The Kaleidoscopic Mr McDonald

Over on SFSite.com, Stuart Carter reviews Ian McDonald’s Brasyl,concluding (as Ian himself has said before), that it’s not simply River of Gods 2. Instead, Stuart says, “let us try to imagine a mashup of David Mitchell’s much-lauded Cloud Atlas and Eduardo Galeano’s soul-searingly epic history of South America, Memory Of Fire, and I hope that will give you some idea of the richness and relevance contained in Brasyl. The only fitting adjective here is, once again, ‘kaleidoscopic…'”

Speaking of how the three story lines converge in a tale of parallel realities, Stuart says, “Really — this is exactly what I read science fiction for: to be shown dazzling new things, new worlds — new thoughts, even; to be immersed in unfamiliar milieux and made aware of the potential wonder of the world around us, whether in a different dimension or just a different timezone.”