New Releases by Ian McDonald

"Ian McDonald, the author of such landmark novels as Desolation Road, Chaga, River of Gods, and The Dervish House, has long been regarded as one of Britain''s finest SF writers. Just like those full-length works, his shorter fiction has commanded much admiration, and now, in this massive retrospective volume, the best McDonald tales are assembled in glittering array. Represented here are all the phases of McDonald''s career: the poetic early retro-visions that in the late Eighties signalled the arrival of a marvellously fluent new stylistic voice; the virtuoso Nineties riffs on themes such as the Irish Troubles, nanotechnology, alternate history, and alien sexuality; the bold post-millennial ventures into the futuristic politics of Third World countries such as Kenya, India, and Brazil, as well as far afield to alien solar systems; and recent, dazzlingly conceived variations on the Arab Spring, the nature of superheroes, and Mars as pulp SF writers once fondly imagined it to be. The treasures are abundant, each presented in McDonald’s addictive, immersive prose--language at once elegantly timeless and edgily contemporary."--Publisher''s statement.

Emily Desmond, Jessica Caldwell, Enye MacCall, trois générations de femmes irlandaises, folles pour certains, sorcières pour d''autres. La première fréquente les lutins du bois de Bridestone quand son père, astronome, essaie de communiquer avec des extraterrestres qu''i imagine embarqués sur une comète. La seconde, jeune Dublinoise mythomane, se réfugie dans ses mensonges parce que la vérité est sans doute trop dure à supporter. Quant à Enye MacColl, katana à la main, elle mène un combat secret contre des monstres venus d''on ne sait où.

This book is an account of criticism and controversy surrounding modern medicine. Chapter One provides an overview of the contents. Chapter Four explains the contribution of the concept of paradigm'' to the analysis provided. The argument is that, for all its fine accomplishments in medicine, the science has also damaged the art. This view is an echo of views expressed by eminent physicians early in the last Century, including William Osler and Francis Peabody. Concrete evidence of an ailing doctor-patient relationship is manifest in the form of some serious clinical problems. These include patient dissatisfaction, failure to take prescribed medication, failure of a doctor''s reassurance of normality to allay anxiety, resort to alternative medicine, use of patient advocates and defection'' to alternative medicine. These we see as, not only damaging to treatment and health outcome, and very expensive, but indicators of a basic lack of trust. To compound the problem, the clinical process is essentially hermeneutic; an interpretive exercise. Hence it cannot be studied without interview and qualitative data analysis. Such methods are also indispensable for the understanding of the doctor''s management decisions, particularly the social context. The science of medicine is well served by biomedical research and education which has recently been reinforced by the rise of clinical epidemiology and evidence-based medicine. Of great concern is that the skills of sociology and the humanities have been spurned, even denigrated as journalistic'' or unscientific''. Not only has this prevented physicians from fully understanding the patient''s medical views and social predicament, but has robbed us of the humanistic'' research methods needed to research the problems. These problems cannot be explained simply as side-effects of the impact of science. Rather there are much deeper currents. In Thomas Kuhn''s terms, medicine shifted paradigm from superstition to rationality in Ancient Greece, and again to scientific modern medicine at the time of the French Revolution. Medicine, it seems, is on the cusp of a further paradigm shift to a postmodern paradigm. The goal is that this brings the necessary balance between the already revitalised science and the ancient art of medicine. To achieve this, the establishment of centres for the study of clinical practice'' to train reflective physicians'', who will lead clinical practice research'', with multidisciplinary studies of the process of clinical care is needed. This will mean applying research methods of empirical science, clinical epidemiology, biostatistics and evidence-based medicine, already in progress and, in cooperation with relevant academics hosted by the centre, interview techniques involving qualitative analysis or any other appropriate methods. An important function is to act as a catalyst to inject social science and humanities into the current modern medical curriculum.

The Future Is Ourselves The world is rapidly changing. We surf future-shock every day, as the progress of technology races ever on. Increasingly we are asking: how do we change to live in the world to come? Whether it’s climate change, inundated coastlines and drowned cities; the cramped confines of a tin can hurtling through space to the outer reaches of our Solar System; or the rush of being uploaded into cyberspace, our minds and bodies are going to have to drastically alter. Multi-award winning editor Jonathan Strahan brings us another incredible volume in his much praised science-fiction anthology series, featuring stories by Madeline Ashby, John Barnes, James S.A. Corey, Gregory Benford, Benjanun Sriduangkaew, Simon Ings, Kameron Hurley, Nancy Kress, Gwyneth Jones, Yoon Ha Lee, Bruce Sterling, Sean Williams, Aliette de Bodard, Ramez Naam, An Owomoyela and Ian McDonald.

