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Ian McDonald’s THE DERVISH HOUSE Turns 10!

Posted on Wednesday, July 29th, 2020

Ten years ago today, Ian McDonald‘s highly-acclaimed, award-winning THE DERVISH HOUSE was first published in the UK! Published by Gollancz, here’s the synopsis…

In the CHAGA novels Ian McDonald brought an Africa in the grip of a bizarre alien invasion to life, in RIVER OF GODS he painted a rich portrait of India in 2047, in BRASYL he looked at different Brazils, past present and future. Ian McDonald has found renown at the cutting edge of a movement to take SF away from its British and American white roots and out into the rich cultures of the world.

THE DERVISH HOUSE continues that journey and centres on Istanbul in 2025. Turkey is part of Europe but sited on the edge, it is an Islamic country that looks to the West. THE DERVISH HOUSE is the story of the families that live in and around its titular house, it is at once a rich mosaic of Islamic life in the new century and a telling novel of future possibilities.

The novel has racked up a number of great awards and commendations since its release. For example…

John W. Campbell Memorial Award, Winner (2011)
BSFA Award, Best Novel Winner (2011)
SF Site Readers Poll, SF/Fantasy Novel, Winner (2011)
Seiun Award, Translated Novel, Nominee (2015)
Hugo Award, Best Novel Nominee (2011)
Arthur C. Clark Award, Shortlist (2011)
Locus Award, Best SF Novel, 3rd Place (2011)

In addition to UK and North American editions (Pyr Books originally, now available via JABberwocky), the novel has been published quite widely in translation, with editions appearing in Turkey (Pegasus), Poland (MAG), France (Denoël/Gallimard), Hungary (Ad Astra), Bosnia (Paladin), Russia (ACT), Japan (東京創元社), and Bulgaria (Altera)! It is also available as an audiobook. Here are the covers…

And, finally, here are just a few of the great reviews the novel has received since it was first published…

‘… a writer with an unerring instinct for finding resonance between theme and location… a rich and assured novel that, like much of Ken MacLeod’s recent work, revels in the shiny precision of the airport tech-thriller, yet insists on putting forward disquieting ideas rather than offering all-too-neat reassurances that you can somehow put escaped djinns back in bottles. This is as good as contemporary literary SF gets.’ — SFX (5* Review)

‘I know what to expect from Ian McDonald: broad vistas, intricately imagined futures, poetic language that transports and delights, a blend of mysticism and science that thrills and moves. But no matter how much foreknowledge I bring to a new Ian McDonald, I am always, always startled and thrilled by the exciting, moving epic story I find inside… To read McDonald is to fall in love with a place and to become drunk with it (see this free sample from Dervish House for a taste). I you’ve never read him, you’re in for a treat. If you’re a fan like me, you’ll be delighted anew. What a wonderful, wonderful book.’ — BoingBoing

‘[T]hrilling… A master in his own right, McDonald has written some of the best SF of the last fifteen years… a mosaic of a story that can be admired for its finely-wrought pieces but not fully appreciated until the book is finished and looked at again from some distance. The biggest part of the thrill is wondering how the characters will inevitably intersect… As much as THE DERVISH HOUSE is about biogenetics and history, McDonald couches some of his lushest prose in explorations of mysticism… McDonald, who is a native of Scotland, has an uncanny ability to write about other cultures authentically. He is a painstaking researcher and while he cannot always write with absolute authority, his dedication to making settings and characters feel alive is incredibly impressive… Ian McDonald has crafted a gorgeously lush novel, oozing with exciting, relevant ideas, a love letter to the Queen of Cities, to all cities, really.’ — Tor.com

‘A lush, complex and hugely entertaining novel.’ — Guardian

‘… Istanbul, the Queen of Cities, and the setting for Ian McDonald’s near-future story of terrorism, nanotechnology and change rushing over us like a tidal wave of strangeness. Like his novels about the future of Indian, African and Brazilian society, McDonald’s new book is a conscientious attempt to write the Other from the inside and accept the possibility that the Anglo world may be a sideline… a brilliant, jewelled machine of a novel in which lives trigger events in other lives, in a sequence that skirts chaos and disaster, but ends with gorgeous order.’ — Independent

