Ian McDonald
Much quirkier than I had expected. It’s an inevented future that’s highly bizarre on many levels, with a weird array of characters in their phsical and psychological characterisics. It’s a thoroughly strange environment, from the traveling carnivale selling ’make a baby’ kits, to the near-random timetravel and the widely shifting rate of politics. It works because there are clear emotional journeys for the characters even among all the bizarre and at times grotesque detail. It feels at times like McDonald is being too playful for his own good, but on the whole the push of the main characters onto their various successes, tragedies and wacky hijinks works well.
In the representation of larger events it’s hit or miss. At the best moments the book functions like an intensely genre version of the series Deadwood, showing the growth in complexity, numbers and mechanisms of community into an elaborate hypermodenr civilization. In this vein, the arc with escalating conflict between labor and the corporate management is particularly effective, particularly in the hectic narrative pace set once a full revolution breaks out. It’s interesting, intense, tragic and defined with lots of unique little details that tie the events to this specific invented future. On the other hand, at points the big picture stuff simply gets too far out there, straining suspension of disbelief overly and making for an excessively arbitrary story universe.
It was McDonald’s first novel, and is very different from the larger direction he ended up going. Well, it’s good to see that he wasn’t locked into a single recurrent formula like a lot of authors. Moreo, though, I have to say that I’m quite glad he moved beyond the writing pattern of Desolation Road. Overall it was good and it had a lot of strong elements, but I was also a lot more disatisfied than I’ve been with any other McDonald and there’s something about the way the whole narrative is formed that was a bit alienating. It’s not incoherent in the sense of a Hylozoic, but at points there are indications that might go in that direction, and as a text it’s one that could have used a bit more restraint. We always read a book under the shadow of the book we were expecting to find, and I’d say that factor was particularly strong here. Beyond that there are problems in the basic story, and I wouldn’t consider this boo a classic in the way Evolution’s Shore was. It’s a fair distance from aesthetic ruin, in no small part because of a lot of engaging pieces of characterization.
Better than: Hammerfall by C. J. Cherryh
Worse than: Ubik by Philip K. Dick
Showing posts with label mcdonald. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mcdonald. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Terminal Cafe
Ian McDonald
Somewhat different from the McDonald I've read previously, and in some ways more conventional. Only to an extent, given this book focuseson an intense study of high tech death and resurrection that is itself fairly stylistically distinct. It also seems that he's an author that has honed his craft and improved his writing considerably--which means that since I started with his most recent in River of Gods and Brasyl that it's a little unsatisfying to move backward. Terminal Cafe (Necroville in the U.K edition) is still a compelling work, offering a type of high-momentum gothic post-cyberpunk exploration of a resurrected society. Immediately engaging characterization, high quality prose, grand scale vision and interesting story. This book makes an interesting one to follow from Precursor, because it’s also about a position of radical change, overturn of technological and social norms, movement and political revolution. In this case, however, the transition isn’t between powersharing by different species and the level of industrial development within each grouping, instead it’s about the basic competitive superiority of the living dead over the merely living, and the way that translates into a shift in strategic position and daily life. The other difference dervicves from the more conventional structure used in this book that was mentioned above. Unlike in the Foreigner series we don’t see the long-term aftermath of these societal changes. Instead the drama focuses more conventionally on intrigue, political unrest and a decisive military confrontation. The major turning pont is established, the lines of mass migration and increased resurrection made clear, and the book ends. The narrative doesn’t have the interest or structure for what happens next, exploring through the long term nuanced process in the way that is the Foreigner series’ bread and butter. Which is a shame, in some ways, as that could have made for a fascinating series, and the inherent issues raised in this novel don’t get all the depth they deserve.
