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Cyberabad Days

by Ian McDonald

4.03 · rating details · 224 ratings · 42 reviews

A collection of eight stories, "Cyberabad Days" is a triumphant return to the India of 2047, a new, muscular superpower in an age of artificial intelligences, climate-change induced drought, strange new genders, and genetically improved children.

Paperback, 279 pages

Published February 24th 2009 by Pyr (first published January 1st 2009)

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Feb 11, 2011

Klytia rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, fantascienza

Se non fosse che in India ci sono già stata (un viaggio breve ma mi è bastato) le descrizioni di Ian McDonald farebbero venire voglia di prendere il primo aereo e partire per Varanasi.

"Vision by vision the Ganga revealed itself to Kyle: next he become aware of the buildings; the guesthouses and hotels and havelis shouldering up to the steps, the ridiculous pink water towers, the many domes of the mosque and the golde spires of the temples and little temple down at the river leaning into th...moreSe non fosse che in India ci sono già stata (un viaggio breve ma mi è bastato) le descrizioni di Ian McDonald farebbero venire voglia di prendere il primo aereo e partire per Varanasi.

"Vision by vision the Ganga revealed itself to Kyle: next he become aware of the buildings; the guesthouses and hotels and havelis shouldering up to the steps, the ridiculous pink water towers, the many domes of the mosque and the golde spires of the temples and little temple down at the river leaning into the sit; the arcades and jetties and galleries across the river, beyond the yellow sand and the black, ragged tents of the holy men, the chimney and tanks of the pipes of the chemichal and oil plants, all flying the greeb white and orange weel-banners of Bharat." (Kyle meets the River).

Tuttavia servirebbe anche una macchina del tempo per atterrare nell'India del 2047: divisa in stati indipendenti, tecnologicamente avanzata e piena di contraddizioni.
Dove le intelligenze artificiali, le aeai, possono avere l'intelligenza di una scimmia, ma sono anche in grado di recitare impeccabilmete in una soap opera, diventare affascinanti diplomatici di cui innamorarsi o temibili divinità uguali se non superiori agli esseri umani da temere e distruggere.
Dove la selezione genetica ha generato un sovrannumero di maschi disposti a sposarsi fuori casta con qualunque donna disponibile mentre l'ingegneria genetica permette di creare bambini dall'intelligenza precoce e dalla vita lunghissima; una nuova generazione di dei che governeranno l'India, inquietanti e bizzarri per il resto dell'umanità, già obsoleti per i dataraja e i loro allevamenti di aeai.
Ma tutto questo progresso non è in grado di placare la sete. L'acqua, quella scura del Gange e quella dissetante del monsone, è il punto focale attorno al quale ruotano le vite di tutti: uomini, bramini, nutes e dataraja.

"Water is life. Water, its abudance and its rarity, would sculpt the future of Awadh, of all the nations of North India, from the Panjab to the United States of Bengal". (Vishnu and the cat circus).

Sette racconti per sette protagonisti, ciascuno a suo modo particolare, ognuno teso ad approfondire il proprio rapporto con le tradizioni e il progresso, la concezione di se stessi e il resto della società, tra la moderna India dove "the visible and invisible mingled [...] Aeais took shape is human minds, human become disemboied presences strong out across the global net" e l'antica, divina e assetata Bharat.(less)

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Dec 07, 2009

Alan rated it

Recommends it for: Believers in the American Century that was

Recommended to Alan by: Paul J. McAuley, Brasyl, and River of Gods

As in Robert Heinlein's justly-famed opening to The Door into Summer, "The door dilated," Ian McDonald packs a megaton of worldbuilding into a one-word package, with the appearance of the neologism "robotwallah" in the title of the lead story of this collection.

But that's the kind of thing that McDonald is good at... solid future worldbuilding, evoked with pyrotechnic prose but centered on characters with emotional depth and resonance. He even handles with grace t...moreAs in Robert Heinlein's justly-famed opening to The Door into Summer, "The door dilated," Ian McDonald packs a megaton of worldbuilding into a one-word package, with the appearance of the neologism "robotwallah" in the title of the lead story of this collection.

