Ian McDonald’s Award-Winning CYBERABAD DAYS Out Now in Italy!


Ian McDonald‘s Philip K. Dick Award-winning CYBERABAD DAYS is now available in Italy! Published by Urania as I GIORNI DI CYBERABAD, here’s the synopsis…

“I giorni di Cyberabad” è una raccolta di sette racconti ambientati nell’India del futuro.

Cyberabad, fratturata in una dozzina di staterelli in guerra tra loro, è una terra traboccante di affascinanti contraddizioni, che spaziano dall’estrema povertà alle più innovative tecnologie, dalla siccità dilagante alle piscine lussuose, da antiche credenze a nuovi sgargianti orizzonti sul futuro dell’umanità.

E mentre un ragazzino di Ahraura sogna di diventare un robotwallah e poter pilotare un bot da guerra nel conflitto che si abbatte sul suo villaggio, il figlioletto di un ingegnere americano sgattaiola fuori dalle alte mura dell’Accantonamento per sbirciare quel mondo esterno e tanto estraneo, come un Siddharta in miniatura, immergendosi in una cultura per lui aliena, che sulle sponde del fiume Gange mescola i colori della vita e della morte in modi inimmaginabili, avvolti in una accecante quanto struggente bellezza.

Allo stesso modo, la solitudine di una innocente dea bambina, scongiurata da folle adoranti di far scendere la pioggia su un mondo flagellato dalla siccità e dai cambiamenti climatici, è fin troppo simile a quella provata dall’unica figlia di una ricca e potente dinastia che l’acqua la controlla, e che ha trasformato la bambina in un’arma contro la famiglia rivale.

Tra IA di contrabbando e una nuova casta di brahmini geneticamente modificati, ogni racconto si schiude e richiude come un fiore di loto, una carezza e un pugno al tempo stesso, nel drammatico chiaroscuro di tradizione e futuro tracciato dalla penna di uno dei migliori scrittori di fantascienza del nostro tempo.

Ecco i titoli dei racconti contenuti nel volume:

    • “Sanjeev e i robotwallah”
    • “Kyle incontra il fiume”
    • “L’assassino di polvere” 
    • “Un buon partito” 
    • “La piccola dea”
    • “La moglie del djinn”
    • “Vishnu e il circo dei gatti”

CYBERABAD DAYS, the second novel in McDonald’s India 2047 duology (the first is RIVER OF GODS), is published in the UK by Gollancz, and in North America by JABberwocky. Here’s the English-language synopsis…

The world: ‘Cyberabad’ is the India of 2047, a new, muscular superpower of one and a half billion people in an age of 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 out-number females four to one. India herself has fractured into a dozen states from Kerala to the headwaters of the Ganges in the Himalayas. Cyberabad is a collection of 7 stories:

    • The Little Goddess. Hugo nominee Best Novella 2006. In near future Nepal, a child-goddess discovers what lies on the other side of godhood.
    • The Djinn’s Wife. Hugo nominee and BSFA short fiction winner 2007. A minor Delhi celebrity falls in love with an artificial intelligence but is it a marriage of heaven and hell?
    • The Dust Assassin. Feuding Rajasthan water-rajas find that revenge is a slow, subtle process.
    • Jasbir and Sujay go Shaadi. Love and marriage should be plain-sailing when your matchmaker is a soap-star artificial intelligence
    • Sanjeev and Robotwallah. What happens to the boy-soldier roboteers when the war of Separation is over?
    • Kyle meets the River. A young American in Varanas learns the true meaning of ‘nation building’ in the early days of a new country.
    • Vishnu at the Cat Circus. A genetically improved ‘Brahmin’ child finds himself left behind as he grows through the final generation of humanity.

Here are some of the reviews CYBERABAD DAYS has received since it was first published, in 2009…

‘The sheer number of ideas and plotlines can sometimes make McDonald’s novels seems dense, but the stories here are sharp, focused and witty.’  —  BBC Focus

‘McDonald’s partitioned India of 2047, which he returns to in the seven stories in CYBERABAD DAYS, is a heaving, complexly imagined society that is, helplessly of course, the work of a westerner.’  —  Deathray

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

‘He considers India’s political future as a rising superpower and the cold realities of ethnic and religious diversity turning hot and divisive, with obvious analogies to the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. As with all short-story collections, some work better than others, but taken as whole, this is a fascinating read, rich in texture, imagery and language.’  —  Dreamwatch Total Sci-Fi

‘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

‘McDonald gives sci-fi its sense of wonder back, and creates a landscape in which nothing can be taken for granted.’  —  Independent

‘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’s acclaimed latest series, Luna, is also published in the UK by Gollancz, is published in North America by Tor Books, and is available in a growing number of translated editions around the world. Below is a selection of covers for the various editions of NEW MOON, book one in the series…

Ian McDonald: WorldCon Guest Of Honour (Part 1)


Ian McDonald is a Guest of Honour at this year’s WorldCon, to be held in Dublin from August 15-19. We thought this would be a great time, therefore, to highlight some of his amazing, critically-acclaimed and award-winning novels. His most recent series, Luna, has been getting a lot of attention as new translation editions are released. (Ian’s conquest of the world continues at quite the impressive pace!)