Terminal Cafe also deals rather extensively with sexuality, and here it works a bit more strongly, feeling integrated into the larger course of the novel in a way similar to McDonald’s more daring recent works. What the novel does better than Precursos is showing sex and sexuality as a component of the market, as living within and defined by the societal forces that structure material resources. This motif emerges most directly--prostitution--and in more subtle fashion for various characters, as a way of at once defining and blurring the line between living and zombies that forms in this setting not a metaphysical distinction but a class barrier. The urge and fulfillment of sexual desire also ties into the different pieces of characterization in the novel, and while separate from the main plot for the most part fulfills an important component of how we come to understand these people, and to an extent they come to understand themselves.
I missed the non-Western society depicted in his other works and on occasional drifted out of focus with the various plots, but in the end it was still a compelling story that further confirms McDonald as one of the top tier of writers. I am at this point more interested with his pending 2010 book than further exploring his earlier creations, however.
Worse than: Hyperion by Dan Simmons
Better than: Turqoise Days by Alastair Reynolds, similar in both works’ atmosphere of gothic hard science fiction
Somewhat different from the McDonald I've read previously, and in some ways more conventional. Only to an extent, given this book focuseson an intense study of high tech death and resurrection that is itself fairly stylistically distinct. It also seems that he's an author that has honed his craft and improved his writing considerably--which means that since I started with his most recent in River of Gods and Brasyl that it's a little unsatisfying to move backward. Terminal Cafe (Necroville in the U.K edition) is still a compelling work, offering a type of high-momentum gothic post-cyberpunk exploration of a resurrected society. Immediately engaging characterization, high quality prose, grand scale vision and interesting story. This book makes an interesting one to follow from Precursor, because it’s also about a position of radical change, overturn of technological and social norms, movement and political revolution. In this case, however, the transition isn’t between powersharing by different species and the level of industrial development within each grouping, instead it’s about the basic competitive superiority of the living dead over the merely living, and the way that translates into a shift in strategic position and daily life. The other difference dervicves from the more conventional structure used in this book that was mentioned above. Unlike in the Foreigner series we don’t see the long-term aftermath of these societal changes. Instead the drama focuses more conventionally on intrigue, political unrest and a decisive military confrontation. The major turning pont is established, the lines of mass migration and increased resurrection made clear, and the book ends. The narrative doesn’t have the interest or structure for what happens next, exploring through the long term nuanced process in the way that is the Foreigner series’ bread and butter. Which is a shame, in some ways, as that could have made for a fascinating series, and the inherent issues raised in this novel don’t get all the depth they deserve.
Terminal Cafe also deals rather extensively with sexuality, and here it works a bit more strongly, feeling integrated into the larger course of the novel in a way similar to McDonald’s more daring recent works. What the novel does better than Precursos is showing sex and sexuality as a component of the market, as living within and defined by the societal forces that structure material resources. This motif emerges most directly--prostitution--and in more subtle fashion for various characters, as a way of at once defining and blurring the line between living and zombies that forms in this setting not a metaphysical distinction but a class barrier. The urge and fulfillment of sexual desire also ties into the different pieces of characterization in the novel, and while separate from the main plot for the most part fulfills an important component of how we come to understand these people, and to an extent they come to understand themselves.
I missed the non-Western society depicted in his other works and on occasional drifted out of focus with the various plots, but in the end it was still a compelling story that further confirms McDonald as one of the top tier of writers. I am at this point more interested with his pending 2010 book than further exploring his earlier creations, however.
Worse than: Hyperion by Dan Simmons
Better than: Turqoise Days by Alastair Reynolds, similar in both works’ atmosphere of gothic hard science fiction
Monday, June 28, 2010
Evolution's Shore
Iain McDonald.
Not anywhere near as rewarding as Brasyl or River of Gods, but this earlier novel reconfirms McDonald as a very major SF writer--arguably in the top five of contemporary speculative fiction writers. What he brings is a way to push through familiar genre elements--here alien contact--with some very new patterns that make his writing engaging, creative and extremely interesting to think about.