Ist das noch unser Planet? In der Nacht des 22. Dezembers 2032 hörte das Universum, wie wir es kennen, auf zu existieren. Die Menschheit hat es nur noch nicht bemerkt ... Das Chaga, die seltsame Flora, die aus dem All zur Erde geschickt wurde, hat sich weiter ausgebreitet und damit begonnen, die Äquatorregionen der Erde zu verändern. Welchem Zweck das dient und wer – oder was – dahintersteckt, ist immer noch völlig unklar. Die ehemalige Reporterin Gaby McAslan hat inzwischen eine Tochter, Selena, zur Welt gebracht, doch weil sie Kontakt mit dem Chaga hatte, führt sie jetzt ein Leben im Exil. Auch Selena wurde von der Alien-Chemie verändert, und nicht nur Gaby muss lernen, mit diesen Veränderungen zu leben ...

In einer kleinen marsianischen Stadt ... Dies ist die Geschichte einer Stadt auf dem Mars. Sie ist nicht die größte oder die schönste, sondern liegt mitten in der Wüste. Sie ist einzigartig, vor allem wegen der exzentrischen Individualisten, die sich dort angesiedelt haben: Stadtgründer Dr. Alimantando folgt einem mysteriösen grünen Wesen, das jede Nacht neben seinem Feuer auftaucht. Die Jagd bleibt ohne Erfolg, und so beschließt er, sich in der Einsamkeit niederzulassen. Die währt allerdings nicht lange: Schräge Typen wie Rajendra Das, ein Landstreicher, der mit Maschinen sprechen kann, Babushka, eine alte Frau, die ein Kind aus dem Reagenzglas will, die Gallacelli-Brüder, Drillinge, die am Ende alle dieselbe Frau heiraten und noch einige Lebenskünstler mehr zieht es in die Einsamkeit der endlosen Marswüste ...

Die Aliens landen nicht vor dem Weißen Haus Der erste Besuch fremder Lebensformen aus dem All lief ganz anders, als man ihn sich vorgestellt hatte: Die Aliens lassen Tausende kleine biologische Bomben auf dem Äquator niedergehen, besonders betroffen ist Kenia. Wo immer diese Bio-Asteroiden niedergehen, verändern sie die Umwelt, entziehen Mensch und Tier den Lebensraum. Die Journalistin Gaby McAslan untersucht nicht nur die Aliens, sondern auch die Auswirkungen der UN-Sperrzonen auf die Menschen in Afrika – und macht dabei eine ungeheuerliche Entdeckung ...

Istanbul, avril 2027. Sous une chaleur écrasante, la ville tentaculaire fête l’anniversaire de l’entrée de la Turquie dans la Communauté européenne. Dans Istanbul en ébullition (l’air conditionné coûte trop cher, l’eau aussi), une bombe explose dans un tramway. Cet événement va bouleverser la vie des habitants de la maison des derviches de la place Adem Dede : Necdet se met à voir des djinns, le jeune Can utilise son robot pour enquêter sur l’attentat non revendiqué, l’antiquaire Ayse accepte de rechercher un sarcophage légendaire, Leyla se voit chargée du marketing d’une nouvelle technologie révolutionnaire : le stockage bio-informatique. C’est dans la maison des derviches que se joueront rien de moins que l’avenir de la Turquie et celui du monde tel que nous le connaissons. La maison des derviches est une fresque flamboyante qui décrit magistralement la Turquie d’un futur proche. Le roman a reçu le prix Planète-SF des blogueurs 2013, le John W. Campbell Memorial Award 2011 et le British Science Fiction Association Award 2010.

The Moon wants to kill you. She has a thousand ways to do it. The bitter cold of vaccum. The lethal sheet of radiation. Choking dust as old as the Earth. Your weakening bones ... Or you could run out of money for water. Or air. Or simply run foul of one of the Five Dragons: the corporations that rule the Moon and control its vast resources. But you stay, because the moon can make you richer than you can imagine. For as long as you can stay alive...

Ethan Ring è un esperto di grafica che incappa in un segreto così tremendo da non poter più essere tenuto nascosto. L''alfabeto di immagini generate al computer che lui ha contribuito a creare, ispirandosi alle Sefiroth ebraiche, possiede straordinari poteri: i suoi simboli sono in grado di guarire, cancellare ricordi, provocare l''estasi e uccidere senza rimorso. Prigioniero di un contratto capestro con il governo europeo, Ethan intravede un''ultima possibilità di sfuggire alle forze distruttive che hanno occupato la sua anima. Ma dovrà affrontare un territorio pieno di insidie e un viaggio senza fine, forse senza ritorno. Riproponiamo il capolavoro di Ian McDonald nella traduzione integrale di Antonio Caronia.

