Ian McDonald (author)
Encyclopedia
- For several other people called Ian McDonald or a similar spelling, see Ian McDonaldIan McDonaldIan McDonald may refer to:* Ian McDonald , Australian first-class cricketer* Ian McDonald , member of King Crimson, 1969–70, and Foreigner, 1977–79...
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Ian McDonald (born 1960) is a British science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novelist, living in Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
. His themes include nanotechnology
Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology is the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally, nanotechnology deals with developing materials, devices, or other structures possessing at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometres...
, postcyberpunk settings, and the impact of rapid social and technological change on non-Western societies.
Biography
McDonald was born in 1960, in ManchesterManchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, to a Scottish father and Irish mother, but moved to Belfast when he was five, and has lived there ever since. He therefore lived through the whole of the 'Troubles' (1968–99), and his sensibility has been permanently shaped by coming to understand Northern Ireland as a post-colonial (and so, in his view, de facto 'Third World') society imposed on an older culture. He became a fan of SF from childhood TV, began writing when he was 9, sold his first story to a local Belfast magazine when he was 22, and in 1987 became a full-time writer. He has also worked in TV consultancy within Northern Ireland, contributing scripts to the Northern Irish Sesame Workshop
Sesame Workshop
Sesame Workshop, formerly known as the Children's Television Workshop , is a Worldwide American non-profit organization behind the production of several educational children's programs that have run on public broadcasting around the world...
production Sesame Tree
Sesame Tree
Sesame Tree, a version of Sesame Street made entirely in Northern Ireland, is produced by Belfast based production company Sixteen South Television and Sesame Workshop. The first episode aired on BBC Two in Northern Ireland on 5 April 2008 with the first series subsequently airing nationwide on...
.
McDonald is known for his work set in developing nations. His 1990s 'Chaga Saga' is particularly notable for its analysis of the AIDS crisis in Africa. His 2004 River of Gods
River of Gods
River of Gods is a science fiction novel by Ian McDonald. It depicts a futuristic India in 2047, a century after its independence from Britain, inhabited by ancient traditions as well as artificial intelligences, robots and nanotechnology....
is set in mid-21st-century India, and his 2007 Brasyl
Brasyl
Brasyl is a 2007 novel by British author Ian McDonald. It was nominated for the 2008 Hugo Awards in the best novel category. In 2008 it was nominated for, and made the longlist of, the £50,000 Warwick Prize for Writing. It was also nominated for the Locus Award and John W...
(2007), set in the 18th and 21st centuries in Lusophone South America, was nominated for, and reached the longlist of, the £50,000 Warwick Prize for Writing
Warwick Prize for Writing
The Warwick Prize for Writing is an international cross-disciplinary prize, worth £50,000, that will be given biennially for an excellent and substantial piece of writing in the English language, in any genre or form, on a theme that will change with every award. It was launched and sponsored by...
.
Publications
- Desolation Road (1988)
- Empire Dreams (1988) (collection)
- Out on Blue Six (1989)
- King of Morning, Queen of Day (1991) – see Waiting For GodotWaiting for GodotWaiting for Godot is an absurdist play by Samuel Beckett, in which two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, wait endlessly and in vain for someone named Godot to arrive. Godot's absence, as well as numerous other aspects of the play, have led to many different interpretations since the play's...
- Hearts, Hands and Voices (1992, US: The Broken Land)
- Speaking in Tongues (1992) (collection)
- Kling Klang KlatchKling Klang KlatchKling Klang Klatch is a graphic novel written by Ian McDonald and illustrated by David Lyttleton. The narrator, a hard-bitten teddy bear detective named Marcus McBear, tries to solve the murder of a panda showgirl, a mystery which leads him into the corruption deeply rooted within Bear City's...
(1992) (graphic novel, illustrated by David Lyttleton) - Scissors Cut Paper Wrap Stone (1994)
- Necroville (1994, US: Terminal Café)
- Chaga (1995, US: Evolution's Shore)
- Sacrifice of Fools (1996)
- Kirinya (1997)
- Tendeléo's Story (2000)
- Ares Express (2001)
- River of GodsRiver of GodsRiver of Gods is a science fiction novel by Ian McDonald. It depicts a futuristic India in 2047, a century after its independence from Britain, inhabited by ancient traditions as well as artificial intelligences, robots and nanotechnology....
