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Chaga #1
Evolution's Shore
A fantasy adventure following network journalist Gaby McAslan to Africa to research the Kilimanjaro Event - a meteor which landed in Kenya causing the African landscape to give way to the "Chaga", an alien flora able to destroy all man-made materials and mould human flesh, bone and spirit.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1995
21 people are currently reading
620 people want to read
About the author
Ian McDonald
265 books1,263 followersIan Neil McDonald was born in 1960 in Manchester, England, to an Irish mother and a Scottish father. He moved with his family to Northern Ireland in 1965. He used to live in a house built in the back garden of C. S. Lewis's childhood home but has since moved to central Belfast, where he now lives, exploring interests like cats, contemplative religion, bonsai, bicycles, and comic-book collecting. He debuted in 1982 with the short story "The Island of the Dead" in the short-lived British magazine Extro. His first novel, Desolation Road, was published in 1988. Other works include King of Morning, Queen of Day (winner of the Philip K. Dick Award), River of Gods, The Dervish House (both of which won British Science Fiction Association Awards), the graphic novel Kling Klang Klatch, and many more. His most recent publications are Planesrunner and Be My Enemy, books one and two of the Everness series for younger readers (though older readers will find them a ball of fun, as well). Ian worked in television development for sixteen years, but is glad to be back to writing full-time.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
August 26, 2011
I read this book a few years ago, but was reminded of it today. In looking it up just now I realised that it was also known as Evolution's Shore, but I definitely read the Chaga edition.
The weird thing is that there's a lot to recommend about this book. It's an interesting concept that's full of imaginative elements: a meteorite crashes in Africa, and starts growing. A zone of alien life starts spreading from the impact site, and changing the landscape. It's not dangerous, but the changed zone keeps spreading - and then people realise that animals, people and plants inside the zone are being altered into Something Else.
It's a transhumanist novel, dealing with the ongoing questions of how we define humanity, but also raising big issues like colonialism and power relations. When transformative alien technology - threatening and yet full of such potential as a resource - winds up near Mount Kilimanjaro, it's astonishing how fast Western countries 'step in' to 'protect' the local populace from it. Considering that it's growing, that means forced diaspora on a grand scale, and the course of the novel has the Chaga forcing the evacuation of (from memory) Nairobi.
The secondary characters, together with those who are dealing with the problems of the Chaga, or those who have been changed themselves, are handled with detail and depth.
The concepts of the book are quite strong, and it never falls down by making the Chaga as simple as an alien invasion, or having people get eaten/taken over by shapeshifters from John Carpenter's The Thing.
Those are the book's strengths, and they are admirable.
Where it falls down for me is the characterisation of the protagonists. Gaby McAslin is a blonde, feisty Ulster journalist Out To Find The Truth. At a certain point she encounters a doctor with the UN, who is studying the Chaga and administrating the evacuations - incidentally described as a tall man with a heroic jawline, etc.
I wish to note that I have studied Mills & Boon novels. Mills & Boon novels can be wickedly well-written to take full, witty advantage of their formulas, and can be entirely clever.
Chaga is not one of those novels, and setting a Mills & Boon against the backdrop of such interesting possibilities as the setting represents is maddening: it all becomes about those two characters, framed from Gaby McAslin's point-of-view. The drama! The miscommunication! The betrayal! The complete missmatch between the tone of the characters and the world they exist in!
When that happens, the setting of Chaga becomes entirely irrelevant, because it's All About the Relationship and that could happen almost anywhere.
It's particularly strange when McAslin is set against the character of an African crimeboss who comes across as appropriately dangerous and intelligent: the overwhelming impression is a) that the crimeboss and the protagonist exist in different genres, and b) the protagonist is Going To Die.
I remember there even being a sequence where the protagonist attempts to leave the area, completely abandoning all of the debt and favours she owes to the Scary Crimeboss, because of Love and Passion and such. And that could be justified, if the character were choosing to put Love and Passion above personal danger... except it really feels like she's just forgotten about it because it's inconvenient.
Chaga cannot decide what it wants to be. I applaud it for not turning the Chaga into a black-and-white threat by becoming an action or horror story. However, in absence of a concrete threat, the narrative feels like there is something missing. It currently represents a period of time and great change, all from the perspective of a self-absorbed journalist with little instinct for self-preservation, and then ends without resolving much.
The period of time that involves great change is an excellent place to set a novel, and the concepts which explore that element of the book are very interesting. Unfortunately, it also feels as though the experience of the protagonist significantly eclipses the rich possibilities represented by setting.
The weird thing is that there's a lot to recommend about this book. It's an interesting concept that's full of imaginative elements: a meteorite crashes in Africa, and starts growing. A zone of alien life starts spreading from the impact site, and changing the landscape. It's not dangerous, but the changed zone keeps spreading - and then people realise that animals, people and plants inside the zone are being altered into Something Else.
It's a transhumanist novel, dealing with the ongoing questions of how we define humanity, but also raising big issues like colonialism and power relations. When transformative alien technology - threatening and yet full of such potential as a resource - winds up near Mount Kilimanjaro, it's astonishing how fast Western countries 'step in' to 'protect' the local populace from it. Considering that it's growing, that means forced diaspora on a grand scale, and the course of the novel has the Chaga forcing the evacuation of (from memory) Nairobi.
The secondary characters, together with those who are dealing with the problems of the Chaga, or those who have been changed themselves, are handled with detail and depth.
The concepts of the book are quite strong, and it never falls down by making the Chaga as simple as an alien invasion, or having people get eaten/taken over by shapeshifters from John Carpenter's The Thing.
Those are the book's strengths, and they are admirable.
Where it falls down for me is the characterisation of the protagonists. Gaby McAslin is a blonde, feisty Ulster journalist Out To Find The Truth. At a certain point she encounters a doctor with the UN, who is studying the Chaga and administrating the evacuations - incidentally described as a tall man with a heroic jawline, etc.
I wish to note that I have studied Mills & Boon novels. Mills & Boon novels can be wickedly well-written to take full, witty advantage of their formulas, and can be entirely clever.
Chaga is not one of those novels, and setting a Mills & Boon against the backdrop of such interesting possibilities as the setting represents is maddening: it all becomes about those two characters, framed from Gaby McAslin's point-of-view. The drama! The miscommunication! The betrayal! The complete missmatch between the tone of the characters and the world they exist in!
When that happens, the setting of Chaga becomes entirely irrelevant, because it's All About the Relationship and that could happen almost anywhere.
It's particularly strange when McAslin is set against the character of an African crimeboss who comes across as appropriately dangerous and intelligent: the overwhelming impression is a) that the crimeboss and the protagonist exist in different genres, and b) the protagonist is Going To Die.
