Will Sargent reviewed Dervish House by Ian McDonald
Review of 'Dervish House' on 'Storygraph'
2 stars
The book is set in Istanbul, Turkey. It makes a big deal out of this. Despite being set in the future, the history of Istanbul and of each of the protagonists is gone over in every chapter, in intersecting parts.
As a literary device, it helps ground the section in the worldview and mentality of the speaker -- as a plot device, it drags the plot down every other page, to the point where I would forget who was a current character and who showed up in the past as history. Imagine if you were watching a TV show where every time you changed a scene, you'd be treated to a five minute flashback. One of the protagonists, Cam, is 9 years old, and I would breathe a sigh of relief every time he started narrating simply because he was the only character completely grounded in the here and now. …
The book is set in Istanbul, Turkey. It makes a big deal out of this. Despite being set in the future, the history of Istanbul and of each of the protagonists is gone over in every chapter, in intersecting parts.
As a literary device, it helps ground the section in the worldview and mentality of the speaker -- as a plot device, it drags the plot down every other page, to the point where I would forget who was a current character and who showed up in the past as history. Imagine if you were watching a TV show where every time you changed a scene, you'd be treated to a five minute flashback. One of the protagonists, Cam, is 9 years old, and I would breathe a sigh of relief every time he started narrating simply because he was the only character completely grounded in the here and now.
I think it does this because the plot itself has very little to do with the history of Turkey. It's a story about nanotech and the future and investment banking and an economist who has a crush, and a boy who likes playing detective. And a couple of antiquarian MacGuffins that give an excuse to dig more deeply into the history of the city.
Is the plot good enough to make up for the reminiscences dragged behind it like a shaggy dog's tail? No, not really. It's serviceable, but it's a framework for the book rather than the meat of it. That's a shame, but it's clearly how the book was conceived.
If you like Martin Amis or Philip Roth, you'll probably like this book -- if you like William Gibson and Neal Stephenson, you'll want to attack this book with a red marker or simply chop out a third of the book with a razor blade. It's up to you.