My rating:

add to my books

The Dervish House

by Ian McDonald

3.86 · rating details · 690 ratings · 182 reviews

Seven days, six characters, three interconnected story strands, one central common core--the eponymous dervish house, a character in itself--that pins all these players together in a weave of intrigue, conflict, drama, and a ticking clock of a thriller.

Hardcover, 359 pages

Published July 27th 2010 by Pyr (first published January 1st 2010)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

There is a good chance some of your friends read this book. Sign in to see!

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

Best 21st Century SF

2nd out of 42 books — 14 voters

The Thousand Autumns Of Jacob De Zoet by David Mitchell

Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson

Not the Booker Prize 2010

34th out of 87 books — 112 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 2,504)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Jul 23, 2010

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 illegally.)

(This is being published today for the first time in honor of "Ian McDonald Week" at CCLaP. For an overview of all the content regarding McDonald being posted here this week, you can click here.)

So what exactly are we talking about, anyway, when we talk about "cyberp...more

like 12 likes

· see review

Jul 08, 2010

Stefan rated it

Shelves: science-fiction, www-fantasyliterature-com-review

Necdet, a troubled young man, is witness to what looks like a botched suicide bombing on a crowded city tram; afterwards, he starts seeing djinn and other supernatural creatures. Can, a nine year old boy with an amazing robotic toy — and a heart condition that confines him to a silent world — accidentally becomes involved in the intrigue. Ayse, a gallery owner, is contracted to find a mysterious and elusive relic, while her boyfriend Adnan, a successful trader, works on his own scheme to become ...moreNecdet, a troubled young man, is witness to what looks like a botched suicide bombing on a crowded city tram; afterwards, he starts seeing djinn and other supernatural creatures. Can, a nine year old boy with an amazing robotic toy — and a heart condition that confines him to a silent world — accidentally becomes involved in the intrigue. Ayse, a gallery owner, is contracted to find a mysterious and elusive relic, while her boyfriend Adnan, a successful trader, works on his own scheme to become rich. A retired Greek economist, Georgios, is recruited into a secret government think tank, and Leyla, a young social climber, tries to get involved with a promising nanotech startup.

These six narratives all take place in Istanbul, less than 20 years into the future. The city, historically a crossroads and now also the capital of the newest EU member nation, is where East meets West, old meets new, Christianity meets Islam, and Europe and Asia meet across the Bosphorus river that dissects the ancient city. Likewise, the lives of these six strangers will meet and interconnect in The Dervish House, a gorgeous new SF novel by Ian McDonald.

Just like in The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi, that other excellent near-future SF novel set in a capital city where ancient cultural traditions mix with a strong modern and western influence, the various point-of-view characters tell a complex, multi-faceted story, but they also create a vivid impression of life in a bustling, endlessly fascinating metropolis, seen from several equally effective angles. However, don’t draw the comparison between those two novels too far: The Dervish House isn’t without some darker moments, but it’s considerably less grim than The Windup Girl, and Ian McDonald is a much more experienced writer, resulting in a more accomplished novel. Readers who liked The Windup Girl will probably love The Dervish House, but the reverse isn’t necessarily true, even though they’re both excellent and memorable novels.

The Dervish House is initially a bit confusing, as the six separate narratives are each introduced in rapid succession, but Ian McDonald has enough talent to help you settle into the novel quickly. After a few sub-chapters, you’ll start recognizing characters, and even before that point, you can just enjoy the gorgeous prose and the loving look at Istanbul. Luckily, the author doesn’t overdo the exotic, evoking the city’s atmosphere with a few details here and there, letting much of it come across naturally as the story progresses. Leyla hectically trying to get across the city to a job interview, Georgios gossiping in a coffee house with his ancient Greek friends, Adnan and his colleagues obsessing over an upcoming soccer match: it’s hard not to feel as if you’ve actually visited Istanbul after reading The Dervish House.

Even though there are connections between the six narratives, especially towards the end of the novel, it may occasionally feel as if you’re reading six novellas that just happen to be set in the same city. Luckily, they’re six really, really good novellas. Even though you may like some of the story lines more than others, as often happens in novels with multiple p.o.v.’s, don’t skim over any of them, because you’ll find that they all have strong, multi-dimensional main characters and solid plot arcs. By the end, when the stories weave together towards the novel’s climax, I felt as I’d read the literary equivalent of Robert Altman’s Short Cuts, a movie that combines several Raymond Carver short stories into one big, impressive, bustling movie.