I remember there even being a sequence where the protagonist attempts to leave the area, completely abandoning all of the debt and favours she owes to the Scary Crimeboss, because of Love and Passion and such. And that could be justified, if the character were choosing to put Love and Passion above personal danger... except it really feels like she's just forgotten about it because it's inconvenient.
Chaga cannot decide what it wants to be. I applaud it for not turning the Chaga into a black-and-white threat by becoming an action or horror story. However, in absence of a concrete threat, the narrative feels like there is something missing. It currently represents a period of time and great change, all from the perspective of a self-absorbed journalist with little instinct for self-preservation, and then ends without resolving much.
The period of time that involves great change is an excellent place to set a novel, and the concepts which explore that element of the book are very interesting. Unfortunately, it also feels as though the experience of the protagonist significantly eclipses the rich possibilities represented by setting.
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February 6, 2017Prva knjiga koju nisam pročitao do kraja. Ima već nekoliko godina. Jako jako jako dosadno; hrpetina opisa Kenije, pa ništa, pa malo Kenije, pa opet ništa.. iako premisa zvuči odlično i prava je mala Clarkovska premisa... možda jednog dana nastavim, možda jednog dana...
September 15, 2020
Three and a half stars.
I did not know this novel -a trilogy actually- by the great Ian McDonald. A good novel about contact, invasion, or both. However, at the moment I will not read the sequels.
I did not know this novel -a trilogy actually- by the great Ian McDonald. A good novel about contact, invasion, or both. However, at the moment I will not read the sequels.
August 3, 2019
EDIT: So I have just reread it, 6 years after. Most of my review basically still stands. Chaga is indeed a setting, it is also a metaphor for the change and time that no one can really fight against and how different people react and adapt to this change. I appreciated non sci-fi aspects of the book more this time and I like the sci-fi element even more. I would also recommend the reader to take google maps during reading in order to see where the places that everything is happening are. They are all real places in Kenya and Tanzania and it sort of make the event seem more real.
The original review:
I like McDonald's books, they are a fair example how sci-fi is of full interesting concepts, problems and situations without much action to it can be entertaining. Chaga, or Evolution's Shore, as it was called in the US is a great piece of art. I was interested in it very much from the sheer description of the plot, i read in annotation, i am a huge fan of biopunk. I will not lie, i was a bit disappointed. The problem was that the idea of Chaga is awesome, and the potential of this concept is immense to describe and draw the details of, however, McDonald preferred to make it a setting, he fully described it as a setting, but concentrated on relationships among humans and society, which could pretty much be described in any other kind of setting, instead of sci-fi, even though Chaga is a major idea of the book, it is not the major theme, which for me, as for sci-fi fan, who wants to read more about what the author could possibly envision and think out, was rather disappointing. Still, even those pieces of Chaga, which were described made the book worth reading by any sci-fi fan. This is only drawback of the book, other things are pretty much perfect to me, characters are plausible, the language vivid and colourful. Chaga became one of my favourite books, and I would recommend it to any kind of reader, not only to sci-fi fans.
The original review:
I like McDonald's books, they are a fair example how sci-fi is of full interesting concepts, problems and situations without much action to it can be entertaining. Chaga, or Evolution's Shore, as it was called in the US is a great piece of art. I was interested in it very much from the sheer description of the plot, i read in annotation, i am a huge fan of biopunk. I will not lie, i was a bit disappointed. The problem was that the idea of Chaga is awesome, and the potential of this concept is immense to describe and draw the details of, however, McDonald preferred to make it a setting, he fully described it as a setting, but concentrated on relationships among humans and society, which could pretty much be described in any other kind of setting, instead of sci-fi, even though Chaga is a major idea of the book, it is not the major theme, which for me, as for sci-fi fan, who wants to read more about what the author could possibly envision and think out, was rather disappointing. Still, even those pieces of Chaga, which were described made the book worth reading by any sci-fi fan. This is only drawback of the book, other things are pretty much perfect to me, characters are plausible, the language vivid and colourful. Chaga became one of my favourite books, and I would recommend it to any kind of reader, not only to sci-fi fans.
October 28, 2014
In several equatorial regions of the earth, an alien plant has been growing. The “Chaga,” as it is called, came from outer space and destroys anything manmade that comes near it. Scientists are worried about what it might do to humans. They have not been able to kill it and it is advancing slowly but steadily each day, changing the landscape and covering villages and cities as it progresses. Not only are people’s lives being disrupted as they have to flee their homes and become refugees, but they’re also worried about what the Chaga is doing here in the first place. Is it benign? Is there an intelligence behind it? Is it a precursor to an alien invasion? Nobody knows.
The mystery of the Chaga and its effect on humanity have inspired Gaby McAslin, a feisty red-headed green-eyed Irish woman, to become a journalist so she can go to Nairobi and try to figure out what the Chaga is doing as it... Read More: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...
The mystery of the Chaga and its effect on humanity have inspired Gaby McAslin, a feisty red-headed green-eyed Irish woman, to become a journalist so she can go to Nairobi and try to figure out what the Chaga is doing as it... Read More: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...
August 15, 2019
One of the very few books I have read twice. First in 1995 when it was initially published but as I have decided to at last get round to the other two books in the series which have been sitting in my to read piles for far too long (two decades in fact – sorry Ian!) I thought I beater reread it first to fully remember the plot. What a stunning read. I am ashamed that I could only recall 50% of it from my earlier reading.
The protagonist (despite being a fellow Ulster person) is not entirely likable but neither are they an utter villain. They are just fallibly wonderfully human, and as it’s still somewhat rare to have a such a rounded believable character in science fiction so this alone is one of the book’s best features.
Tade Thompson’s ‘Rosewater’ and its sequel have received a great many plaudits in recent time (2018/19) for its afrocentric SF (Afrofuturism If you will) but Ian McDonald’s ‘Chaga’ series covers a very similar SF idea in an African setting and does it just as well if not better over 20 years earlier.
I am not suggesting in any way that ‘Rosewater’ copies ‘Chaga’. In fact both can trace their lineage back to elements of Arkady and Boris Strugatsky’s ‘Roadside Picnic’, or various tales by Stanislaw Lem such as ‘Solaris’ or ‘The Invincible’. Nor do I ignore the fact that the ethnicity of both the protagonists and the authors are very different in ‘Chaga’ and ‘Rosewater’. However I still can’t help thinking that ‘Chaga’ deserved almost as much praise in in 1995 as ‘Rosewater’ is getting now, for a very similar tale set, in the main in both cases, in the very same continent.