World-hopping, high-action adventure starring a smart boy with computer skills and a tough girl who pilots a blimp The airship Everness makes a Heisenberg Jump to an alternate Earth unlike any her crew has ever seen. Everett, Sen, and the crew find themselves above a plain that goes on forever in every direction without any horizon. There they find an Alderson Disc, an astronomical megastructure of incredibly strong material reaching from the orbit of Mercury to the orbit of Jupiter. Then they meet the Jiju, the dominant species on a plane where the dinosaurs didn''t die out. They evolved, diversified, and have a twenty-five million year technology head-start on humanity. War between their kingdoms is inevitable, total and terrible. Everness has jumped right into the midst of a faction fight between rival nations, the Fabreen and Dityu empires. The airship is attacked, but then defended by the forces of the Fabreen, who offers theEverness crew protection. But what is the true motive behind Empress Aswiu''s aid? What is her price? The crew of the Everness is divided in a very alien world, a world fast approaching the point of apocalypse. From the Hardcover edition.

A collection of science fiction stories and novelettes by the Hugo and Philip K. Dick Award–winning author of Desolation Road and Luna: New Moon. Published in conjunction with his Locus Award–winning debut novel, Desolation Road, Empire Dreams collects some of Ian McDonald’s finest early short fiction, including a several stories that first appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine. In “Vivaldi,” an astrophysicist contemplates the death of the universe as he hurtles through space to investigate a black hole. A beach bum in Morocco encounters a woman who is curiously full of life in “Radio Marrakech.” An Irish scientist prepares to make contact with aliens as his daughter dreams of fairies in “King of Morning, Queen of Day.” And in the title novelette, a boy is given an experimental treatment that allows him to fight his cancer via virtual reality gameplaying. As Asimov’sScience Fiction declared, Ian McDonald is “the Frank Herbert, William Gibson, or arguably even Thomas Pynchon of the early 21st century.”

From the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro, an alien force begins to spread, turning the land into an unrecognizable alien landscape. Tendeléo is nine years old when this first package comes down, and before she reaches adulthood the Chaga will change her life forever. REVIEWS "[An] excellent original novella... gazes boldly into the heart of darkness, and finds there a great and galvanising hope." – Infinity Plus "... the Chaga sequence [is] Ian McDonald''s marvellous panorama of Third World plights and possibilities." – SF Site Winner of the Sturgeon Award, 2001.

Tous les hindous vous le diront, pour se débarrasser de ses péchés, il suffit de se laver dans les eaux du Gangâ, dans la cité de Vârânacî. Et, en cette année 2047, les péchés ce n''est pas ce qui manque : un corps aux ovaires prélevés glisse doucement sur les eaux du fleuve ; des intelligences artificielles se rebellent et causent de tels dégâts qu''une unité de police a été spécialement créée pour les excommunier. Gangâ, le fleuve des dieux, dont les eaux n''ont jamais été aussi basses, se rue vers un gouffre conceptuel, technologique, évolutionnaire... ou peut-être tout cela à la fois. À travers le kaléidoscope de neuf destins interconnectés, Ian McDonald dresse le portrait d''une Inde future, mais aussi d''une Terre future, où tout n''est que vertige. Unanimement salué par la critique, Le fleuve des dieux a reçu le British Science Fiction Award, le Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire, le prix Bob Morane et a été finaliste du prestigieux prix Hugo.

Découvrez Brage, le label de formats courts des éditions Bragelonne ! Dans la nouvelle magnifique que nous présentons ici, qui contient suffisamment d''idées éblouissantes pour remplir un roman de huit cents pages, McDonald nous fait comprendre qu''une guerre totale entre deux civilisations interstellaires rivales serait lente, atroce et vaste, et, enfin - totale. Sans laisser le moindre refuge au sein de la Galaxie, voire dans tout l''Univers, pour le camp des perdants. L''auteur britannique Ian McDonald est un écrivain ambitieux et audacieux, doté d''un talent impressionnant et d''une palette de styles très variés. Sa première nouvelle fut publiée en 1982, et depuis ses fictions sont souvent apparues dans Interzone, Asimov''s Science Fiction, New Worlds et autres publications. Il fut nominé pour le prix John W. Campbell - destiné aux nouveaux écrivains de SF - en 1985, et il gagna le prix Locus dans la catégorie « Meilleur premier roman » en 1989 pour Desolation Road. Sa nouvelle « Tendeléo »1 fut lauréate du prix Theodore Sturgeon en 2001. Il remporta également le Philip K. Dick Award en 1992 pour le roman de Fantasy, Roi du matin, reine du jour. Son dernier roman, Brasyl2, lui valut le prix de la British Science Fiction Association en 2008. Ses autres livres comprennent les romans Nécroville, Out on Blue Six, Hearts, Hands and Voices, Sacrifice of Fools, Chaga, Kirinya et River of Gods, ainsi que deux recueils de nouvelles, Empire Dreams (traduit sous ce titre en français) et Speaking In Tongues. Un nouveau recueil, Cyberabad Days, qui rassemble ses nouvelles liées à l''Inde futuriste décrite dans River of Gods, vient de paraître. Né en 1960 à Manchester en Angleterre, McDonald vit depuis longtemps en Irlande du Nord. Il réside et travaille aujourd''hui à Belfast.