Given how substantial his backlist is, we’re going to split this into two posts (the second will go up next Friday). Today, we’ll take a look at Ian’s other series.

One of Ian’s most critically-acclaimed series is India 2047, which includes RIVER OF GODS and CYBERABAD DAYS. Published in the UK by Gollancz, the novels are also available as eBook in the US (via JABberwocky’s eBook Program). Here’s the synopsis for RIVER OF GODS

August 15th, 2047. Happy Hundredth Birthday, India … On the eve of Mother India’s hundredth birthday, ten people are doing ten very different things. In the next few weeks, all these people will be swept together to decide the fate of the nation. From gangsters to government advisors, from superstitious street-boys to scientists to computer-generated soap stars, River of Gods shows a civilization in flux – a river of gods.

RIVER OF GODS is an epic SF novel as sprawling, vibrant and colourful as the sub-continent it describes. This is an SF novel that blew apart the narrow anglo and US-centric concerns of the genre and ushered in a new global consciousness for the genre.

Ian has two novels set on a future Mars: DESOLATION ROAD and ARES EXPRESS. Available now, published by the JABberwocky eBook Program.

It all began thirty years ago on Mars, with a greenperson. But by the time it all finished, the town of Desolation Road had experienced every conceivable abnormality from Adam Black’s Wonderful Travelling Chautauqua and Educational ‘Stravaganza (complete with its very own captive angel) to the Astounding Tatterdemalion Air Bazaar. Its inhabitants ranged from Dr. Alimantando, the town’s founder and resident genius, to the Babooshka, a barren grandmother who just wants her own child—grown in a fruit jar; from Rajendra Das, mechanical hobo who has a mystical way with machines to the Gallacelli brothers, identical triplets who fell in love with—and married—the same woman.

Ian’s first series was Chaga, which includes CHAGA/EVOLUTION’S ROAD, KIRINYA, and TENDELEO’S STORY. The trilogy is now available as eBooks, published by JABberwocky. The first two books have also been published in Germany, by Heyne.

On the trail of the mystery of Saturn’s disappearing moons, network journalist Gaby McAslan finds herself in Africa researching the Kilimanjaro Event: a meteor-strike in Kenya which caused the stunning African landscape to give way to something equally beautiful – and indescribably alien. Dubbed the ‘Chaga’, the alien flora destroys all man-made materials, and moulds human flesh, bone and spirit to its own designs. But when Gaby finds the first man to survive the Chaga’s changes, she realizes it has its own plans for humankind… Against the backdrop of Mount Kilimanjaro, McDonald weaves a staggering tale of keen human observation and speculation, as the Kilimanjaro Event changes the course of the human race by exposure to something beyond its imagination.

Everness is Ian’s YA sci-fi trilogy: PLANESRUNNER, BE MY ENEMY, and EMPRESS OF THE SUN. First published by Jo Fletcher Books in the UK and Pyr Books in North America, the series has now been reissued through the JABberwocky eBook program (UK and US). The series offers younger readers a perfect entry point into McDonald’s work — sci-fi that is both intelligent and action-packed, this series is also accessible and thoroughly entertaining. Here’s the synopsis for the first book…

There is not one you. There are many yous. There is not one world. There are many worlds. Ours is one among billions of parallel earths.

When Everett Singh’s scientist father is kidnapped from the streets of London, he leaves young Everett a mysterious app on his computer: the Infundibulum, the map of all the parallel earths, the most valuable object in the multiverse. There are dark forces in the Plenitude of Known Worlds who will stop at nothing to get it. They’ve got power, authority, the might of ten planets—some of them more technologically advanced than our Earth—at their fingertips. He’s got wits, intelligence, and a knack for Indian cooking.

Everett must trick his way through the Heisenberg Gate that his dad helped build and go on the run in a parallel Earth. But to rescue his dad from Charlotte Villiers and the sinister Order, this Planesrunner’s going to need friends. Friends like Captain Anastasia Sixsmyth, her adopted daughter, Sen, and the crew of the airship Everness.

Can they rescue Everett’s father and get the Infundibulum to safety? The game is afoot!

The Everness series has also been published in a number of foreign territories.