The protagonist (despite being a fellow Ulster person) is not entirely likable but neither are they an utter villain. They are just fallibly wonderfully human, and as it’s still somewhat rare to have a such a rounded believable character in science fiction so this alone is one of the book’s best features.
Tade Thompson’s ‘Rosewater’ and its sequel have received a great many plaudits in recent time (2018/19) for its afrocentric SF (Afrofuturism If you will) but Ian McDonald’s ‘Chaga’ series covers a very similar SF idea in an African setting and does it just as well if not better over 20 years earlier.
I am not suggesting in any way that ‘Rosewater’ copies ‘Chaga’. In fact both can trace their lineage back to elements of Arkady and Boris Strugatsky’s ‘Roadside Picnic’, or various tales by Stanislaw Lem such as ‘Solaris’ or ‘The Invincible’. Nor do I ignore the fact that the ethnicity of both the protagonists and the authors are very different in ‘Chaga’ and ‘Rosewater’. However I still can’t help thinking that ‘Chaga’ deserved almost as much praise in in 1995 as ‘Rosewater’ is getting now, for a very similar tale set, in the main in both cases, in the very same continent.
October 19, 2010
Just finished a moment ago.
It was really quite excellent. A great expansion of the short story.
McDonald can write up a storm. His prose is lovely and flowing. His characters are very human. They have very human preoccupations and very humanly inappropriate reactions that never feel overblown or melodramatic. So, they're real, and you really do care about Gaby and Shepherd's fate by the end of the novel.
I also love the way Ian McDonald handles sex in his stories. It's very matter-of-fact, and his women characters seem very sexually empowered, and unembarrassed. Maybe it's just that he's Scottish, and I'm a prudish American. You Scotts have got some kink in your blood!
The Africa that McDonald presents is not idealized. But he finds the beauty in an ugly world that is being consumed and changed beneath everyone's feet.
Ultimately, it's a story about fear of change. Fear of the future. Fear of what we become when we expand our definitions of "normal" and "human." It's a story of pre-posthumanity. A lovely, lovely novel.
It was really quite excellent. A great expansion of the short story.
McDonald can write up a storm. His prose is lovely and flowing. His characters are very human. They have very human preoccupations and very humanly inappropriate reactions that never feel overblown or melodramatic. So, they're real, and you really do care about Gaby and Shepherd's fate by the end of the novel.
I also love the way Ian McDonald handles sex in his stories. It's very matter-of-fact, and his women characters seem very sexually empowered, and unembarrassed. Maybe it's just that he's Scottish, and I'm a prudish American. You Scotts have got some kink in your blood!
The Africa that McDonald presents is not idealized. But he finds the beauty in an ugly world that is being consumed and changed beneath everyone's feet.
Ultimately, it's a story about fear of change. Fear of the future. Fear of what we become when we expand our definitions of "normal" and "human." It's a story of pre-posthumanity. A lovely, lovely novel.
June 29, 2017
outstanding book that I have read many times. A new way of looking at alien 'invasion' and at how the West treats 3rd world countries. Are we doing more harm than good?
September 21, 2024
Something strange is happening to the moons of Saturn. Something strange is happening to the country of Kenya.
Gaby McAslan has an interest in the stars, but she ends up working as a journalist. She is determined in her work and will do almost anything to get what she wants. She ends up being sent to Kenya to report on a strange, alien growth known as Chaga, that is slowly devouring the country. The UN/military are determined to keep people away from the Chaga, while there are those who believe that life within it is inevitable and welcome it openly.
Meanwhile, a Big Dumb Object has appeared near Saturn and is on its way to Earth.
Each book of McDonald's that I have read has been vastly different, but always entertaining. I enjoyed his use of literary allusions in this one, they provided plenty of chuckles. Gaby is a strong central female character who has her share of flaws. We follow her as she learns about the Chaga and its possible impact on the future of humanity. I did not want the story to end. Not only because a conclusion hasn't been reached, I'm hoping the sequel, KIRINYA will provide that. I enjoyed the characters and the idea of the Chaga.
Gaby McAslan has an interest in the stars, but she ends up working as a journalist. She is determined in her work and will do almost anything to get what she wants. She ends up being sent to Kenya to report on a strange, alien growth known as Chaga, that is slowly devouring the country. The UN/military are determined to keep people away from the Chaga, while there are those who believe that life within it is inevitable and welcome it openly.
Meanwhile, a Big Dumb Object has appeared near Saturn and is on its way to Earth.
Each book of McDonald's that I have read has been vastly different, but always entertaining. I enjoyed his use of literary allusions in this one, they provided plenty of chuckles. Gaby is a strong central female character who has her share of flaws. We follow her as she learns about the Chaga and its possible impact on the future of humanity. I did not want the story to end. Not only because a conclusion hasn't been reached, I'm hoping the sequel, KIRINYA will provide that. I enjoyed the characters and the idea of the Chaga.
July 25, 2024
I've been meaning to get around to reading this for the last three decades but somehow it kept slipping down my "to read" list. I finally got around to it when the SF reading group I belong to discussed it, and I was a little disappointed. For a book that regularly appears on "best SF novels" lists it wasn't as impressive as I had hoped.
The book feels rather patched together - almost like a fixup novel - and despite the title the Chaga doesn't play much of a role in the story. It's most about Gaby, and ... well ... she's not the most loveable character. One of the characters in the book describes here as a "monster" and that's a pretty good description. She is so focused that she tramples over everyone in her path.
The book is well written and I did enjoy it, but it's not one of the "greats".
The book feels rather patched together - almost like a fixup novel - and despite the title the Chaga doesn't play much of a role in the story. It's most about Gaby, and ... well ... she's not the most loveable character. One of the characters in the book describes here as a "monster" and that's a pretty good description. She is so focused that she tramples over everyone in her path.
The book is well written and I did enjoy it, but it's not one of the "greats".
August 18, 2019
Fascinating 'What If' Sci Fi novel.
How would cope with the presence of pods seeding the place where you lived with flora that grew and consumed all man made products as it evolved and expanded at a rate of 50 metres per day.
That not only consumed but mutated what it came across, people included.
The first pod landed on the peak of Mt Kilimanjaro. The local Wa-Chagga people first told of what they were encountering. From there the something growing there was known as Chaga.
This Sci Fi novel covers many topics, doesn't pretend to offer answers, just presents what is and what could be.
Politics of Africa, macro and micro.
Corruption both internal and by those sent to protect the locals.
The place of the media, the right to know and the issues and ramifications of exposing the facts.
The irony of people scared of change and shunning those changed by contact with the Chaga and at the same time shunning those who live among them for being poor, a different colour, tribe or gender.
