The Dervish House

"A dark and perversely delicious fear gnaws Ayşe, the intellectual intoxication she experiences from opening a new manuscript or unwrapping an unseen miniature and knowing that she stands on the edge of the incomprehensible, that she holds in her hands a world and a way of thinking alien to her in every way. The past is another universe: a long dead sect drew its truths across whole cities for generations it could not imagine."

Ian McDonald's books have been touring the non-Western world for some time now. He seems to be on a mission to explore how various cultures might deal with near-future SF scenarios. This time, he fetches up in Turkey. McDonald doesn't just use the common trope of this nation's poised-between-Europe-and-Asia show more tension; he adds a tension between technology and faith, and another between progress and history. For much of the book the plot simmers away slowly, waiting until we've really gotten to know our cast of characters and how these tensions play out in each of them.

It's the characters that make this book: Ayşe Erkoç, power-dressing dealer in antiquities; Can Durukan, isolated boy with heart trouble and some very cool robots; Leyla Gültaşli, desperate to prove herself in the big city; Georgios Ferentinou, retired and broken professor of economics; Adnan Sarioğlu, master of the deal and lover of money; and Necdet Hasgüler, wastrel and psychopath. And dozens of others, each given care and time to breathe. Through them we also get a multi-faceted view of Istanbul. We learn about some of what this unique city has been through, and about how its people might respond to nanotechnology.

The SF is almost incidental, really. This is a novel about Istanbul, written by a man with an impressive ability to inhabit a huge variety of voices.

Take your time, listen to the voices, and enjoy. show less

Fascinating whirlwind of a future Istanbul, the oh so famed Constantinople thrown into a world of swarmbots, gray ooze of nanotechnology terror threats, and AI assisted economic hijinks.

The one thing I love most about Mr. Mcdonald's books are the levels of depth and exploration of the world he has created. I place the tech ideas and the wonderfully odd legends like the man of honey on a second tier of coolness, followed by wonderfully non-traditional heroes and anti-heroes that wouldn't normally spark much interest except on a humanist level.

I wouldn't call it so much as a complaint as a mild irritant, but all of these separate stories seemed to be converging in a way a bit beyond the titular building where they all lived, and there show more were a few minor crossovers, but honestly, I was hoping and expecting a slightly more grand blow up that included everyone a bit more directly. Sure, everyone was at least indirectly involved, but save for our boy detective, few had active rolls in the final serious conflict.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed each of their stories and rooted for them all in their turns, but it all came together to make the story mostly about showing us Istanbul in a tech future, not the grandiose changes that came about by the protagonists in it. Again, that's not very fair, either, because the heist portion of the novel was rather cool and the terrorist actions and the complications surrounding a forced religious breakthrough through nanotech was also kickass. Perhaps I just wanted more payoff for an ending. The buildup and characters and worldbuilding really rocked, tho. :)

I'll easily keep reading his works. They make me think, and I can't call this a fluff piece by any stretch. I'm going to say this piece is a serious work of sci-fi. Speculative fiction at it's best. Not easy reading, but so very well developed that it takes on a life of its own. show less

How is it that [a:Ian McDonald|25376|Ian McDonald|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1214548966p2/25376.jpg] still has not won a Hugo award?!?
This is an awesomely well-crafted book. The characters are full and vibrant; the interweaving plots are all interesting; the future tech is just futuristic enough that it helps drive some of the plots, but not so over-the-horizon as to be unbelievable. But perhaps what makes this book so enrapturing is the way McDonald makes the city of Istanbul a character in its own right.
I recently read [b:Deep State|8203603|Deep State (Dagmar, #2)|Walter Jon Williams|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1297054903s/8203603.jpg|13050632] by [a:Walter Jon Williams|48960|Walter Jon show more Williams|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1275489992p2/48960.jpg], much of which was also set in Istanbul. In my review of that book, I complimented Williams for doing "a nice job of sketching out the various locations in which the narrative occurs, providing enough detail to help the mind's eye without getting bogged down in florid detail." McDonald, on the other hand, paints deep, rich, vibrant pictures of Istanbul; I almost feel as if I have visited there myself. Yet he never lets this word-painting get in the way of allowing the plot to move forward. I am in awe at his masterful balance.
[Note: If/When I re-read this book (as I fully intend to do), I will give it five stars. It's just a personal rule of mine that I only give that rating to works that I return to.] show less