In the end, spending some time with these six characters in the fascinating city of Istanbul was pure enjoyment. Look for The Dervish House on the shortlists of the major SF&F awards next year. Highly recommended.

(This review was also published on the Fantasy Literature website: www.fantasyliterature.com - come check us out!)(less)

like 10 likes

· see review

Dec 18, 2011

smboro rated it

I enjoyed this book very much, it reads the way great and unforgettable movies play. The chapters start like transitioning scenes and with enough details to have the movie start even if you haven't read the book for a couple of days. Also, the book wants you to commit before it starts (I think that's the Muslim way) with introducing the Turkish alphabet and then having people's names, food, places, and geography not-translated. The whole story is a fascinating near feature scenario. I hope...more

like 1 like

· see review

Dec 04, 2011

Ryan rated it

One of my favorite moments in The Dervish House is when Ian McDonald outlines an unusual think tank that is intended to anticipate terrorism. This think tank will be given a minimal amount of data and will then be asked to make intuitive predictions.

The backgrounds of the members included are quite interesting. One of the participants is a "pscyhogeographer," or a person that traces the history of a city's geography and its impact on people's lives. Why do people on one sid...moreOne of my favorite moments in The Dervish House is when Ian McDonald outlines an unusual think tank that is intended to anticipate terrorism. This think tank will be given a minimal amount of data and will then be asked to make intuitive predictions.

The backgrounds of the members included are quite interesting. One of the participants is a "pscyhogeographer," or a person that traces the history of a city's geography and its impact on people's lives. Why do people on one side of a street consistently earn more than their neighbors? Another is an "experimental economist" who has created a terror market. A science fiction writer is also included, which for me raises the question: why would a science fiction writer be included in such a think tank?

At some point, our science fiction writers stopped dreaming about the future and started worrying about it, often in surprisingly repetitive and predictable ways. Isn't every technological advance ushering in some variation of the totalitarian state or the post-apocalyptic wasteland? It makes sense, I suppose. When we look at our technological advances, it's difficult to escape the feeling that our advances are indeed harming the planet and are often restricting our liberties. So the role of the science fiction writer seems to have changed from anticipating the future to dreading it.

We might think that a science fiction writer with a perspective like Thomas Pynchon would be useful in a think tank like the one McDonald outlines, but I'm not so sure. If we only dread the future, I can't help thinking that we are limiting our ability to think intuitively.

Thankfully, McDonald offers a somewhat old-fashioned take on the future. The technology that he describes in The Dervish House is related to advances in "nano." McDonald's not naive about this technology, and he points out how it can be used for ends almost as nefarious as the Death Star. However, McDonald also takes the time to portray the wonder of the future in a way that recalled for me science fiction films from the 1970s -- a future in which the furniture and body armor was made of white plastic (but not in an ironic way). And that's something I'd like to see more of in my science fiction.

Well, maybe not the white plastic.(less)

like 1 like

· see review

Oct 13, 2011

Tamahome is currently reading it

p 36/358 - Reading it because of Jenny. Seems pretty challenging. Going about 20 pgs/hr. Seems exotic though.

Oh, and can someone send me the ARC for Planesrunner? Thanks in advance!

p 74/358 - I donno. Maybe I'm not reading it often enough. It just seems like work.

like 1 like

· see review

Oct 08, 2011

Kathryn Hilton rated it

Shelves: science-fiction

I couldn’t even finish The Dervish House. I got about 40 pages in (a full ten percent) and dropped it. A ton of characters were introduced, but not a single one succeeded in getting my attention or sympathy. I liked the setting (Istanbul), but got very, very tired of the would-be poetic description. The author went on for pages – in flowery present tense – about everything. Fireworks took ten pages to go off, and internal monologues lasted for three or four pages in the middle of dialogue. ...more

like 2 likes

· see review

Aug 11, 2011

Jessica Strider rated it

Pros: lyrical writing, intricate and complex plot, exotic setting, Can's bitbots are cool

Cons: have to pay close attention (sudden flashbacks/memories, lots of minute details), minor character & place names are unusual and similar enough that they're easily confused when jumping between so many storylines (Ogun Saltuk, Selma Ozgun, Oguz, Ozer)

The novel is set in the Istanbul of 2027. Turkey is part of the EU. Nanotech is used to give people a mental edge, especially in busine...more

· see review

Aug 01, 2011

Erin Lale rated it

Shelves: science-fiction

I received an electronic copy of this book in my Hugo voter packet. So I was reading it with an eye to seeing if it deserved an award, and I was holding it to a high standard. That may be why I was so disappointed.