The science is believable, just bear in mind it is written in the 1990's and what we have now is scifi to them.
"There was a bridge between terrestrial and Chaga-life. It was the chemistry of the carbon atom, but the Chaga was not built on the chains and lattices of earth-bound carbon forms. Its engineering was that of the sixty-atom sphere of the Buckminsterfullerene molecule; its organic chemistry a three-dimensional architecture of domes, arches, cantilevers, tunnels and latticed skeletons.
‘The molecules are immensely complicated, hundreds of atoms in length,’ Dr Shepard said, waving the red dot of his laser pointer across the screen where wire-frame spheres cannoned off each other and convoluted molecular intestines twined and wriggled.
I bet that is the only suit he has, Gaby McAslan thought.
‘Locked into hollow cylinders, they become essentially machines for processing atoms. Molecular factories. This is the mechanism by which the Chaga absorbs and transmutes terrestrial carbon - in vegetable form, mostly, but as you all know, it’s not averse to the odd juicy complex hydrocarbon or polymer. The fullerene worms break the chemical bonds of terrestrial organic components into the equivalent of short peptide chains - analogies tend toward the biological, for obvious reasons. We’re talking, in a sense, about a form of life on a smaller scale than the fundamental units of terrestrial biology; each of these smart molecules is the equivalent of a cell. The fullerene molecules pass the broken-down terrestrial molecules through their guts, for want of a better expression, in the process adding new atoms, realigning molecular bonds; building copies of themselves, imprinting them with information. In a sense, it’s a kind of alien DNA, processing basic amino-acids and inorganic compounds into the pseudo-proteins of Chaga biochemistry. "
Much has been written about the protagonists. Gaby McAslan, the feisty, driven Irish reporter and her on/off relationship with Dr Shephard research director. Some deride it as poor Mills and Boon, others are offended by any suggestion that they have a sex life. These two main characters drive the narrative. Would the book be changed if they had different personalities? Of course. Would it make the book any better? Who knows. It doesn't matter. We don't have to like them, become best buddies or life partners. It is how they interact, mostly Gaby, with the Chaga and those intimately involved with it. It is how they respond to the concepts of change and what it is to be human that makes the book.
How would cope with the presence of pods seeding the place where you lived with flora that grew and consumed all man made products as it evolved and expanded at a rate of 50 metres per day.
That not only consumed but mutated what it came across, people included.
The first pod landed on the peak of Mt Kilimanjaro. The local Wa-Chagga people first told of what they were encountering. From there the something growing there was known as Chaga.
This Sci Fi novel covers many topics, doesn't pretend to offer answers, just presents what is and what could be.
Politics of Africa, macro and micro.
Corruption both internal and by those sent to protect the locals.
The place of the media, the right to know and the issues and ramifications of exposing the facts.
The irony of people scared of change and shunning those changed by contact with the Chaga and at the same time shunning those who live among them for being poor, a different colour, tribe or gender.
The science is believable, just bear in mind it is written in the 1990's and what we have now is scifi to them.
"There was a bridge between terrestrial and Chaga-life. It was the chemistry of the carbon atom, but the Chaga was not built on the chains and lattices of earth-bound carbon forms. Its engineering was that of the sixty-atom sphere of the Buckminsterfullerene molecule; its organic chemistry a three-dimensional architecture of domes, arches, cantilevers, tunnels and latticed skeletons.
‘The molecules are immensely complicated, hundreds of atoms in length,’ Dr Shepard said, waving the red dot of his laser pointer across the screen where wire-frame spheres cannoned off each other and convoluted molecular intestines twined and wriggled.
I bet that is the only suit he has, Gaby McAslan thought.
‘Locked into hollow cylinders, they become essentially machines for processing atoms. Molecular factories. This is the mechanism by which the Chaga absorbs and transmutes terrestrial carbon - in vegetable form, mostly, but as you all know, it’s not averse to the odd juicy complex hydrocarbon or polymer. The fullerene worms break the chemical bonds of terrestrial organic components into the equivalent of short peptide chains - analogies tend toward the biological, for obvious reasons. We’re talking, in a sense, about a form of life on a smaller scale than the fundamental units of terrestrial biology; each of these smart molecules is the equivalent of a cell. The fullerene molecules pass the broken-down terrestrial molecules through their guts, for want of a better expression, in the process adding new atoms, realigning molecular bonds; building copies of themselves, imprinting them with information. In a sense, it’s a kind of alien DNA, processing basic amino-acids and inorganic compounds into the pseudo-proteins of Chaga biochemistry. "
Much has been written about the protagonists. Gaby McAslan, the feisty, driven Irish reporter and her on/off relationship with Dr Shephard research director. Some deride it as poor Mills and Boon, others are offended by any suggestion that they have a sex life. These two main characters drive the narrative. Would the book be changed if they had different personalities? Of course. Would it make the book any better? Who knows. It doesn't matter. We don't have to like them, become best buddies or life partners. It is how they interact, mostly Gaby, with the Chaga and those intimately involved with it. It is how they respond to the concepts of change and what it is to be human that makes the book.
August 16, 2017
il problema lo conosce anche l'autore, e lo scrive pure: alla fine di "incontri ravvicinati del terzo tipo" tutta la fotta che ti è salita fino a quel momento scende nel vedere gli alieni nella versione più stereotipata possibile. e quindi: dopo aver passato pagine e pagine a descrivere il chaga e i suoi misteri, quando finalmente "si apre la soglia" e si cerca di capire davvero cosa ci sta facendo visita dallo spazio il romanzo chiude elegantemente il sipario. chiude elegantemente perchè gaby, l'eroina del libro, è arrivata a quella pace interiore che pagina dopo pagina cercava e che sia la sua ambizione sia l'affetto per i suoi amici potevano davvero portarle, chiude elegantemente perchè forse sembra emergere una "soluzione africana a problemi africani", le diecimila tribù, che potrebbe dare all'africa un nuovo futuro, e chiude elegantemente perchè alla fine chi meritava di salvarsi si è salvato e chi meritava di sparire è sparito ma tutto questo avviene nella maniera meno scontata. però il sipario si chiude proprio quando vorresti sapere qualcosa ancora, vorresti un altro dispaccio da lassù che ti dica se alla fine ci siamo incontrati con qualcuno o qualcosa, e ti andrebbero bene pure gli alieni stereotipati di spielberg.: però fino a quel momento è stato un gran viaggio, in cui fantascienza, politica, amore e mal d'africa si sono fusi perfettamente.
