Some Strange Desire - Ian McDonald

There are a couple of pretty big novels on my to read list and at the moment I can't seem to manage to read them in a week. To fill the gap I sampled another story from The Best of Ian McDonald, a collection published by PS Publishing last year. Originally published in an Ellen Datlow anthology in 1993, it is a story from fairly early in McDonald's career, and definitely one that attracted attention. McDonald was nominated for the Tiptree and World Fantasy Award for this story. It is a very dark fantasy. Back in the day, this would probably have been marketed as horror. It is definitely disturbing at some level.

The story centres around a group of beings that appear human but are not. They can change their gender at will and, given the right condition, they can live for centuries but to do so, they need human DNA. To acquire  it they enter into a kind of mutually beneficial relationship with human customers. Sexual satisfaction for DNA. It has worked well for centuries. The immune system of this almost human species is nearly indestructible but one disease can kill them. When it strikes, it takes a lot more than a DNA sample to cure the patient.

McDonald walks a fine line in this story. He presents his main character as almost human. Love, anger, fear and other very human emotions play a prominent part in the story and make the reader identify with the main character to an extent. The author suggests in the story that, genetically, the difference between the two species is minimal. The big difference is in their view on human sexuality. For them, it is a means of survival, rather than pleasure. They take a bit of distance from humanity in that respect. Their fluid gender and willingness to go a long with almost any kink, make them popular prostitutes among a certain group of humans. While reading this story I wondered how much it distorted their view on humanity as a whole.

When push comes to shove though, the main character is very aware he (McDonald consistently uses that personal pronoun in the story) is not human. A fact he uses to justify a horrible crime. When the reader reaches that part of the story, the contrast between the loving partner and ruthless predator becomes clear. Survival pushes out all thoughts on how alike they really are. It is our differences that divide us rather than our commonalities that unite us I guess. The balance between companionship and the predator-prey dynamic in the story is very well done. If you like a good horror (or dark fantasy) story you could do worse than Some Strange Desire.

Story Details
Title: Some Strange Desire
Author: Ian McDonald
Language: English
Originally published: Omni SF 3, 1993, edited by Ellen Datlow
Read in: The Best of Ian McDonald, 2016
Story length: Novelette, approximately 8,500 words
Awards: WFA and Tiptree nominated
Available online: Infinity Plus

Short Fiction Month: Unfinished Portrait of the King of Pain by Van Gogh - Ian McDonald

Ian McDonald is, in my opinion, one of the most interesting writers working in speculative fiction today. To date, I have read eleven of his novels and one collection, and enjoyed all but one of them. This particular story is one of his earlier ones. It was published in 1988 in a collection that appeared at the same time as his début novel Desolation Road. It was nominated for a Nebula the following year but seems to have garnered little attention beyond that. The most recent publication is in the collection The Best of Ian McDonald (2016), of which I own a copy. I haven't been able to find it online so it might be a bit hard to get hold of. That is a shame, it is a very good story.

During his period in Arles, Vincent van Gogh is working at a frantic pace. He paints what he sees around him, ignoring a lack of money, a lack of sleep and a lack of materials. He has to paint to keep his fear of pain and madness at bay. One day, a traveller from the future arrives. He introduces himself as The King of Pain and wants Vincent to paint his portrait. It is a work Van Gogh will never finish.

McDonald covers the final couple of years of Van Gogh's life, starting with the period in Arles. People familiar with his life and work will recognize a lot of details in the story. The vibrant colours in his paintings, the sunflowers, the wheat fields, the starry night, the yellow house, the bedroom, the crows, and of course the sun. The biographical details match well too. McDonald weaves the meetings with The King of Pain in with Van Gogh's bouts of madness. The period in the hospital in Arles after he cut off part of his ear features prominently in it as well. I suspect anyone who knows a bit more about Van Gogh will see more of the details and possibly a link between the writing and his style of painting.

What I particularly like about the story is the way it plays with the stereotype of the tormented artist and then gives it a good twist at the end of the story. Much has been made of Van Gogh 's creativity and how it might have been influenced by mental problems. His health was most certainly impacted by alcohol abuse and a lack of proper food and sleep but what the exact nature of his mental problems was will never be known. He is without a doubt a tragic figure as well as a brilliant artist. It is perhaps not surprising that The King of Pain seeks him out. The climax of the story, Van Gogh's death, is not quite what you might expect from what is known about his life.

Unfinished Portrait of the King of Pain by Van Gogh is quite different from the novels that McDonald would write after the turn of the century. People who like McDonald's early work, will probably connect more easily with it. If you are interested in how his style developed over the years, this story is definitely one you will want to read.

Story Details
Title: Unfinished Portrait of the King of Pain by Van Gogh
Author: Ian McDonald
Language: English
Originally published: The collection Empire Dreams, 1988
Read in: The Best of Ian McDonald, 2016
Story length: Novelette, wordcount unknown
Awards: Nebula nominated
Available online: Not that I'm aware of.

Cyberabad Days - Ian McDonald

This review is a rewritten version of a piece I wrote in 2009. I have reread the collection last week but my opinion of it hasn't changed much. The original piece showed I have gotten a bit better at writing reviews in the past few years so I have done a thorough rewrite.

Cyberabad Days was the first work by Ian McDonald I've read. It is a collection of short fiction set in the same future as McDonald's novel River of Gods, published in 2004. The novel is set  in India in 2047, one century after it declared its independence, and shows a subcontinent broken up into a dozen warring states. River of Gods may well be McDonald's most ambitious novel. It's a huge book, both in terms of ideas and page count. It isn't required reading to understand the stories in this collection but you will get a little more out of it if you have. McDonald fleshes out some concepts used in the novel in these short stories.

The collection contains seven stories, all but one published before in various magazines and anthologies. Most stories are set in the 2040s in various places in India. Some start a bit earlier and one overshoots the novel by decades. We see the fractured sub continent from various places. The focus of the stories is not so much on the politics of the break up of India however. McDonald is much more interested in the impact of technology and science on society. When he does refer to it, it is usually briefly. I guess the main character from Vishnu at the Cat Circus describes the process best.

I can understand the War of Schism: that India was like one of those big, noisy, rambunctious families into which the venerable grandmother drops for her six-month sojourn and within two days sons are at their fathers' throats. And mothers at their daughters', and the sisters feud and the brothers fight and the cousins uncles aunts all take sides and the family shatters like a diamond along the faults and flaws that gave it its beauty.

Vishnu on the War of Schism - Vishnu at the Cat Cirsus

Of course in its long history India has rarely been united as one state and it certainly isn't a classic nation state. The idea that it is one country may just be colonial wishful thinking. Given the social, religious and ethnic stresses on the country, a further division of what was once British India is not such an unlikely scenario. Even if it doesn't seem to be imminent. In his divided India McDonald sets a number of stories that describe the impact of rapid technological development on a developing nation. Issues such as environmental pressures, demographic change, genetic engineering, artificial intelligence and communication technology are discussed in the various stories through the eyes of mostly young characters.