But that's the kind of thing that McDonald is good at... solid future worldbuilding, evoked with pyrotechnic prose but centered on characters with emotional depth and resonance. He even handles with grace the quixotic task of taking on the fragmented societies of the 21st-Century Indian subcontinent (the very name "India" apparently being a Western imposition) as a Western author, writing to Western readers. I cannot speak to the accuracy of the portrayal, but I can attest to its verisimilitude. What McDonald shows us of the future is implicitly believable.

Which is, I must admit, something of a problem for me, in that what McDonald is showing us here is, at least by implication, the collapse of the American project (as it were; as it was). For the most part, the US is entirely irrelevant to the people in this book. This is an impression made explicit in the introductory essay by Paul J. McAuley, evocatively entitled "America Is Not the Only Planet," and only somewhat belied by how seriously McDonald's characters take the US-inspired "Hamilton Acts" that restrict (or, rather, try to restrict) the spread and power of human-equivalent artificial intelligences.

The stories collected in this volume run the gamut from hopeful to devastating, and the people from poor to super-rich. The unifying technology of virtual reality (the "lighthoek"—a brilliant name, subtly reinforcing by its very strangeness to American ears that the future no longer belongs to the US) runs through all of these tales, but it's not the focus. The focus of these tales is, as it should be, primarily on how young Indians (whether they're from aeai-friendly Bharat, or water-rich but female-poor Awadh) handle their lives in the 21st Century... a century in which great scientific strides have been made (Awadh, for example, has four men for every woman, due to the ability to determine gender in vivo), but in which the same old tired human conflicts appear over and over again, inevitably.

That McDonald can turn this relatively bleak assessment of our future chances as a species into a vivid and exciting collection of tales is to his credit. This is a strong collection from a writer at the top of his game, and well worth attention.(less)

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Jul 29, 2011

Rebecca rated it

· review of another edition

Recommended to Rebecca by: Jay

Shelves: sci-fi, favourites

A fascinating collection of short stories from Ian McDonald, set in and around the India from his novel 'River of Gods'. Some stories tie in to the novel, others merely skirt around it, but all share the same vibrancy and rich detail, creating a bizarre mix of rustic mother India and hi-tech cyber-Bharat.

My favourite of the stories is probably The Djinn's Wife, though An Eligible Boy and Sanjeev and the Robotwallah are both close contenders. I think it's because of how nice the slic...moreA fascinating collection of short stories from Ian McDonald, set in and around the India from his novel 'River of Gods'. Some stories tie in to the novel, others merely skirt around it, but all share the same vibrancy and rich detail, creating a bizarre mix of rustic mother India and hi-tech cyber-Bharat.

My favourite of the stories is probably The Djinn's Wife, though An Eligible Boy and Sanjeev and the Robotwallah are both close contenders. I think it's because of how nice the slice of life pieces are in a world such as this - the world building is so rich (and having read River of Gods just a few weeks ago it's very fresh in my mind) and textured, that you do want to learn about how the everyday people survive in this place. The Djinn's Wife is sad and beautiful and in places horrifying - I gaped and held my hand to my mouth on the train in front of many bemused Japanese salarymen when I came to the conclusion of the story. As a woman especially it appeals to me, because I understand the choices Esha makes, even if I wouldn't neccessarily make them myself.

An Elligle Boy is just sweet. It's the story of a young man trying to woo a wife in the world of future India, where men outnumber women four to one, and a man has to try his best to marry well. It's the story of his best friend, who offers him the means to win a woman's heart. And it's a story of quiet betrayal, a little bitter but ultimately resulting in a happy ending.

Sanjeev and the Robotwallah is the first story in the book and I like the way it follows Sanjeev's fixation with the developing robots of India. His admiration for their - actually rather sad and quietly tragic - teenage pilots is a great take on hero worship, and in a way he gets to live his dream for just a bit.