This book has some really good ideas: original, sf'nal, even hard. Unfortunately, the reader has to plow through 250 pages of lead-up to get to them. Up until that point, this could have been written as a mainstream novel, and the sf elements could have been eliminated in un...moreI received an electronic copy of this book in my Hugo voter packet. So I was reading it with an eye to seeing if it deserved an award, and I was holding it to a high standard. That may be why I was so disappointed.

This book has some really good ideas: original, sf'nal, even hard. Unfortunately, the reader has to plow through 250 pages of lead-up to get to them. Up until that point, this could have been written as a mainstream novel, and the sf elements could have been eliminated in under a minute by using find-and-replace to replace "ceptep" with "iPhone" and "nano" with "pills." By the time I got to the part where the "djinn" are explained, I was invested in the idea of djinn, so it was vaguely disappointing to find out what they really were, whereas it would have been cool and fun if I had been let in on the big secret soon enough to switch my emotions to "oh cool, an sf techy idea" rather than "now you tell me!" and "is this thing over yet?"

There is quite a lot of local color, in the form of descriptions of Istanbul, its occupants, history, legends, and physical culture, so if you're in love with Turkey, you might like this book even if you're not an sf fan, if you can stand the constant jumping around from one "main" character to another. I'm not against multi viewpoint, eye-of-god perspective; I've even written books that way myself. But this just isn't done very well. I didn't know what all the various plots and people have to do with each other until the very end, and by that point I just wanted to find out what happened and turn the computer off.

If I had received this book in my slush pile-- I'm the publisher and editor of Time Yarns, a transmedia micropress-- I would have told the author to cut it way down, find a viewpoint and stick to it, make the hard-sf angle of the plot come into the story well before the past-the-middle point, stop pausing the action for multi-page-length descriptions of objects that have no bearing on the plot, and if you're going to do a multi-viewpoint story, at the very least stick to either third or second person when you write about a specific character, and don't switch at the end.

Erin Lale
Publisher and Editor of Time Yarns(less)

like 1 like

· see review

Jun 05, 2011

Carson Kicklighter rated it

Hugo-nominee The Dervish House is captivating because of its authentic, copious, engaging details. It’s satisfying and thought-provoking because it interweaves themes and motifs into a steadily moving plot.

I’ve never read a near-future sci-fi book set in Instanbul, so I was fascinated by the cultural mix of Greeks, Turks, and Eastern Europeans. Home, food, politics, lifestyle: Ian McDonald paints them all with vivid, specific details. Unfortunately, these details often slow down the bo...more

like 2 likes

· see review

May 28, 2011

Alexandra rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2011

I have long been enamoured of Turkey. Actually, strictly speaking I have long been enamoured of the idea of Turkey: the decadence, the luxury, the it’s very different there. Over the last number of years I have come to the realisation that this idea, or dream, of the country is a very European one, and a very colonial one in many regards – it’s a view of “the East” that has existed in “the West” at least since the Romans had their snooty ideas about Egypt and Persia. Despite being well aware of ...moreI have long been enamoured of Turkey. Actually, strictly speaking I have long been enamoured of the idea of Turkey: the decadence, the luxury, the it’s very different there. Over the last number of years I have come to the realisation that this idea, or dream, of the country is a very European one, and a very colonial one in many regards – it’s a view of “the East” that has existed in “the West” at least since the Romans had their snooty ideas about Egypt and Persia. Despite being well aware of its source, and feeling uncomfortable about that, there is still an allure in those incredibly not-politically-correct views. And that’s the point, of course: the allure comes from the (alleged) exotic nature of somewhere very ‘different’ (from Western Europe), and difference is always attractive. (The point, too, was that by identifying certain things like decadence as traits from over there, the viewer could take the prim moral stance and still enjoy it. But I digress….)