‘Those who have previously enjoyed McDonald’s narrative style will find a great deal to like in THE DERVISH HOUSE… McDonald’s writing has been steadily improving in terms of its lyrical and descriptive quality over the years, and it seems his recent foray into short stories with CYBERABAD DAYS has helped his focus and tightness. Several passages shine with literary flow and power… McDonald keeps his story fresh with every chapter and its flickering viewpoints, giving a series of snapshots that come together to form a panorama of his world. THE DERVISH HOUSE is an excellent sci-fi tale from a phenomenal writer, one who deserves every plaudit that can be heaped upon him. Those who appreciate slow-burning, dense and creative genre work should get this book now.’ — SciFiNow

‘If you only read one SF book this year… make sure it’s Ian McDonald’s THE DERVISH HOUSE… I wish I’d written this!!! … It’s too bloody good for comfort… THE DERVISH HOUSE takes the expansive cultural mosaic of RIVER OF GODS, multiplies it by the driving Latin beat and teetering sense of jeopardy in BRASYL, and gives you a novel that is his best yet by a whole new order of imaginative and sensuous magnitude… I cannot recommend it highly enough.’ — Richard K. Morgan (author of Altered Carbon and The Steel Remains)

‘[I]n THE DERVISH HOUSE, aspects of the geography, socioeconomic, religious and political groups do come alive – perhaps not as full characters, but as not-quite separate personalities within Istanbul – a city suffering and celebrating its multiple personalities… McDonald’s tried and true strategy of exploring the people of emerging economies in combination with the implications of technology on society in a near-future setting succeeds once again… It’s at times powerful, informative, and fun and another example of science fiction alive in our world.’ — NethSpace

‘[B]uilds on the complex, multi-layered narratives that McDonald has already produced in RIVER OF GODS and BRASYL. Like them, the very richness of the bustling world, the differing ways in which a range of characters intersect with the world, makes for a convincing portrait of the near future. In both those earlier novels, the past is the foundation upon which the future has been built, but the new novel goes further, because here the past is inescapable and the future perhaps unreachable. You feel that ten or so years from now, Istanbul could be just the way it is described here. The most important thing, though, is that as a kaleidoscopic portrait of that place at that time, THE DERVISH HOUSE is a very fine, very powerful novel indeed.’ — SF Site

‘[A] beautiful homage to one of most unique cities on earth… Nominated for the Hugo Award last week, THE DERVISH HOUSE is a worthy addition to that tradition. It is certainly one of the best novels I read in 2010. McDonald asks a lot his readers, but he rewards them with a beautiful novel that I believe will appeal to traditional readers in some ways more than lovers of genre fiction.’ — Staffer’s Book Review

‘[A]n audacious look at the shift in the power centers of the world and an intense vision of one possible future.’ — New York Times

Ian McDonald’s BRASYL and DERVISH HOUSE available in the US!

Posted on Friday, April 6th, 2018

We’re very happy to report that Ian McDonald‘s novels BRASYL and THE DERVISH HOUSE are available again in the US! Published in eBook format through the JABberwocky eBook Program, here are some details…

BRASYL, first published in 2007, the novel is published in the UK by Gollancz. The novel was nominated for Best Novel in the Hugo, Nebula and BSFA Awards. Here’s the synopsis…

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 characters, three stories, three Brazils, linked across time, space, and reality in a hugely ambitious story that will challenge the way you think about everything.

The release of BRASYL was met with a number of great reviews. Here are just a couple…

‘McDonald’s outstanding SF novel channels the vitality of South America’s largest country into an edgy, post-cyberpunk free-for-all… Chaotic, heartbreaking and joyous, this must-read teeters on the edge of melodrama, but somehow keeps its precarious balance.’ — Publishers Weekly

‘BRASYL is classic McDonald: a deep thinking, high-paced adventure story, exploring the quantum universe, combining sassy, believable characters with a captivating delight in language and storytelling. McDonald inhabits the Brazil – or rather, the Brazils – of this world and sweeps you along as no other writer in the field could manage.’ — Guardian

‘A beautiful story, one that cries out to be read again and again. McDonald’s light is still shining brightly, and considering the consistent quality of his titles, we say long may it burn.’ — SciFi Now

Next up, THE DERVISH HOUSE! First published in 2009 by Gollancz, this novel was also nominated for Best Novel in the Hugo, Locus and BSFA Awards, and was also a nominee for the Arthur C. Clarke and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards. Here’s the 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.