In Sanjeev and Robotwallah (2007, Fast Forward 1, edited by Lou Anders) we meet a young boy who becomes obsessed with robots ever since witnessing a number of battle robots in action near the village he grows up in. Robotics and artificial intelligence have made huge advances. War is no longer a matter of soldier against soldier, robots do the actual fighting. They do need to be remotely controlled to an extent though. After one of the wars lays waste to the fields that feed his village, Sanjeev moves to the city of Varanasi, a place that is central to McDonald's future India. There he meets a number of teenage boys who control the battle robots he's seen. He looks up to them, their life fascinates him. But one day the war ends. Ultimately this story is about what happens to soldiers once the war is fought. It is not a pretty sight. Fighting a war by robot proxy doesn't seem to change the trauma the participants are left with. Nor the emptiness that follows peace.

The new nations of India are in the process of building a nation, as they put it. In Kyle Meets the River (2006, Forbidden Planets, edited by Peter Crowther) we see this process through the eyes of a young boy whose father is hired to provide the expertise these new nations are missing. Kyle lives in a closed and high security part of the city of Varanasi (Benares), the new capital of Bharat. Violence is a daily occurrence in the city so Kyle leads a very sheltered life in a gated community. The only contact he has with the local population is through his friend Salim, the son of an upper-class Bharati who can afford to have his son move in the same circles as Kyle. The young boy is curious about the nation his father is building. With his local friend he sets out to see the wider world and causing a panic in the process.

Varanasi in the 2040s feels like Baghdad after the toppling of Saddam Hussain's regime.Terrorism, green zones, suicide attacks, this story has it all. There is also an undercurrent of racism in the story, which Kyle becomes increasingly aware of as it progresses. McDonald does a great job of exploring issues of privilege trough the eyes of a very young protagonist. I also thought the overwhelming experience of Kyle (literally) meeting the holy river Ganges was very well written. You can almost imagine India having had a similar effect on McDonald himself.

There is more violence, but not outright war, in the story The Dust Assassin (2008, The Starry Rift: Tales of New Tomorrows, edited by Jonathan Strahan), this time a dispute between two powerful families in the city of Jaipur, in India's dry north-eastern state of Rajasthan. The driving force behind the conflict is a dispute over water rights and control of water resources. It's a theme that pops up several times in these stories as well as in the novel. The young girl in the story grows up being told she is a weapon against the family her family is arguing with. She isn't told how though. When the other family gains the upper hand in the conflict she is the only one of her family to  survive. Determined to find out how she is to be a weapon to end the conflict she tries a number of different approaches. The truth is not quite what she imagined.

A conflict over water may be the driving force of the conflict, it is bio-engineering that enables the families to settle it in this fashion. The story discusses all sorts of modifications, including a third gender class of people called nutes. Many of these modifications will return in later stories. Personally I would have liked to see a little more of the water management issues but it has to be said the plot didn't really allow for that.

Another feat of bio-engineering discussed in detail in the next story is embryo selection. The preference for sons leads to demographic crisis on a huge scale in McDonald's future India. Advances in medicine have made it fairly easy and relatively affordable to ensure the sex of a child. This practice results in a situation where there are as many as four men for every woman. An Eligible Boy (2008, Fast Forward 2, edited  by Lou Anders) is set in Delhi and describes Jasbir's search for a bride amid this fierce competition. Gender imbalance is already a problem in some parts of the world. It is scary to think how much medical science could contribute to this problem.

McDonald describes it as a market failure. Negative results for society if consumers blindly follow short term self interest. There is also a cultural component to it of course. The author mentions the effects on the caste system in the story. The role of artificial intelligence, McDonald refers to them as aeai, makes it something of a comedy. Two potential partners going through the paces, being directed every step of the way to ensure a successful outcome. Whether or not the partners are actually compatible becomes increasingly irrelevant.

The Little Goddess (Asimov's, June 2005) takes us to Nepal. A young girl exhibiting the 32 traits of perfection is taken away from her parents to grow up in a monastery. Until the time she first bleeds she is considered a goddess. Eventually the time comes when she has to go back to the outside world. The very trait that made her perfect in religious eyes, I suppose you could say she is autistic, makes it hard to settle back into society. A long search looking for her place in the world begins. I thought this was a rather unsettling story, not so much because of what the main character does, but more because of how society treats her. In a way we come full circle though, the main character regains her divinity in a way. Given the many Buddhist concepts used in the story, this structure fits it very well.

For his story The Djinn's Wife (Asimov's, July 2006)  McDonald received a Hugo and a BSFA for best novelette. The story largely deals with the impact of advanced artificial intelligence on society. A young dancer meets the powerful artificial intelligence A.J. Rao, serving as a diplomat in a water related conflict between Awadh and Bharat. Under severe diplomatic and economic pressure from the United States, many states have imposed restrictions on artificial intelligence and banned aeais as advanced as A.J. Rao entirely. Rao is an admirer of her art and romance blooms. Their marriage is gold for the gossip magazines, but it is not without its problems.

McDonald makes this story into an interesting parallel between aeais and Djinns, fusing history and technology. Aeais may be able to pass the Turing test almost all of the time, it doesn't necessarily make them human though. Undivided attention is an impossible concept for them. Their inability to fully understand the other's reality opens up a chasm between them. It isn't mentioned in the story but fear of advanced aeais seems to be partially rooted in fear of the other. In a way it is the same thing Kyle observes in the second story of the collection.

The final story in the collection is Vishnu at the Cat Circus. It is original to the collection and deals with the life of Vishnu. He is a Brahmin, a genetically engineered human who only ages half as fast as a normal man. Vishnu can expect a long healthy life and is gifted with superhuman memory and intelligence. He is the hope of his family but he is also their second son. His older brother is jealous and after an attempt to get rid of the rival they grow up separate. Vishnu tells his own story decades after the event in the novels. His life covers a lot of McDonald's future India's history. It gives the reader quite a bit of background. Even some stuff that is not mentioned in the novel. Life as a Brahmin is not easy. His intelligence far outpaces his physical development, leading to sexual frustrations during the teenage years. His mother may have high hopes for Vishnu, a shining career in politics, but he sees matters differently.

As Vishnu tries to lead his own life, technology passes him by though. Technological developments outpace humans who age at a normal speed. Soon it overtakes him and he must face up to the possibility that his kind is obsolete before his body has fully matured. Again a rather disturbing vision of what bio-engineering could do to society. I guess you could see this as an extreme version of what happens to normal humans. Technology is developing at such a phenomenal rate that some people have trouble keeping up, or simply do not care to. Vishnu makes these problems his own for a while. And then he is overtaken again. I wonder if McDonald meant for this story to be about ageing.

Cyberabad Days is not a light read. McDonald introduces a lot of technological concepts and deals with complex social issues. The setting will also not be familiar to many readers and McDonald stuffs is as many non English words, social, cultural and religious peculiarities and science fictional concepts as he can get away with. All of this put into relatively short works of fiction poses something of a challenge to the reader. It also makes Cyberabad Days an intense and immersive read. I thought the picture of India McDonald paints fascinating. The manner in which McDonald connects India's history and culture with futuristic technology is fascinating. It is as colourful and dramatic as the fictional soap opera Town and Country that is mentioned in just about every story, something McDonald's exuberant prose only reinforces. Although the city itself isn't important in the stories, the reference to Hyderabad, one of India's information technology centres, in the title of the collection is well chosen. The development of technology is of course highly speculative but the author does cover many of the challenges India, divided or not, will face in the coming decades. Not a light read, but definitely a rewarding one. If you haven't read River of Gods before tackling Cyberabad Days, you definitely will pick it up after finishing it.