(2004) – Hugo AwardHugo AwardThe Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
nominee, Clarke AwardArthur C. Clarke AwardThe Arthur C. Clarke Award is a British award given for the best science fiction novel first published in the United Kingdom during the previous year. The award was established with a grant from Arthur C. Clarke and the first prize was awarded in 1987...
nominee, winner of the BSFA awardBSFA awardThe BSFA Awards are literary awards presented annually since 1970 by the British Science Fiction Association to honor works in the genre of science fiction. Nominees and winners are chosen based on a vote of BSFA members... - BrasylBrasylBrasyl is a 2007 novel by British author Ian McDonald. It was nominated for the 2008 Hugo Awards in the best novel category. In 2008 it was nominated for, and made the longlist of, the £50,000 Warwick Prize for Writing. It was also nominated for the Locus Award and John W...
(2007) – Hugo AwardHugo AwardThe Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
nominee, winner of the BSFA awardBSFA awardThe BSFA Awards are literary awards presented annually since 1970 by the British Science Fiction Association to honor works in the genre of science fiction. Nominees and winners are chosen based on a vote of BSFA members...
, Nominated for the £50,000 Warwick Prize for WritingWarwick Prize for WritingThe Warwick Prize for Writing is an international cross-disciplinary prize, worth £50,000, that will be given biennially for an excellent and substantial piece of writing in the English language, in any genre or form, on a theme that will change with every award. It was launched and sponsored by... - Cyberabad Days (2009) (collection, related to River of GodsRiver of GodsRiver of Gods is a science fiction novel by Ian McDonald. It depicts a futuristic India in 2047, a century after its independence from Britain, inhabited by ancient traditions as well as artificial intelligences, robots and nanotechnology....
) - The Dervish House (2010) – Hugo AwardHugo AwardThe Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
nominee, Clarke AwardArthur C. Clarke AwardThe Arthur C. Clarke Award is a British award given for the best science fiction novel first published in the United Kingdom during the previous year. The award was established with a grant from Arthur C. Clarke and the first prize was awarded in 1987...
nominee, winner of the BSFA awardBSFA awardThe BSFA Awards are literary awards presented annually since 1970 by the British Science Fiction Association to honor works in the genre of science fiction. Nominees and winners are chosen based on a vote of BSFA members... - Planesrunner (2012)
Awards
- Nebula Best NoveletteNebula Award for Best NoveletteWinners of the Nebula Award for best Novelette. The stated year is that of publication; awards are given in the following year. Winning titles are listed first, with other nominees listed below.-External links:* * *...
nominee (1989) : Unfinished Portrait of the King of Pain by Van Gogh - Arthur C. Clarke AwardArthur C. Clarke AwardThe Arthur C. Clarke Award is a British award given for the best science fiction novel first published in the United Kingdom during the previous year. The award was established with a grant from Arthur C. Clarke and the first prize was awarded in 1987...
Best Novel nominee (1990) : Desolation Road - Locus AwardLocus AwardThe Locus Award is a literary award established in 1971 and presented to winners of Locus magazine's annual readers' poll. Currently, the Locus Awards are presented at an annual banquet...
First Novel winner (1989) : Desolation Road - Philip K. Dick Award Best Collection winner (1991) : King of Morning, Queen of Day
- Locus Fantasy Award nominee (1992) : King of Morning, Queen of Day
- Arthur C. Clarke AwardArthur C. Clarke AwardThe Arthur C. Clarke Award is a British award given for the best science fiction novel first published in the United Kingdom during the previous year. The award was established with a grant from Arthur C. Clarke and the first prize was awarded in 1987...
Best Novel nominee (1993) : Hearts, Hands, and Voices - British Science Fiction Award nominee (1992) : Hearts, Hands, and Voices
- World Fantasy Best Short storyWorld Fantasy Award for Best Short FictionThis World Fantasy Award is given to the fantasy short story voted best by a panel of judges, and presented each year at the World Fantasy Convention....
nominee (1994) : Some Strange Desire - Philip K. Dick Award Best Novel nominee (1994) : Scissors Cut Paper Wrap Stone
- British Science Fiction Association AwardBSFA awardThe BSFA Awards are literary awards presented annually since 1970 by the British Science Fiction Association to honor works in the genre of science fiction. Nominees and winners are chosen based on a vote of BSFA members...
Best Novel nominee (1994) : Necroville - John W Campbell Memorial Award Best NovelJohn W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction NovelThe John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel for best science fiction novel was created in 1973 by writers and critics Harry Harrison and Brian W. Aldiss to honor Campbell's name...
nominee (1996) : Evolution's Shore - British Science Fiction Association AwardBSFA awardThe BSFA Awards are literary awards presented annually since 1970 by the British Science Fiction Association to honor works in the genre of science fiction. Nominees and winners are chosen based on a vote of BSFA members...