Here are some of the great reviews THE DERVISH HOUSE has received…

‘… thrilling… A master in his own right, McDonald has written some of the best SF of the last fifteen years… a mosaic of a story that can be admired for its finely-wrought pieces but not fully appreciated until the book is finished and looked at again from some distance. The biggest part of the thrill is wondering how the characters will inevitably intersect… As much as THE DERVISH HOUSE is about biogenetics and history, McDonald couches some of his lushest prose in explorations of mysticism… McDonald, who is a native of Scotland, has an uncanny ability to write about other cultures authentically. He is a painstaking researcher and while he cannot always write with absolute authority, his dedication to making settings and characters feel alive is incredibly impressive… Ian McDonald has crafted a gorgeously lush novel, oozing with exciting, relevant ideas, a love letter to the Queen of Cities, to all cities, really.’ — Tor.com

‘A lush, complex and hugely entertaining novel.’ — Guardian

Check out our previous posts about the new JABberwocky eBook editions of Ian’s Everness series and India 2047 novels.

Here are the UK covers for BRASYL and THE DERVISH HOUSE…

New Japanese covers for Ian McDonald’s THE DERVISH HOUSE

Posted on Wednesday, September 14th, 2016

Ian McDonald‘s critically-acclaimed, award-winning THE DERVISH HOUSE has been given a new cover in Japan! Published as 旋舞の千年都市, in two volumes, by Tokyo Sogensha, here’s the synopsis…

ナノテク革命と低炭素経済で空前の活況に沸く近未来。犠牲者ゼロの奇妙な自爆テロの真相とは？　テロ現場にいた謎のドローンを追う少年、ＡＩが飛び交う金融市場で世紀の一大詐欺を企むトレーダー、伝説の「蜜人」を探す美術商… 東洋と西洋、過去と未来が混じりあう巨大都市を舞台に、現代ＳＦ随一の実力派作家が、壮大にして緻密な未来世界のヴィジョンを描き出す。

キャンベル記念賞、英国ＳＦ協会賞ダブル受賞の至近未来ＳＦ！

THE DERVISH HOUSE is published in the UK by Gollancz, and in the US by Pyr Books. It has also been published widely in translation. Here’s the English-language synopsis…

It begins with an explosion. Another day, another bus bomb. Everyone it seems is after a piece of Turkey. But the shock waves from this random act of twenty-first-century pandemic terrorism will ripple further and resonate louder than just Enginsoy Square.

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. The year is 2027 and Turkey is about to celebrate the fifth anniversary of its accession to the European Union, a Europe that now runs from the Arran Islands to Ararat. 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 EU, but also one of the poorest and most socially divided. It’s a boom economy, the sweatshop of Europe, the bazaar of central Asia, the key to the immense gas wealth of Russia and central Asia.

The Dervish House is seven days, six characters, three interconnected story strands, one central common core — the eponymous dervish house, a character in itself — that pins all these players together in a weave of intrigue, conflict, drama, and a ticking clock of a thriller.

As with all of Ian’s novels, THE DERVISH HOUSE has been showered with praise from a wide array of reviewers and peers. Here’s just a small taste…

‘A lush, complex and hugely entertaining novel.’ — Guardian

‘A writer with an unerring instinct for finding resonance between theme and location… a rich and assured novel that, like much of Ken MacLeod’s recent work, revels in the shiny precision of the airport tech-thriller, yet insists on putting forward disquieting ideas rather than offering all-too-neat reassurances that you can somehow put escaped djinns back in bottles. This is as good as contemporary literary SF gets.’ — SFX (5* Review)

‘I know what to expect from Ian McDonald: broad vistas, intricately imagined futures, poetic language that transports and delights, a blend of mysticism and science that thrills and moves. But no matter how much foreknowledge I bring to a new Ian McDonald, I am always, always startled and thrilled by the exciting, moving epic story I find inside… To read McDonald is to fall in love with a place and to become drunk with it… I you’ve never read him, you’re in for a treat. If you’re a fan like me, you’ll be delighted anew. What a wonderful, wonderful book.’ — BoingBoing

‘Thrilling… A master in his own right, McDonald has written some of the best SF of the last fifteen years… a mosaic of a story that can be admired for its finely-wrought pieces but not fully appreciated until the book is finished and looked at again from some distance. The biggest part of the thrill is wondering how the characters will inevitably intersect… Ian McDonald has crafted a gorgeously lush novel, oozing with exciting, relevant ideas, a love letter to the Queen of Cities, to all cities, really.’ — Tor.com