I got to thinking about these sorts of things in reading The Dervish House because it is set in near-future Istanbul: a city in many ways very similar to those of Western Europe, America, and Australia that I am familiar with, but with enough differences – real differences – that it retains an aura of the exotic. The story could, with some changes of course, be set in any city really. But setting it in Istanbul allows McDonald to do many things, not least of which is imbuing his setting with a deep sense of history that the relatively new cities of America and Australia just don’t have. Istanbul is very much a character in this novel; the complexity of the city itself – geographically, historically – is deeply important to the plot and the characters. There is even a character whose main interest in life is mapping the social history of the city, an idea I find very attractive.

The Dervish House is a simultaneously dense and frantic novel. In 472 pages McDonald covers five days in the life of the city, from the point of view of six main characters. An old Greek man, a young Turkish invalid, a successful businesswoman, an ambitious businesswoman, a no-hoper and a stockmarket player: with this cast, McDonald creates a vibrant city. Some of their stories interweave with one another, at one point or another, while others appear tangential; all combine to give a rich, rich view of the near future. Their plots are wonderfully varied: there’s romance, there’s adventure, there’s corporate espionage and shady deals and antiquarian detective work; religious fanaticism, world-weariness, wild success and disappointments. At times the writing is so dense that I had a little trouble following it, but the sheer beauty of it – along with the compelling sense that I needed to know what was going to happen – meant that wasn’t too much of a hassle.

One of the things that fascinated me about this book is that reading it as an SF reader, it’s clearly SF; there are enough references to nanotechnology and other futuristic things to ensure that. However, the date isn’t made clear until about two-thirds of the way through the book, and the technology isn’t really central, so it ought to have broader mainstream appeal, too.(less)

like 2 likes

· see review

Mar 19, 2011

William rated it

Having been very impressed with McDonald's previous two books, "River and Gods" and "Brasyl", I was looking forward to this and hoping that his portrayal of a futuristic Istanbul would match up with his portrayals of a futuristic India and Brazil from the preceding books. One of the best features of the book is his evocative description of a mid-21st Century Istanbul, having never been to Turkey I can't tell how genuine his portrayal of a future Turkey is, but he certainly ma...more

· see review

Jan 28, 2011

Clay rated it

Shelves: sf-fantasy

Maybe it just seems that way, but I have to think there were more books like Ian McDonald’s excellent “The Dervish House” (Pyr, $26, 358 pages) back in the day.

“The Dervish House,” set in Istanbul in the near future, combines science (and comprehensible science, no less), fiction (fleshed-out, flawed but sympathetic characters) and a complex, satisfying plot that keeps the pages turning. We’ve got terrorists, high-level business deals, an intriguing future, romance, a Boy Detective, al...more

like 2 likes

· see review

Dec 20, 2010

Alan rated it

Recommends it for: Lovers of complexity

Recommended to Alan by: Previous work; res ipsa loquitur

The Dervish House gives the impression that it could easily be as messy, sprawling and complex as Istanbul itself. It can't, of course; no single work of fiction could approach the complexity of even the most modern and mundane of cities, much less the ancient metropolis that stands at the crossroads between Asia and Europe. But after a leisurely start, The Dervish House ended up being amazing anyway.

Complex and multithreaded, this novel defies easy synopsis. Its plot is a mix of ancie...moreThe Dervish House gives the impression that it could easily be as messy, sprawling and complex as Istanbul itself. It can't, of course; no single work of fiction could approach the complexity of even the most modern and mundane of cities, much less the ancient metropolis that stands at the crossroads between Asia and Europe. But after a leisurely start, The Dervish House ended up being amazing anyway.

Complex and multithreaded, this novel defies easy synopsis. Its plot is a mix of ancient and modern, as futuristic as nanotechnology, multiform robots and other marvels can make it, yet as immediate as suicide bombers and global warming.

Istanbul is in the midst of a protracted heat wave when Necdet Hasgüler witnesses firsthand a woman on a tram touch a jewel at her throat and explode. He lives to tell about it, though he has no interest in repeating his story, especially to the police. Necdet's presence in the ancient wooden Adem Dede dervish house in the Eskiköy neighborhood is not strictly legal, you see, and official questions would be bad both for him and for his brother Ismet, an aspiring shaykh whose tarikat (order or congregation) would like to dispense an updated and more flexible version of "street shariat," the rule and interpretation of Islamic law. Yet despite his efforts, Necdet has been observed...

