Promotional Information

Ian McDonald's last novel, RIVER OF GODS, won the BSFA award in 2005 and was universally critically acclaimed. McDonald is one of the most influential writers of his generation. BRASYL is an epic and timely novel of a near future Brazil; a wonderful example of the international scope of the new SF RIVER OF GODS was a step up for McDonald, BRASYL will, with Gollancz, be a break-out. SF for all lovers of magical-realism, for all concerned with globalisation and global-warming. Ian McDonald returns to his original publisher with his best novel yet.

About the Author

Ian McDonald was born in Manchester in 1960. His family moved to Northern Island in 1965. He now lives in Belfast and works in TV production. The author of many previous novels including the groundbreaking Chaga books set in Africa Ian McDonald has long been at the cutting edge of SF. RIVER OF GODS won the BSFA award in 2005.

Reviews

"Ian McDonald is one of the more politically engaged science-fiction writers working today. Brasyl is a unique thriller of ideas." -- Yo Zushi NEW STATESMAN "A dazzling, bold, fast-moving rush through three different worlds. I'm still thinking about it days after I finished reading it, a sure sign of a worthwhile book." DEATHRAY 'An extraordinary thematic narrative that I have no doubt will be featuring on many an award shortlist in the coming year. A genre novel right on the cutting edge of the quantum blades wielded as weapons within its pages, a book that loudly proclaims the arrival of the future' SF REVU 'A major novel from a major talent' SF REVIEWS 'McDonald conveys quite brilliantly the prodigious energy and fecundity of Brazil as it is and could be. ...Brasyl is a feast of fine prose, an able political novel, and an intriguing experiment in cross-temporal storytelling and implication. ...it is without doubt one of the major SF books of 2007' LOCUS 'A mesmerizing ensemble of three different tales. I was astonished... to see how McDonald yet again captures the essence of a country and its people and weaves it in a myriad of ways throughout the novel... Brasyl deserves the highest possible recommendation. It will surely be one of the best - if not the best - science fiction novels of 2007' FANTASY HOTLIST I predict Brasyl will grace multiple shortlists come 2008. It's easily the best SF novel I've read this year. McDonald is a superb writer ... much more often than not McDonald's prose is a wonder, from a hundred vivid and witty details, to sustained passages of perfectly judged atmosphere' STRANGE HORIZONS 'A triptych tale of humanity and all its passions and indignities. McDonald is not for the weak of heart. But oh, the ideas! Having learned and wondered and considered, I am better for having read this novel' SPECULATIVE REVIEWS "It's a great story, wonderfully written, packed with neo-lit images and nifty phrases. A triple stranded SF narrative that glows with stronger colours and throbs to a more compulsive samba beat than mere reality can offer." -- David Langford SFX "A bold, triple stranded novel - a sort of mutant chick lit horror, a historical adventure and a reeling cyberpunk thriller." THE BIG ISSUE "Scintillating. Put this on your must-read list." -- Dave Langford BBC FOCUS "A brilliant, kaleidoscopic novel that's both a portrait of a country and an exploration of the wider shores of theoretical physics. Brasyl is McDonald's best book yet." -- Lisa Tuttle THE TIMES "A big, sprawling, sexy, complex novel. The writing is energetic and economical, the story riveting, the denouement fascinating. Enjoy!" DREAMWATCH "A distinct and convincingly detailed world, full of the horrors of slavery, the Orwellian potential of the surveillance society currently developing, and the casual cruelty of our own celebrity driven culture. An impressive work." STARBURST Brasyl is an accomplished work, a complex, multi-layered narrative which questions the notions of determinism and free will in a universe of illimitable possibilities. McDonald not only paints a stunning portrait of Brazil, which in all its chaos mirrors the quantum uncertainties of the multiverse, but presents a set of characters who come over as real people: multi-faceted, flawed, but ultimately sympathetic." -- Eric Brown THE GUARDIAN Brasyl's worth a look: whenever McDonald's imagination slips free of its narrative constraints it leaves many of his contemporaries standing. A flawed technicolour storm of a book by one of Britain's most consistently interesting SF writers." -- Tim Martin THE INDEPENDENT "Part Blade Runner, part Fast and Furious, part Philip K Dick, part Neuromancer. One of my favourite reads of 2007 so far." SFFWORLD.COM "Brasyl is the best new novel I've read this year: a load of fun and an inventive politico-philosophical story, making it both "entertaining" and "important." Read it now so that when it starts popping up on several short lists later this year you'll know why." SFFWORLD.COM "Probably the most intriguing and stylish SF novel of the year. Gloriously lush." -- Roz Kaveney TIME OUT