The third time''s the charm! Or so hopes our hero, Bruno the Bandit, in this issue, as he turns on the charm in an attempt to win the lovely Lydia away from the wizard Maledict. Meanwhile, the demonic Numth''kul sees his troubles increase a thousandfold, and we learn that Elder Gods need love too! Plus, we''re not sure if it serves a purpose clear when Fiona serves up some "Free Will"! All this and much more, including the Charles Schulz memorial story, "When a God Retires" and several new pages of Bruno pinups from Ian McDonald. Presenting nine more stories from the archives of Bruno the Bandit (www.brunothebandit.com), this third swing of the Brutal Blade of Bruno the Bandit continues the tradition of turning some of the best comics on the web into some of the funniest comics in self-publishing.

El 15 de agosto de 2047, cuando se cumplen cien años del nacimiento de la India, diez extraños ven cómo sus vidas se cruzan. Un policía, un consejero del Gobierno, un humorista, un actor, un delincuente callejero, un periodista, un investigador y un científico estadounidense son algunos de los elegidos que, durante las siguientes semanas, tendrán en sus manos el poder de decidir el destino de un país de mil quinientos millones de personas que veneran a nueve millones de dioses diferentes.

The next installment of the multiple award-winning author''s exciting YA series. Everett Singh has escaped with the Infundibulum from the clutches of Charlotte Villiers and the Order, but at a terrible price. His father is missing, banished to one of the billions of parallel universes of the Panoply of All Worlds, and Everett and the crew of the airship Everness have taken a wild, random Heisenberg Jump to a random parallel plane. Everett is smart and resourceful, and, from a frozen earth far beyond the Plenitude, he plans to rescue his family. But the villainous Charlotte Villiers is one step ahead of him. The action traverses the frozen wastes of iceball earth; to Earth 4 (like ours, except that the alien Thryn Sentiency occupied the moon in 1964); to the dead London of the forbidden plane of Earth 1, where the remnants of humanity battle a terrifying nanotechnology run wild--and Everett faces terrible choices of morality and power. But Everett has the love and support of Sen, Captain Anastasia Sixsmyth, and the rest of the crew of Everness. He learns that the deadliest enemy isn''t the Order, or the world-devouring nanotech Nahn--it''s yourself.

There is not one you. There are many yous. There is not one world. There are many worlds. Ours is one of billions of parallel earths. When Everett Singh''s scientist father is kidnapped from the streets of London, he leaves young Everett a mysterious app on his computer. Suddenly, this fourteen-year-old has become the owner of the most valuable object in the multiverse-the Infundibulum-the map of all the parallel earths, and there are dark forces in the Ten Known Worlds who will stop at nothing to get it. They''ve got power, authority, and the might of ten planets-some of them more technologically advanced than our Earth-at their fingertips. He''s got wits, intelligence, and a knack for Indian cooking. To keep the Infundibulum safe, Everett must trick his way through the Heisenberg Gate his dad helped build and go on the run in a parallel Earth. But to rescue his Dad from Charlotte Villiers and the sinister Order, this Planesrunner''s going to need friends. Friends like Captain Anastasia Sixsmyth, her adopted daughter Sen, and the crew of the airship Everness. Can they rescue Everett''s father and get the Infundibulum to safety? The game is afoot! (For ages 12 & up)

Perhaps the most bizarre and frightening examination of what Nanotechnology could mean

Busting loose from the pages of his long-running webcomic (www.brunothebandit.com), Ian McDonald brings you the very first misadventures of his mercenary hero Bruno the Bandit. Join Bruno, his microdragon sidekick Fiona, and a varied cast of characters who populate Rothland in a quest for fortune and adventure as some of the best comics on the web become some of the funniest comics in self-publishing.In addition to a great lineup of Bruno the Bandit stories, Volume One of "Brutal Blade" features all-new cover art by legendary Conan artist Ernie Chan and comments from equally legendary comics writer Roy Thomas. The interior features an introduction by Bill "Kevin and Kell" Holbrook, and pinup art from a who''s who of webcomics greats, including Pete "Sluggy Freelance" Abrams and Chris "Superosity" Crosby.We''ve worked hard to make sure that the first issue of "Brutal Blade of Bruno the Bandit" is a volume that any fan of quality comics will want to add to their collection.

