From rec.arts.sf.written Tue Sep 22 19:14:27 1992 Xref: isy rec.arts.sf.written:12605 rec.arts.books:38315 Path: isy!liuida!sunic!mcsun!uunet!spool.mu.edu!agate!curtis From: curtis@cs.berkeley.edu (Curtis Yarvin) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written,rec.arts.books Subject: Ian McDonald's _The Broken Land_: review Date: 22 Sep 1992 07:11:56 GMT Organization: CS Dept. Snakepit - Do Not Feed. Lines: 132 Distribution: world Message-ID: <19mgvsINNg3m@agate.berkeley.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: rattler.cs.berkeley.edu _The Broken Land_ is about Ireland. Ireland? you say, suspicious. After all, McDonald is an sf writer. Is this some soon-to-be technopunk cyber-Eire? Matte-black electronic sheep grazing the green hills? The now-traditional cliche-clash? Or has he turned to fantasy? Rune-inscribed claymores and people who use the word "gorse" in serious conversation? Spare us, you think. But no. It's an allegory. Now if there's a style of speculative fiction that I _absolutely loathe_, in which I have never seen a work worthy of being stacked behind Piers Anthony in the one-buck remainder rack, the exclusive domain of two-bit hacks with million-dollar pretensions, a portajohn for second-rate carpetbaggers wetbacked from utter failure on the mainstream side of the shelf, it's the allegory. The usual raison d'etre of an sf allegory is to make ill-disguised and iller-mannered comments, observations, or wisecracks about the state of modern society. The sf trappings serve only as a camouflage vehicle for the pawning-off of ideas so inane that they would evoke instant laughter if expressed in any more-respectable forum. Readers who, by the grace of God, are unfamilar with this genre, may wish to examine the Urrasti sequences in Le Guin's infamous _The Dispossessed_. So, after discovering the suspicious similarities (clear by about page ten), I approached the rest of _The Broken Land_ with some trepidation. (And, I must confess, a certain sorrow for the passing of those eleven dollars. We libertarians are not wholly without emotion.) On one side of the River, see, is the Province. The Province is populated about half-and-half by Proclaimers and Confessors. Religions these. On the other side of the River is the Empire. The Empire is chock-full of Proclaimers and doesn't have any Confessors to speak of; it also happens to own the Province. The parallels get much more detailed than this; and I imagine someone who knew more about Irish history would notice more than I have. (Does "Fianna Fail" really mean "Warriors of Destiny?") Suffice it to say: the allegory is clear. But, against all rational instinct, I didn't drop the book then and there. I didn't hurl it into the fire and curse the decline of Western Literature. After all, McDonald (who's Irish) might bring out the axes and start grinding; he might embed subliminal messages - "UNION NOW AND FOREVER!" in alternate letters; he might openly declare a ten-page intermission to lecture on the plight of the McDundlehenny Seven. Or whatever. But he's still one of the best sf writers in the business; and perhaps one of the best prose stylists in any business. McDonald's prose is something special. Most modern writers, and almost all sf writers, derive their prose style largely from the minimalist roots of Hemingway and Chandler. What's brief is good; what isn't is purple. The art of writing complex prose that _isn't_ purple is largely lost. McDonald can do it; and do it well. Amazingly well. If you think Ray Bradbury is something special, McDonald will bring you to your knees. _Anything_ by this guy is worth reading. And, anyway, _The Broken Land_ turns out to be good. Real good. I don't want to seem overenthusiastic, but I might even call it damn good. What makes McDonald's allegory work, where (say) Le Guin's does not? Well, aside from the fact that the latter can no more be compared to the former than a rich man pass through the eye of a camel, many of the allegories I've seen seem to be such, for no other reason than lack of imagination. When you can't make up an interesting universe of your own, what's the thing to do? Borrow a real one and change the names. Crutches for the lame. This works, but not well. One cannot write much of a novel without any imagination at all; nor can one borrow the minute detail that's necessary for a tale with any depth, without making one's limitations obvious. Now, anyone who's read _Desolation Road_, _Out On Blue Six_, or _King of Morning, Queen of Day_ knows that McDonald doesn't need crutches for the imagination. And _The Broken Land_ is no exception. McDonald borrows the political history of Ireland for its obvious associations; it brings the faint spine-tingle of received reality to what might otherwise be mere ersatz unpleasantness. But around it he sets a powerful and moving story, without lecture or cliche, with character and taste; and a world which is far more than the crude caricature that straight extrapolation would give. Indeed. I won't even try to describe _The Broken Land_'s universe. For most sf novels I could just list a few major details and be done in a sentence, but if I tried this for a McDonald novel I'd wear my fingertips down to the bone. Just buy the damned book. This is the best sf novel I've read in quite some time, and if it doesn't win some major award or other I will be thoroughly peeved. Bicameral Composite Logarithmic Rating - on the Annotated Erland Scale: Camera Lowbrow: Tits......... -2. Adolescent. Action....... -1. Sporadic. Romance...... -3. Cold. Suspense..... -3. Unsurprising. Melodrama.... -1. Pedestrian. Laffs........ +0. Restrained. Plot......... +1. Plucking. Lowbrow Rating: -1. Beats staring out the window all the way from Narita to JFK. Camera Highbrow: Pacing....... +2. Steady. Characters... +3. Alive-oh. Imagination.. +5. Intense. Prose........ +5. Absofuckinglutely incredible. Theme........ +5. Fierce. Meaning...... +5. Meaningful. Highbrown rating: +5. Buy this book if you have to mortgage your firstborn son to do it. Cover art: Nice... but... Grr! If I see _one more book_ with a black character painted white on the cover, I'll... grrr. The publisher is Bantam. The price is $11 in trade paperback, but buy it in hardcover if you've got any money at all. The numerically inclined know it as ISB 0-533-37054-5. c From /tmp/sf.5173 Mon Apr 12 22:35:59 1993 Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Path: lysator.liu.se!isy!liuida!sunic!uunet!usc!wupost!uhog.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!nobody From: Evelyn.Chimelis.Leeper@att.com Subject: DESOLATION ROAD by Ian McDonald Message-ID: Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Sender: news@news.media.mit.edu (USENET News System) Organization: Date: Thu, 1 Apr 1993 16:32:49 GMT Approved: wex@media.mit.edu (Alan Wexelblat) Lines: 37 DESOLATION ROAD by Ian McDonald A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1993 Evelyn C. Leeper Magical realism: it's not just for Latin Americans anymore. What we have here is a novel of magical realism set on Mars. Dr. Alimantando, Mr. Jericho, Grandfather Haran, Rael Mandella, Rajandra Das, the Babooshka, Mikal Margolis, Persis Tatterdemalion, the three Gallacelli brothers, and a host of other characters find their way, by chance or by design, to Desolation Road, a most unlikely settlement where the most unlikely things are likely to happen. The names alone are enough to stir the imagination of the reader, the McDonald provides the magical events to go with the names. Magical realism is not the only influence on McDonald. In his afterword, in fact, he specifically mentions Bradbury as an inspiration--and it's not just Bradbury's MARTIAN CHRONICLES but also such other works as SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES as well. But other sources have been woven into the tapestry as well, and serve to make it impossible to categorize as just this or just that. If you're looking for a book to stir your sense of wonder, DESOLATION ROAD may be just what you need to rediscover the magic in everyday life. %T Desolation Road %A Ian McDonald %C city %D February 1988 %I Bantam Spectra %O paperback, US$4.99 %G ISBN 0-553-27057-5 %P 359pp Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | ecl@mtgpfs1.att.com <======== Note new address: ecl@mtgzy.att.com will work only until April 30. From /tmp/sf.15692 Tue Mar 30 18:21:43 1993 Path: lysator.liu.se!isy!liuida!sunic!lunic!eru.mt.luth.se!enterpoop.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu.!wex From: ecl@mtgzy.att.com (Evelyn C Leeper +1 908 957 2070) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: SPEAKING IN TONGUES by Ian McDonald Message-ID: <9212071922.AA11828@presto.ig.com> Date: 7 Dec 92 20:10:34 GMT Sender: news@news.media.mit.edu (USENET News System) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.misc Organization: Lines: 69 Approved: wex@media.mit.edu (Alan Wexelblat) SPEAKING IN TONGUES by Ian McDonald A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1992 Evelyn C. Leeper Since this is a Bantam Spectra book, I suppose it goes without saying that McDonald's inspirations are not those writers of "Campbellian workmanlike prose" who appeared in the old ASTOUNDINGs, but rather such sources as Yeats and Joyce. The result is stories that focus more on style and language than on plot or hard science fiction ideas. McDonald also uses the Third World ambiance of "cyberpunk." His stories don't take place in New York or London or Amsterdam--they are about Hy Brazyl and Dahomy and Penang and Nairobi. Not that all this is bad, but you should know what you're getting. "Gardenias," for example, is about the use of a matter transmitter to achieve a new spiritual plane. The matter transmitter makes the story sound like hard science fiction, but McDonald is writing atmosphere, not technical details. The neo-Latin world is more fully realized than the device. The same is true of the dry desert world of "Rainmaker Cometh," the isolated world of "Listen," the 1930s Germany of "Fragments of an Analysis of a Case of Hysteria," the Caribbean world of "Atomic Avenue," even the Borgesian hyperbolic world of "Approaching Perpendicular." Only in a few stories does the plot overcome the background to stand out. In "Floating Dogs," enhanced animals fulfill their destiny in carrying out the designs of their creators. In "Fronds," we see the clash of species in conflict--the advancement of one will cause the death of another. Ironically, even though this has the strongest plot, it may be the weakest story, because the plot--even to its use of dolphins as another sentient species--is by now familiar to most readers. And "Winning," another plot- oriented story (or perhaps character-oriented), just made me think, "I've seen all this in a movie. An Academy-Award-winning movie, true, but still...." "Toward Kilimanjaro" is the best example of McDonald's strengths and weaknesses. When he is putting the reader in the encroaching plastic jungle, he is excellent; when he gets into the specifics of what is happening, he falters badly. Is this new life form indigenous or alien? McDonald wants it both ways. And it is impossible for biological entities to develop wheels (see Stephen Jay Gould's essay "Kingdoms Without Wheels" in HEN'S TEETH AND HORSE'S TOES). Still, McDonald's skills as a stylist overcome the flaws and familiarities in plot that he occasionally falls into. SPEAKING IN TONGUES is not for everyone, but for those pursuing the literary branch of science fiction and fantasy, this is recommended. (I must make one minor complaint against Bantam: they chose to use the book title for the page header rather than the individual story titles. This makes it impossible to flip through to find a particular story--most annoying.) %B Speaking in Tongues %A Ian McDonald %C New York %D October 1992 %I Bantam Spectra %O paperback, US$4.99 %G ISBN 0-553-29239-0 %P 310pp Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | ecl@mtgzy.att.com -- --Alan Wexelblat, Reality Hacker and Cyberspace Bard Media Lab - Advanced Human Interface Group wex@media.mit.edu Voice: 617-258-9168, Pager: 617-945-1842 wexelblat.chi@xerox.com The world may not be plaid, but that doesn't stop me painting stripes. From /tmp/sf.4258 Tue Feb 1 04:10:05 1994 Xref: liuida rec.arts.sf.reviews:371 rec.arts.books:65698 alt.books.reviews:1259 Path: liuida!sunic!pipex!uunet!news!dg-rtp!sheol!dont-reply-to-paths From: Evelyn.Chimelis.Leeper@att.com Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.books,alt.books.reviews Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: THE BROKEN LAND by Ian McDonald Approved: sfr%sheol@concert.net (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Message-ID: <9309271937.ZM9595@mtgpfs1.mt.att.com> Date: 29 Sep 93 00:57:30 GMT Lines: 37 THE BROKEN LAND by Ian McDonald A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1993 Evelyn C. Leeper THE BROKEN LAND is a well-written book, but the parallels between the land of the book and modern Ireland are *so* obvious that I found myself groaning more often than being enlightened. The Confessors/Proclaimers parallel to the Catholics/Protestants was bad enough, but when the Confessors gain independence for the land except for the "nine northern prefectures," I came very close to hurling the book at the wall. Frequently I felt that the parallels were closer to puns in some literary sense than to a way to look at an old situation from fresh eyes. This might work in a humorous novel, but THE BROKEN LAND is not humorous. It is an accurate story of what happens in a land torn apart by religious (or racial, or ethnic) strife. This subject is certainly topical (alas), but the precise parallels of the problem to Ireland make the book lose the universal quality that it could have had. It is not surprising that McDonald writes about Ireland, and writes well, as his earlier KING OF MORNING, QUEEN OF DAY proves, but he can also write very well in a multi-ethnic, non-specific milieu (see his SPEAKING IN TONGUES collection and his DESOLATION ROAD), and this makes this book particularly disappointing. For someone who knew nothing of Ireland, this would be an excellent book, but as it stands, its total obviousness and specificity makes this the first Ian McDonald book of the four I've read that I can't recommend. %T The Broken Land %A Ian McDonald %C New York %D October 1992 %I Bantam Spectra %O trade paperback, US$10 %G ISBN 0-553-37054-5 %P 322pp -- Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | ecl@mtgpfs1.att.com / Evelyn.Leeper@att.com From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Nov 30 16:47:47 1995 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!newsfeed.sunet.se!news00.sunet.se!sunic!psinntp!psinntp!psinntp!psinntp!ida.fordham.edu!psinntp!psinntp!psinntp!pipeline!news.cs.columbia.