In the sleepy Istanbul district of Eskiköy stands the former whirling dervish house of Adem Dede. Over the space of five days of an Istanbul heatwave, six lives weave a story of corporate wheeling and dealing, Islamic mysticism, political and economic intrigue, ancient Ottoman mysteries, a terrifying new terrorist threat, and a nanotechnology with the potential to transform every human on the planet.
The works of Ian McDonald have long been on my Pile o’ Shame, among those books I know I should read but have slipped off my radar for one reason or another. Like many of his other novels, The Dervish House is set in the near future, taking a glimpse of where our world might be directed. This time around, he turns his eyes to Istanbul, a culture and society that’s terribly misunderstood in the West, which makes it the perfect setting for a writer like McDonald.
Thanks to Tor.com, you can read a juicy excerpt from The Dervish House.