‘McDonald’s new book is a conscientious attempt to write the Other from the inside and accept the possibility that the Anglo world may be a sideline… a brilliant, jewelled machine of a novel in which lives trigger events in other lives, in a sequence that skirts chaos and disaster, but ends with gorgeous order.’ — Independent

Ian’s latest novel is the critically-acclaimed LUNA: NEW MOON, the first in a proposed trilogy — published by Gollancz in the UK, and Tor Books in the US.

DERVISH HOUSE Now in Bulgarian!

Posted on Tuesday, October 6th, 2015

Ian McDonald‘s award-winning novel THE DERVISH HOUSE is now available in Bulgaria! Published by Altera as Дервишката къща, here’s the synopsis…

Дервишката къща преплита съдбите на няколко изключително любопитни персонажа в Истанбул през 2027 г. Ала основният герой в романа е самият град – изобразен от Макдоналд като древна и същевременно с това свръхмодерна сцена, на която богатите и мъдри традиции на Изтока влипат във взривоопасен контакт с динамичното развитие на нанотехнологиите, с борбата за газово надмощие, с мрачните сенки на тероризма, с крехтите и все по-размити граници между Европа и Азия.

The novel is published in the UK by Gollancz, and in the US by Pyr Books. 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. The year is 2027 and Turkey is about to celebrate the fifth anniversary of its accession to the European Union, a Europe that now runs from the Arran Islands to Ararat. 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 EU, but also one of the poorest and most socially divided. It’s a boom economy, the sweatshop of Europe, the bazaar of central Asia, the key to the immense gas wealth of Russia and central Asia.

The novel has been published widely in translation. More info can be found on his author page and by getting in touch with Gollancz, who have World Rights. Here are just some of the reviews the novel has enjoyed…

‘A lush, complex and hugely entertaining novel.’ — Guardian

‘The florid descriptions that regularly course through his novels are merely colourful bonuses decorating detailed examination of what might just come to pass and even denser prose fuelling narrative journeys.’ — Globe & Mail

‘… broad vistas, intricately imagined futures, poetic language that transports and delights, a blend of mysticism and science that thrills and moves… I am always, always startled and thrilled by the exciting, moving epic story… To read McDonald is to fall in love with a place and to become drunk with it… I you’ve never read him, you’re in for a treat. If you’re a fan like me, you’ll be delighted anew. What a wonderful, wonderful book.’ — BoingBoing

‘… an audacious look at the shift in the power centers of the world and an intense vision of one possible future.’ — New York Times

Ian McDonald’s DERVISH HOUSE in Japanese

Posted on Wednesday, September 2nd, 2015

With the publication of LUNA: NEW MOON fast approaching, we thought we’d take a moment to share the Japanese covers and information for Ian McDonald‘s THE DERVISH HOUSE. Published by Tokyo Sogensha as 旋舞の千年都市, here’s the synopsis…

犠牲者ゼロの奇妙な自爆テロがすべての始まり！？　テロ以降精霊が見えるようになった青年、テロの謎を探る少年探偵と老経済学者、一大ガス市場詐欺を企むトレーダー、伝説の蜜漬けミイラ「蜜人」を追う美術商、ナノテク企業の売込みと家宝のコーラン探しに奔走する新米マーケッターの６人が、ＥＵに加盟し天然ガス＆ナノテク景気に沸く近未来のイスタンブールを駆け回る。

The novel is published in the UK by Gollancz and in the US by Pyr Books (covers above). 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. The year is 2027 and Turkey is about to celebrate the fifth anniversary of its accession to the European Union, a Europe that now runs from the Arran Islands to Ararat. 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 EU, but also one of the poorest and most socially divided. It’s a boom economy, the sweatshop of Europe, the bazaar of central Asia, the key to the immense gas wealth of Russia and central Asia.

The aforementioned LUNA: NEW MOON is due to be published in the UK by Gollancz on September 17th, and in the US by Tor Books on September 29th.

Can you Hear Us? Yes You Can! Multiple Audible Deals…

Posted on Thursday, April 12th, 2012

We’re delighted to announce several recent sales to Stacy Patton-Anderson at Audible.

