covers, below). Here’s the English-language synopsis…
Think Bladerunner in the tropics…
Be seduced, amazed, and shocked by one of the world’s greatest and strangest nations. Past, present, and future Brazil, with all its color, passion, and shifting realities, come together in a novel that is part SF, part history, part mystery, and entirely enthralling.
Three separate stories follow three main characters:
Edson is a self-made talent impresario one step up from the slums in a near future São Paulo of astonishing riches and poverty. A chance encounter draws Edson into the dangerous world of illegal quantum computing, but where can you run in a total surveillance society where every move, face, and centavo is constantly tracked?
Marcelina is an ambitious Rio TV producer looking for that big reality TV hit to make her name. When her hot idea leads her on the track of a disgraced World Cup soccer goalkeeper, she becomes enmeshed in an ancient conspiracy that threatens not just her life, but her very soul.
Father Luis is a Jesuit missionary sent into the maelstrom of 18th-century Brazil to locate and punish a rogue priest who has strayed beyond the articles of his faith and set up a vast empire in the hinterland. In the company of a French geographer and spy, what he finds in the backwaters of the Amazon tries both his faith and the nature of reality itself to the breaking point.
Three characters, three stories, three Brazils, all linked together across time, space, and reality in a hugely ambitious story that will challenge the way you think about everything.
Here are just a few of the great reviews BRASYL has received…
‘[BRASYL] has been receiving high praise from just about everyone since its publication. It’s easy to see why. Not content with writing just one interesting story, McDonald gives us three… [it] isn’t just a parallel dimensions story; it tackles big issues like free will and the heat death of the universe and places them in intensely personal stories, which serves to humanize these ideas and make them easier to understand… BRASYL rivals RIVER OF GODS story-wise and surpasses it in science fictional terms.’ — SFsignal.com
‘McDonald’s book is like the flipside to the famous Terry Gilliam film — a bright, wheeling carnival that plays on the “multiverse” theory of quantum physics. It implies that, if not exactly utopian, the future might at least be fun.’ — Financial Times
‘Packing his pages with local color and big-picture speculation, McDonald conjures three equally vivid worlds.’ — Entertainment Weekly
‘Ian McDonald’s BRASYL, with its three storylines, is as close to perfect as any novel in recent memory. It works because of great characterization, but also because McDonald envisions Brazil as a dynamic, living place that is part postmodern trash pile, part trashy reality-TV-driven ethical abyss… and yet also somehow spiritual… McDonald’s novel is always in motion. This movement extends through time and alternate realities in ways both wonderful and wise, as the three storylines interlock for a satisfying and often stunning conclusion. McDonald has found new myths for old places; in doing so, he has cemented his reputation as an amazing storyteller.’ — Washington Post
