One of the things that always worries authors (and reviewers) is setting a book in a far away place and then discovering you got it all wrong. It is worrying for the author, because he may end up offending a lot of people, and it is worrying for the reviewer because she can’t tell if the author has done a superb job or is going to end up with egg on his face. Emerald City closed before I got to read Brasyl, but had I written a review I would have made worried noises about how the book would be received in a country that I know has a love of science fiction. Well, I need worry no longer. Thanks to the magic of Facebook, I now have a friend in Brazil, and he loved the book. Money shot:

Through three main characters, both believable an empathic, McDonald explores the nature of Brazilian people. Even if he hasn’t lived in Brazil, doing his research in a couple of visits to São Paulo, Bahia and the Amazon, and reading the few books about Brazil available in English, McDonald was able to capture, with amazing precision, the Brazilian spirit. And he did this without clichés, without hullabaloos, but with critical observations regarding the importance Brazilian people gives to beauty, soccer and TV. Besides, geographically everything is right and linguistically, it is better than most foreigners trying the language of Camões.

I note also this this is the only review of Brasyl I have read that acknowledges the fact that the hero of one of the three strands, Edson Jesus Oliveira de Freitas, is both bisexual and a transvestite. Gary Wolfe noted one of them. Everyone else has either been blind to this or has chosen to ignore it.

Anyway, congratulations to Ian, Hugo voters please take note, and a small raspberry to the Clarke Jury.