Wednesday, June 29, 2011

The Dervish House / Ian McDonald / 359 pages

This futuristic story is set in Istanbul in the mid twentieth century.  The story opens with a suicide bombing.  A woman touches a jeweled broach at her neck - an explosive, decapitating herself, killing others, and destroying the train.  The city is beset by a 5 day long heat wave.  Action centering on the whirling dervish house of Adam Dede, includes "corporate wheeling and dealing, Islamic mysticism, political and economic intrigue, ancient Ottoman mysteries, a terrifying new terrorist threat, and a nanotechnology with the potential to transform every human on the planet".  This work of science fiction was a difficult read for me.

RUSA 2011

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