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Search - List of Books by Ian McDonald

For several other people called Ian McDonald or a similar spelling, see Ian McDonald.

Ian McDonald (1960-) is a British science fiction novelist, living in Belfast. His themes include nanotechnology, postcyberpunk settings, and the impact of rapid social and technological change on non-Western societies.

Biography more less

Publications more less

Awards more less

Desolation Road more less

The 'Chaga Saga' more less

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, 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, 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 from an impact-site on Mount Kilimanjaro. The protagonist is Ulster journalist Gaby McAslin, whose outsider's eye both caresses African landscape and sees very clearly what the 'UN quarantine zone' is doing to Kenya 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, 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's Heart of Darkness, 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, so McDonald's 'heart of darkness' is not the invading alien but the responses to it of the UN and of developed nations.

Scholarship more less

Blog and on-line Interviews more less

External Resources more less

This author page uses material from the Wikipedia article "Ian McDonald", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0

Total Books: 134

Chronological List
Alphabetical List
Available Only List

Anyone for Cricket Equal Opportunities and Changing Cricket Cultures in Essex and East London (Paperback)

Ares Express

Ares Express (Paperback) → Paperback, Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9780671037543
ISBN-10: 0671037544
Genres: Literature & Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy

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Assembly Lines

Assembly Lines (Other)
ISBN-13: 9781904374497
ISBN-10: 1904374492

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Be My Enemy

Be My Enemy [Book Two of the Everness Series] (Hardcover)
ISBN-13: 9781616146788
ISBN-10: 1616146788
Genres: Literature & Fiction, Teen & Young Adult

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The Beatles L'opera completa

The Beatles L'opera Completa (Other)
ISBN-13: 9788804423003
ISBN-10: 8804423005

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Behavioural Macroeconomics

Behavioural Macroeconomics [International Library of Critical Writings in Economics series] (Hardcover)
ISBN-13: 9781781002582
ISBN-10: 1781002584
Genre: Business & Money

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The Best of Ian McDonald

The Best of Ian Mcdonald (Hardcover)
ISBN-13: 9781848638907
ISBN-10: 1848638906

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Bifrost N 68 Ian McDonald

Bifrost N 68 Ian Mcdonald [French Edition] (Paperback)
ISBN-13: 9782913039650
ISBN-10: 2913039650

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The Boer War in Postcards

The Boer War in Postcards (Hardcover) → Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9780862997373
ISBN-10: 0862997372
Genres: History, Reference

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The Bowling Was Superfine West Indian Writing and West Indian Cricket

The Bowling Was Superfine West Indian Writing and West Indian Cricket (Paperback)
ISBN-13: 9781845230548
ISBN-10: 184523054X

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Brasyl

Brasyl (Hardcover) → Paperback, Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9780575080515
ISBN-10: 0575080515
Genre: Science Fiction & Fantasy

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Brazyl (Paperback)

The Broken Land

The Broken Land (Hardcover) → Paperback
ISBN-13: 9780553089837
ISBN-10: 0553089838
Genres: Literature & Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy

Currently 1.5/5 Stars.

1

The Broken Land

The Broken Land (Paperback) → Paperback, Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9780553563245
ISBN-10: 0553563246
Genre: Science Fiction & Fantasy

Currently 3.6/5 Stars.

4

Bruno Mad as Hell

Bruno Mad As Hell (Paperback)
ISBN-13: 9781929462582
ISBN-10: 1929462581

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Bruno Most Wanted [Bruno the Bandit] (Paperback)

Bruno the Bandit Bruno the Bandit

Bruno the Bandit Bruno the Bandit (Paperback)
ISBN-13: 9780966067675
ISBN-10: 0966067673
Genre: Humor & Entertainment

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CHAGA

Chaga (Hardcover) → Paperback
ISBN-13: 9780575060524
ISBN-10: 0575060522

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Cyberabad Days

Cyberabad Days [India 2047, Bk 2] (Paperback)
ISBN-13: 9781591026990
ISBN-10: 1591026997
Genre: Science Fiction & Fantasy

Currently 3.9/5 Stars.