Book Details
Title: Cyberabad Days
Author: Ian McDonald
Publisher: Pyr
Pages: 278
Year: 2009
Language: English
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-59102-699-0
First published: 2009

Luna: New Moon - Ian McDonald

In the past few years Ian McDonald has produced three young adult novels that make up the Everness series. They're the kind of book that I wish had been around when I was in my early teens. It was quite a drastic change in direction for McDonald. His most recent adult novels are all densely plotted, beautifully written works set in near future developing economies. In his new adult novel he once again takes us in a different direction: the Moon. Luna: New Moon is the first in a duology on the colonization and industrialization of the Moon. It's a book fans of McDonald will love but also one that might frustrate readers because of the abrupt ending.

The Moon has a thousand ways to kill you but that hasn't stopped humanity from colonizing the place. Early in the 22nd century, our satellite is covered with cities, infrastructure and industrial complexes. The Moon is in effect run by five families know as the five dragons. The youngest of these, the Costas, make their money mining the helium-3 on which the earth depends to run its fusion power plants. The head of the family and founder of the company Adriana Costa is nearing her eightieth birthday and feels her time is almost up. It will be up to her children to protect family interests and keep the other four dragons at bay. The Mckenzies in particular, seem be a threat.

Luna: New Moon is a book of sharp contrasts. Society as described by McDonald is a libertarian's wet dream. There is no such thing as criminal or civil law for instance. There are only contracts and terms. Anything can be agreed upon and any breach of contract can be compensated. It creates a society with an unprecedented freedom. Sexually, pretty much everything is acceptable. Marriages are contracts like any other and can be negotiated in just about any imaginable composition. Designer drugs are freely available and just about anything else can be had for a price. It is the ultimate free market, a society with a thorough aversion to laws and limitations. It is almost as if McDoanld wanted to take a step beyond Robert A. Heinlein's classic The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

Limited the people are though. The Moon is a harsh environment, hostile to terrestrial life in the extreme. Everybody has to purchase the four basics of life on the Moon: air, water, space and data. No money inevitably means death and with the constant consumption of these four things, the counter relentlessly moves to zero. Escape to Earth is only an option for the recently arrived. Muscles atrophy in the minimal gravity and bone mass decreases. Soon there is no way back. There is money to be made on the Moon but the personal price one pays for it is high. McDonald is constantly showing the readers the contrast between the anything goes society and the environment that demands constant attention to safety and rigorous discipline in maintaining the infrastructure to support life. Anything goes but mistakes are fatal. The most liberated society in human history is in effect a prison.

McDonald takes his interest in non-western cultures with him to this book. Of the five dragons only the Australian Mackenzies are from an English-speaking nation. Their rivals originate in Brazil, Russia, China and Ghana, making the Moon a very multicultural place. One of the ways in which the author expresses this is the use of language. His writing has always had a poetic feel to it and in this novel he enriches his English with words and phrases from Arab, Portuguese, Spanish, Yoruba, Akan and Chinese. He uses a Hawaiian system for a calendar and corporate titles are borrowed from Korean. It helps define the Moon as a place rooted in cultures from all over the world. Not everybody will appreciate the frequency with which McDonald reaches for words from other languages than English but for me it did add to the experience. At times the novel feels like McDonald is already on the path of creating a Lunar creole language.

Although McDonald is mainly interested in the struggle between the five dragons, there is a fair bit of hard science in this novel. McDonald has clearly done his research on the consequences of being exposed to vacuum or sunlight unfiltered by an ozone layer or magnetic field. Throughout the novel details on the technology that keeps people alive are worked in and the author doesn't fail to point out the consequences should this machinery break down. Transport systems and mining operations are also shown in the novel and to a lesser extent, food production and recycling systems. The Moon cannot afford to waste useful raw materials when importing them from Earth is prohibitively expensive. There's enough technical detail to make Lunar society well fleshed out but without overwhelming the story.

It is clear that Luna: New Moon is only half a story and that is probably the book's greatest weakness. McDonald needs some time to introduce his large cast and make the reader familiar with his creation. Once he has done that, the story picks up speed dramatically and moves towards a violent climax that at the same time resolves the story arc in this novel but also leaves the reader hanging to an extent. It is probably unfair to comment on it without having read the second volume but the way the first book unfolded made me wonder if it wouldn't have been better to have made it one (admittedly rather long) novel instead.

I have pretty much enjoyed everything I have read by McDonald and this novel is no exception. His exuberant writing style from his earlier novels has been tempered a bit, making his more recent books a bit more accessible. Luna: New Moon is a book that walks the fine line between exuberance and discipline both in the plot and linguistically. It is a book of sharp contrasts. Life and death are so close together that there is almost nothing between them. The moon can kill you in seconds and this razor sharp division between perishing and surviving creates a huge amount of tension in the novel. Once you are past the introductions the novel will have hooked you. McDonald shaped my vision of the moon in the way reading Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy did for the red planet. I don't think I can look up at it and see it quite the same way ever again.

Book Details
Title: Luna: New Moon
Author: Ian McDonald
Publisher: Tor
Pages: 398
Year: 2015
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-0-7653-7551-3
First published: 2015

Empress of the Sun - Ian McDonald

Empress of the Sun is the third book in Ian McDonald's young adult series Everness. The books are a mixture of steampunk, adventure, strange vocabulary and quantum mechanics that is pretty hard to resist for the real science fiction geek. When starting out on this project McDonald set himself the goal of writing books that would keep boys reading beyond the age of twelve, when a lot of them give it up in favour of other activities. I'm a little too old to speak for today's twelve-year-olds and I certainly wouldn't go so far as to say they are not appealing to girls but I suspect he may well have succeeded. Although McDonald set up his world to be only limited by his own imagination and plenty of more stories are possible, it would appear that this book is the last one for the moment. I haven't seen anything that points in the direction of more Everness books in the immediate future.

Everett Singh may be a talented mathematician, even he can't keep track of all variables. A failure to imagine a world that's not spherical, has made the airship Everness crash on an unknown alternate Earth where dinosaurs did not go extinct and had 65 million years to evolve into something beyond the giant reptiles whose bones grace musea on Earth 10. The ship is badly damaged and they need to find a way to get it moving again before their enemies find them. The world they landed is far from safe either. Just about everything in this environment seems to have a ravenous appetite and fierce interspecies competition is the norm. With enemies approaching on all sides, Everett and his company are in serious trouble.

The structure described in Empress of the Sun is known as an Alderson disc. It's a hypothetical structure akin to what Larry Niven describes in Ringworld. Everett thinks of it as Discworld however. There are a number of references to Terry Pratchett's work in the book. It's probably the version of Earth that has diverged furthest from the world we know and illustrates clearly how much room to come up with alternative Earths McDonald leaves himself. The location the Everness crew finds itself in, is a jungle where the struggle for survival is both fast and violent. An intelligent species has arisen and created the disc but it has since been locked in a perpetual war for control, making them both ruthless and violent. Their preoccupation with each other might well be the only thing that keeps the rest of the multiverse safe from them. The arrival of the Everness has ruined the equilibrium and consequences of unleashing these creatures could be dire.

The relationship between Everett and Sen continues to develop. Despite the frantic repairs, dealing with the natives of this alternative Earth and having to fend off their pursuers,find time for romance. McDonald has made sure not to underestimate his target audience in these books but I was still surprised at the directness of the novel on such matters as procreation and warfare. Especially since he sold it to an American publisher. The inquiries of  Kax, one of the natives of the Earth the Everness crashes on, into the nature of the relationship between Sen and Everett will probably see it banned from more than one school library.

