If you only read one SF book this year….

….make sure it's Ian McDonald's The Dervish House.

Nightmare work commitments over the past few months have kept me from reading The Dervish House (or indeed much of anything else) until now.  But it was always there in my top three most-eagerly anticipated SF novels (along with Peter Watts' State of Grace, due some time next year, and Hannu Rajaniemi's The Quantum Thief coming this September).  Ian McDonald is one of a very small and select number of writers whose work actually makes me...