Ian McDonald‘s classic sci-fi duology India 2047 is available in North America (in eBook format) once again! Published by the JABberwocky eBook Program, here’s the synopsis for the first novel, RIVER OF GODS…
A superpower of two billion people, a dozen new nations from Kerela to the Himalayas, artificial intelligences, climate-change induced drought, water wars, strange new genders, genetically improved children that age at half the rate of baseline humanity, and a population where males outnumber females four to one. This is India in 2047, one hundred years after its birth. In the new nation of Bharat, in the face of the failure of the monsoon, nine lives are swept together — a gangster, a cop, his wife, a politician, a stand-up comic, a set designer, a journalist, a scientist, and a dropout — to decide the future of Mother India.
The second novel, CYBERABAD DAYS is also available. Here’s the synopsis…
A new, muscular superpower of two billion people in an age of new nations, artificial intelligences, climate-change induced drought, water wars, strange new genders, genetically improved children that age at half the rate of baseline humanity, and a population where males outnumber females four to one. Cyberabad Days is a cycle of seven stories, three Hugo nominees and one Hugo winner among them, as well as an original thirty-one-thousand-word novella.
The two novels are published in the UK by Gollancz.
Here are some of the reviews the novels have received…
‘[A] bold, brave look at India on the eve of its centennial, 41 years from now… McDonald takes his readers from India’s darkest depths to its most opulent heights, from rioting mobs and the devastated poor to high-level politicians and lavish parties. He handles his complex plot with flair and confidence and deftly shows how technological advances and social changes have subtly changed lives. RIVER OF GODS is a major achievement from a writer who is becoming one of the best sf novelists of our time.’ — Washington Post
‘This ambitious portrait of a future India from British author McDonald (Desolation Road) offers multitudes: gods, castes, protagonists, cultures… readers will become increasingly hooked as the pieces of McDonald’s richly detailed world fall into place. Already nominated for both Hugo and Arthur C. Clarke awards, this is sure to be one of the more talked-about SF novels of the year.’ — Publishers Weekly on RIVER OF GODS
‘Hugely adventurous and entertaining, sumptuously inventive and full of heart… it is likely to rank as Ian McDonald’s finest creative achievement.’ — Locus on RIVER OF GODS
‘McDonald’s India engulfs you with an overwhelming, perfumed, stinky embrace. A hugely impressive collection. Seven nifty, witty stories.’ — SFX on CYBERABAD DAYS
‘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 excels at conveying, in a gorgeous melange of sensory impressions, an India transformed by AIs, nanotech, robots and cybernetics: the subcontinent is chaotic and lurid, shot through with devotion to eternal Hindu gods and divided by internecine conflict. McDonald gives a refreshing take on the future from a non-western viewpoint.’ — Guardian on CYBERABAD DAYS
‘One of the great pleasures of science fiction is the escape it offers readers from commonplace, everyday surroundings into strange new worlds, and nobody does it better than Ian McDonald. Although CYBERABAD DAYS is set on Earth, and only a few decades into the future, McDonald’s vision of a newly repartitioned India, warring over water and at the cutting edge of technologies based on artificial intelligence, is practically hallucinogenic in style and intensity.’ — Times
Ian McDonald’s latest series, Luna, is published by Gollancz in the UK, Tor Books in the US, and widely in translation.
