McDonald, Ian Books

River of Gods

Ian McDonald

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 36 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Very good book but takes some work 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I have to say that I enjoyed the author's grasp of India in all its permutations, particularly India in the year 2040. The plot takes a tad long to unfold but the payoff in the end is worth it. This is a very different look at what the future might hold for the US and India when it comes to AI development. Worth the read.

Editorial Review:

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 people 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.

Brasyl

Ian McDonald

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

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 impressario 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.

Terminal Cafe

Ian Mcdonald

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

It is a few decades after a revolutionary technology has given humans the ability to resurrect the dead. The ever-increasing population of the risen dead is segregated into areas called necrovilles. Here they have created a wild culture, untouched by the restrictions of the law - except that the dead cannot stray into the realm of the living, nor the living into the teeming necrovilles, after nightfall. It is November 1, the Day of the Dead. Virtual artist Santiago Columbar, creator of drugs and 'ware that melt and reconfigure reality for his many disciples, has grown bored with the realities at his command. There is one reality he has yet to try, the culmination of his life as an artist: He will venture into the forbidden streets of the Saint John dead town, and there walk willingly into the open arms of death. At Santiago's invitation, four of his friends will meet in Saint John to record his death and resurrection. On their way to witness Santiago's transformation, as the necroville erupts into the first volley of a revolution against the living, each will face danger and adventure in the wild streets of the dead...and find that life has changed forever.

Evolution's Shore

Ian Mcdonald

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

It began in the year 2002 with strange activities on one of Saturn's moons. Then came the meteor strike on Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa, followed by an alien infestation by a strange vegetative life-form known locally as the Chaga. For Gaby McAslan and her SkyNet news team, this is the story of a lifetime - and a golden chance at fame. As the Dark Continent becomes a frenzied backdrop of apocalyptic anticipation, Gaby fights to be the first to get to the truth behind the Chaga, only to come up against a wall of official secrecy. Suddenly rumors are spreading as fast as the Chaga: of people disappearing into the alien growth or being herded by U.N. troops into restricted "research" camps. Soon it becomes clear that the real story is bigger than Gaby could every imagine - a story that must be told even if it means betraying the man she loves. Is the Chaga an invasion or a gift? Does it mean destruction or evolution? Does it spell the final chapter for humanity ... or just the beginning of the most amazing story of all?

The Broken Land

Ian Mcdonald

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Woo-hoo, organicals and diaspora 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 5 people found this review helpful.

Personally, I find this to be one of Ian McDonald's better books. I've always been a fan of organic technology in sci-fi so I am always pleased to see a book that uses it. Unfortunately, his use of organicals tends to mirror typical sci-fi technology a little too closely. McDonald usually includes some sort of discussion of spirituality (thankfully not overdone). In this work, he does a great job of weaving this theme in amongst a tale of diaspora in a nation torn with religous conflict. While the setting's technology can get a little cheesy at times, the political backdrop makes for a truly interesting tale. Over all, the author's writing in this book is very good. I am a very critical grader, and so even though I enjoyed many parts of this book, the overall literary quality makes me tend to rate this one at a three (it would take an astonding masterpiece of literature that happened to appeal to me personally to get a five). I would most certainly recommend this book to any sci-fi fan.

Editorial Review:

In the distant future, the peace between two rival religions in a tranquil, self-sufficient city is shattered by revelations that rebel soldiers are hiding in the confines of the city. By the author of Desolation Road.

Out on Blue Six

Ian Mcdonald

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Out on a limb 3 out of 5 stars.
7 of 9 people found this review helpful.

After my review of McDonald's short story collection, Speaking in Tongues, several people, among them Michael Sumbera, recommended to me what they felt was McDonald's best novel, Out on Blue Six. There was also some attention focused on the novel on rec.arts.sf.written, because of its similarity to Terry Gilliam's "Brazil." The comparison is not misplaced, although McDonald has a different agenda than Gilliam. Both stories feature a huge government that relegates people's lives, in which a small mistake can wreak human lives. That is, both stories are satires on present governments and governmental ideas. But whereas Gilliam plays the satire to the hilt, and goes beyond simple governmental poking, but also poking at individuals within it, ultimately ending on an extremely cynical note, McDonald still feels there's hope to be had. Out on Blue Six is an extremely pyrotechnic novel, full of unknown words and weirdly impossible SF ideas; again, like Snow Crash, this isn't a hard SF novel, but rather a novel of adventure and philosophy. Stephenson pulls it off slightly better, mainly because he isn't concerned with wrapping things up in a denoument, which McDonald does with his story.

Futures: Four Novellas

Peter F. Hamilton, Stephen Baxter, Paul McAuley, Ian McDonald

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A quartet of British SF authors show their stuff 4 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

This volume is somewhat different than the usual flurry of anthologies that come out, especially during the holiday season, on two counts.

First, it is a British import, and thus the authors represented, while to varying degrees familiar to most of the rest of the world, really are British in tone and outlook.

Second, rather than stories, this volume has the longer novella form for the stories, and thus there is one story apiece. SF seems to be the last bastion of this "not quite short story, not quite novel" length work, and the virtues of the form are admirably displayed here.

The first story is Peter F. Hamilton's WATCHING TREES GROW. Although far better known for his Reality Dysfunction space opera, Hamilton has written detective SF before (The Mindstar Rising novels) and this is another example, with a twist...it is set in an alternate history where Heinleinian long-lived families vie for power and influence, and that is just the backdrop to a murder mystery.