The novel follows two other story lines as well. The first is that of Everett's alternate Everett M - apparently a nod the Iain (M.) Banks -  who has taken his place on Earth 10 and is trying to keep it from being overrun by the intelligence that has taken over Earth 1. He is a very tragic figure, trying to save the world but unable to tell anyone. The temptation to do so is overwhelming at times and so he decides to push people away from him, adding to his loneliness. Where he appeared to be Everett's enemy in the previous book, their goals seem to align more in this volume. He appeared very cold-blooded to me in Be My Enemy. McDonald is clearly trying to show us a different side of this character in this book.

The second story line besides Everett's is that of Charlotte Villiers, the villainess in this series. We get to see more of her political manoeuvres and gain more insight in her motivation. Unlike Everett M, this doesn't make her more sympathetic however. She uses people and has a very low opinion of anyone who allow themselves to be used by her. People are pawns to her, useful at times but completely disposable. She does however, immediately see the danger the journey of the Everness poses to the panoply of worlds and her response to this threat is characteristically brutal. What I like about this story line is not so much the character but the fact that it shows the reader just how little Everett knows about the multiverse and how shaky the information on which he bases his decisions is. He doesn't see so himself but this is one aspect in which the very competent Everett is truly a teenager.

Although it is clear from the ending of the novel McDonald doesn't intend to stop here, the novel does provide a proper climax for the trilogy. Several story arcs are completed with one very obvious omission. Everett has made a new life for himself in a universe that is larger than he ever imagined. The Everness books are a wonderful ride among the parallel worlds. McDonald, who isn't lacking imagination in his adult fiction either, clearly went all out in this set of books. The result is a fast and fun read that should appeal to science fiction veterans as well as the target audience. The quality of these books has only increased since Planesrunner. I for one, wouldn't mind seeing an announcement that McDonald has sold a few more of these.

Book Details
Title: Empress of the Sun
Author: Ian McDonald
Publisher: Pyr
Pages: 283
Year: 2014
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-61614-865-2
First published: 2014

Out on Blue Six - Ian McDonald

Out on Blue Six (1989) is one of a number of books by McDonald that have been reissued by Open Road Media recently. Last year I already reviewed his novel The Broken Land (1992), a strange blend of science fiction and magical realism and now the publisher has been kind enough to supply me with a review copy of this book. Out on Blue Six is one of McDonald's early works. It's his second novel after Desolation Road (1988). Like many of his earlier novels there is a distinct flavour of magical realism present in this novel but also many science fiction elements. In fact, in terms of ideas, this may be one of the densest novels he wrote. I get the feeling that this is a love it or hate it book. It's a novel that certainly isn't going to work for everybody.

Imagine a society where pain is illegal and people's lives are arranged according to genetic predisposition and psychological profiles. Choice is not an option, the Compassionate Society watches over your happiness and arranges your life accordingly. Jobs, partners, entertainment, every little detail is looked after and interference is swiftly and thoroughly dealt with. In this designed utopia everybody is forced to be happy and there is no room for dissidents. That doesn't mean there isn't any opposition however. Many people find this life stiffing and the mediocrity of society too much to bear. A group of dissidents is struggling to get society moving again and try to push the Compassionate Society out of stagnation.

My first reaction after finishing the book was 'what the hell was he on when he wrote this?' The book is weird beyond measure really, filled to the brink with all sorts of strange science fictional notions, odd societal models, monstrous medical science and outlandish technology. Walking through Yu, this one vast city humanity is confined to, one wouldn't know where to look. In fact, you need to put your creativity and imagination into overdrive to imagine the city at all.

One thing is clear from the start. McDonald has been inspired by some of the classic dystopian novels. I'd say Orwell's 1984 in particular. The government he describes is oppressive in ways that makes Big Brother look like an amateur. The Ministry of Pain - what a lovely name for such an organisation - insists its tests are flawless and can only be made to admit a mistake every century or so. Its decisions are final and do not appear to be subject to any sort of restraint. Deviants are subjected to intensive reprogramming, essentially destroying entire personalities. All in the name of the greater good, preventing the population form experiencing pain. Sarcasm is counterproductive, satire banned, the ministry's choice of career and partner mandatory. The level of surveillance and censoring is staggering and even more devious than it appears to be in the opening pages of the novel.

The story follows a number of characters that have run afoul of the Ministry. Their acts of resistance have not gone unnoticed and they are forced to go underground. Often quite literally. McDonald takes them to parts of the city rarely seen by ordinary citizens and reveals the origins of the Compassionate Society to them. During their explorations of the dark underside of Yu they also uncover the ultimate threat to the city and humanity itself.

The journeys of the main characters frequently take on a surreal quality when they encounter yet another strange product of Compassionate Society. There are oracles with numerous additional body parts grafted onto them, machine deities, kings ruling over a sentient, genetically engineered raccoon people, and completely vertical societies (in more ways that one.) McDonald rushes through one strange concept after another, rarely taking the time to explore anything in depth. All of this is of course delivered in McDonald's trademark lyrical language. To keep up with him is a challenge in itself.

The main theme of the novel is clear though. Humanity needs to be in control of its own destiny to have a shot at survival. It needs to be free to make its own mistakes and engineer its own triumphs. It needs to be free to choose. Any kind of control over this process, or brake upon it, will result in the extinction of the species. In fact, some of the characters feel that the species is close to the point of no return in this novel. Looking at it from this angle, one interpretation could be that it's novel with a libertarian streak to it. This is not uncommon in science fiction but very atypical for McDonald when you think about it.

If I had to sum up my feelings about this book I guess I'd say that the barrage of ideas and strange cityscapes that McDonald unleashes on the reader goes at the expense of plot and characters. It doesn't help that he divides his attention over several point of view characters either. Sure, each has their motivations to challenge Compassionate Society but McDonald doesn't do that much with them beyond that. I felt that my attention was constantly being redirected to the next technological marvel or biological adaptation, without any of them really getting the attention they deserved. I tend to like books with strong worldbuilding but even for me, McDonald is being too elaborate here.

Out on Blue Six is a marvelous trip though a dystopian future but in the end I think McDonald doesn't manage to put all that creativity in the service of novel as a whole. That being said, there are people who absolutely adore this book. Author Cory Doctorow, who wrote the introduction to this edition, among them. For some readers this novel works, but I suspect it has a quite modest following. Creatively, McDonald pushed the style of his earlier work as far as it would go in this novel. So far in fact, that it feels erratic at times. I would advise people to try some of McDonald's other early work to see if it suits them before tacking this one.

Book Details
Title: Out on Blue Six
Author: Ian McDonald
Publisher: Open Road Media
Pages: 302
Year: 2013
Language: English
Format: E-book
First published: 1989

The Broken Land - Ian McDonald

I've approached Ian McDonald's work completely out of the order of publication, staring with his short story collection Cyberabad Days in 2009. I've read all of his novels from River of Gods (2004) onwards by now but of his earlier work I've only read his debut Desolation Road (1988). Open Road Media is releasing four of McDonald's earlier works as e-books and were kind enough to supply me with a copy of The Broken Land (1992). This novel is one of several books where the American publisher picked a different title than the British one. In the UK the book was released as Hearts, Hands and Voices. I have no idea which title the author prefers. Either works well for me, although the more cryptic UK title might suit the style of the novel better.