The other stories - Kyle Meets the River (a sweet and desperate story of an American boy and his friendship with a local boy as he experiences India), The Dust Assassin (a chilling tale of a young girl whose family is locked in a feud with a rival family, which ultimately controls her life in ways far beyond her imaginings), The Little Goddess (a fascinating story of a process that sees a young girl in Nepal heralded as the personification of Kumari, and how it affects her long after her fall from godhood) and Vishnu at the Cat Circus (the most closely linked to River of Gods, the story of a Brahmin child through his artificially extended life, and a chilling vision of the possible future of merging AI with mankind) - are also examples of what makes McDonald's writing so absorbing.

A lot of what appeals about McDonald's writing is the subtleness of all the emotions - subtle tragedy, subtle humour, subtle horror, subtle warmth. It's nice to not have the emotions of the story be thrown in your face, yet still so apparent. I'm looking forward to checking out more of his writing. (less)

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Jun 01, 2009

Bookmarks Magazine rated it

Shelves: july-aug-2009

Ian McDonald's chops as a storyteller and visionary have become apparent over two decades of cutting-edge SFóin short stories, novels, and the trickier novellas and novelettes that have often formed the springboard for longer works. The stories in Cyberabad Days showcase those skills, distilling the author's extrapolation of the present into a cyberpunk, dystopian future that is still fundamentally human despite the increasing dominance of technology in "a world that manages to be convincin

...more

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May 07, 2009

Matthew rated it

This is a collection of short stories set in the same brilliantly realised future India as River of Gods. I'd already read "The Little Goddess", "The Djinn's Wife" and "Sanjeev and Robotwallah" in other collections and loved them, although I felt the third was weaker than the other two.
My favourite of the stories was "Vishnu and the Cat Circus", which provides an excellent timeline for the other stories and for River of Gods, as well as providing a lo...more

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Aug 11, 2011

Ketan Shah added it

"The future is already here – it's just unevenly distributed." This quopte from William Gibson perfectly sums up Cyberabad,a set of short stories set in Future india. Ian Macdonald perfectl;y captures the rhythms of India and presents us with a future that incredibly high tech but still uniquely Indian. A future where software designers create Artificial Intelligences based on soap opera characters to guide potential suitors through the complex process of attracting a choice bride. A ...more

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Feb 09, 2012

Gautam Patel added it · review of another edition

Shelves: sf

For anyone who read McDonald's River of Gods, this collection of long short stories is a delight. We're back in a dystopian, fractured India again, a land Balkanized into nation-states warring over water and artificial intelligences (aeais), societies fissured between the very ancient and the very new, mythologies crashing into technology. There are the Krishna Cops and the nutes (yts) and, wonderfully, super aeais which are distributed entities -- they can appear simultaneously on multiple tivi...more

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Mar 12, 2009

Adam rated it

Shelves: literature-disguised-as-science-fic

A collection of stories set in Mcdonald’s future India, which he used for his excellent novel River of Gods. These stories are told with the realpolitik science fiction of John Brunner, the magical realist tone of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and the widescreen imagination of Iain M. Banks. The fairy tales “Dust Assassin” and “Little Goddess” and the dark novella (original to the collection) “Vishnu at the Cat Circus” are the main prizes here. Some of the short pieces are sketches (though the world i...more

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Nov 04, 2010

Aaron rated it

Shelves: books-read-in-2010

This was a great collection of stories set in the same future India as the Author's River of Gods, which I also really liked. My personal favorite was "The Little Goddess" which was about a schizophrenic Nepalese girl that is exiled to India after injuring herself and thereby disqualifying herself from being a goddess. To survive in India, she has to become a very unique smuggler. I don't want to say anymore for fear of spoiling a creative, well-told story.

I think McDon...more

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Aug 20, 2009

claire rated it

These short stories do a lot to flesh out the universe first introduced in River of Gods. McDonald's near future India boasts one and a half billion people, twelve semi-independent nations, and nine million gods - encompassing both the Hindu pantheon and teeming clouds of post-humans and aieis. I'd already read "Sanjeev and Robotwallah" in what seems like every sci-fi collection published in the last couple of years, and had enjoyed getting a small second taste of what was going on i...more

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Sep 03, 2009

Jason Pettus rated it

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com:]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)

As I've mentioned here several times before, there are many of us science-fiction fans who believe that the industry has entered a whole new "age" in the last ten years, one major enough to be compared to the four eras that came before it (to be specific, the historic "Gold...more