The second story is REALITY DUST by Stephen Baxter. Unlike Hamilton, Baxter's story is set in his trademark universe, the "Xeelee Sequence". This is set after the Qax Domination, where their former collaborator-lackeys seek escape from the freed peoples of Earth in a rather unusual escape route.

MAKING HISTORY, by Paul McAuley is set in a more standard "near future" solar system, in the aftermath of a war...and even if it is true that history is written by the victors, that history can sometimes be rather muddled in the making.

The last story is TENDELEO'S STORY by Ian MacDonald. Like the Baxter, it is set in a trademark world of his, the "Chaga stories", where a strange alien life (nanotech? technolife?) has started to colonize the Earth, beginning with Africa. This story, like his other novels and stories, focuses more on the people affected by the Chaga, much more so than the actual event itself.

All four of these stories are strong, but of course, tastes may vary. The stories do range a far chunk of SF, and it is very possible that while you might like two or three, you may not like all four (personally, I liked the Baxter the best and the McDonald the least). Thus, the 4 star rating. Still, all in all, if you are at all interested in what the best British SF writers are doing, this paperback is perfect for the purpose.

Editorial Review:

This collection of four novellas of humanity's struggle for survival in the far future features "Watching Trees Grow" by Peter F. Hamilton; "Reality Dust" by Stephen Baxter; "Making History" by Paul McAuley; and "Tendeleo's Story" by Ian McDonald.

Scissors Cut Paper Wrap Stone

Ian Mcdonald

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

What I Tell You Three Times Is The TRUTH!!! 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This book is great. This book is great. This book is great. The only problem with it is the same problem with just about any great cyberpunk novel, the ending is weak and unimaginative. I read it three months ago and I don't remember how the bloody thing ends. Ian McDonald has done an outstanding job with this novella though. I highly recommend it to anyone, even if you don't like sci-fi.

Interesting, but not very original 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 5 people found this review helpful.

This is the J.G. Ballard version of Count Zero, or maybe it's the Ballard condensed Snow Crash, which is to say that McDonald continues in his tradition of writing in the style of another writer while sampling the plot and characters of yet another. His publisher should make more of this: IAN MCDONALD--the best science fiction rapper! In this one, lead character Ethan Ring is a Molly-like (from Neuromancer) freelancer who is on a pilgrimmage to try and recover his lost "soul," taken from him when he became a tool of the EC. This is latter-day cyberpunk, where the computer revolution has once again become a thing of fear rather than the power of freedom that was implied in the early days of the subgenre. McDonald also takes a page from Sterling by mixing in an incredible post-political world that isn't all that unbelievable.

What struck me most about the book was the Ballardesque nature of it. McDonald's always been enamoured of style, and as style in SF goes, Ballard is somewhere between the high priest and the holy ghost. McDonald uses the quick flips between scenes, the sentence fragments that contain only the most important nouns and verbs, and paring down the plot so that the book contains only the most important scenes and actions, the in-between bits to be filled in by the reader's imagination. However, a true Ballard pastiche would have been only 13 pages rather than the 130 here (see Brian Aldiss' recent Ballardesque "FOAM"). McDonald hasn't given up totally on the idea that a story is told in length. SCPWS is not bad, but still not the startingly original novel that I'm expecting one of these days from McDonald.

Editorial Review:

The creator of computer-generated images that have the power to heal, erase memories, bring ecstasy, and kill savagely, graphic arts student Ethan Ring must brave treacherous terrain to escape those who would use his invention for evil.

Kirinya

Ian McDonald

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Continuing the Chaga Story 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

While not as good as the amazing Evolution's Shore, this sequel is still a 5-star book. McDonald turns from looking at how a world would react to seemingly non-intelligent aliens landing on earth to how those who survived would live their everyday lives. The story and the world are both fascinating, even if there are some moments that are uncomfortable. If you enjoyed Evolution's Shore, this book is worth getting.

Editorial Review:

The end of the universe happened at around ten o’clock at night on 22 December 2032. It’s just that humanity hasn’t realized it yet. And the Chaga, the strange flora deposited from the stars, is still busy terraforming the tropics into someone else’s terra. Gaby McAslan was once a hungry news reporter who compromised her relationship with UNECTA researcher Dr. Shepard for the sake of her story…but Gaby is no longer a journalist and she doesn’t want to be a full-time mother, even though her child Serena is her last link with Shepard. Gaby’s fire has gone out; she’s gone soft. But the massive political and military upheavals that are rocking the world are about to drag her back into the action.

Desolation Road

Ian Mcdonald

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

McDonald's best work to date. 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

Ian McDonald's Desolation Road is undeniably his best book, a rich and vibrant tale of village life on a terraformed Mars. Reminiscent (intentionally) of the magic realist novels of Marquez and Llosa it transcends the science fiction genre without denigrating it, revelling in both worlds to the credit of each. This is one of those books that critics should hold up as an example of great writing in sf, especially because it won't disappoint even the most hardened veteran reader--literally, a book for everyone.

Editorial Review:

Nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award!

It all began 30 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 Chataqua and Educational Stravaganza (complete with its very own captive angel) to the Astounding Tatterdemalion Air Bazaar. It's 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.