May 1, 2020
At times beautifully written - veering from information-heavy journalistic reportage to a poetic, almost stream-of-consciousness lyricism - account of first contact, albeit with constantly mutating, adaptive, and growing alien spores colonising Kilimanjaro and moving outwards inexorably at fifty metres per day. The African setting allows McDonald free rein to discourse on themes of colonialism, racism and First World interventionism, but the book is at its best in the surreal and wildly alien environs of the transformative Chaga and its slowly-but-surely transhuman inhabitants. At its worst with a romance subplot containing some wildly flowery Mills & Boon dialogue, and its lack of cohesive or explanatory ending. I know there's a sequel, I own the sequel, I still like books to have endings.
February 10, 2017
(Confession: I skimmed this book, for reasons of time rather than disliking it, so there's certainly subtle things I missed. That said, here's my impression.)
Seedlike objects from space land on Earth in different areas around the equator (the story focuses on Kenya, but other sites are mentioned as well). Out of them bursts an alien, plantlike growth, which spreads at the rate of 50 feet a day, consuming terrestrial plants and plastics while leaving animals... more or less... intact. The story begins several years after the first seed-landing, when huge areas of Kenya have been transformed into the "Chaga," an alien jungle: an ever-growing ecology of both sessile and mobile life, swarming in the shadows of coral-like and fungus-like structures hundreds of feet tall. In the shadow of Mt. Kilimanjaro, displaced populations crowd into refugee camps, while a few small groups of people have learned to enter the Chaga and coexist with it... a coexistence which may transform them into something inhuman. As human science tries vainly to stop the Chaga, or perhaps to exploit its amazing biotechnologies, a mysterious alien satellite, 100+ miles wide, approaches Earth...
This is transhumanist, apocalyptic (?) sci-fi set in Africa, a rich book which tries to do a ton of things. Written by a white guy, it stars a white journalist, Gaby, through whose eyes we see the African characters and landscape. To me, the book feels self-aware and critical of Gaby's tourist perspective, criticizing her flaws (her abrasive personality, her hard-partying lifestyle, her prejudices) much as Kim Barker's "The Taliban Shuffle" criticizes Barker's similar privileged status; other reviewers might find it too much, and probably it's to address such criticisms that Ian McDonald wrote a sequel from an African narrator's perspective, "Tendeleo's Story" (which I haven't read).
There's so many subplots and characters here, the book seems almost to be trying too hard to explain East Africa: colonialism, racism, the possibility that "one person's apocalypse is another person's opportunity," the UN (depicted as brutal and corrupt), and the perhaps inevitable machine-gun-wielding African bandits and warlords. It's a mess, but it's interesting. Explicit sex and some moments of gory human-on-human violence make this definitely for adult readers. By the ending, but we see glimpses of the possible futures for humanity within the Chaga: . At its best, this book balances awe and fear of a transformative future which we can't predict or prepare for, and in those parts, it's great science fiction.
Seedlike objects from space land on Earth in different areas around the equator (the story focuses on Kenya, but other sites are mentioned as well). Out of them bursts an alien, plantlike growth, which spreads at the rate of 50 feet a day, consuming terrestrial plants and plastics while leaving animals... more or less... intact. The story begins several years after the first seed-landing, when huge areas of Kenya have been transformed into the "Chaga," an alien jungle: an ever-growing ecology of both sessile and mobile life, swarming in the shadows of coral-like and fungus-like structures hundreds of feet tall. In the shadow of Mt. Kilimanjaro, displaced populations crowd into refugee camps, while a few small groups of people have learned to enter the Chaga and coexist with it... a coexistence which may transform them into something inhuman. As human science tries vainly to stop the Chaga, or perhaps to exploit its amazing biotechnologies, a mysterious alien satellite, 100+ miles wide, approaches Earth...
This is transhumanist, apocalyptic (?) sci-fi set in Africa, a rich book which tries to do a ton of things. Written by a white guy, it stars a white journalist, Gaby, through whose eyes we see the African characters and landscape. To me, the book feels self-aware and critical of Gaby's tourist perspective, criticizing her flaws (her abrasive personality, her hard-partying lifestyle, her prejudices) much as Kim Barker's "The Taliban Shuffle" criticizes Barker's similar privileged status; other reviewers might find it too much, and probably it's to address such criticisms that Ian McDonald wrote a sequel from an African narrator's perspective, "Tendeleo's Story" (which I haven't read).
There's so many subplots and characters here, the book seems almost to be trying too hard to explain East Africa: colonialism, racism, the possibility that "one person's apocalypse is another person's opportunity," the UN (depicted as brutal and corrupt), and the perhaps inevitable machine-gun-wielding African bandits and warlords. It's a mess, but it's interesting. Explicit sex and some moments of gory human-on-human violence make this definitely for adult readers. By the ending, but we see glimpses of the possible futures for humanity within the Chaga: . At its best, this book balances awe and fear of a transformative future which we can't predict or prepare for, and in those parts, it's great science fiction.
July 22, 2020
I found the science fiction sections in this novel far more satisfying than the crime thriller episodes. Whenever the lead character, Gaby McAslan, got involved with the gangs of Nairobi I kept wondering, why? Isn't the invasion and occupation of Earth by alien vegetative life-forms enough of a headline story for any ambitious television news journalist? I accept that for any news anchor an underlying story of United Nations political corruption would be a career boost, but to get to it through striking deals with murderous gangsters who find torturing and shooting people sexually satisfying, is a bit over the top. Especially when you can get your cameras homed in on an expanding forest of extravagant lushness running riot in Kenya - and which is showing signs of a capability to biologically alter earthly things and people when it reaches them.
The impending arrival of the Big Dumb Object – a type of gigantic interstellar spacecraft made from the remnants of some of Saturn's moons and carrying even more varieties of life-form, including a shadowy possibility of its creators – works well, though as it gets more interesting towards the end the author runs out of time and is left with the vagueness of suggestion and implication. Blame that on the time spent with Haran the mobster and his Cascade Club, The Skateboard Kid, and the Black Simbas in the dives of downtown Nairobi. The violence added little excitement to the story and little of interest to the attractive Gaby's convoluted lifestyle and love life.
Overall, an excellent science fiction tale spoiled by Gaby as amateur detective, dodging the bullets and running around the streets of a dangerous city.
The impending arrival of the Big Dumb Object – a type of gigantic interstellar spacecraft made from the remnants of some of Saturn's moons and carrying even more varieties of life-form, including a shadowy possibility of its creators – works well, though as it gets more interesting towards the end the author runs out of time and is left with the vagueness of suggestion and implication. Blame that on the time spent with Haran the mobster and his Cascade Club, The Skateboard Kid, and the Black Simbas in the dives of downtown Nairobi. The violence added little excitement to the story and little of interest to the attractive Gaby's convoluted lifestyle and love life.