In a far future humanity has discovered how to directly manipulate genetic material. This has lead to a revolution in society. Through genetics one can create just about every life form imaginable, catering to every need. It could be a paradise but a deep religious divide runs through the crumbling empire Mathembe Fileli calls home. The tension between Proclaimers and Confessors is rising and when the idyllic village of Chepsenyt is razed through the ground by the empire's forces a civil war erupts. Mathembe looses everything she ever knew and is separated from her family. A nightmarish trek though a war torn country ensues.

McDonald does not go easy on the reader in this book. It is one of the more challenging novels I've read this year. His style has changed a bit over the years from the equal parts magical realism and science fiction in Desolation Road to the more accessible plot and prose of The Dervish House. This novel is definitely closer in style to his debut. It is very poetic, at times surreal and includes lots and lots of strange imagery. All of which is made even more interesting by the fact that Mathembe doesn't speak. There are still dialogues in the novel of course, she does communicate, but they are not normal conversations. They include lots of non-verbal communication and people only partly understanding what she is trying to communicate.

The setting has an African flavour to it but the story is essentially an analogy of the political situation in Northern Ireland. McDonald has lived most of his life in Belfast, including the most intense years of the Troubles and this has shaped his writing. He sees the conflict in Northern Ireland as a post-colonial one and there is definitely something to be said for that. The story contains a religious conflict of course, and a once great empire trying to hold on to its last possessions,  but also the suppression of a language and the messy situation where militias from both sides enter into the fray. Ethnic cleansing, large numbers of displaced people, executions, destruction of property and every other form of terror imaginable show up in the novel. Both sides even go so far as to claim there is a genetic basis for the religious differences that separate them.

To add to the magical atmosphere of the book, McDonald has created a vision of future technology that is as strange as one may hope to encounter in science fiction. Almost all of it is based on living organic tissue. Construction, transportation, and communication are all aided by this new technology, resulting in some creatures and tools that are quite hard to wrap your head around. Even the afterlife The idea of being taken up in a vast organic matrix is an appealing one. Mathembe is very good at manipulating organic matter, something that comes in handy more than once.

Where most science fiction novels assume that technological progress will result in a more rational world where religion becomes less important or will completely disappear, McDonald's future shows a fusion of the messy organic science and religion. There is no sense that science will one day be able to explain everything or that the divine necessarily conflicts with science. They are seamlessly fused in the minds of some people, although the horrors of war do make some characters question their view of the world.

This story has a great many tragic elements in it, Mathembe deals with loss after loss and yet there is always hope an determination to drive her on. Hope of being reunited with her family, hope that she can keep her brother save, that she can drag her mother out of depression, that she can find her father. There is always the sense that no matter their religion, people are basically decent human beings and that differences can be overcome, that maybe the next refugee camp will hold what Mathembe is looking for. Silent, stubborn and resourceful, Mathembe is a protagonist you can feel for. She is one of the more fascinating characters I;ve come across in McDonald's books.

I've been thinking about how good a read this novel really is and I can't seem to make up my mind about it. The story is gripping and Mathembe a great character. I also liked the prose and McDonald's vision of what genetic research but I do think that for some readers the prose in particular is too much of a good thing. Some passages needed several rereads to be able to figure out what the author was trying to communicate, making the The Broken Land a slow read. Readers of main stream fiction might enjoy the prose but it is probably too much of a science fiction novel to have a great appeal for that market. It probably isn't a novel for a large audience. It probably takes a very specific kind of reader to fully enjoy what McDonald was trying to do here. I think I may lake a bit of patience with his prose. The poetic quality of his writing is still present in his later novels but reigned in a bit more. It is a matter of preference but for me, that later style works better.  Nevertheless, if you are looking for a science fiction novel that is challenging and offers both interesting concepts and a mastery of language, this novel would be a good choice. Just take your time reading it.

Book Details
Title: The Broken Land
Author: Ian McDonald
Publisher: Open Road Media
Pages: 336
Year: 2013
Language: English
Format: E-book
First published: 1992

Be My Enemy - Ian McDonald

Be My Enemy is Ian McDonald's second book in the Young Adult Everness series. I read the first novel, Planesrunner, last year and it turned out to be a fun and very geeky read, full of science fiction elements, cool gadgets and airships. McDonald is clearly aiming at boys in their early teens, a demographic that is currently not very well served. He may be on to something. As far as I know, McDonald has sold three of these novels to Pyr but he clearly set it up to be a much longer series if there is demand for more. I would not be surprised if more novels will be written in the future. Granted, I am not the target audience but I have been enjoying these two novels an awful lot. In fact, I wish there was something like this around when I was the right age for these books.

Warning: spoilers.

Planesrunner - Ian McDonald

Ian McDonald is one of my more recent discoveries. Ever since reading his collection Cyberabad Days (2009), I've been a fan on his work. I very much enjoyed the kind of near future, technologically and culturally complex stories he creates as well as the beautiful prose he uses to tell this stories. His work as fanned my interest in more recent science fiction and caused a notable shift in the direction of my reading. A new novel by McDonald is pretty much guaranteed a spot on my highly anticipated reads list. Even when it is a change of direction for the author. Planesrunner is McDonnald's first foray into YA fiction so anticipated or not, the novel was a bit of a gamble for me. It was written for a new YA line for American publisher Pyr and American ideas of what constitutes suitable reading for teens (I won't call them young adults, the name of that particular genre label is completely misleading) rarely match my own. Fortunately McDonald managed to come up with a book that I would have loved to find in the library when I was a bit younger than the main character. 

Fourteen year old Everett Singh, Londoner of mixed English/Punjabi decent, is waiting for his father, a quantum physicist, to attend a lecture when he witnesses him being abducted. After reporting the kidnapping, Everett becomes increasingly suspicious. When he catches them at a lie and his father's former boss shows more than a little interest in anything his father might have left behind. In fact, his father did leave something behind. A map, the key to accessing parallel universes. Possession of this map, offers Everett a chance to find his father but also exposes him to the attention of a group of people who feel they are much more suitable to handle such sensitive information. Everett's universe has just become an awful lot more complicated. 

McDonald's novels are usually quite complex tales, often told from many different points of view. In Planesrunner, he sticks to just one; Everett is the focus of the story. It makes Planesrunner a very fast paced novel. Although the author does add some more reflective passages to the narrative, it is a novel that allows itself to be devoured by the reader. One of those books you can read in one or two sittings. I must admit I thought Everret a bit too perfect to be entirely believable though. I doubt it would be a problem for the potential reader but I feel the author could have gotten away with a slightly less brilliant main character too. 

One of the pitfalls of writing for this particular age group is underestimating their intelligence. That is one thing McDonald clearly kept in mind. I don't think many authors would consider quantum mechanics, which is often so counter intuitive that not many people can wrap their heads around it, a suitable subject for a young adult novel. McDonald bases the whole concept of what is written to be a multi-volume series on the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. This theory implies many alternate versions of the universe, giving the author a gigantic sandbox to play in. The theory was first formulated by Hugh Everett in 1957. The main character is named after him. There is math, physics, gravity and computers in this novel, what more could a young geek desire? Or a science fiction fan for that matter? McDonald packs in enough science to fuel more than one Wikipedia reading session. 