Georgios Ferentinou, an elderly disgraced economist, also lives in the Dervish House. When he's not at Bülent's teahouse across the way commiserating with his fellow expatriate Greeks, he has befriended 9-year-old Can Durukan, a boy who lives in the Dervish House with his parents and who suffers from a sensitivity to loud noises that could kill him if he doesn't always wear his noise-canceling earplugs. Can experiences the world at one remove even when he's physically present; his greatest pleasure, therefore, is to send out his robot toy, a souped-up drone that can change among the shapes of Rat, Snake and Bird...

Leyla Gültaşli moved to Istanbul from the farming town of Demre. She's a marketing graduate who is only living in the Dervish House until she can find a job...

Ayşe Erkoç owns a gallery on Adem Dede square and sells antiquities to the discerning collector; Ayşe's husband Adnan Sarioğlu is a trader whose skills at arbitrage have put him on the verge of a multimillion-Euro deal...

All of these characters and more inhabit a complex narrative that keeps on spiraling up and up to an utterly satisfying denouement. Along the way, McDonald finds the time to touch on issues as varied as Turkish integration into the European Union; the pitfalls of AI-assisted commodities trading; nanotechnological worries that don't involve "grey goo"; and a scientific disquisition on the intelligence of crows that I know for a fact is accurate, because I recently saw the awesome PBS special about that same subject.

What I'm saying is that here is a rich and compelling novel that rewards careful reading with an exciting and plausible science fiction story. I think it would make a good companion piece to Greg Egan's Zendegi, which I also recently read and reviewed... both are set in similar times and parts of the world, and although they ended up leaving very different impressions on me, they both managed to impress.(less)

like 1 like

· see review

Aug 28, 2010

Marcus Gipps rated it

· review of another edition

I’ve sat down and tried to write about this book at least twice now, and both times have ended up being distracted, which of course has left me terribly behind on this whole blogging thing. Given that, I’m going to do a fairly brief version three, with apologies – I had a lot of things to say about The Dervish House, and it is a book that repays attentive reading, but quite frankly I need to get on with everything else, so there you go. Having said that, I’ll probably end up blathering on for ag...moreI’ve sat down and tried to write about this book at least twice now, and both times have ended up being distracted, which of course has left me terribly behind on this whole blogging thing. Given that, I’m going to do a fairly brief version three, with apologies – I had a lot of things to say about The Dervish House, and it is a book that repays attentive reading, but quite frankly I need to get on with everything else, so there you go. Having said that, I’ll probably end up blathering on for ages…

Nominally a science-fiction book, and largely being published as such, this is one of those SF books that I would recommend to readers of modern literary fiction. It probably wouldn’t sell as many copies – I’m sure Gollancz know what they are doing – but this is seriously good stuff. It was, apparently, called in by the Booker judges (although it didn’t make it to the longlist, clearly), which should be some indication of the quality of the work.

Set in Istanbul of the near future, and deeply recognisable in terms of technology and politics, the breadth of the range of characters is outstanding. It may take a little while to get your head around the various protagonists – and longer to work out how their stories are all going to tie together – but the novel powers on with such confidence and gusto that you’ll have no problem sticking with it. McDonald defines his subjects clearly and easily (although that isn’t to say that they’re one-dimensional, by any means), and he slowly paints in the city in which they live in utterly believable terms. Futuristic but with a deep sense of history, cynical but touched with real humanity, there can be no doubt that the author has researched this book to within an inch of its life, but wears his knowledge lightly.

I could go on for hours about the apparent complexity but beautiful simplicity of the plot, and talk your ears off about some of the novel’s most successful set pieces, or bore you to tears about the way you’ll feel for the characters, even those who are self-serving, unpleasant or cruel. But that would take ages, and as I said I’m going to move on with the other books I’ve read. None of them have been as good as this one. If you like a bit of intelligent SF, read it. Actually, if you like intelligent fiction full stop, read it. It really is that good.