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!news.uoregon.edu!hunter.premier.net!news.jmls.edu!chi-news.cic.net!newsspool.doit.wisc.edu!night.primate.wisc.edu!sdd.hp.com!swrinde!hopper.acm.org!news.mtholyoke.edu!uhog.mit.edu!news!nobody Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: EVOLUTION'S SHORE by Ian McDonald Message-ID: <9510311527.ZM18943@mtgppc04> From: "Evelyn C Leeper" Date: Wed, 1 Nov 1995 16:08:50 GMT Sender: news@media.mit.edu (USENET News System) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Organization: Keywords: author= Evelyn C Leeper Approved: wex@media.mit.edu (Alan Wexelblat) Lines: 83 EVOLUTION'S SHORE by Ian McDonald Bantam Spectra, ISBN 0-553-37435-4, 1995, 355pp, US$12.95 A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1995 Evelyn C. Leeper Once again Ian McDonald has written a science fiction novel of the future (and, no, that's not redundant) which reminds us that the future is not going to be all high-tech and shiny, nor is it going to be all Euro- American. EVOLUTION'S SHORE (known as CHAGA in Britain) is set in Kenya in the early part of the 21st century. McDonald's protagonist is Gaby McAslan, a newswoman from Northern Ireland, who manages to land a job reporting on the situation in Kenya. And just what is that situation? Well, it seems that "parcels" from outer space have landed at various places around the world along the equator and a strange life form or forms has emerged--and is spreading. And this appears to be connected with strange goings-on around Saturn as well. McDonald does a good job in depicting the strangeness of the alien life form, but he does an equally good--and perhaps more important--job of depicting the strangeness of his future Kenya society. This is not the "back-to-traditional-values Kirinyaga" that Mike Resnick writes about, but a society in touch with and affected by the rest of the world, yet also maintaining its own path and its own ways. This is not to say there is anything wrong with Resnick's construct as a plot device. But he is using the artificial "Kirinyaga" as the basic premise of his story, while McDonald is using 21st century Kenya as the background of his extra-terrestrial science fiction premise. As such, his Kenya must be more believable as a real extrapolation of today's Kenya, and I believe it succeeds in this. In fact, the irony is that (for me at least) McDonald's background is more interesting than his core premise. Like many readers, I suppose, I started reading science fiction because it portrayed a world different than the one I knew. Maybe it was that the world was in the far future, when people had paranormal powers, or maybe it was on a distant planet with a fight for survival against dangerous animals and harsh conditions. As I grew older, I discovered that there were places just as strange and just as interesting here on Earth (as Lawrence Watt- Evans noted so well in "Why I Left Harry's All-Night Hamburgers"). And I started to look for authors who had realized this--who figured out that they could set a story in a society other than their own. Various "cyberpunk authors" do it in various degrees. George Alec Effinger does it in his "Marid" trilogy. Maureen McHugh does it in CHINA MOUNTAIN ZHANG. Gwyneth Jones does it in WHITE QUEEN. And Ian McDonald does it, here and in many of his earlier short stories. Given all this, I think having a Euro protagonist is the right choice. One might ask if this isn't just a copy of Hollywood always having an Anglo- Saxon protagonist even in a movie set in Peru or China, but I don't think it is. When you watch a movie you see not what the main character sees, but what the director and cinematographer films. But when you read a book not written by an omniscient narrator, you see things through the main character's eyes, and from the main character's viewpoint. So having that viewpoint the same as the majority of the readers makes sense (as anyone who's ever tried to read a book written for people with a different cultural background will agree). My only objection might be that the space mission pieces don't seem to match the rest of the story. (Then again, how much do today's shuttle missions "match up" with life in Kenya today?) There may be a few too many science fictional references, especially towards the end, but this seems to have been intentional overload, as the "postface" is a line from Samuel Delany's TRITON: "In science fiction, everything should be mentioned at least twice ... with the possible exception of science fiction." But these are minor quibbles in an otherwise excellent and fascinating novel. This one is making my Hugo nomination ballot. [In Britain, this novel is called CHAGA. One may only speculate on why the publisher thought it necessary to change the name for an American audience. Or why it appears to be missing from the publisher's list of upcoming books on their Web page.] %T Evolution's Shore %A Ian McDonald %C New York %D November 1995 %I Bantam Spectra %O trade paperback, US$12.95 %G ISBN 0-553-37435-4 %P 355pp -- Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | Evelyn.Leeper@att.com Sometimes I have intermittent problems, and sometimes I don't.