Ian McDonald: Chaga / Evolutions Shore

John Lennard

Description

Ian McDonald is a major SF writer, whose River of Gods (2004) won the British Science Fiction Association award for Best Novel, and was shortlisted for the corresponding Hugo, Arthur C. Clarke, and British Fantasy Society awards.

Sujets

• Literary Criticism
• European

Informations

• Publié par: Humanities eBooks
• Date de parution: 11 janvier 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781847600394
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Humanities-Ebooks Genre Fiction Sightlines

RUNNING HEàd 1

Ian McDonald Chaga / Evolution’s Shore

by John Lennard

P ublication D ata

tExT © JOhN lENNàrd, 2007

The Author has asserted his right to be identiIed as the author of this Work in accord- ance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Copyright in quoted text or im- ages reproduced in this work remains with the acknowledged source. Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders. Owners of text or images not credited should contact the author who will be pleased to make the appropriate acknowledgement.

Published in 2007 byHumanities-Ebooks.co.uk Tirril Hall, Tirril, Penrith CA10 2JE

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isbn 978-1-84760-039-4

Ian McDonald:Chaga / Evolution’s Shore

John Lennard

Tirril: Humanities-Ebooks, 2007

For Edwin Cameron

a hero of the new South Africa in loving friendship and warm admiration for his work in Human Rights and in the fight against prejudice and HIV.

A Note on the Author

John Lennard took his B.A. and D.Phil. at Oxford University, and his M.A. at Washington University in St Louis. He has taught in the Universities of London, Cambridge, and Notre Dame, and for the Open University, and is now Professor of British & American Literature at the University of the West Indies—Mona. His publications includeBut I Digress: The Exploitation of Parentheses in English Printed Verse(Clarendon Press, 1991),The Poetry Handbook(1996; 2/e, OUP, 2005), with Mary LuckhurstThe Drama Hand- book(OUP, 2002), and the Literature InsightsHamlet(2007). He is the gen- eral editor of theGenre Fiction SightlinesandMonographsseries, and has writtenSightlineson works by Reginald Hill, Walter Mosley, Tamara Pierce and Octavia E. Butler. His critical collectionOf Serial readers and other es- says on genre Iction(2007) is published simultaneously with this e-book.

Contents

1. Notes

1.1 Ian McDonald  1.1.1 Life and Work  1.1.2 The ‘Troubles’  1.1.3 The ‘Chaga Saga’

1.2 The WaChagga  1.2.1 Tribe, Land, and Language  1.2.2 Other Meanings of ‘Chaga’

1.3 Space Invaders

1.4 UN Special Missions

1.5 SF and Satire

2. Annotations  2.1 Book One: A Tapestry of Stars  2.2 Book Two: African Nightflight  2.3 Book Three: Buckyball Jungle  2.4 Book Four:Finis Africae  2.5 Book Five: Florida Storm Warning  2.6 Book Six: The Tree Where Man was Born

3. Essay: The Heart of Chaganess

4. Bibliography

1. Notes

1.1 Ian McDonald

1.1.1 Life and Work

Ian McDonald was born to a Scottish father and Irish mother in Manchester in 1960, and moved to Northern Ireland in 1965. He Photo © Karine Stephane remained there throughout his schooling, latterly in Belfast, and has remained a Belfast resident as an adult, so living through “the Troubles” of 1968–98 (Note 1.1.2). A fan of TV SF from the mid-1960s, hooked on shows likeStar Trek,Thunderbirds,Dr Who, andSpace 1999, he began writing SF stories when he was 9 and sold his first story (‘The Island of the Dead’) to a Belfast magazine when he was 22. Over the next 5 years, while doing a variety of part-time jobs, he became a regular contributor to some of the best known SF magazines (includingAsimov’sandInterzone), and in 1987 took the plunge as a full- time writer.  Since 1988 he has published 10 novels, two novellas, a graphic novel, and two collections of stories, travelling for research to Kenya, India, and Brazil. Since 2000 he has also been associated with a Belfast media-production company as a Network Development Researcher. He is married, but does not discuss his family life in interview (biographical details are not readily available), and admits only to having two cats.  McDonald’s published long works are: Desolation Road(1988) A collection of related stories about humanity on Mars; Locus Award 1989. Empire Dreams(1988) Collected short stories. Out on Blue Six(1989) A savagely comic satire of social systems in the manner of Kurt Vonnegut. King of Morning, Queen of Day(1991) An epic fantasy, first of a thematic trilogy of novels that ultimately concern Northern Ireland; Philip K. Dick Memorial Award 1992.

Ian McDonald: Chaga

8

Hearts, Hands and Voicestitle, (variant The Broken Land, 1992) A far-future picaresque, the second in the thematic trilogy about Northern Ireland. Speaking in Tongues (1992) Collected short stories, including ‘Towards Kilimanjaro’, the story that became Chaga. Kling Klang Klatch(with David Lyttelton, 1992) A graphic novel. Scissors Cut Paper Wrap Stone(1994) A lyrical cyberpunk novella. Necrovilletitle, (variant Terminal Café, 1994) A satire in which the workers of a society are the resurrected dead. Chaga(variant title,Evolution’s Shore, 1995) An alien life-form lands in Kenya. Sacrifice of Fools (1996) An SF police procedural, dealing with aliens and murder in an alternative contemporary Northern Ireland; the last of the thematic trilogy. Kirinya(1998) The sequel toChaga. Tendeléo’s Story(2000) A novella continuing the ‘Chaga Saga’ from a distinct point-of- view, a young Kenyan girl; Sturgeon Award 2000. Ares Express(2001) The sequel toDesolation Road. River of Gods (2004) A ‘Khyberpunk’ novel, considering near-future India; British SF Award. Brazyl(2007) A historical and near-future epic of Brazil involving parallel universes. The variant titles are all US editions. McDonald also continues to write superior short stories for magazines and anthologies.

1.1.2 The ‘Troubles’

The ‘Troubles’ is the euphemistic name for the imperial, terroristic, and sectarian violence that racked Northern Ireland from 1968 until the ‘Good Friday Agreement’ of 1998. The belligerent parties were (i) the (devolved) Northern Irish and later British governments, which maintained military garrisons in Northern Ireland as well as the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), a paramilitary police force; (ii) Catholic nationalist terrorists/paramilitaries seeking a united Ireland, notably the Irish Republican Army (IRA); and (iii) Protestant Irish loyalist terrorists/ paramilitaries seeking to preserve union with Britain, notably the Ulster Volunteer Force and Ulster Defence Association (UVF, UDA).  Serious communal violence began with riots in 1968–9, and by the early 1970s was escalating towards civil war, draconian government action in Ulster matched by horrendous IRA bombings in Northern Ireland and mainland Britain. In 1972 more than 500 people died in the ‘Troubles’, the great majority civilians, and the British government suspended devolved Northern Irish government and reverted to Direct Rule. Trial by jury was also suspended as sectarian politics began to prevent all