I read a proof on holiday in June, but the book is out now, ISBN: 9780575080522 (less)

like 1 like

· see review

Apr 28, 2011

Francesco Verso rated it

Can spirituality and religious ideas be injected into the people's mind via nanoagents? Can the Name of God be inscribed into every human cell and artificial material?
The new book of Ian McDonald takes us through the mystic landscapes of seducing Istanbul, Queen of Cities, Bridge of Civilizations, where in a Grand Tour of only 6 days, the lives of many characters are changed and transformed.
The depth of the book is exceptional, and as it was for his previous novel, Brasyl, McDondald kn...more

· see review

Nov 24, 2010

Ahimsa rated it

This is a fantasic book; the best of 2010 that I have read. The prose is simultaneously easy-to-read and also weighty (never seeming ponderous.) Stylistically, it reminded me of Meiville. There are a handful of characters and it is their diversity that forms one of the strongest bases of the novel. The narrative builds up but always is fast-paced.

I do have a few quibbles. The present tense is a little hard to deal with, and the multiple shifting of POV's makes it dificult initia...more

like 1 like

· see review

Aug 27, 2011

Erik rated it

Very well written and researched, but the pace is slow and meandering. A bit of a slog actually. The science fiction takes a back seat to the writer's desire to build up setting and atmosphere with literary techniques. The setting is, of course, Istanbul, one of the most interesting cities in the world. We see it twenty years hence, as nanotechnology has superseded the information revolution (nano you can snort!). We are following six or so characters over six days after a bomb blast on the tram...more

· see review

Aug 25, 2011

James rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: hugo-nominee-2011, io9-book-club, science-fiction, 5-stars, to-recheck

I nearly didn't read this book. The sample failed to interest me. In fact it seemed so over-written and dense that I wasn't sure what the book was about after the better part of the first chapter. However, in-part because the book was Hugo nominated and in-part because it was the io9.com book club read for the month I persevered and bought the book.

Rereading the first chapter made a lot more sense the second time around, and almost the very next page after the sample had ended the book...more

like 1 like

· see review

Oct 11, 2010

Bookmarks Magazine rated it

Shelves: nov-dec-2010

Known for his sweeping outlook, elaborately envisioned futures, and blend of science and mysticism, Ian McDonald has written a fascinating, thought-provoking novel worthy of his reputation. He paints a vivid portrait of the ancient city of Istanbul, layering it with political, cultural, and religious strata, as well as an ingeniously imagined world of practical nanotechnology. Critics praised his compelling characters--all too often a casualty of genre fiction--and his poetic prose, but they als...more

· see review

Jul 15, 2011

Mark rated it

Shelves: britishsci-fi

When I finish a book and feel the pain of regret and loss, it's usually because the characters were so wonderful, so rich, and so memorable that they had become part of my life. In The Dervish House, the characters are wonderful, but it's the Queen City of Istanbul and the way that Ian McDonald has drawn it that I'll remember forever.

One of the things I liked about this is that it's so un-American and un-Western. The west does not hold a monopoly on science fiction, yet it often seem...more

like 1 like

· see review

Jun 15, 2011

MeiLin Miranda rated it

Shelves: books-i-wished-i-d-written

In 2027, deals are going down in Istanbul the Queen of Cities--deals buried centuries deep, deals buried in the arcana of the financial markets, and deals buried deep in our own DNA--as the city sweats through a record heat wave. Deals encoded, deals exposed, deals covered up, deals rejected, deals accepted. Nothing is sacred; everything is for sale. And yet everything is sacred; nothing escapes an encoded meaning, from the micrographic calligraphy of ancient Jewish texts in a gallery to a sacre...more

like 1 like

· see review

Jun 12, 2011

Jenny rated it

Shelves: hugo-winners-or-nominees, read2011, location-turkey, sci-fi-fantasy

This is the last of the Hugo-nominated novels for this year, and wow did I save the best for last.

The Dervish House is everything I always hope for when I open a William Gibson novel, and was so pleased to find here. Cyberpunk, sure, but in this incredibly vibrant setting (Turkey right after it has joined the EU) with a lot of sub-plots (Mellified Man, Nano Terrorism, ancient artifacts, insider trading, kind of, a clever boy and his bots).