5

The Dervish House

The Dervish House (Hardcover) → Paperback, Hardcover, Audio CD
ISBN-13: 9780575080522
ISBN-10: 0575080523
Genre: Science Fiction & Fantasy

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Dervish House

Dervish House (Paperback) → Paperback, Hardcover, Audio CD
ISBN-13: 9780575088627
ISBN-10: 0575088621
Genre: Science Fiction & Fantasy

Currently 3/5 Stars.

1

DESOLATION ROAD

Desolation Road (Paperback) → Paperback, Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9780553175325
ISBN-10: 0553175327

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Dom derwiszy Dni Cyberabadu

Dom Derwiszy Dni Cyberabadu [polish] (Hardcover)
ISBN-13: 9788374802215
ISBN-10: 8374802219

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Dsolation road

Dsolation Road (Paperback)
ISBN-13: 9782221059081
ISBN-10: 2221059085
Genre: Science Fiction & Fantasy

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Easy Money a Beginner's Guide to Handling Personal Finances (Paperback)

El Rio De Los Dioses/ the River of the Gods [Solaris - Spanish Edition] (Paperback)

Empire Dreams (Paperback) → Paperback

Empress of the Sun [Everness] (Hardcover)

Encounter with God an Introduction to Christian Worship and Practice (Paperback)

Essequibo (Paperback)

Evolution's Shore (Paperback) → Hardcover

Futures Four Novellas (Paperback)

Hearts Hands and Voices (Hardcover) → Paperback

The Heinemann Book of Caribbean Poetry [Caribbean Writers Series] (Paperback)

Hopeland (Hardcover)

Humming Bird Tree [Caribbean Writers] (Paperback)

The Hummingbird Tree [Macmillan Caribbean Writers] (Paperback)

Hummingbird Tree (Hardcover)

Ian Mcdonald Selected Poems [Macmillan Caribbean Writers] (Paperback)

Jaffo the Calypsonian (Paperback)

King Klang Klatch (Paperback)

King of Morning Queen of Day (Paperback) → Paperback

Kirinya (Hardcover) → Paperback

Kling Klang Klatch (Hardcover) → Paperback

La Maison Des Derviches (Other)

La Petite Desse Et Autres Histoires D'une Inde Future (Paperback)

Luna Moon Rising (Hardcover)

Luna New Moon (Paperback) → Paperback

Luna Volume Two (Paperback)

Luna Wolf Moon (Hardcover)

Luna Wolf Moon a Novel (Paperback)

Lunanew Moon [Chinese Edition] (Paperback)

Macroeconomics (Paperback)

The Menace From Farside (Paperback)

Mercy Ward (Hardcover)

Mrs Wrelton's Dinosaur Spike's Tall (Paperback)

Necroville (Hardcover) → Paperback

New Moon [Luna, Bk 1] (Hardcover)

Now Try This Blue Book a Progressive Mathematics Course for Students [Foundation Level] (Paperback)

Now Try This Green Bk Credit Level (Paperback)

Now Try This Red Yellow Tchrs'bk (Paperback)

Now Try This Red Bk General Level 2 (Paperback)

Now Try This Yellow Bk General Level 1 (Paperback)

Now We Are Ten (Paperback)

Out on Blue Six (Paperback) → Paperback

Planesrunner [Everness, Bk 1] (Hardcover)

Researching Health Care Designs Dilemmas and Disciplines (Other)

Researching Health Care Designs Dilemmas Disciplines (Paperback)

River of Gods (Paperback) → Paperback, Hardcover

Roi Du Matin Reine Du Jour (Paperback)

The Royal College of Physicians and Its Collection an Illustrated History (Hardcover)

Sacrifice of Fools (Hardcover) → Paperback

Scissors Cut Paper Wrap Stone (Paperback)

Speaking in Tongues (Hardcover) → Paperback

Sport Documentaries [Routledge Critical Studies in Sport] (Hardcover)

Tendeleos Story (Paperback) → Hardcover

Tendeleo's Story (Hardcover) → Paperback

Terminal Cafe (Paperback) → Paperback, Hardcover

Time Was (Paperback)

Vindication a Postcard History of the Women's Movement (Hardcover)

Watching Trees Grow/tendeleos Story [Gollancz SF S.] (Paperback)

We Robots (Audio CD)

The Year's Top Hard Science Fiction Stories 4 (Paperback)

The Year's Top Ten Tales of Science Fiction 8 (Audio CD)

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