Best Novel nominee (1995) : Chaga - The John W. Campbell Memorial AwardJohn W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction NovelThe John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel for best science fiction novel was created in 1973 by writers and critics Harry Harrison and Brian W. Aldiss to honor Campbell's name...
nominee (1996) : Chaga - Theodore Sturgeon AwardTheodore Sturgeon AwardThe Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award is given each year for the best science fiction short story of the year and is the short fiction counterpart of the Campbell award , published in English....
winner (2001): Tendeléo's Story - British Science Fiction Association AwardBSFA awardThe BSFA Awards are literary awards presented annually since 1970 by the British Science Fiction Association to honor works in the genre of science fiction. Nominees and winners are chosen based on a vote of BSFA members...
Best Novel winner (2004) : River of GodsRiver of GodsRiver of Gods is a science fiction novel by Ian McDonald. It depicts a futuristic India in 2047, a century after its independence from Britain, inhabited by ancient traditions as well as artificial intelligences, robots and nanotechnology.... - Arthur C. Clarke AwardArthur C. Clarke AwardThe Arthur C. Clarke Award is a British award given for the best science fiction novel first published in the United Kingdom during the previous year. The award was established with a grant from Arthur C. Clarke and the first prize was awarded in 1987...
Best Novel nominee (2005) : River of GodsRiver of GodsRiver of Gods is a science fiction novel by Ian McDonald. It depicts a futuristic India in 2047, a century after its independence from Britain, inhabited by ancient traditions as well as artificial intelligences, robots and nanotechnology.... - Hugo AwardHugo AwardThe Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
Best Novel nominee (2005) : River of GodsRiver of GodsRiver of Gods is a science fiction novel by Ian McDonald. It depicts a futuristic India in 2047, a century after its independence from Britain, inhabited by ancient traditions as well as artificial intelligences, robots and nanotechnology.... - Hugo AwardHugo AwardThe Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
Best Novelette winner (2007) : The Djinn's Wife - Hugo AwardHugo AwardThe Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
Best Novel nominee (2008) : BrasylBrasylBrasyl is a 2007 novel by British author Ian McDonald. It was nominated for the 2008 Hugo Awards in the best novel category. In 2008 it was nominated for, and made the longlist of, the £50,000 Warwick Prize for Writing. It was also nominated for the Locus Award and John W... - British Science Fiction Association AwardBSFA awardThe BSFA Awards are literary awards presented annually since 1970 by the British Science Fiction Association to honor works in the genre of science fiction. Nominees and winners are chosen based on a vote of BSFA members...
Best Novel winner (2007) : BrasylBrasylBrasyl is a 2007 novel by British author Ian McDonald. It was nominated for the 2008 Hugo Awards in the best novel category. In 2008 it was nominated for, and made the longlist of, the £50,000 Warwick Prize for Writing. It was also nominated for the Locus Award and John W... - Warwick Prize for WritingWarwick Prize for WritingThe Warwick Prize for Writing is an international cross-disciplinary prize, worth £50,000, that will be given biennially for an excellent and substantial piece of writing in the English language, in any genre or form, on a theme that will change with every award. It was launched and sponsored by...
(2008/9) nominee and reached prize longlist announced in November 2008 : BrasylBrasylBrasyl is a 2007 novel by British author Ian McDonald. It was nominated for the 2008 Hugo Awards in the best novel category. In 2008 it was nominated for, and made the longlist of, the £50,000 Warwick Prize for Writing. It was also nominated for the Locus Award and John W... - The John W. Campbell Memorial AwardJohn W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction NovelThe John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel for best science fiction novel was created in 1973 by writers and critics Harry Harrison and Brian W. Aldiss to honor Campbell's name...
nominee (2008) : BrasylBrasylBrasyl is a 2007 novel by British author Ian McDonald. It was nominated for the 2008 Hugo Awards in the best novel category. In 2008 it was nominated for, and made the longlist of, the £50,000 Warwick Prize for Writing. It was also nominated for the Locus Award and John W... - Locus SF Award nominee (2008) : BrasylBrasylBrasyl is a 2007 novel by British author Ian McDonald. It was nominated for the 2008 Hugo Awards in the best novel category. In 2008 it was nominated for, and made the longlist of, the £50,000 Warwick Prize for Writing. It was also nominated for the Locus Award and John W...
- Nebula Award nominee (2008) : BrasylBrasylBrasyl is a 2007 novel by British author Ian McDonald. It was nominated for the 2008 Hugo Awards in the best novel category. In 2008 it was nominated for, and made the longlist of, the £50,000 Warwick Prize for Writing. It was also nominated for the Locus Award and John W...