Ian McDonald’s THE DERVISH HOUSE and CYBERABAD DAYS reissued in Poland


This week, MAG re-issues Ian McDonald‘s critically-acclaimed THE DERVISH HOUSE and CYBERABAD DAYS in Poland! Published as an omnibus edition colleting DOM DERWISZY and DNI CYBERABADU, here are the synopses for the two novels…

DOM DERWISZY

Minela pora modlitwy, ale pora pieniedzy — jeszcze nie.

Stambul, Królowa Miast, budzi sie z krzykiem.

W halasie budzacego sie miasta wybuch przechodzi niemal niezauwazony. Gluchy trzask. Potem cisza.

W sennej dzielnicy Eskiköy stoi dawny dom wirujacych derwiszy Mistrza Adema. W ciagu pieciodniowej fali upalów w Stambule, zycie szesciorga bohaterów splata sie w historie o korporacyjnych knowaniach i machinacjach, islamskim mistycyzmie, intrydze politycznej i gospodarczej, tajemnicach dawnego imperium osmanskiego, nowym, przerazajacym zagrozeniu terrorystycznym oraz nanotechnologii mogacej potencjalnie odmienic zycie wszystkich mieszkanców Ziemi.

DNI CYBERABADU

Zbiór nadzwyczajnych opowiadan osadzonych w Indiach przyszlosci Rzeki bogów.

Rzeka Bogów Iana McDonalda, obwolana przez ,,Asimov’s Science Fiction” arcydzielem, chwalona przez ,,Washington Post” jako ,,wielkie osiagniecie autora, który staje sie wlasnie jednym z najwybitniejszych wspólczesnych powiesciopisarzy” – kreslila zywy obraz Indii w bliskiej przyszlosci, w stulecie niepodleglosci. Zrewolucjonizowala nowa generacje fantastyki, przyjmujac perspektywe, która nie byla ani europejska, ani amerykanska. Nominowano ja do nagród Hugo i Arthura C. Clarke’a, zdobyla nagrode BSFA; bogata sceneria tej powiesci zainspirowala McDonalda do ponownej wizyty – w serii opowiadan, których fabula takze odbywa sie w swiecie Rzeki Bogów.

Dni Cyberabadu to triumfalny powrót do Indii roku 2047, nowego, preznego supermocarstwa majacego póltora miliarda mieszkanców, w epoce sztucznych inteligencji, suszy wywolanej zmianami klimatycznymi, wojen o wode, osobliwych nowych plci, genetycznie ulepszonych dzieci, starzejacych sie dwukrotnie wolniej od zwyklych ludzi, i ludnosci, w której mezczyzn jest czterokrotnie wiecej niz kobiet. Same Indie rozpadly sie tu na kilkanascie panstw, od Kerali, po górne doplywy Gangesu w Himalajach.

Dni Cyberabadu to zbiór siedmiu opowiadan, wsród nich jedno nominowane do Hugo i jedno bedace zdobywca tej nagrody oraz osiemdziesieciostronicowa mikropowiesc.

Jak zwykle w przypadku utworów McDonalda, i o tej ksiazce bedzie sie w tym roku wiele mówic.

CYBERABAD DAYS is published in the UK by Gollancz, and available in the US via the JABberwocky eBook Program. Here’s the English-language synopsis…

The world: ‘Cyberabad’ is the India of 2047, a new, muscular superpower of one and a half billion people in an age of 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 out-number females four to one. India herself has fractured into a dozen states from Kerala to the headwaters of the Ganges in the Himalayas. Cyberabad is a collection of 7 stories:

The Little Goddess. Hugo nominee Best Novella 2006. In near future Nepal, a child-goddess discovers what lies on the other side of godhood.

The Djinn’s Wife. Hugo nominee and BSFA short fiction winner 2007

A minor Delhi celebrity falls in love with an artificial intelligence but is it a marriage of heaven and hell?

The Dust Assassin. Feuding Rajasthan water-rajas find that revenge is a slow, subtle process.

Jasbir and Sujay go Shaadi. Love and marriage should be plain-sailing when your matchmaker is a soap-star artificial intelligence

Sanjeev and Robotwallah. What happens to the boy-soldier roboteers when the war of Separation is over?

Kyle meets the River. A young American in Varanas learns the true meaning of ‘nation building’ in the early days of a new country.

Vishnu at the Cat Circus. A genetically improved ‘Brahmin’ child finds himself left behind as he grows through the final generation of humanity.