First up, a slew of titles by Lavie Tidhar – including his PS Publishing novel OSAMA, a work that has been on everyone’s lips of late, not least because it was name-checked in Christopher Priest’s now infamous ranty blog post as one of the titles (along with WAKE UP AND DREAM by fellow Zeno client, Ian R. MacLeod) that should have made this year’s Arthur C. Clarke award shortlist. We, of course, couldn’t possibly comment on this matter… except to say how absolutely correct Mr Priest is!

Along with OSAMA, Audible will also be releasing Lavie’s entire BOOKMAN trilogy in audio – THE BOOKMAN, CAMERA OBSCURA and the recently published THE GREAT GAME, and the final title in this superb batch is Lavie’s collaboration with fellow Israeli author Nir Yaniv, THE TEL-AVIV DOSSIER, a scarcer Tidhar title, originally published by Chizine Publications in Canada.

Joining Lavie at Audible is another client, Ian McDonald – himself often seen on awards and ‘best of’ shortlists. Audible will be publishing an audio edition of Ian’s THE DERVISH HOUSE, a novel that was nominated for last year’s Clarke and Hugo awards and which won the Campbell, the BSF and the SFSite poll. They will also be publishing BRASYL (also nominated for the Clarke) and RIVER OF GODS (nominated for the Clarke, Hugo and the Tiptree).

World Fantasy Award and Philip K. Dick award winner James P. Blaylock will see his new novel ZEUGLODON (to be published later this year by Subterranean) and also his classic work THE DIGGING LEVIATHAN published in audio.

And finally – very much in the sense of ‘at long last’ – an author with too many award wins and nominations to list here, William Gibson. To accompany their release of Gibson’s new non-fiction collection DISTRUST THAT PARTICULAR FLAVOUR, Audible have acquired a number of backlist titles – namely NEUROMANCER, THE DIFFERENCE ENGINE, PATTERN RECOGNITION, SPOOK COUNTRY and ZERO HISTORY.

Happy listening!

Yet More Awards News…

Posted on Sunday, July 10th, 2011

Ian McDonald‘s superb novel THE DERVISH HOUSE has scooped yet another accolade. The author adds this year’s John W. Campbell Award to the BSFA Award and the nominations the novel has received for both the Arthur C. Clarke Award and the Hugo.

Even though Zeno has only been in business for three years, this is the second time a Zeno client has won this coveted prize… in fact, it’s the second time a client called Ian was won it! (See here) – not a back track record, eh?

Huge congratulations to Ian and to publishers, Pyr and Gollancz, who have done such a wonderful job with the novel. Note the UK mass market edition is due out on July 29th.

More Awards News…

Posted on Friday, June 10th, 2011

Two Zeno clients have just been short listed for major genre awards …

First up, as previously announced here, Ian McDonald‘s novel THE DERVISH HOUSE has already been short-listed for the BSFA Award (which he won!) the Arthur C. Clarke award (which he didn’t) and the Hugo Award for best novel (which he still might).

Yesterday came the news that THE DERVISH HOUSE is one of those novels short-listed for this year’s John W. Campbell Award – a major industry award given annually in the US for the best SF novel and which was recently won (in 2009) by another Zeno client, Ian R. MacLeod.

Also announced yesterday was the short list for this years Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, given for the best short short in the genre in a given year. Many congratulations to Lavie Tidhar, whose story THE NIGHT TRAIN, published at Strange Horizons, has deservedly made it onto the short list. You can read the story by following the link above.

Winners will be announced for both awards in July at this year’s Campbell Conference Banquet in Lawrence, Kansas – further details can be found here.

Ian McDonald Sells Film Rights to The Dervish House…

Posted on Thursday, April 28th, 2011

Zeno Agency is delighted to announce that film and television rights to Ian McDonald‘s award winning novel THE DERVISH HOUSE have been optioned by Warp Films. The deal was negotiated by Zeno’s John Richard Parker who says, ‘As with all Ian’s books THE DERVISH HOUSE is very much cinematic as well being an imaginative tour de force. I have always believed it has the qualities that make it eminently suitable for film and I am sure that with Warp’s enthusiasm for the project and their fantastic track record, all the ingredients are in place to put together something very special indeed.’