Overall, an excellent science fiction tale spoiled by Gaby as amateur detective, dodging the bullets and running around the streets of a dangerous city.
August 15, 2019
Long story short: it's an amazing concept for a book, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired.
I understand the desire on the part of authors to craft more "realistic" dialogue, but in Evolution's Shore, realism involves profanity or references to sex on almost every single page, even in professional situations, and from pretty much every character in the story. There is not much to distinguish the personality of one character from another, since they all use similar language and tend to ramble (with a couple of the African characters being an exception). Gaby, the main character, is only borderline likable (though that, admittedly, is definitely intentional on the part of the author).
There are some really interesting set pieces, especially when the characters are actually inside the chaga. Some plot threads are left hanging, and the book ends on a serious anticlimax, though that may be because it is setting up the story for its sequel. Its depiction of an Internet age society is also pretty outdated for 2019 readers, but you can hardly blame a book written in the early 1990s for that.
Ultimately, it did hold my interest, and its setting is an incredibly interesting one, but I can't say that it is one of my favorites.
I understand the desire on the part of authors to craft more "realistic" dialogue, but in Evolution's Shore, realism involves profanity or references to sex on almost every single page, even in professional situations, and from pretty much every character in the story. There is not much to distinguish the personality of one character from another, since they all use similar language and tend to ramble (with a couple of the African characters being an exception). Gaby, the main character, is only borderline likable (though that, admittedly, is definitely intentional on the part of the author).
There are some really interesting set pieces, especially when the characters are actually inside the chaga. Some plot threads are left hanging, and the book ends on a serious anticlimax, though that may be because it is setting up the story for its sequel. Its depiction of an Internet age society is also pretty outdated for 2019 readers, but you can hardly blame a book written in the early 1990s for that.
Ultimately, it did hold my interest, and its setting is an incredibly interesting one, but I can't say that it is one of my favorites.
June 11, 2019
It wasn't bad but it was entirely sci-fi. A lot of it was political machinations involving the UN or a romantic subplot. Also, although this is a first contact story, nothing really happened in terms of contact. The very end of the book contained some promise on that front, but then the book ended. I wouldn't read this again, but maybe a sequel would be interesting.
March 14, 2022
Wow! An indescribable pleasure.
Combining the inhumanity of man, the new human evolution caused by a colossal alien world that lands on earth, and a personal story of love and loss, I’ve never read such a sweeping tale.
Combining the inhumanity of man, the new human evolution caused by a colossal alien world that lands on earth, and a personal story of love and loss, I’ve never read such a sweeping tale.
June 11, 2019
This is the same book as "Chaga."
August 17, 2020
Really less about a weird, slow alien invasion and much more about people and relationships. With a background of a weird, slow alien invasion.
April 21, 2023
Damn impressive. A very different sort of alien story.
June 13, 2014
An ambitious SF novel with an appealing earnestness, McDonald's expansion of an earlier novella takes full advantage of the longer format here. The scope of the premise is just one example. Earth (more specifically, Africa) has been "invaded" by an alien entity that touches down on Mt. Kilimanjaro and proceeds to devour the surrounding landscape, 50 feet per day. The entity is also transforming the ground it covers, and part of the suspense of the novel involves to just what degree and scale things are being transformed.
At the same time, a large object is detected near Saturn that appears to consume an entire moon. As Africa is slowly changed, Earth must also prepare for the arrival of this object.
Leading us through these high-concepts is Gaby McAslan, an Irish journalist looking to make her big break by reporting on the political turmoil caused in the wake of the entity. McAslan is brassy, confident, and a complete pain-in-the-ass to most everyone around her. But she also displays an appealing vulnerability and a commitment to revealing the secrets surrounding the African transformation.
McAslan's voice grounds the SF elements here, and at times the novel almost reads like a modern-day thriller rather than science fiction. McDonald skillfully balances all these elements (and more) in prose that is occasionally heavier on description and monologue than action. But the pace quickens considerably in the novel's final pages, leading toward an intriguing climax. Some readers might be frustrated that this climax leads into a sequel novel (one I have not yet read), but the characters' arcs are sufficiently resolved.
The novel occasionally reveals its origins in the 1990s. There is much discussion of how the alien entity can apparently cure a derivation of the AIDS virus (though, of course, this is still a relevant concern today), and some dossier-like digressions on African politics. These aspects sometimes weigh the novel down, but McDonald gives McAslan such a vivid personality that the pace soon quickens again.
There are shades of Arthur C. Clarke in the final chapters, as the mysterious object nears Earth. SF readers will also enjoy McDonald's depictions of the space nerds that once flocked to shuttle launches. This is a grand SF novel with lively characters that doesn't lose sight of the humans involved in life-changing circumstances. I wish I had read it years ago.
At the same time, a large object is detected near Saturn that appears to consume an entire moon. As Africa is slowly changed, Earth must also prepare for the arrival of this object.
Leading us through these high-concepts is Gaby McAslan, an Irish journalist looking to make her big break by reporting on the political turmoil caused in the wake of the entity. McAslan is brassy, confident, and a complete pain-in-the-ass to most everyone around her. But she also displays an appealing vulnerability and a commitment to revealing the secrets surrounding the African transformation.
McAslan's voice grounds the SF elements here, and at times the novel almost reads like a modern-day thriller rather than science fiction. McDonald skillfully balances all these elements (and more) in prose that is occasionally heavier on description and monologue than action. But the pace quickens considerably in the novel's final pages, leading toward an intriguing climax. Some readers might be frustrated that this climax leads into a sequel novel (one I have not yet read), but the characters' arcs are sufficiently resolved.
The novel occasionally reveals its origins in the 1990s. There is much discussion of how the alien entity can apparently cure a derivation of the AIDS virus (though, of course, this is still a relevant concern today), and some dossier-like digressions on African politics. These aspects sometimes weigh the novel down, but McDonald gives McAslan such a vivid personality that the pace soon quickens again.
There are shades of Arthur C. Clarke in the final chapters, as the mysterious object nears Earth. SF readers will also enjoy McDonald's depictions of the space nerds that once flocked to shuttle launches. This is a grand SF novel with lively characters that doesn't lose sight of the humans involved in life-changing circumstances. I wish I had read it years ago.
July 5, 2014
Gaby McAslan is a journalist, with special interest in the 'Chaga', an alien ecosystem spreading in the heart of Africa, amongst other places, after meteorites crash on Earth, following an earlier event in the Saturn system. Whilst being a hard-nosed journalist, she is irresistibly drawn to the Chaga (named for the first tribe in Kenya displaced by the spread).
