Jeremiah's review
Brasyl
by Ian McDonald
Jeremiah's review
Brasyl by Ian McDonald
Jeremiah's review
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Inhabiting the fuzzy territory at the limits of contemporary science where philosophy and research converge this book consists of three narratives in a flawed technicolour storm. Brasyl is packed with deftly integrated research into the cultural and linguistic memes of Brazil (thank goodness for a glossary!).
This book isn't quite successful, unfortunately, mostly though a paradoxical (perhaps quantum) trick of being simultaneously too thin-spread and too focused. The book follows the fortunes of three separate narrators in three wildly distinct time-periods, so it's perhaps unavoidable that the segment of the narrative dealing with the present day should look a touch flat compared with the barbaric Fitzcarraldan sweep of the historic segments or the parched techno-glory of the future. But the problem bleeds into the 18th-century narrative as well. And frankly its crazy and fascinatinly weird premise just falls short. All of the authors invention goes into baroque side details and ...more
This book isn't quite successful, unfortunately, mostly though a paradoxical (perhaps quantum) trick of being simultaneously too thin-spread and too focused. The book follows the fortunes of three separate narrators in three wildly distinct time-periods, so it's perhaps unavoidable that the segment of the narrative dealing with the present day should look a touch flat compared with the barbaric Fitzcarraldan sweep of the historic segments or the parched techno-glory of the future. But the problem bleeds into the 18th-century narrative as well. And frankly its crazy and fascinatinly weird premise just falls short. All of the authors invention goes into baroque side details and ...more