One thing I love is McDonald's...more

like 5 likes

· see review

Jan 02, 2011

Jason rated it

Shelves: e-books, read-2011

This is a tough review to write, just as is this is a difficult read to finish. It actually took me a long time tomget into it, including a total reread of the first part of this book. I feel that that the literary elements of this book, the prose, the setting, the multiple Pov's, and the relevant story line make this novel appealing to all fiction readers, not just science fiction lovers. I loved the stories being intertwined through the Dervish house. Can and Necdet really made this book for...more

like 1 like

· see review

Aug 20, 2011

Richard rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

A twisting dance as six stories entwine in the heart of near future Istanbul. The old world and the ultra new, the ancient and the nascent future whirl together around the old Dervish House in Adem Dede Square.
Heat struck Istanbul, at once archaic and enigmatic then industrial and grimy, but also thrusting and modern, the palpitating heart of new European future Turkey, the crossroads of East and West, makes a fascinating and atmospheric setting as the stories spiral ever faster around ea...more

like 4 likes

· see review

Jul 31, 2011

Heather Richardson rated it

Writers of good, near-future science fiction have to be incredibly clever, and Ian McDonald undoubtedly is. The Dervish House, set in Istanbul in 2025 combines history, nano-technology, world gas markets, the Istanbul stock exchange, psycho-geography, religion, politics, family, money and the legendary 'Mellified Man' (a corpse preserved in honey, with magical properties). Oh, and the continuing rivalry between Galataserei and Arsenal. All of these elements permeate the deftly-woven plot - there...more

· see review

Jun 28, 2010

Doug rated it

This is yet another book that makes me with Goodreads allowed for half-stars in its rating system. I think I wanted to like this a lot more than I did, as I am a fan of Ian McDonald in general and I picked this up after it was massively hyped by a friend of mine whose taste I trust. So I suppose the rating has as much to do with the gap between expectations (mind-blowing book of the year, instant entry on next year's Hugo ballot type novel) and experience (quite enjoyable reading, likely entry o...more

like 1 like

· see review

Aug 29, 2011

Robert rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi

The Dervish House starts with a bang: a suicide bomber blows up her own head on a tram in Istanbul. The rest of the novel tells the stories of a wide variety of characters who either live or work in the Dervish House. One of the characters was a witness to the bombing, but the others are simply people who share a common geography.

It is a novel about many things: science fiction (nanotechnology is a big part of this novel, as are designer drugs), interconnectivity, myths, stories, histo...moreThe Dervish House starts with a bang: a suicide bomber blows up her own head on a tram in Istanbul. The rest of the novel tells the stories of a wide variety of characters who either live or work in the Dervish House. One of the characters was a witness to the bombing, but the others are simply people who share a common geography.

It is a novel about many things: science fiction (nanotechnology is a big part of this novel, as are designer drugs), interconnectivity, myths, stories, history, Istanbul - above all, Istanbul. There is fascination in this novel - fascination with a city that squats right across a natural funnel for trade and ideas and peoples, that has a rich history and atmosphere unlike any other. The novel is deeply atmospheric, beautifully written, and captures Istanbul very well.

The characters, meanwhile, have different plots and stories. There's the little boy with a heart condition who explores the world through his robots and dreams of having big adventures - and who starts investigating the bombing and its aftermath. There's the old Greek professor, a friend to the boy and a forgotten, sidelined academic, who tries to see the bigger picture, and who is asked to help out with a security think tank. There's the woman owning a gallery and antique shop who is asked to source a legendary relic for a million Euros - a relic that may just be a myth. There's her husband, a cocky trader on the stock market, dealing in options and doing exactly the sort of business deals that are currently on the brink of bringing capitalism to its knees. He's planning a major (illegal) deal to smuggle (radioactively polluted) gas into Europe. Finally, there's the witness to the bombing, a man with a gruesome history, who starts seeing supernatural beings...

