In his introduction to Ian MacDonald’s collection of short stories (plus one novella) Cyberabad Days, Paul McAuley remarks on McDonald’s importance as a SF writer because of his shattering of SF’s Anglo-Saxon bias. This is indeed true – McDonald has consistently demonstrated non-Western futures in his novels. But, while this is perhaps true for McDonald as a SF writer, it is inadequate to characterize McDonald as an artist. For McDonald does more than merely present a non-Western future, he brings it to life. As was the case with River of Gods, the India of 2047 jumps from the pages of Cyberabad Days, overwhelming your senses. You can feel it’s drive, smell it’s history, taste it’s hopes. Yet this is not achieved through clever and beautiful descriptions of scenery or history (though the stories sparkle with elequent prose), but rather experienced through his extraordinary characters that comprise and shape this future India. For McDonald the people are the place and it’s history,
With River of Gods and Brasyl, McDonald has already established himself as one of the leading SF authors of the decade. In Cyberabad Days the torrent of beauty continues. Highly recommended.