I'm not really sure how to describe this book further. The first half of the book is very much about Africa, and Kenya in particular. Gaby finally gets posted to East Africa and the book is about her relationships there. The Chaga is a background, but Africa itself is very much to the fore. McDonald has form in this, with books such as River of Gods and The Dervish House being set in India and Turkey respectively, and where the setting is as much a character as any of the humans. Even when a man walks out of the Chaga (a feat believed to be impossible) with a message, it never really comes to the fore.
It's only when Gaby finally makes a trek into the Chaga, does it finally come alive and we start to gain a feel for it, although one of the issues that I had with the book, is that that feeling seems vague, and you never really get much sense of what sort of potential threat that it could be, apart from the very human one of it expanding across Africa, and the UN attempting to evacuate people, towns, cities and eventually whole countries. The Chaga is eventually described as a sort of melting pot for evolution, with it changing the populations, but also learning from them and adapting itself to meet their needs.
The book very much felt like one of two halves, with the first being about Africa and the second more about the Chaga, and I'm not really sure how well the two meshed. After making a big fuss about the disappearance and re-emergence of the moon Hyperion as an object coming into Earth orbit, that sort of trails off. I'm not sure if it's being left for the sequel, or if it just fizzled out, but I found the end quite unsatisfactory.
However, the descriptions of Kenya and its people and land were marvellous, and one of the major reasons that I read McDonald.
I'm not really sure how to describe this book further. The first half of the book is very much about Africa, and Kenya in particular. Gaby finally gets posted to East Africa and the book is about her relationships there. The Chaga is a background, but Africa itself is very much to the fore. McDonald has form in this, with books such as River of Gods and The Dervish House being set in India and Turkey respectively, and where the setting is as much a character as any of the humans. Even when a man walks out of the Chaga (a feat believed to be impossible) with a message, it never really comes to the fore.
It's only when Gaby finally makes a trek into the Chaga, does it finally come alive and we start to gain a feel for it, although one of the issues that I had with the book, is that that feeling seems vague, and you never really get much sense of what sort of potential threat that it could be, apart from the very human one of it expanding across Africa, and the UN attempting to evacuate people, towns, cities and eventually whole countries. The Chaga is eventually described as a sort of melting pot for evolution, with it changing the populations, but also learning from them and adapting itself to meet their needs.
The book very much felt like one of two halves, with the first being about Africa and the second more about the Chaga, and I'm not really sure how well the two meshed. After making a big fuss about the disappearance and re-emergence of the moon Hyperion as an object coming into Earth orbit, that sort of trails off. I'm not sure if it's being left for the sequel, or if it just fizzled out, but I found the end quite unsatisfactory.
However, the descriptions of Kenya and its people and land were marvellous, and one of the major reasons that I read McDonald.
January 22, 2010
A funny thing happened on the way to write this post. See I remember reading a short story that feature the Chaga or something very similar to the Chaga. I even remember writing a review of the story. There's just one problem; I can find no evidence of having done either. Further more, I can't prove that such a story exists! The existence (or not) of a short story set in the same universe as Evolution's Shore (aka Chaga) by Ian McDonald has no bearing on the strengths and weaknesses of the novel.
In 2002 over the rings of Saturn something weird happened. Meanwhile an object has crash landed on Mount Kilimanjaro and that something is forever altering everything it touches. How exactly it's altering things is kept a closely guarded secret. Gaby McAslan and her SkyNet news team to Africa to report the story. Evolution's Shore is mostly her story.
Here's where things get a little muddled. The book is presented as a disaster novel. Whatever the Chaga are they represent the potential to forever alter or destroy life as we know it. To keep things in the disaster genre the book is mostly "real to life" with a large cast of characters, an over abundance of details and a romance for Gaby. That sort of thing works great when the threat is something tangible: earthquake, flood, drought, hurricane, and so forth.
Weird ass evolution from space, in other words, something unknown, something "other" brings the book into the realm of horror. It's the fear of the unknown. With that expectation, things need to happen early and with building frequency. People need to disappear, or mutate or eat other people or something. In this regard Evolution's Shore fails.
In 2002 over the rings of Saturn something weird happened. Meanwhile an object has crash landed on Mount Kilimanjaro and that something is forever altering everything it touches. How exactly it's altering things is kept a closely guarded secret. Gaby McAslan and her SkyNet news team to Africa to report the story. Evolution's Shore is mostly her story.
Here's where things get a little muddled. The book is presented as a disaster novel. Whatever the Chaga are they represent the potential to forever alter or destroy life as we know it. To keep things in the disaster genre the book is mostly "real to life" with a large cast of characters, an over abundance of details and a romance for Gaby. That sort of thing works great when the threat is something tangible: earthquake, flood, drought, hurricane, and so forth.
Weird ass evolution from space, in other words, something unknown, something "other" brings the book into the realm of horror. It's the fear of the unknown. With that expectation, things need to happen early and with building frequency. People need to disappear, or mutate or eat other people or something. In this regard Evolution's Shore fails.
October 4, 2018
I always think it says a lot about a writers skill if he can weave an amazing story around an awful character. And so few sci-fi writers can evoke such a sense of place in locales exotic to the Western reader as McDonald. He’s done it for India, Brazil and Turkey so far. As someone who’s read a great deal of fiction set in East Africa, I know he did an amazing job showing how that region would react with such a monstrous event. I refer, of course, to the re-invasion by all the western military, science and UN agencies! The Chaga itself would be met with considerably less upset.
This was not the first main character in one of McDonalds books that I thoroughly disliked. The common thread seems to be ugly ambition warping a person into a manipulative betraying mess. Thankfully, I realize it’s not necessary to actually like a character...indeed, the story can create more depth of emotional resonance if I don’t. It serves to highlight moral ambiguities and grey-area ethics. Both of which abound in this book, both on a personal and institutional level.
But the main attraction for me was, as always, the science. The biology of the Chaga and it’s far-reaching potential was absolutely fascinating and if I have one complaint, it’s that there wasn’t more! More descriptions, more implications, more discussion among the actual scientists. The focus on the journalistic aspect of these huge world changing events was frustrating for me, personally. However, I’ve learned that’s just how McDonald rolls and I accept that! Sort of.
I’m re-reading Kirinya, which is the sequel, right now.
This was not the first main character in one of McDonalds books that I thoroughly disliked. The common thread seems to be ugly ambition warping a person into a manipulative betraying mess. Thankfully, I realize it’s not necessary to actually like a character...indeed, the story can create more depth of emotional resonance if I don’t. It serves to highlight moral ambiguities and grey-area ethics. Both of which abound in this book, both on a personal and institutional level.