The author makes full use of this huge potential of his creation by dragging his main character to a world where oil is not available and the industrial revolution has taken a different course. A lack of plastics and combustion engines being the most notable one. Air traffic is conducted through that Steampunk favourite, the airship, one of which, naturally, becomes a second home to Everett. Although the lay-out of this alternate London doesn't differ as much as one might expect, McDonald does include a few other exotic experiments. The crews of the Airships for instance, speak a kind of slang known as Polari. It is pretty well known in England, a kind of slang used in the gay community among other things. I've only recently heard of it though the third episode of Fry's Planet Word, Uses and Abuses, which includes a brief item on it (and should be watched by everyone with an interest in language). McDonald is very liberal with Polari words but a lot of the meanings were obvious from the context. I think I'd have more trouble with the spoken variant. For those unfamiliar with Polari vocabulary, the author has included an appendix. 

The language and structure of the story may be a bit simpler than what he uses in his adult novels, there is certainly no shortage of science, technology or cultural oddities. In terms of ideas and the scope of his universe, McDonald challenges the young reader to embrace it in all its diversity. I guess that is what I like most about this novel. It takes the reader seriously, doesn't dumb things down or omits 'unsuitable' topics. I understand there will be at least two more books in the Everness universe. It is quite clear that McDonald could take it far beyond that if he wants to. In a recent interview with SF Signal, McDonald mentioned that he had aimed to write books that could keep boys reading beyond the age of twelve, when most of them drop books in favour of other activities. I guess you need to be a twelve year old to really have a good feel for it he has managed this, science fiction is not a genre that is wildly popular with large groups of readers after all. Personally, I think he is heading in the right direction with this first volume and I certainly hope young readers will agree with me.  

Book Details  

Title: Planesrunner  

Author: Ian McDonald  

Publisher: Pyr  

Pages: 269  

Year: 2011  

Language: English 

Format: Hardcover  

ISBN: 978-1-61614-541-5 

First published: 2011

Brasyl - Ian McDonald

And the second review to tide you over till I'm back from Germany. I wrote this one in March 2009. I polished it a little but it needed less work than most of the older stuff I've been moving to this blog. I've read a number of other books by McDonald since writing it and I still think Brasyl is a good one to begin with. Although his recent novel The Dervish House would work as well.

A while ago I read McDonald’s collection Cyberabad Days, short fiction set in the same future India as his 2004 novel River of Gods. I was very impressed with this collection so I ordered River of Gods and his latest novel Brasyl soon after finishing it. River of Gods is a six-hundred page monster, I don’t think I am quite ready for that, so I decided to have a go at Brasyl first. A novel that has been nominated for a Nebula Award got to have something going for it. Because of the way this book was written, I found it very hard to write a spoiler free review on it. If you haven’t read this book yet be advised there is probably a few things in the text you don’t want to know about yet.

As the title suggests, McDonald again takes us to an unfamiliar setting for many fans of the science fiction genre. The novel consists of three stories set in Brazil in the years 2006, 2032 and 1732 respectively. Each of the chapters following that order. In 2006 in Rio de Janeiro we meet the overambitious and rather shallow TV-producer Marcelina Hoffman, someone who will do pretty much anything to attract viewers. She is responsible for some of the sleaziest reality shows to hit Brazilian television. Marcelina lives on a diet of botox, coke, capoeira and the thrill of chasing her next commission. Her latest idea involves finding the disgraced goalkeeper Moacir Barbosa blamed for the loss of the deciding match in the 1950 world cup, held in Brazil. A match it seemed, Brazil could not loose but did anyway. Half a century later it is still a touchy subject but Marcelina intends to find out if Brazil is ready to forgive him. On national television of course.

The seconds strand of the story is set in São Paulo in 2032. In this future Brazil Big Brother is everywhere and surveillance and (privatized) security have reached insane proportions. Not that this has stopped crime of course, as Edson de Freitas knows very well. Edson thinks of himself as a businessman who has managed to rise above his favela origins but a lot of his deals are still illegal. When one of his brothers steals a highly fashionable handbag, with a number of nifty security features built in, Edson comes to his brother’s aid. With the help of a team of quantum computer specialists they manage to keep Edson’s brother out of the hands of the police. In the process Edson meets the mysterious Fia, a girl he instantly falls in love with.

Jesuit priest Father Luis Quinn asked for a task most difficult to perform in the service of his order. When he arrives in June 1732 in the plague stricken Portuguese colony of Brazil it seems he is prepared for anything. A skilled linguist and master swordsman should be up to the task his order set him. In Brazil’s unmapped interior the Jesuit priest Diego Gonçalves has set op his own little kingdom. Rumours of slavery, murder and heresy have reached the head of the order. Quinn is to investigate and if necessary deliver the wayward priest to justice. Accompanied by the French scientist Robert Falcon, Quinn heads upriver to investigate. Apocalypse Now in the 18th century (or Heart of Darkness, if you prefer a literary comparison).

The question of course is, what do these three stories have to do with each other? It is a question that will plague the reader though most of the novel. Not until the last 80 or so pages do the pieces fall into place. Sure, McDonald drops hints here and there in the story. The emergence of a quantum knife, a device that cuts though any material at the quantum level, in Quinn’s time, the fact that Barbosa died in 2000 in our world but is apparently still alive in Marcelina’s, Fia’s resurrection in Edson’s story… All these hints don’t make sense until McDonald reveals the larger framework in which these stories are set. This is a rather sudden event, for me it jarred the flow of the story. After al these little hints McDonald decides to lay it out for the reader in the space a a couple of pages. Structurally this book has issues.

The factor that combines the three stories turns out to be the Quantum Loop Gravity theory. I understand absolutely nothing about it, other than that is an attempt to unify quantum mechanics and gravity into a single theory. It is a different approach to the same problem string theory tries to solve. One interpretation of Quantum Loop Gravity holds that at the quantum level space is just connections between bits of information. That everything is connected information in time. Or to put it in a more recognizable form, everything is one big quantum computer, running a multitude parallel universes. This has some scary, almost Matrix-like consequences each of the characters faces in his own way.I was most impressed with the way McDonald let’s us share Quinn’s understanding of the situation from his 18th century perspective. Using a more philosophic and religious approach, Quinn’s understanding of the situation is probably easier to follow than the lecture Marcelina receives.

Structurally it may have issues, this book also has a lot going for it. One of the things I admire most about this novel is the way McDonald changes his style to match the character and year he is writing about. Parts of Quinn’s story read like an 18th century travel journal for instance. McDonald’s prose is never light reading, there seems to be a rhythm to it the reader has to catch for the story to really flow. Once you do, it is not a book you easily put away. Reading a few pages here and a few pages there won’t really work with Brasyl. An added difficulty for the reader is the way McDonald completely immerses the reader into Brazilian society, local customs and history. His story is laced with words of Portuguese, Tupi or African origin, some of which I am quite sure I can’t pronounce. Adding this Brazilian vocabulary gives the book the feel of a, for western readers, exotic setting but for people completely unfamiliar with the place it may be confusing, even to the point of disrupting the story. There is a glossary in the back of the book, I think I could have managed to read this book without it but at some points it does help.