Warp Films have had notable successes recently with SUBMARINE and FOUR LIONS and Executive Producer Peter Carlton says ‘We’re delighted to have the chance to adapt THE DERVISH HOUSE for the screen, set in that most iconic of cities, crossroads of east and west, past and future, Istanbul. It starts with an explosion on a tram and ends in a race to stop a terrorist plot, but in the meantime Ian somehow weaves together speculative share trading, nanotechnology and Islamic microcalligraphy, to name but a few strands in this visual feast that has a narrative sweep and ambition all too rare in contemporary fiction.‘

News From Planet Eastercon…

Posted on Tuesday, April 26th, 2011

Zeno clients triumphed at the BSFA awards, which were held at this year’s Eastercon, at the Hilton Metropole in Birmingham over the Easter weekend.

First up was Aliette de Bodard, who was on hand to collect the award for Best Short Fiction for her story The Shipmaker, which appeared in Interzone issue #231. I managed to snap this pic of her being dwarfed by David Weber, who was on hand the present the award. (The homeless man to the rear is Paul Cornell prior to the removal of his comedy charity beard – for which he raised an impressive amount of money for, ironically, Shelter!)

No sooner had the applause for Aliette died down than our own Ian McDonald took to the stage to accept for the award for Best Novel for THE DERVISH HOUSE (not ‘The Dervish Nights’ as the convention newsletter later reported!), his 2010 novel published by Gollancz in the UK and by Pyr in the US.

A further layer of coolness was added to these wins when we later learned that both Ian and Aliette have been nominated for this year’s Hugo Awards – this news adding to Aliette’s previously reported Nebula nomination for the same story, and Ian’s Arthur C. Clarke Award nomination.

Huge congratulations to both authors.

There were lots of other Zeno authors at Eastercon – I got to meet our latest clients Anne Lyle and David Tallerman, albeit all too briefly, and the mass signing of Angry Robot authors at Waterstones in the centre of Birmingham was almost a mini ‘Zenocon’ of its own. Present were Aliette, Colin Harvey, John Meaney – or was it Thomas Blackthorn? – and, in a rare UK appearance, one Lavie Tidhar (pictured here next to a banner proclaiming his novels in all their steampunky glory.)

Elsewhere at the con, at readings, on panels and if truth must be told, in the bar, one could find Freda Warrington, Susan Boulton, Michael Cobley and last but by no means least Ian R. MacLeod.

I did a panel called ‘Writing 102: Finding an Agent‘, which was well attended and along with Gollancz Editorial Director Gillian Redfearn, Gollancz author Stephen Deas and author Martin Owton, we fielded a number of excellent questions from the audience. Hope those who were there found it helpful.

Locus Online on Ian McDonald…

Posted on Wednesday, March 9th, 2011

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

TWO Zeno Authors on Clarke Award Shortlist…

Posted on Friday, March 4th, 2011

We’re delighted to announce that two Zeno authors are on the short-list (of six) for this year’s coveted Arthur C. Clarke Award…

Ian McDonald – THE DERVISH HOUSE, published by Gollancz.
Tim Powers – DECLARE, published by Corvus

Not a bad hit rate for us! Ian has been on this shortlist in previous years and THE DERVISH HOUSE, listed in countless year’s best lists, is already winner of the SciFi Now award for best novel is a book on everyone’s lips as a definite contender for this year’s Hugo.

DECLARE is an interesting addition to the Clarke shortlist, not least because it was first published in the US back in 2000, when it won both the World Fantasy Award and the International Horror Guild award. It has taken a lamentably long time for British publishing to see the value in Powers’ work, but with the backing, support and vision of Corvus, DECLARE is now available directly to UK readers, with other books in the pipeline.

Award administrator Tom Hunter said ‘For me this list is a great indication of just how deep, rich and complex the literature of science fiction can be. I think this list is a definite keeper, as they say, and my hope is that twenty-five years from now people will still be coming back to it as a representation of everything that’s best about the diversity and strength of our genre‘

Pats On The Back All Round…

Posted on Thursday, February 3rd, 2011

There are all sorts of exciting goings on around here at the moment… We’ve had the staggeringly wonderful news that Ben Aaronovitch‘s novel RIVERS OF LONDON (a.k.a. MIDNIGHT RIOT over in the US, where Del Rey have just published) will appear at number eight in this week’s Sunday Times Bestseller list for hardcover fiction – a truly amazing achievement for Ben, who, we’re told, is the first début that Gollancz have ever had on this list. Extra big pats for our Ben!