But the main attraction for me was, as always, the science. The biology of the Chaga and it’s far-reaching potential was absolutely fascinating and if I have one complaint, it’s that there wasn’t more! More descriptions, more implications, more discussion among the actual scientists. The focus on the journalistic aspect of these huge world changing events was frustrating for me, personally. However, I’ve learned that’s just how McDonald rolls and I accept that! Sort of.
I’m re-reading Kirinya, which is the sequel, right now.
April 3, 2012
Out of all of his books I've read this is the best written. Gaby is
an Irish lady (ie: quick temper, long memory) reporter who goes to
Africa for a scoop. She digs and peels and uncovers some things the
U.N. is investigating and keeping the world out of sight from the
Chaga. Chaga is a outer world goop comet that has been expanding on
the plains. People are scared of it, the U.N. isn't helping matters,
a "Big Dumb Object" is falling towards earth, but she wants to
experience it in first person regardless of anything. Other Chaga's
have hit doing different things. Lookout world!
Interviews and warnings aside, she gets into what might be a good
description of Roger Dean paintings eaten alive by Giger's. It sure
starts off slow with the characters doing the stupid human soap
opera tricks and accepting bribes left and right. This girl Gaby is
relentless. She wants IN! She finds out about some experimental
facility with the Chaga infected people, and it's there I realized
this is a fucking great read even though there's a few other sf book
ideas lifted in here. The buildup and dramatic sequences were worth
the the warts chafing my ass flipping the early book pages, because
a bomb blew them all off pretty much at once on page 'genius' later on.
Highly recommended fun-gus.
an Irish lady (ie: quick temper, long memory) reporter who goes to
Africa for a scoop. She digs and peels and uncovers some things the
U.N. is investigating and keeping the world out of sight from the
Chaga. Chaga is a outer world goop comet that has been expanding on
the plains. People are scared of it, the U.N. isn't helping matters,
a "Big Dumb Object" is falling towards earth, but she wants to
experience it in first person regardless of anything. Other Chaga's
have hit doing different things. Lookout world!
Interviews and warnings aside, she gets into what might be a good
description of Roger Dean paintings eaten alive by Giger's. It sure
starts off slow with the characters doing the stupid human soap
opera tricks and accepting bribes left and right. This girl Gaby is
relentless. She wants IN! She finds out about some experimental
facility with the Chaga infected people, and it's there I realized
this is a fucking great read even though there's a few other sf book
ideas lifted in here. The buildup and dramatic sequences were worth
the the warts chafing my ass flipping the early book pages, because
a bomb blew them all off pretty much at once on page 'genius' later on.
Highly recommended fun-gus.
July 16, 2008
I don't know if I've ever read a book more beautifully written, science fiction or not. McDonald makes liberal use of metaphors in this book, it's almost necessary considering the subject matter. He manages to convey a sense of awe and wonder while simultaneously apologizing for it's inadequacy. You walk away with a sense of how wondrous and different the Chaga is, wishing to be able to see it for yourself.
Gaby McAslan resonates for me as the main character. She is much of what I wish I were and I get lost in her life as she chases (or rather is chased by) the encroaching alien life form spreading across the African continent. She is ambitious and sometimes almost single mindedly driven...but there's a human side to her too, with vulnerabilities not unlike the rest of us. The Chaga has been her purpose for her entire career and simultaneously stimulates her and terrifies her. Hard to blame her actually.
I was sad to reach the end of this book.
Oh, and it's very quotable. I had to have a notebook close by while reading. I often needed to write down a quote for future reference/blatant plaigerism.
Gaby McAslan resonates for me as the main character. She is much of what I wish I were and I get lost in her life as she chases (or rather is chased by) the encroaching alien life form spreading across the African continent. She is ambitious and sometimes almost single mindedly driven...but there's a human side to her too, with vulnerabilities not unlike the rest of us. The Chaga has been her purpose for her entire career and simultaneously stimulates her and terrifies her. Hard to blame her actually.
I was sad to reach the end of this book.
Oh, and it's very quotable. I had to have a notebook close by while reading. I often needed to write down a quote for future reference/blatant plaigerism.
January 30, 2016
Readability 6. Rating 6. A random purchase. I had heard good things about McDonald, and thought he was worth a try. The story is of a near-future Earth and Gaby McAslan, an Irish journalist who ends up in Africa to cover the spread of the Chaga, an alien technology or lifeform that is spreading across the continent. While the Chaga, and its implications, are fascinating, it is at best a sidelight for telling the tale of an impetuous and incredibly selfish young woman. Maybe I just don’t understand the journalist mentality, but her ability to be self-absorbed and the nonchalance with which she takes advantage of those around her is at best distasteful. That said, it is a fascinating book, and the portrayals of Africa, Ireland, the Chaga, and a number of characters are all excellent. I would just prefer a main character that I can like without feeling guilty, and a story that is more pointed. By the latter, I mean that it struck me as truly strange that this incredible event is unfolding (the spread of the Chaga), and McDonald uses it only as backdrop to talk about the life of one person who seems anything but worthy.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 9, 2017
Boring
It just goes on and on about the wonder of Africa. It's a good story in many ways, with excellent characters and an engaging plot. But it just feels long in the reading. It could have been written in about 70% of the pages. It took me a long time to finish this book simply because I kept getting bored.
It just goes on and on about the wonder of Africa. It's a good story in many ways, with excellent characters and an engaging plot. But it just feels long in the reading. It could have been written in about 70% of the pages. It took me a long time to finish this book simply because I kept getting bored.
October 19, 2014
In several equatorial regions of the earth, an alien plant has been growing. The “Chaga,” as it is called, came from outer space and destroys anything manmade that comes near it. Scientists are worried about what it might do to humans. They have not been able to kill it and it is advancing slowly but steadily each day, changing the landscape and covering villages and cities as it progresses. Not only are people’s lives being disrupted as they have to flee their homes and become refugees, but they’re also worried about what the Chaga is doing here in the first place. Is it benign? Is there an intelligence behind it? Is it a precursor to an alien invasion? Nobody knows.
The mystery of the Chaga and its effect on humanity have inspired Gaby McAslin, a feisty red-headed green-eyed Irish woman, to become a journalist so she can go to Nairobi and try to figure out what the Chaga is doing as it... Read More: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...
The mystery of the Chaga and its effect on humanity have inspired Gaby McAslin, a feisty red-headed green-eyed Irish woman, to become a journalist so she can go to Nairobi and try to figure out what the Chaga is doing as it... Read More: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...
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