- Hugo AwardHugo AwardThe Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
Best Novel nominee (2011) : The Dervish House - Arthur C. Clarke AwardArthur C. Clarke AwardThe Arthur C. Clarke Award is a British award given for the best science fiction novel first published in the United Kingdom during the previous year. The award was established with a grant from Arthur C. Clarke and the first prize was awarded in 1987...
Best Novel nominee (2011) : The Dervish House - John W Campbell Memorial Award Best NovelJohn W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction NovelThe John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel for best science fiction novel was created in 1973 by writers and critics Harry Harrison and Brian W. Aldiss to honor Campbell's name...
winner (2011) : The Dervish House - British Science Fiction Association AwardBSFA awardThe BSFA Awards are literary awards presented annually since 1970 by the British Science Fiction Association to honor works in the genre of science fiction. Nominees and winners are chosen based on a vote of BSFA members...
Best Novel winner (2011) : The Dervish House
Desolation Road
McDonald's first novel. It won a number of awards on first publication and is frequently compared with works of Robert A. HeinleinRobert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
and Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury
Ray Douglas Bradbury is an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and for the science fiction stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man , Bradbury is one of the most celebrated among 20th...
, although these references appear to be given as a measure of quality rather than a note of similarity in style. In fact, this book is highly similar to Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez is a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo throughout Latin America. He is considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in...
's One Hundred Years of Solitude
One Hundred Years of Solitude
One Hundred Years of Solitude , by Gabriel García Márquez, is a novel which tells the multi-generational story of the Buendía family, whose patriarch, José Arcadio Buendía, founds the town of Macondo, the metaphoric Colombia...
in its portrayal of a remote community over time, as well as with elements of magic realism
Magic realism
Magic realism or magical realism is an aesthetic style or genre of fiction in which magical elements blend with the real world. The story explains these magical elements as real occurrences, presented in a straightforward manner that places the "real" and the "fantastic" in the same stream of...
.
On a partially terraformed Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
(comfortable temperature and atmosphere, although still mostly desert
Desert
A desert is a landscape or region that receives an extremely low amount of precipitation, less than enough to support growth of most plants. Most deserts have an average annual precipitation of less than...
) a lone scientist
Scientist
A scientist in a broad sense is one engaging in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge. In a more restricted sense, a scientist is an individual who uses the scientific method. The person may be an expert in one or more areas of science. This article focuses on the more restricted use of the word...
is hunting a mysterious being across the desert, using a device best described as an anti-gravity sailboard for transportation. While taking a rest, he neglects to secure the board thoroughly and wakes up in time to see it blown away by the wind. Stranded in the desert, he is fortunate to discover an artificial oasis
Oasis
In geography, an oasis or cienega is an isolated area of vegetation in a desert, typically surrounding a spring or similar water source...
(created by a long-lost terraforming
Terraforming
Terraforming of a planet, moon, or other body is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying its atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology to be similar to those of Earth, in order to make it habitable by terrestrial organisms.The term is sometimes used more generally as a...
AI
Ai
AI, A.I., Ai, or ai may refer to:- Computers :* Artificial intelligence, a branch of computer science* Ad impression, in online advertising* .ai, the ISO Internet 2-letter country code for Anguilla...
) near a line of railway. With all the necessities of life around him, he awaits rescue or company. Eventually, he is joined by other strays and castaways, and together they found the town of Desolation Road.
The novel outlines the history of the town through the next few decades, generally focussing on one major event at a time and dealing with in-between events in quick outlines.
Although not a steampunk
Steampunk
Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. Steampunk involves a setting where steam power is still widely used—usually Victorian era Britain or "Wild West"-era United...
novel, much of the technology featured in the book, such as locomotives (albeit Fusion) and propellor-driven aircraft, appears to harken back to Earth's near-history rather than to standard visions of the future. This gives the novel an atmosphere of anachronism and timelessness.
The 'Chaga Saga'
Published between 1995 and 2000, the novels Chaga (US title Evolution's Shore) and Kirinya, with the novella Tendeléo's Story, form the 'Chaga Saga'--perhaps the most important and certainly the most compelling and moral redaction of the alien invasion story in recent decades.The journalistic tag 'Chaga Saga', playing on Aga Saga
AGA saga
The Aga Saga is a sub-genre of the family saga of literature. The genre is named for the AGA cooker, a type of stored-heat oven that came to be popular in medium to large country houses in the UK after its introduction in 1929. It refers primarily to fictional family sagas dealing with British...
, resonates with the female protagonists of each novel, but McDonald's purposes were far darker than domestic romance allows. An outer frame of the action involves the very real mystery of the dark side of Iapetus
Iapetus (moon)
Iapetus ), occasionally Japetus , is the third-largest moon of Saturn, and eleventh in the Solar System. It was discovered by Giovanni Domenico Cassini in 1671...