THE DERVISH HOUSE is also published in the UK by Gollancz, and available in the US as an eBook via the JABberwocky eBook Program. Here’s the English-language synopsis…

Welcome to the world of The Dervish House — the great, ancient, paradoxical city of Istanbul, divided like a human brain, in the great, ancient, equally paradoxical nation of Turkey. With a population pushing one hundred million, and Istanbul alone swollen to fifteen million, Turkey is the largest, most populous, and most diverse nation in the new Europe, but also one of the poorest and most socially divided. The Dervish House is seven days, six characters, and three interconnected story strands all woven around the common core of the old dervish house of Aden Dede. A terror attack, a vision of djinn, a commodities scam, a hunt for half a miniature Koran that holds the key to new technology, and a quest for a creature from Arabic legend — that may not be so legendary after all.

Ian McDonald’s India 2047 series available again in eBook!


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.

New French Edition of Ian McDonald’s CYBERABAD DAYS


mcdonald-cyberabaddaysfrpb

Folio SF has published a new edition of Ian McDonald‘s CYBERABAD DAYS. Published in French as LA PETITE DÉESSE, here’s the synopsis…

En 2004, lan McDonald publiait en Angleterre un roman d’une ambition peu commune dans le paysage de la science-flction contemporaine, Le fleuve des dieux, un livre aux multiples intrigues situées dans une Inde de 2047 balkanisée et soumise à une sécheresse sans précédent. Le prix de la British Science Fiction Association a récompensé ce roman et son édition française a reçu le Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire et le prix Bob Morane.

En 2009, lan McDonald a rassemblé, sous le titre La petite déesse, les sept nouvelles et courts romans qu’il avait écrits sur cette même Inde du futur. On y découvre, souvent par le biais du regard d’enfants, un sous-continent où les hommes sont quatre fois plus nombreux que les femmes, où se côtoient des gens d’une extrême pauvreté, des intelligences artificielles et des stars virtuelles, tous confrontés à des menaces d’un genre nouveau.

CYBERABAD DAYS is published in the UK by Gollancz, and in the US by Pyr Books. Here’s the English-language synopsis…

The world: ‘Cyberabad’ is the India of 2047, a new, muscular superpower of one and a half billion people in an age of 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 out-number females four to one. India herself has fractured into a dozen states from Kerala to the headwaters of the Ganges in the Himalayas. Cyberabad is a collection of 7 stories:

The Little Goddess. Hugo nominee Best Novella 2006. In near future Nepal, a child-goddess discovers what lies on the other side of godhood.

The Djinn’s Wife. Hugo nominee and BSFA short fiction winner 2007

A minor Delhi celebrity falls in love with an artificial intelligence but is it a marriage of heaven and hell?

The Dust Assassin. Feuding Rajasthan water-rajas find that revenge is a slow, subtle process.

Jasbir and Sujay go Shaadi. Love and marriage should be plain-sailing when your matchmaker is a soap-star artificial intelligence

Sanjeev and Robotwallah. What happens to the boy-soldier roboteers when the war of Separation is over?

Kyle meets the River. A young American in Varanas learns the true meaning of ‘nation building’ in the early days of a new country.

Vishnu at the Cat Circus. A genetically improved ‘Brahmin’ child finds himself left behind as he grows through the final generation of humanity.

mcdonald-cyberabaddays-english

Here’s just a small selection from the great reviews CYBERBAD DAYS received…

‘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

‘McDonald gives sci-fi its sense of wonder back, and creates a landscape in which nothing can be taken for granted.’ — Independent

‘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

Folio also publishes Ian’s BRASYL, ROI DU MATIN, REINE DU JOUR (KING OF MORNING, QUEEN OF DAY), LE FLEUVE DES DIEUX (RIVER OF GODS) and LA MAISON DES DERVICHES (THE DERVISH HOUSE).

mcdonald-foliosfeditions

Locus Online on Ian McDonald…


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

Cyberabad Days wins Special Citation at PKD Awards…


Ian MacDonald’s superb short story collection CYBERABAD DAYS has won the judges ‘Special Citation’ at this years Philip K. Dick Awards, effectively placing it as runner up to the winning book, C. L. Anderson’s BITTER ANGEL (Bantam Spectra).

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.

Cyberabad Days Nominated…


The LOCUS Index to SF Awards proudly lists Ian McDonald as the winner of  “1 Hugo, 1 Sturgeon, 1 Philip K. Dick Award, 1 Locus Award, 4 British SF Awards, 2 Kurd Laáwitz”. Not a bad clutch of gongs by anyone’s standards, eh?

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

McDonald’s Cyberabad Days on Boing Boing…


Boing Boing – one of the finest, most popular and in my opinion, influential Internet sites around today posted a feature by Cory Doctorow on Ian McDonald and his recently published collection Cyberabad Days

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.

Ian McDonald on Cyberabad Days


Scifi Wire has an exclusive and in-depth interview with Ian McDonald following the US release of his new story collection Cyberabad Days

cyberad-days-us-thumbThe 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.