Synopses & Reviews
Think
Bladerunner in the tropics...
Be seduced, amazed, and shocked by one of the world's greatest and strangest nations. Past, present, and future Brazil, with all its color, passion, and shifting realities, come together in a novel that is part SF, part history, part mystery, and entirely enthralling.
Three separate stories follow three main characters:
- Edson is a self-made talent impresario one step up from the slums in a near future São Paulo of astonishing riches and poverty. A chance encounter draws Edson into the dangerous world of illegal quantum computing, but where can you run in a total surveillance society where every move, face, and centavo is constantly tracked?
- Marcelina is an ambitious Rio TV producer looking for that big reality TV hit to make her name. When her hot idea leads her on the track of a disgraced World Cup soccer goalkeeper, she becomes enmeshed in an ancient conspiracy that threatens not just her life, but her very soul.
- Father Luis is a Jesuit missionary sent into the maelstrom of 18th-century Brazil to locate and punish a rogue priest who has strayed beyond the articles of his faith and set up a vast empire in the hinterland. In the company of a French geographer and spy, what he finds in the backwaters of the Amazon tries both his faith and the nature of reality itself to the breaking point.
Three characters, three stories, three Brazils, all linked together across time, space, and reality in a hugely ambitious story that will challenge the way you think about everything.
Review
"McDonald takes on frenetic, vast, fascinating Brasil in this epic interweaving three time-strands....McDonald's Brasyl is a magnificent place, and the motivations and possible results of the battle over the multitude of quantum universes it posits are chilling and wonderful." Booklist (starred review)
Review
"McDonald has outdone his prodigious self. A novel that makes magic from technology, alien worlds from the everyday. A novel of swordfights and quantum physics, of sly reality-TV humor and sheer poetry. I loved these people, I rooted for them. McDonald has so many writer tricks that I could read this book a hundred times and learn something new every time." Cory Doctorow, co-editor, boingboing.net, and author of Overclocked: Stories of the Future Present
Review
"[McDonald's] characters are utterly believable, grounded in their unique pasts and presents" Sci Fi Weekly
Review
"[A] grand novel spanning centuries and realities....McDonald imagines a history of Brazil that challenges all preconceptions, and he has a gift for wordsmithing, creating lyrical passages of superb storytelling that move with the times while remaining both current and timeless. Libraries of all sizes would benefit from adding this title to their sf collections." Library Journal
Review
"[R]ichly textured in terms of evoking the notion of Brazil as a truly alien place...very enjoyable." Locus
Review
"Brasyl is a fantastic, fast-moving thought experiment packaged as a novel, wrapped in a love story." BookPage
Synopsis
Think Bladerunner in the tropics...
Be seduced, amazed, and shocked by one of the worlds greatest and strangest nations. Past, present, and future Brazil, with all its color, passion, and shifting realities, come together in a novel that is part SF, part history, part mystery, and entirely enthralling.
Three separate stories follow three main characters:
Edson is a self-made talent impresario one step up from the slums in a near future São Paulo of astonishing riches and poverty. A chance encounter draws Edson into the dangerous world of illegal quantum computing, but where can you run in a total surveillance society where every move, face, and centavo is constantly tracked?
Marcelina is an ambitious Rio TV producer looking for that big reality TV hit to make her name. When her hot idea leads her on the track of a disgraced World Cup soccer goalkeeper, she becomes enmeshed in an ancient conspiracy that threatens not just her life, but her very soul.
About the Author
Ian McDonald is the author of many science fiction novels, including River of Gods, Desolation Road, King of Morning, Queen of Day, Out on Blue Six, Chaga, and Kirinya. He has won the Philip K. Dick Award and the BSFA Award, been nominated for a Hugo Award, and has several nominations for the Arthur C. Clarke Award. He lives in Belfast, Northern Ireland.