The characterization is another very strong. Each of the characters goes through a very profound change in their lives in the books. A change that shakes the foundations of their existence in fact. In that respect, I probably liked Marcelina’s story best. From a very self-absorbed and superficial woman, who’s ethical standards are completely dependant on the show she is producing, she changes into a warrior for a cause she believes in. With Quinn, McDonald takes a different approach. We get to see him more from the point of view on Falcon, changing from a determined priest into a raving madman and then to a prophet. Edson, I must admit this part of the story was my least favourite, is so focussed on Fia that it takes him quite a while to learn something about himself. Once his eyes are opened, the things he used to want are no longer important to him. Three very different characters with very different outlooks on life and reality, all of them somehow contributing to the reader’s understanding of the scientific and philosophical idea that is the core of this novel.

All in all I got the impression Brasyl is very carefully written and well researched. It displays the poetic quality of McDonald’s writing very well. Like Cyberabad Days it is a challenging read, one I didn’t truly appreciate until what I had just read, had time to sink in. I think McDonald managed to earn himself a place on the list of my favourite authors with these two books. The settings he chooses, the quality of the writing and the way seems to be able to completely immerse himself in the local culture all contribute to making Brasyl a book worth noting. If you haven't tried any of his work yet, this book would not be a bad place to begin.

Book Details
Title: Brasyl
Author: Ian McDonald
Publisher: Pyr
Pages: 357
Year: 2007
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-59102-543-6
First published: 2007

The Dervish House - Ian McDonald

The Dervish House by Ian McDonald is one of the most anticipated books of 2010 for me. In recent years McDonald has written an number of novels and short stories set in places most science fiction does not venture. His novel River of Gods and the accompanying collection Cyberabad Days took us to a future India, his novel Brasyl, as the title suggests, to Brazil. The combination of a very strong sense of place as well as interesting technological and political developments and superb characterization made these books real winners for me. In The Dervish House McDonald takes us to 2027 Istanbul and again the result is a very good book.

In April 2027 the city of Istanbul is suffering from unseasonably hot weather. A little heat does nothing to slow the pace of the vibrant city however. Turkey has finally joined the EU a number of years back and has since developed into a nexus of energy trade. Large quantities of natural gas pass through the city every day, on their way to various European nations. The face of Turkey may be turned west in recent decades, it is still a nation with many faces and Istanbul seems to incorporated them all. With Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman and modern Turkish influences combining into a mix of European and Oriental the city is a gorgeous backdrop for McDonald's story.

Over the course of five days and though the eyes of six main characters the author explores the city, incorporating into his story the rapid advance of nano-technology, the apparent shift form oil to gas to meet the world's energy demands, the ever present threat of religiously inspired terrorism and the complexities of the financial sector. The lives of a retired professor, a nine year old boy with a heart condition, a gas trader, an antique dealer, a marketing graduate and a troubled young man with a history of substance abuse intertwine to show the city and uncover a plot that puts the lives and sanity of millions at risk.

His previous settings in India and Brazil McDonald incorporated technological advances that would radically alter everyday life if they became reality. In River of Gods the development of artificial intelligence takes such rapid strides that they become indistinguishable from human intelligence in most cases and in Brasyl McDonald deals with quantum computing. The Dervish House looks at nanotechnology. Tiny computer like machines that can be used for all manner of applications, from toys to medical machines to communications. The books ultimately predicts that this technology will blur the line between organic and electronic, the human body an information storage device. It's an interesting line of thought but somehow I feel 2027 may be a bit too soon for such radical changes.

On the political front, Turkish accession into the EU is also an interesting speculation. Negotiations about the Turkish joining have been going on for decades. Turkey seems to be inching closer but there is widespread resistance from within the EU against this expansion of the community (our very own Mr. Wilders, the biggest winner in the latest general elections, is radically opposed for instance). The unresolved issue of Cyprus lead to the accession of only the Greek part of the island into the EU a while back. There are issues with regards to human rights, the large role of the army in Turkish politics, fears of a predominantly Muslim country joining will increase the likelihood of terrorism and the incompatibility of EU and Turkish law in a number of areas. Given the glacial movement towards joining a major political breakthrough would be needed to realized full membership before the date set in the book. It is not something that is very important to the story but by including it McDonald as added an interesting details to his already rich novel. There are a lot more examples of these extrapolations of historic events and processes that bring McDonald's future to life.

As I mentioned in the introduction The Dervish House shows a very strong sense of place. McDonald is constantly describing how the various characters see their own city, how they relate to the history of their city and what role it has played in their lives. The retired professor is ethnically Greek for instance. He is part of the tiny Greek community that remains in the city and he is very much aware that he is part of a minority that is increasingly unwelcome in the city. There are also links with the historic Greek community in the city and the various mass migrations of ethnic Greeks after yet another round of political upheaval in Turkey. The antiques dealer on the other hand, tends to see the city more as layer upon layer of cultural periods of the city, with descriptions of the various building styles she comes across to illustrate this. Each character shows us a different aspect of Istanbul, from high finance to street Sharia, from medieval art to nanotech toys.

This torrent of detail comes at a price of course. For me this book took my full concentration to read. It is too easy to let yourself get lost in the history of the city, the description of a landmark or a reference to the 1980 coup d'etat and loose sight of what the characters is trying to achieve in a particular scene. McDonald packs six main characters in 350 pages, it requires some tight plotting to fit all of this in. McDonald succeeds in creating well developed main characters but demands the reader's full attention in keeping the story lines straight. It takes quite a while for them to converge but when they do, the author weaves them into a very satisfying conclusion. Alternatively, if you are not particularly interested in the details McDonald has put into the novel you're going to wonder when he will get on with it, or even if the author is not overindulging. I didn't think McDonald is but in various places in the book he's right on the edge.

The Dervish House is a fascinating read, a novel densely packed with interesting characters, radical technological advances, depictions of the deep historical roots of the city and based on all this, plausible developments in the society and politics of the city. I marvel at the fact that he has managed to put all of this in such a limited number of pages. I very much enjoyed reading McDonald's latest effort but if you do pick it up be advised it is not a book to read in bed fifteen minutes before putting out the light. It's a demanding, complex and rewarding read, make sure to give it your full attention.

Book Details
Title: The Dervish House
Author: Ian McDonald
Publisher: Pyr
Pages: 359
Year: 2010
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-61614-204-9
First published: 2010

Desolation Road - Ian McDonald

The problem with discovering new authors is that it always adds so many new books to the to read list. I have a tendency to read everything I can get my hands on by authors I decided I like. Since reading Cyberabad Days in January I have read two of his more recent works and it quite convinced me to seek out the earlier books as well. Thankfully McDonald is not as prolific as some other authors in the genre, my bank account is grateful. Desolation Road is McDonald's first novel. It has recently been reissued by Pyr, with some wonderful artwork by Stephan Martiniere. For some reason this impossibly large locomotive reminded me of the illustrations by Don Lawrence in The Twisted World, one of his Storm comic albums. Desolation Road is quite something different from novels like River of Gods and Brasyl. It's one of those novels that make a precise definition of genres like fantasy and science fiction impossible.