There are great characters and realization of the setting, but in the end for McDonald it always comes down to the story, and the one here is very good. It takes the same basic tact as his more succesful River of Gods and Brasyl--disorienting change of technological impact occurs, centeres somewhere outside of Europe or North America. Here again it’s McDonald’s ability to bring in strong relevance and a rich, detailed and non-exoticized environment that melds up the potential in his brand of science fiction, and highlights the way many authors misuse that potential for books set in either near-future Britain-America or a further future envionrment that is socially a direct extrapolatio of Britain-America in space. In this novel the setting is Kenya, the disruptive element is an alien lifeform known as the Chaga that adapts and shifts itself to fit the environment. It’s treated as an annihilatory menace by the world, but the book explores the greater nuance that emerges.
There’s lot of effective interrogation of colonial and post-colonial politics in this, particularly the forms by which multinational mercantile exploitation can occur both directly and subtly. At stake in the story recounted is what kind of future the world embraces, acceptance towards the strange secular paradise of alien contact or xenophobia, parochial interests and paranoia. It’s not as simple as this breakdown makes it sound, and in the ranging positions the protagonist traces a rich path of skepticism and engagement at different levels. Another main topic is the role of the media in such questions, touching on technology, political power, culture, exploitation and utopia.
Above all the novel is an exploration of extremes, using the science fiction potential to explore radical presentations, in a very good way. The aliens are quite extreme in what they can do, what they can survive, what their whole nature implies about life in the universe and the future. Similarly, they provoke a range of responses characterized by the breakdown of settled middle ground, promoting violence for territorial and multinational forces, heroes and villains alike. The book is an exploration of one attempted middle-ground voice, and the way she gradually is drawn into a commitment. Highly thought-provoking, and benefits from carrying out nuts and bolts of the story in a conventional yet unique way.
Worse than: The River of Gods by Ian McDonald
Better than: The Snow by Adam Robert
Not anywhere near as rewarding as Brasyl or River of Gods, but this earlier novel reconfirms McDonald as a very major SF writer--arguably in the top five of contemporary speculative fiction writers. What he brings is a way to push through familiar genre elements--here alien contact--with some very new patterns that make his writing engaging, creative and extremely interesting to think about.
There are great characters and realization of the setting, but in the end for McDonald it always comes down to the story, and the one here is very good. It takes the same basic tact as his more succesful River of Gods and Brasyl--disorienting change of technological impact occurs, centeres somewhere outside of Europe or North America. Here again it’s McDonald’s ability to bring in strong relevance and a rich, detailed and non-exoticized environment that melds up the potential in his brand of science fiction, and highlights the way many authors misuse that potential for books set in either near-future Britain-America or a further future envionrment that is socially a direct extrapolatio of Britain-America in space. In this novel the setting is Kenya, the disruptive element is an alien lifeform known as the Chaga that adapts and shifts itself to fit the environment. It’s treated as an annihilatory menace by the world, but the book explores the greater nuance that emerges.
There’s lot of effective interrogation of colonial and post-colonial politics in this, particularly the forms by which multinational mercantile exploitation can occur both directly and subtly. At stake in the story recounted is what kind of future the world embraces, acceptance towards the strange secular paradise of alien contact or xenophobia, parochial interests and paranoia. It’s not as simple as this breakdown makes it sound, and in the ranging positions the protagonist traces a rich path of skepticism and engagement at different levels. Another main topic is the role of the media in such questions, touching on technology, political power, culture, exploitation and utopia.
Above all the novel is an exploration of extremes, using the science fiction potential to explore radical presentations, in a very good way. The aliens are quite extreme in what they can do, what they can survive, what their whole nature implies about life in the universe and the future. Similarly, they provoke a range of responses characterized by the breakdown of settled middle ground, promoting violence for territorial and multinational forces, heroes and villains alike. The book is an exploration of one attempted middle-ground voice, and the way she gradually is drawn into a commitment. Highly thought-provoking, and benefits from carrying out nuts and bolts of the story in a conventional yet unique way.
Worse than: The River of Gods by Ian McDonald
Better than: The Snow by Adam Robert
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)