"Ian McDonald is one of the more politically engaged science-fiction writers working today. Brasyl is a unique thriller of ideas." -- Yo Zushi NEW STATESMAN "A dazzling, bold, fast-moving rush through three different worlds. I'm still thinking about it days after I finished reading it, a sure sign of a worthwhile book." DEATHRAY 'An extraordinary thematic narrative that I have no doubt will be featuring on many an award shortlist in the coming year. A genre novel right on the cutting edge of the quantum blades wielded as weapons within its pages, a book that loudly proclaims the arrival of the future' SF REVU 'A major novel from a major talent' SF REVIEWS 'McDonald conveys quite brilliantly the prodigious energy and fecundity of Brazil as it is and could be. ...Brasyl is a feast of fine prose, an able political novel, and an intriguing experiment in cross-temporal storytelling and implication. ...it is without doubt one of the major SF books of 2007' LOCUS 'A mesmerizing ensemble of three different tales. I was astonished... to see how McDonald yet again captures the essence of a country and its people and weaves it in a myriad of ways throughout the novel... Brasyl deserves the highest possible recommendation. It will surely be one of the best - if not the best - science fiction novels of 2007' FANTASY HOTLIST I predict Brasyl will grace multiple shortlists come 2008. It's easily the best SF novel I've read this year. McDonald is a superb writer ... much more often than not McDonald's prose is a wonder, from a hundred vivid and witty details, to sustained passages of perfectly judged atmosphere' STRANGE HORIZONS 'A triptych tale of humanity and all its passions and indignities. McDonald is not for the weak of heart. But oh, the ideas! Having learned and wondered and considered, I am better for having read this novel' SPECULATIVE REVIEWS "It's a great story, wonderfully written, packed with neo-lit images and nifty phrases. A triple stranded SF narrative that glows with stronger colours and throbs to a more compulsive samba beat than mere reality can offer." -- David Langford SFX "A bold, triple stranded novel - a sort of mutant chick lit horror, a historical adventure and a reeling cyberpunk thriller." THE BIG ISSUE "Scintillating. Put this on your must-read list." -- Dave Langford BBC FOCUS "A brilliant, kaleidoscopic novel that's both a portrait of a country and an exploration of the wider shores of theoretical physics. Brasyl is McDonald's best book yet." -- Lisa Tuttle THE TIMES "A big, sprawling, sexy, complex novel. The writing is energetic and economical, the story riveting, the denouement fascinating. Enjoy!" DREAMWATCH "A distinct and convincingly detailed world, full of the horrors of slavery, the Orwellian potential of the surveillance society currently developing, and the casual cruelty of our own celebrity driven culture. An impressive work." STARBURST Brasyl is an accomplished work, a complex, multi-layered narrative which questions the notions of determinism and free will in a universe of illimitable possibilities. McDonald not only paints a stunning portrait of Brazil, which in all its chaos mirrors the quantum uncertainties of the multiverse, but presents a set of characters who come over as real people: multi-faceted, flawed, but ultimately sympathetic." -- Eric Brown THE GUARDIAN Brasyl's worth a look: whenever McDonald's imagination slips free of its narrative constraints it leaves many of his contemporaries standing. A flawed technicolour storm of a book by one of Britain's most consistently interesting SF writers." -- Tim Martin THE INDEPENDENT "Part Blade Runner, part Fast and Furious, part Philip K Dick, part Neuromancer. One of my favourite reads of 2007 so far." SFFWORLD.COM "Brasyl is the best new novel I've read this year: a load of fun and an inventive politico-philosophical story, making it both "entertaining" and "important." Read it now so that when it starts popping up on several short lists later this year you'll know why." SFFWORLD.COM "Probably the most intriguing and stylish SF novel of the year. Gloriously lush." -- Roz Kaveney TIME OUT

British author McDonald's outstanding SF novel channels the vitality of South America's largest country into an edgy, post-cyberpunk free-for-all. McDonald sets up three separate characters in different eras--a cynical contemporary reality-TV producer, a near-future bisexual entrepreneur and a tormented 18th-century Jesuit agent. He then slams them together with the revelation that their worlds are strands of an immense quantum multiverse, and each of them is threatened by the Order, a vast conspiracy devoted to maintaining the status quo until the end of time. As McDonald weaves together the separate narrative threads, each character must choose between isolation or cooperation, and also between accepting things as they are or taking desperate action to make changes possible. River of Gods (2004), set in near-future India, established McDonald as a leading writer of intelligent, multicultural SF, and here he captures Latin America's mingled despair and hope. Chaotic, heartbreaking and joyous, this must-read teeters on the edge of melodrama, but somehow keeps its precarious balance. (May) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.