No less vigorous pattage for Mister Ian McDonald, whose novel THE DERVISH HOUSE (also a Gollancz title – and Pyr in the States) has been nominated for the 2010 BSFA award for best novel. The shortlist is impressive, but Ian is widely regarded as a favourite. We’d be very surprised if this was only shortlist this wonderful novel makes this year. Also on the shortlist for the best short fiction is our own Aliette de Bodard, for her story The Shipmaker, which appeared in issue #231 of Interzone – congrats to both authors.

THE DERVISH HOUSE has also made this year’s LOCUS Recommended Reading List, which serves as a guide for the very best material our field has to offer. Here are the Zeno authors whose work has been listed…

Novels, Science Ficition – THE DERVISH HOUSE by Ian McDonald
Novels, Fantasy – THE DESERT SPEAR by Peter V Brett
Novels, Fantasy – HESPIRA by Matthew Hughes
First Novels – THE BOOKMAN by Lavie Tidhar
Collections – JOURNEYS by Ian MacLeod
Novellas – CLOUD PERMUTATIONS by Lavie Tidhar
Novellettes –BUTTERFLY AND THE BLIGHT AT THE HEART OF THE WORLD by Lavie Tidhar (Daily Science Fiction 9/3/10)
Short Stories – SECOND JOURNEY OF THE MAGUS by Ian R. MacLeod (Subterranean Winter ’10)
Short Stories – TONIGHT WE FLY by Ian McDonald (Masked)
Short Stories – THE NIGHT TRAIN by Lavie Tidhar (Strange Horizons 6/14/10)
Short Stories –THE SPONTANEOUS KNOTTING OF AN AGITATED STRING by Lavie Tidhar (Fantasy 5/17/10)

… a pretty good haul by anyone’s standards! More pats to all those who made the list, but particularly to Lavie Tidhar who scored a quite remarkable FIVE mentions!

Ian McDonald Podcast…

Posted on Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

The publication of THE DERVISH HOUSE draws near both here in the UK (Gollancz) and in the US (Pyr) and there is quite a buzz developing around this forthcoming Ian McDonald masterpiece.

Over at the Pyr-o-mania Blog, Lou Anders points folks to the Small World Podcast, where Ian can be heard talking about THE DERVISH HOUSE. Check it out!

‘The Dervish House combines Islamic mysticism, political and economic intrigue, a terrorist threat, and a nanotechnology with the potential to transform every human on the planet. The Dervish House takes place in Istanbul in 2027. The Dervish House is seven days, six characters, three interconnected story strands, one central common core—the eponymous dervish house, that pins all these players together in a weave of intrigue, conflict, drama, and a ticking clock of a thriller.‘

In The Post Today…

Posted on Thursday, May 20th, 2010

Proof copies of the forthcoming Gollancz edition of Ian McDonald’s staggeringly brilliant new novel THE DERVISH HOUSE to be published in late July…

‘In the CHAGA novels McDonald brought an Africa in the grip of a bizarre ailien invasion to life, in RIVER OF GODS he painted a rich portrait of India in 2047, in BRASYL he looked at different Brazils, past present and future. Ian McDonald has found reknown at the cutting adge of a movement to take SF away from its British and American white roots and out into the rich cultures of the world. THE DERVISH HOUSE continues that journey and centres on Istanbul in 2025. Turkey is part of Europe but sited on the edge, it is an Islamic country that looks to the West. THE DERVISH HOUSE is the story of the families that live in and around its titular house, it is at once a rich mosaic of Islamic life in the new century and telling novel of future possibilities.’

… and as if that wasn’t enough, we also received today two copies of US the mass market edition of Freda Warrington‘s ELFLAND, published by Tor with a cover rosette that loudly and proudly advertsises the fact that the book is the winner of the RT Book Reviews Reviewers’ Choice Award for Best fantasy Novel of 2009. Congratulations to Freda!

‘This dreamlike, nuanced and sensual novel is reminiscent of the best of early Charles de Lint and is compulsively readable. Rose is a memorable, unique and wholly sympathetic protagonist, and the supporting cast is equally well drawn. The story of Rose and Sam is compelling, enchanting and utterly enthralling. This is simply one of the best fantasy novels of the year.’ — RT Book Reviews