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A review by wordsfromvictoria
The Dervish House by Ian McDonald
4.0
My favourite genre meets one of my favourite cities: Istanbul. Imagine a future where Turkey has finally acceded to the European Union and everyone is snorting performance-enhancing nanobots before they cut a deal. A gallery owner is given an Indiana Jones style mission to recover a legendary artifact, the Mellified Man: a corpse preserved in honey. Four "masters of the universe" plan a killing on the commodities market. Two brothers squat in an old dervish tekkes and implement their own brand of sharia law. A school boy with over-protective parents lives his life vicariously through his pet shape-shifting nano-bot.
It's always a pleasure to read something set where you've been and encounter familiar places and the author's research is evident. Some readers seem to have criticised the novel for being over long but I was enjoying the rich setting and background detail too much to notice.
Recommended for lovers of the Orient and science fiction.
It's always a pleasure to read something set where you've been and encounter familiar places and the author's research is evident. Some readers seem to have criticised the novel for being over long but I was enjoying the rich setting and background detail too much to notice.
Recommended for lovers of the Orient and science fiction.