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May 08, 2011

Logan rated it

Shelves: dystopian-fiction, india, scifi-fantasy, short_stories

In his two full-length novels, Brasyl and River of Gods, Ian McDonald has sculpted universes so amazingly rich and detailed that readers couldn't help being caught up in these tales of worlds on the cusp of new evolutionary leaps and societal upheaval. For days after finishing both of his prior books I would awaken from dreams set in the far-flung locale of a future India on the eve of its Centenary or the porous membranes between variant realities in the Rio of tomorrow. It was with great ant...moreIn his two full-length novels, Brasyl and River of Gods, Ian McDonald has sculpted universes so amazingly rich and detailed that readers couldn't help being caught up in these tales of worlds on the cusp of new evolutionary leaps and societal upheaval. For days after finishing both of his prior books I would awaken from dreams set in the far-flung locale of a future India on the eve of its Centenary or the porous membranes between variant realities in the Rio of tomorrow. It was with great anticipation that I looked forward to Cyberabad Days, McDonald's collection of stories set in the future-shocked universe of his renowned River of Gods.

Possible River of Gods spoilers below...

I was not to be disappointed. Set during and after the fragmenting of India into disparate states that formed the climactic crux of its parent book, Cyberabad Days both further fleshes out this vision of an India of tomorrow and answers some of the lingering questions I had after finishing River of Gods. The tales included range from the anime-ready yarn of a battle mech loving chai wallah who falls in with some child soldiers remotely controlling the large mechs to the ethical (and practical) dilemmas raised when an aeai (AI) soap opera star falls head-over-heels in love with a classically trained dancer (Adjustment Bureau this is not) to the closing story, "Vishnu at the Cat Circus", an imaginative epic of a world on the cusp of a true cognitive singularity that could be ripped from some Ramayana of the future.

Individually the stories are of varying levels of quality and would make little sense to readers unfamiliar with the source material, and there are minor grammatical and spelling errors that make me think this was rushed to print in the wake of River of Gods success. Still, in this collected form nearly all offer an entertaining return to one of the most imaginative universes I have yet to encounter. This brief tasting tray of scifi done right has only whet my appetite for McDonald's next long player. Highly recommended for fans of dystopian futures and wonderfully rendered worlds.(less)

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May 23, 2009

Madeleine Hart rated it

"Return to the India of 2047"

With so much science-fiction out there, it always impresses me to encounter a fresh perspective.

This is a collection of futuristic stories all based in India. Some of the writing style took a while for me to get into the rhythm of, but I enjoyed the stretch of imagination.

I'm not always a fan of the hard science/gadget heavy fiction, and some of the details and stories lean that way. I did find all of the stories well w...more

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Jul 27, 2011

Graham Crawford rated it

a mixed bag - some very good stories, a couple very badly written. Alas, the last tale, (and the only one directly related to the characters in ""River of Gods""), is one of the weakest stories in the book. The action seems like it was quickly tacked onto a separate narrative - perhaps pushed on the book by the publishers looking to justify the term ""sequel"". This is in no way a sequel. It is a collection of stories set in the same universe as "Rive...more

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Dec 13, 2010

Den rated it

A look at the post-singularity world as it affects India. This isn't an novel, but an anthology of novellas/novelettes featuring a variety of characters as they confront of world of artificial intelligences (aeais) and transhumanism from a Hindu perspective. This is not an easy read, especially if you're not familiar with Indian culture. But if you're looking for science fiction from a non-western perspective, definitely take a look at this book.

· see review

Sep 20, 2010

Psychophant rated it

Shelves: collected-shorts, near-future, reviewed

This collection of short stories set the tone for Ian McDonald great work River of Gods, as they chronologically show the events that shape his view of the future India, with an emphasis in the AIs that direct that future. Although they were written after the main work, they really clarify and explain some of the complex vision that McDonald has woven on the future India.

