Ian McDonald (British author)

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Ian McDonald (British author) bigraphy, stories - Science - Other

Ian McDonald (British author) : biography

1960 –

Ian McDonald (born 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.

Desolation Road

McDonald’s first novel. It won a number of awards on first publication and is frequently compared with works of Robert A. Heinlein and Ray Bradbury, although these references appear to be given as a measure of quality rather than a note of similarity in style. In fact, this book is highly similar to Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude in its portrayal of a remote community over time, as well as with elements of magic realism.

On a partially terraformed Mars (comfortable temperature and atmosphere, although still mostly desert) a lone scientist is hunting a mysterious being across the desert, using a device best described as an anti-gravity sailboard for transportation. While taking a rest, he neglects to secure the board thoroughly and wakes up in time to see it blown away by the wind. Stranded in the desert, he is fortunate to discover an artificial oasis (created by a long-lost terraforming AI) near a line of railway. With all the necessities of life around him, he awaits rescue or company. Eventually, he is joined by other strays and castaways, and together they found the town of Desolation Road.

The novel outlines the history of the town through the next few decades, generally focusing on one major event at a time and dealing with in-between events in quick outlines.

Although not a steampunk novel, much of the technology featured in the book, such as locomotives (albeit fusion) and propeller-driven aircraft, appears to hearken back to Earth’s near-history rather than to standard visions of the future. This gives the novel an atmosphere of anachronism and timelessness.

Biography

McDonald was born in 1960, in Manchester, to a Scottish father and Irish mother, but moved to Belfast when he was five, and has lived there ever since. He therefore lived through the whole of the ‘Troubles’ (1968–99), and his sensibility has been permanently shaped by coming to understand Northern Ireland as a post-colonial (and so, in his view, de facto ‘Third World’) society imposed on an older culture. He became a fan of SF from childhood TV, began writing when he was 9, sold his first story to a local Belfast magazine when he was 22, and in 1987 became a full-time writer.John Lennard, Ian McDonald: Chaga / Evolution’s Shore (Tirril: Humanities-Ebooks, 2007), p. 7. He has also worked in TV consultancy within Northern Ireland, contributing scripts to the Northern Irish Sesame Workshop production Sesame Tree.

McDonald is known for his work set in developing nations. His 1990s ‘Chaga Saga’ is particularly notable for its analysis of the AIDS crisis in Africa. His 2004 River of Gods is set in mid-21st-century India, and his 2007 Brasyl (2007), set in the 18th and 21st centuries in Lusophone South America, was nominated for, and reached the longlist of, the £50,000 Warwick Prize for Writing.

Publications

  • Desolation Road (1988)
  • Empire Dreams (1988) (collection)
  • Out on Blue Six (1989)
  • King of Morning, Queen of Day (1991) – see Waiting For Godot
  • Hearts, Hands and Voices (1992, US: The Broken Land)
  • Speaking in Tongues (1992) (collection)
  • Kling Klang Klatch (1992) (graphic novel, illustrated by David Lyttleton)
  • Scissors Cut Paper Wrap Stone (1994)
  • Necroville (1994, US: Terminal Café)
  • Chaga (1995, US: Evolution’s Shore)
  • Sacrifice of Fools (1996)
  • Kirinya (1997)
  • Tendeléo’s Story (2000)
  • Ares Express (2001)
  • River of Gods (2004) – Hugo Award nominee, Clarke Award nominee, winner of the BSFA award
  • Brasyl (2007) – Hugo Award nominee, winner of the BSFA award, Nominated for the £50,000 Warwick Prize for Writing
  • Cyberabad Days (2009) (collection, related to River of Gods)
  • The Dervish House (2010) – Hugo Award nominee, Clarke Award nominee, winner of the BSFA award
  • Planesrunner (2012)
  • Be My Enemy (2013)
  • Empress of the Sun (2014)