There are lots of other characters, drawn in vivid colours and compelling detail, in the story only for moments and gone again, or recurring. Ultimately, the plot lines do interweave and pull together in an exciting finale. Regarding the plotlines - they are thrilling and exciting, by and large. The quest for the Mellified Man has something grandiose about it, and it powers the interest for much of the early parts of the novel, while other plotlines are slower to build up to their grand adventures. Some of the characters are less than likeable - but it is clear that the author likes them a lot. The cocky trader was immensely annoying: a sleazy, slick bag of slime, and yet the writer seems to be rather sympathetic to him. The tomato girl / marketeer is, like the trader, a shallow, slick person, and similarly difficult to like. There is a pattern here. The child dreams of adventure, the adults in their youth dream of money and power, the old dream of the lives they did not lead... in flashbacks, we see the older people in their youth, and they dreamt of revolution. There is grand adventure in the novel, and melancholy, and sadness, and joy, and a lot of capitalist greed and confident swaggering. There are ideas about technology and the future. There is religious fervour, too, in some sub plots...

It is a very good novel, a novel rich in ideas and emotions. I would heartily recommend it to anyone.

Some notes for Kindle readers: the spacing between paragraphs is almost as large as the spacing between scenes, making it more difficult than it should be to read the novel. As most scenes start with some description, I often struggled to notice when a previous scene had ended, and only understood I was following a different character when they appeared by name. This was especially frustrating at the start of the novel, when we meet all the characters: it took me quite a while to realise the scene changes were occurring.(less)

· see review

Aug 10, 2011

BunWat rated it

Shelves: 2011, speculative-fiction

I started out not at all sure I was going to like this one. I've read a few books in the past year that seem to have some commonalities, they are set in the near future and they are intricate and interesting and full of literary craft but they are also pretty fascinated with the perverse, the brutal, the grotesque, with cruelty and failure and stupidity among the predatory and the self destructive. Which fine, if that's what a writer wants to be fascinated with, more power to him, but its not f...more

like 7 likes

· see review

Jul 14, 2011

Kristin rated it

Shelves: e-book, science-fiction, hugo-nominee

I don't know that I could call this one a 'thriller'. I found it was was a bit of a slog up until about page 300, then the plot took off very nicely. Of the six characters, I was really only interested in about three of them, so I would look forward to their next appearance, which was often farther along than I would like.

What did grab my fancy was the different lives everyone was leading: a commodities trader, and antiquities dealer, an old retired professor, a sheltered nine y...more

like 1 like

· see review

Dec 31, 2011

Patrick Bohm rated it

Set in a futuristic Turkey where nanobots are in demand, clean gas is the king, and where people gamble on terror attacks The Dervish House is a good example of a good idea ruined.

This was my first novel by Ian McDonald and I don't think I'll read another. I found a very dry and uninteresting narrative with only one character (out of six) that I cared about. That one was the Boy Detective who couldn't hear loud noises. The rest were fairly unbelievable in their reactions, flat, and t...more

· see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 83 84 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
The Escapists: A ...: The Dervish House	2	3	Jan 23, 2012 08:03am
The Alternative W...: The Dervish House - With Spoilers	78	19	Sep 17, 2011 11:59am
Niners (io9): The Dervish House	2	3	Aug 25, 2011 02:46am

combine
Other Editions (9)

More editions...

Genres

Science Fiction

107 users

Science Fiction > Cyberpunk

10 users

Speculative Fiction

9 users

Fantasy

8 users

Science Fiction Fantasy

4 users

Thriller

4 users

Cultural > Asia

4 users

Mystery

4 users

Book Club

3 users

War > Terrorism

3 users

See top shelves...

Readers Also Enjoyed

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

More about Ian McDonald...

Books by Ian McDonald

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Pin It

Trivia About The Dervish House

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

Quotes from The Dervish House

“He's never fought with religion; what is the point of railing against such beauty, such intimate theatre, such chime of eternity? He can treasure it without believing in it.” — 4 people liked it

“Mr. Durukan, if God is dead then everything is conspiracy.” — 3 people liked it

More quotes…

Groups That Shelved The Dervish House

The Escapists: A Book Club

137 members

last activity Feb 04, 2012 08:06am

shelf: currently-reading

Around the World in 80 Books

330 members

last activity 1 minute ago

shelf: read

The Alternative World

81 members

last activity 7 hours, 26 min ago

shelf: read

title link	preview: The Dervish House
avg rating	preview: The Dervish House Goodreads rating: 3.86 (690 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6993091-the-dervish-house?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1257600283m/6993091.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6993091-the-dervish-house?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Dervish House by Ian McDonald[/url]

The Dervish House

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Readers Also Enjoyed

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website