It all began thirty years ago on Mars, with a greenperson. But by the time it all finished, the town of Desolation Road had experienced every conceivable abnormality from Adam Black''s Wonderful Travelling Chautauqua and Educational ‘Stravaganza (complete with its very own captive angel) to the Astounding Tatterdemalion Air Bazaar. Its inhabitants ranged from Dr. Alimantando, the town’s founder and resident genius, to the Babooshka, a barren grandmother who just wants her own child—grown in a fruit jar; from Rajendra Das, mechanical hobo who has a mystical way with machines to the Gallacelli brothers, identical triplets who fell in love with—and married—the same woman.

It begins with an explosion. Another day, another bus bomb. Everyone it seems is after a piece of Turkey. But the shockwaves from this random act of 21st century pandemic terrorism will ripple further and resonate louder than just Enginsoy Square. Welcome to the world of The Dervish House—the great, ancient, paradoxical city of Istanbul, divided like a human brain, in the great, ancient, equally paradoxical nation of Turkey. The year is 2027 and Turkey is about to celebrate the fifth anniversary of its accession to the European Union. This is the age of carbon consciousness: every individual in the EU has a card stipulating individual carbon allowance that must be produced at every CO2 generating transaction. For those who can master the game, who can make the trades between gas price and carbon trading permits, who can play the power factions against each other, there are fortunes to be made. The old Byzantine politics are back. They never went away. The ancient power struggled between Sunni and Shia threatens like a storm: Ankara has watched the Middle East emerge from twenty-five years of sectarian conflict. So far it has stayed aloof. A populist Prime Minister has called a referendum on EU membership. Tensions run high. The army watches, hand on holster. And a Galatasary Champions’ League football game against Arsenal stokes passions even higher. The Dervish House is seven days, six characters, three interconnected story strands, one central common core –the eponymous dervish house, a character in itself—that pins all these players together in a weave of intrigue, conflict, drama and a ticking clock of a thriller. From the Hardcover edition.

Taking place in the kaleidoscopic future of Ian McDonald''s Desolation Road, this novel is set on a terraformed Mars where fusion-powered locomotives run along the network of rails that is the planet''s circulatory system and artificial intelligences reconfigure reality billions of times each second. One young woman, Sweetness Octave Glorious-Honeybun Asiim 12th, becomes the person upon whom the future - or futures - of Mars depends. Big, picaresque, funny; taking the Mars of Ray Bradbury and the more recent, terraformed Marses of authors such as Kim Stanley Robinson and Greg Bear, Ares Express is a wild and woolly magic-realist SF novel, featuring lots of bizarre philosophies, strange, mind-stretching ideas and trains as big as city blocks. From the Trade Paperback edition.

This collection of seven stories and a thirty-one thousand word original novella revisits the vivid world of near future India that McDonald so successfully depicted in River of Gods (a BSFA Award winner). Readers will discover a new, muscular superpower of one and a half billion people in an age of artificial intelligences, climate-change induced drought, water wars, strange new genders, genetically improved children that age at half the rate of baseline humanity, and a population where males outnumber females four to one. This future India has fractured into a dozen states from Kerala to the headwaters of the Ganges in the Himalayas. Includes one Hugo Award nominee and one Hugo Award winner. From the Trade Paperback edition.

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.

As Mother India approaches her centenary, nine people are going about their business — a gangster, a cop, his wife, a politician, a stand-up comic, a set designer, a journalist, a scientist, and a dropout. And so is Aj — the waif, the mind-reader, the prophet — when she one day finds a man who wants to stay hidden. In the next few weeks, they will all be swept together to decide the fate of the nation. River of Gods teems with the life of a country choked with peoples and cultures — one and a half billion people, twelve semi-independent nations, nine million gods. Ian McDonald has written the great Indian novel of the new millennium, in which a war is fought, a love betrayed, a message from a different world decoded, as the great river Ganges flows on.

A history of the Mellotron and discussions by the musicians who were inspired by this unpredictable keyboard.