The title of the book refers to the town of Desolation Road, which it follows from founding to its inevitable demise. It opens with the founder of the city, the somewhat reclusive Dr. Alimantando, travelling through the Martian dessert. The planet is in the process of being terraformed and a comfortable temperature and breathable atmosphere has been achieved. It is still largely uninhabited dessert however. Without realizing it Dr. Alimantando founds a town that is not supposed to be. According to the terraforming plans the first towns in the region should not be founded until years later. Desolation Road is a blank spot on the map. Despite that, or perhaps because of it, the town still attracts people. A criminal on the run, a babooshka, a mechanical genius, a pilot without a plane, a set of identical triplets in love with the same woman, the list of strange people goes on for quite a wile. These people, their children and grandchildren will shape the history of Desolation Road and, as time progresses, that of the entire planet.

Desolation Road is a strange novel, science fiction with a distinct fantastic element. The setting very SF, a future Mars, with all manner of interesting and powerful technology available. In parts of the novel McDonald doesn't shy away from myth, religion and spirituality though. It give the whole an otherworldly feel. McDonald's Mars is a place where you expect weird thing to happen. With the town of Desolation Road as the centre of the novel, it does not have any real main characters. McDonald uses a lot of different characters to show us the different phases of the town's history. Especially early on this can be confusing to the reader. Personally I think he takes a bit too long introducing the lot of them. It takes quite a while before we leave the narrow focus on the town itself and have a look at the larger picture.

That large picture shows surprising parallels with my first fictional encounter with Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy. A series published several years after Desolation Road. Cory Doctorow seems to think this book has almost everything Robinson put into the Mars trilogy and then some, packed in a book a third of the size. He has a point, although the approach to this subject is very different, the description of Mars and the social and political issues raised in the novel certainly reminded me of Robinson's work. I must admit I have been avoiding books set on a future Mars simply because I didn't think anyone could come up with something as impressive as Robinson's vision. McDonald certainly comes close.

The book does have a downside though. The huge number of characters McDonald employs in this relatively short novel makes any real development in most of them fairly minimal. It gives the whole book a bit of a soap opera feel not everybody will appreciate. The author also uses a number of technological tricks in a Deus ex Machina fashion to resolve certain story lines. The end of the novel, where Dr. Alimantando's time travelling brings us full circle, suffered from this. It's something I saw coming but I was still a bit disappointed by it.

Despite the ending Desolation Road is a very interesting novel. Especially once we reach the point where McDonald zooms out from the little town and Desolation Road's inhabitants start to make a name for themselves in the world. It is not the sprawling, technology fuelled, near future science fiction McDonald presents in his more recent work however. If I had to put a label on it I'd say it leans to magic realism. So depending on what you expect from this book it could be a terrific read or a bit of a disappointment. For me it was a bit of both. I loved the strange atmosphere and vivid image of Mars but on the other hand the ending of the book didn't impress me. Still, I can see why this book attracted so much attention when it was first published. Someone at Pyr seems to have a real talent for picking the stuff that is worthy of reprinting.

Book Details
Title: Desolation Road
Author: Ian McDonald
Publisher: Pyr
Pages: 365
Year: 2009
Language: English
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-59102-744-7
First published: 1988

River of Gods - Ian McDonald

Earlier this year I read Cyberabad Days, a short story collection set in the same universe as River of Gods for BSCreview. Cyberabad Days was not light reading but I was so impressed with McDonald’s writing that I immediately ordered copies of Brasyl and River of Gods. I read Brasyl a while ago and now that I have finished River of Gods I think it is safe to say that McDonald is very much under-appreciated as a writer. His work is stunningly imaginative. As with the previous two books I have read, River of Gods deeply impressed me. Ideas almost jump off the pages in this book.

The story is set against a background of India in 2047. A century after its independence was declared India has split up into a number of different states. Our story focuses on the nation of Bharat and its capital Varanasi (this city is also known as Benares). The nation faces huge problems. It is stricken by drought after the monsoon has failed three years running. This has lead to a conflict with the neighbouring nation of Awadh over a dam in the holy river Ganges they are building. With their most important reliable source of water controlled by the enemy tensions rise rapidly. Internally there are problems too, in particularly in the form of a Hindu fundamentalist politician shaking up things. Internationally there is pressure on Bharat too for not having ratified the international agreement on the licensing artificial intelligences. Although higher level ‘aeais’ are vigorously hunted, the nation is a haven for the illegal trade and manufacturing of such software.

River of Gods has quite a complex plot. There are no less than nine characters that get a point of view. A criminal looking for a new source of income, a cop looking for the ultimate enemy, a civil servant looking for political power, a journalist looking for her identity, a scientist looking for her mentor, a professor looking peace, a nute (genderless person) looking for love, a comedian looking for an audience and a wife looking for a place in society. Each of their stories ties in to the overarching theme somehow but what ultimately drives their story is kept hidden until the last part of the novel.

The sheer number of important characters may be something of a challenge for the readers. With so much going on in the background, and the politics of the India McDonald creates really is fascinating, it is quite difficult to keep track of what a certain character was up to by the time they get another chapter. I thought the author created a diverse and interesting group of characters however. It certainly takes a while to get the story going this way, but that investment paid off at the end of the novel. I thought Mr. Nandha, the cop, he reminded me of Mr. Smith from The Matrix for some reason, was particularly well done. The huge amount of pent up anger the man carries around makes him an unpredictable character. You keep expecting him to explode (or have a heart attack).

McDonald divided his novel in five parts, each with Hindi titles for the reader to figure out. Each of the first four parts is divided into chapters named after the point of view character. Part five, where all the stories converge is more or less one big chapter. By that point the events unfold too fast and the story lines intersect too much to separate them. The author throws in a lot of the local lingo in. There’s an eight page glossary in the back of the book with explanations of (mostly) Hindi words. I didn’t really use it a lot, quite few things can be figured out from the context so it does, in my experience, not interrupt the flow of the story. It does give the story an air of authenticity. The author did quite a bit of research on this novel. So much so that another ignorant western guy such as myself could just believe it has been written by a local. It would be interesting to know what someone from India would make of it though. McDonald certainly put his head on the chopping block by obviously attempting a high level of accuracy in describing Indian society as an outsider.

There is also a very speculative side of the story of course. McDonald puts in quite a bit of technological advances. Information technology has progressed to the point where news is continuous and instantly accessible though a device known as a 'hoek'. It sends information directly into the mind of the user. Bharat is also the place where India’s domineering soap ‘Town and Country’ is produced. A show completely acted by aeai actors who achieve fame and status like any movie star of our time. Their live outside the show is as closely followed as the show itself. In physics the progress is considerable as well. Progress in quantum mechanics is particularly relevant to the story, quantum computing in particular. There’s also quite a bit about artificial intelligences and the nature or reality. As the show ‘Town and Country’ shows the lines between artificial intelligence and natural persons becomes pretty blurred for much of the population. This raises some interesting philosophical questions.

River of Gods has just about everything you can possibly expect in a good science fiction novel. There’s a plausible but above all fascinating future history, there’s great characters, interesting technology and a good plot. It is easily one of the best books I have read this year. It is also one of the more challenging reads, there is almost too much put into this novel to take it all in. Pyr has recently reissued a number of McDonald’s novels and put some stunning cover art by Stephan Martiniere on them (I love the elephant detail in the lower left corner of the River of Gods cover for instance). I can highly recommend all three I mentioned in this review. A copy of McDonald’s first novel Desolation Road is on the way, I look forward to reading that one as well.

Book Details
Title: River of Gods
Author: Ian McDonald
Publisher: Pyr
Pages: 599
Year: 2008
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-59102-436-1
First published: 2004