, but the principal story begins with extensive alien landings around the equator—meteoric biological packages that slam down and spill out an unstoppable wave of transformation. Animals are not directly harmed, but habitat is remorselessly consumed, and the major axis of Chaga concerns the alien advance on Nairobi
Nairobi
Nairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi County. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters". However, it is popularly known as the "Green City in the Sun" and is...
from an impact-site on Mount Kilimanjaro
Mount Kilimanjaro
Kilimanjaro, with its three volcanic cones, Kibo, Mawenzi, and Shira, is a dormant volcano in Kilimanjaro National Park, Tanzania and the highest mountain in Africa at above sea level .-Geology:...
. The protagonist is Ulster
Ulster
Ulster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...
journalist Gaby McAslin, whose outsider's eye both caresses African landscape and sees very clearly what the 'UN quarantine zone' is doing to Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
and Kenyans. Gaby's story, with that of her daughter, continues in Kirinya to a hugely satisfying space-operatic but also visionary and satirical climax. Tendeléo's Story is an oblique coda, seen through the eyes of a young Kenyan girl who escapes to the UK only to be deported back to Kenya as an unwanted alien potentially contaminated by an even less wanted and much more alien alien.
The moral force of McDonald's plot derives from his use of the invading alien as an immensely powerful but also very slippery metaphor:
The image of the unstoppable wave of transformation was nicked from [1982 Star Trek movie] The Wrath of Khan: it's the Genesis device, slowed down, and once I had that, it became a rich source of metaphors: for colonialism, new technology, globalisation, change, death. If the Chaga is colonialism, it's a unique kind that allows the people of the poor South to use and transform it to meet their needs and empower themselves: it's a symbiosis.
The economic and moral issues are focused and driven home through the determination of the UN and the global pharmacological industry to conceal the fact that exposure to the alien Chaga cures AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
, and the knife is turned by a fictional but verisimilar virology. In McDonald's 2008 (imagined in 1994-5) there are four strains of HIV: HIV4 is a death sentence for everyone, until the Chaga arrives, but HIV1-3 are death sentences only for the poor—showing very clearly McDonald's understanding (unusual in the mid-1990s) that AIDS was no longer a 'killer' in itself, but had become for the 'First-World' wealthy a manageable condition. McDonald's plotting is also, in Chaga, deeply engaged with Conrad
Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad was a Polish-born English novelist.Conrad is regarded as one of the great novelists in English, although he did not speak the language fluently until he was in his twenties...
's Heart of Darkness
Heart of Darkness
Heart of Darkness is a novella written by Joseph Conrad. Before its 1903 publication, it appeared as a three-part series in Blackwood's Magazine. It was classified by the Modern Library website editors as one of the "100 best novels" and part of the Western canon.The story centres on Charles...
, and just as in Conrad the real horror is not only in the Congolese interior, but also in the looming bulk of late Victorian London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, so McDonald's 'heart of darkness' is not the invading alien but the responses to it of the UN and of developed nations.
Scholarship
- Clute, John, & Nicholls, Peter (eds). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. New York: St Martin’s Press, 1993. ISBN 0-31209-618-6.
- Lennard, JohnJohn LennardJohn Lennard is Professor of British and American Literature at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica, and a freelance academic and writer.-Biography:...
, Ian McDonald: Chaga / Evolution's Shore. Tirril: Humanities-Ebooks, 2007.
Blog and on-line interviews
- http://ianmcdonald.livejournal.com/
- http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/nonfiction/intimcd.htm
- http://trashotron.com/agony/columns/2004/08-23-04.htm
- http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?id=34873
- http://www.tuginternet.com/jja/journal/archives/003649.html
- http://www.locusmag.com/2006/Issues/08McDonald.html
- Interview with Ian McDonald - small WORLD Podcast 2007
- Video interview for Fantasy Hrvatska
- http://www.jonathanstrahan.com.au/wp/2011/10/24/episod-72-live-with-gary-k-wolfe-and-ian-mcdonald/
External resources
- Ian McDonald's online fiction at Free Speculative Fiction Online
- Review of Desolation Road by Jo WaltonJo WaltonJo Walton is a Welsh-Canadian fantasy and science fiction writer and poet. She won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2002 and the World Fantasy award for her novel Tooth and Claw in 2004. Her novel Ha'penny was a co-winner of the 2008 Prometheus Award...
- Interview at SFFWorld.com
- River of Gods Page (US Edition)
- Longlist of Warwick Prize for Writing for Brasyl