As usual in a collection of stories the quality varies, from the normal to the very good. My personal favorite was...more

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Sep 19, 2010

Paul rated it

If you liked Ian McDonald's River of Gods, you'll love this collection of short stories set in his cyberpunk, near-future India universe. I liked this better than the novel-- the writing in each short was tight and incredibly focused, exploring everything from war to social castes to life after humanity's singularity. I can't praise this anthology enough, it's the best sci-fi I've read in some time.

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Mar 11, 2010

John rated it

Very well written. A collection of short stories set in India of the future. A fitting sequel to River of Gods. These are easier to read, especially if you've already adapted to the cultural changes from Gods.

Provocative thoughts about the future of robotics, AI, nanotechnology, water resources, religious conflict, genetic engineering and the multiverse.

Highly recommended.

· see review

Feb 04, 2011

Matt rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

A great collection - McDonald's future India comes across really well in short form.

There are few authors able to so fully “transport” me to their imagined worlds as McDonald.

Here he takes several regular SF tropes (AIs, information singularity and genetic engineering) and examines them via their impact on the lives of people not directly involved in bringing them about.

This makes his stories accessible and emotionally engaging.

In many cases a lo...more

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Apr 15, 2009

Diana rated it

Cyberabad Days returns to McDonald's India of 2047, a balkanized state from his 2006 novel River of Gods, which was nominated for the best novel Hugo Award. This is a collection of a short stories centered around people dealing with a massive technological change on an intensely personal level.

· see review

Mar 05, 2011

Dan rated it

Shelves: science-fiction, transhumanism

As I noted in my thoughts on River of Gods, I started reading these two books simultaneously. I eventually quit, because I was learning things from Cyberabad Days that were interfering with the exposition in River of Gods. Good thing I quit when I did, or I would have completely spoiled the ending of RoG. So my recommendation to you is, read River first and then, if you like it, read this book. All in all, I would say that I enjoyed "The Djinn's Wife" the best of all the stories in...more

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Apr 23, 2009

Sheri rated it

Just finished with this real winner of a book about India in the future. Read more about it at :
http://www.compulsivereader.com/html/mod...

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May 28, 2011

Martin rated it

Recommended to Martin by: Dennis

Excellent storytelling set in the world established in River of Gods, a divided India in 2047, characterized by robots, ascendant AI, and drought. I'm not always happy with short stories, but I think having them all set in in the same world helped, because there was no need to set up the scene each time.

· see review

Apr 12, 2011

Wealhtheow marked it as to-read

I liked one of his short stories, so I've vowed to try one of his novels. If there's a better one I should read, please suggest it!

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Jul 21, 2009

martha rated it

Recommended to martha by: Kelly

Shelves: 2009

Scifi short stories set in a near-future India populated by artificial intelligences, political upheaval, genetically modified children, Nepalese child goddesses etc etc etc. I really loved the fusion of the cultural and technological and I hope this is the direction scifi's moving in. The descriptions can be kind of overwhelming at times, especially the street scenes, a welter of unfamiliar things, but I can see how that might be intentional. (Or maybe I just wanted more paragraph breaks.) ...more

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Apr 03, 2010

Richard marked it as to-read

Shelves: scifi

Nominated for the 2009 Philip K. Dick Award for 2009; didn't win but received a "Special Citation".

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Aug 02, 2010

Tamahome is currently reading it

I read Sanjeev and Robotwallah. *shrug* I think I needed the glossary from River of Gods.

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Apr 07, 2010

Debrarian added it

Shelves: adult-fiction, sf, didn-t-finish, dystopia, alternate-history, other-lands

Fascinating.
Didn't have a chance to finish. Will check it out again some time.

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Aug 17, 2009

Ron rated it

Great collection - well-drawn characters, well-told stories. Highly recommended. Ian McDonald is one of the very finest writers of literary-quality science fiction today.

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May 19, 2010

Sc rated it

Shelves: science-fiction

A series of stories set in the India of River of Gods. Very good.

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About Ian McDonald

Ian McDonald (1960-) is a British science fiction novelist, living in Belfast. His themes include nanotechnology, postcyberpunk settings, and the impact of rapid social and technological change on non-Western societies.

McDonald was born in 1960, in Manchester, to a Scottish father and Irish mother, but moved to Belfast when he was five, and has lived there ever since. He therefore live...more

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