The really impressive thing about this book is the description of the setting. William Gibson once said that all science fiction is really about place, and with that in mind The Dervish House is incredibly well described. There is a flavor to the city that makes you want to explore it on your own...preferably armed. But what didn't hold my attention was most of the characters. I enjoyed the exploits of the young functionally deaf detective with his nano-bot toys, and the retired psychological economist trying to prove to the world that he is still useful, and the young woman searching for a mellified man, but there are other main characters in this book that I just found distracting and annoying. It all came together well in the end, show more and it was well written, but I found myself bored through a lot of it mainly because I just couldn't get myself to care about many of the major plot twists and characters. show less

While the core story of The Dervish House spans only a few days in the year 2027 the tale incorporates legend, myth, history, politics and religion spanning centuries, if not millennia. Its themes include unrequited love, betrayal, revolution, cultural sexism, terrorism, Islamic fundamentalism, prejudice, fraudulent commodity trading, clashing cultures, the isolation of the individual, and the day-to-day reality facing people on the streets of Istanbul.

Ian McDonald tells his intricate story through the lives of six individuals who are linked in various ways to an ancient wooden tekke (a building designed specifically for gatherings of a Sufi brotherhood) located in Istanbul, the Dervish house of the title. This building has survived show more centuries and in 2027 contains several dwellings and an antique dealership.

The action starts on the third page with a suicide bomber detonating her explosive device on a tram. We are then treated to how this terrorist act affects each of the six characters; the teenager on the tram who survives the explosion but is traumatised by his experience; a young marketing graduate whose journey to her important job interview is disrupted by the ensuing traffic chaos; the nine-year-old boy, confined to his apartment and a world of silence by a rare heart condition; the retired Greek economist whose past has brought him into conflict with the authorities; a dealer in ancient artefacts who receives an offer she cannot refuse; the yuppie commodity dealer with plans for a killing that will set him up for life.

The Istanbul of McDonald’s novel is in a Turkey that has become part of the European Union, and is experiencing an economic boom based on great advances in nanotechnology and its applications. Turkey’s strategic location at the meeting point of Europe and Asia plays a big part in the economic success of the area, and also in the potential targeting of its ancient capital city by terrorist groups wishing to make their mark.

Does Ian McDonald succeed in producing a good book with so many diverse strands and elements?

In my opinion, yes, he does.

His characters are full and rounded. Their actions are rational and coherent in the context of the story and the situations in which they find themselves. Family backgrounds and personal experiences are presented and prove consistent with how the individuals are portrayed.

The Science Fiction elements in the story, nanotechnology and robotics, are critical to this near-future tale, but they have not been allowed to push character development or plot into the shade. This novel is an excellent political techno-thriller with some heart-touching romance, and is populated with characters who have everyday lives and real concerns. It deals with a wide range of issues pertinent to today’s global reality, and deals with them in a historically accurate context.

I learned a lot about Turkey’s history from this book, and have been prompted to read more about this fascinating and turbulent part of the world.

This was a book that I enjoyed immensely. show less

The Dervish House is the latest, third world, futuristic work by Ian McDonald. Set in Istanbul, Turkey in 2027, the novel has much the same feel and style as his earlier effort, River of Gods. And while I enjoyed River of Gods, I found it somewhat difficult to follow. I had hoped that this would be an easier read, but was disappointed to find that it was quite the opposite.

Now, I guess if Ian McDonald is far more literate and intelligent than I am, that’s largely my problem. But I’m a fairly well educated (post graduate degree) and well read person. If he is writing over my head, then his target audience is somewhat limited. In addition, the plethora of Turkish terms and names merely added to the difficulty.

Most of my reading is show more done at night, prior to sleep. I try to get in 60-90 minutes every night. This is an extremely difficult novel to stay on top of at that rate. If you want to fully enjoy this work, I’d recommend taking it on a lazy vacation and spending lots of time at each sitting. Even though the page count seems easily doable in 2-3 days, unlike most works, which artificially expand their length through spacing, margins and chapter breaks, this book reads far longer than its 410 pages. Couple this with the dense writing style and you get the equivalent of a 750 page work.

I was able to finish the final 100 pages over the course of a weekend and, as a result, pulled together the various threads and was able to appreciate the magnificent writing style and story telling. Had I been able to read the entire book at this rate, I think I would have enjoyed it far more. show less

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It's 2027 and Turkey has joined the European Union. In an old tekke in Istanbul, six people find their lives intertwined around a plot involving nanotechnology, the Nabucco gas pipeline, and the arcane secrets of the mellified man. There is a lovely echo between microcalligraphy and encoding information on junk DNA. It's Ian McDonald's best disciplined novel so far, I think, with all the lush description and present tense intensity that we are used to, but somehow coming together rather beautifully. As far as I can tell (based on my work in a Turkish speaking area outside Turkey over the last few years) Ian seems to have really got the measure of Turkish orthography and culture. A brilliant book.