Re: The Book Thread
Posted: Wed May 02, 2012 7:13 pm
I've finished, and must now recommend to everyone, this book:
The world of The Dervish house is a reflection of it's parent city of Istanbul which is itself a reflection of the nation of Turkey; ancient, paradoxical and divided like the brain of a human being. In the year 2027 on a swealteringly hot summers day there is a small explosion in Enginsoy Square, a minor bomb on the 157 tram - the only casualty the suicidal bomber who's head was wired to explode. Yet this everyday occurance will send shockwaves much further, resonating louder and ultimately effecting the lives of those around it in unexpected ways.
Turkey of 2027 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 and the key to the immense gas wealth of Russia and Central Asia.
This is the age of the carbon consciousness, each individual given a carbon allowance which has brought fourth a whole new trade. Those who can master the trading between gas prices and carbon trading permits can make a fortune, the old Byzantine politics are back. They never went away.
This book is fantastic. It's extremely refreshing, both in terms of characters - interesting, sympathetic, and frequently fun - and setting. I mean no disrespect to the Americans among us but I tire greatly of America as a setting, and situating a near-future technothriller in Istanbul is just a brilliant move. Well I say technothriller but it's much more than that: it delves into the history of the city and the country's revolutionary past just as much as it explores a near-future Turkey that's recently joined the EU and is turning into a budding Silicon Valley of nanotech. It's as much Dan Brown as it is William Gibson (but better), with your fair share of Islamic mysticism thrown into the mix. And we see this through the eyes of a hotshot gas trader, a retired Greek professor, an antiquities dealer, a disabled kid with a nanobot toy pet and a whole bunch of others. It's absolutely fantastic and I can't recommend it enough to people who like a good page-turner set in what certainly seems to me as one of the most plausible and well-crafted near-futures I've seen in a while. I mean, shit, if you manage to draw convincing parallels between Sephardi micro-calligraphy and its impact on Islamic architecture on one hand and nanotech and its implications for the future of humanity on the other, you get my vote for the Hugos.
The world of The Dervish house is a reflection of it's parent city of Istanbul which is itself a reflection of the nation of Turkey; ancient, paradoxical and divided like the brain of a human being. In the year 2027 on a swealteringly hot summers day there is a small explosion in Enginsoy Square, a minor bomb on the 157 tram - the only casualty the suicidal bomber who's head was wired to explode. Yet this everyday occurance will send shockwaves much further, resonating louder and ultimately effecting the lives of those around it in unexpected ways.
Turkey of 2027 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 and the key to the immense gas wealth of Russia and Central Asia.
This is the age of the carbon consciousness, each individual given a carbon allowance which has brought fourth a whole new trade. Those who can master the trading between gas prices and carbon trading permits can make a fortune, the old Byzantine politics are back. They never went away.
This book is fantastic. It's extremely refreshing, both in terms of characters - interesting, sympathetic, and frequently fun - and setting. I mean no disrespect to the Americans among us but I tire greatly of America as a setting, and situating a near-future technothriller in Istanbul is just a brilliant move. Well I say technothriller but it's much more than that: it delves into the history of the city and the country's revolutionary past just as much as it explores a near-future Turkey that's recently joined the EU and is turning into a budding Silicon Valley of nanotech. It's as much Dan Brown as it is William Gibson (but better), with your fair share of Islamic mysticism thrown into the mix. And we see this through the eyes of a hotshot gas trader, a retired Greek professor, an antiquities dealer, a disabled kid with a nanobot toy pet and a whole bunch of others. It's absolutely fantastic and I can't recommend it enough to people who like a good page-turner set in what certainly seems to me as one of the most plausible and well-crafted near-futures I've seen in a while. I mean, shit, if you manage to draw convincing parallels between Sephardi micro-calligraphy and its impact on Islamic architecture on one hand and nanotech and its implications for the future of humanity on the other, you get my vote for the Hugos.