Evolutiuon's Shore

Evolution's Shore (or Chaga in the UK) is one of the most intelligent books about alien contact I have ever read. Similar in originality to Rama, the novel explores the impact of the settling of seemingly non-intelligent alien lifeforms that proceed to terraform Earth for the better. To further complicate matters, McDonald sets the impact zones in the third world and realistically portrays the reaction of the "first world" to alien contact in the hands of Africans. While the writing does occasionally not keep pace with the ideas, McDonald has written a truly excellent book. I find myself wanting to sit down and talk with him about this world, wanting to find out more about it. And in a way, I wouldn't mind living there.

I would strongly agree with the reviewer above who said that science fiction often falls into anthropocentrist thinking, and that Ian McDonald is one of the few who can get past that to see the truly ALIEN. It's a rare skill.What most of the reviews leave out is that this book combines an adventure story, a career story, a (great) love story, and has a political and geographical backdrop so vivid it stops the reader dead in his tracks sometimes. Few popular novels deal with Africa at all. Even fewer science fiction novels do. This would be one of the most ambitious undertakings--and McDonald pulls it off. I didn't think the ending was predictable, or that the political stances were cliche. In fact, the ending is rather unresolved. McDonald manages to convey a sense of hope rather than a neatly tied up bundle of plot strings. But it still satisfies.There are few authors who can make you think of the universe as a place that is young and new and full of the unknown, full of possibilities. McDonald did it with one of his earliest (the earliest?) novels, "Desolation Road" and he does it again here in a less fantastic (yet still fantastic) setting. Not everyone gets tingles down their spine reading this book. But enough do (and I did) that I'd wholeheartedly recommend it.

I read this book about 3 years ago on a whim. It was my first Ian McDonald book. It definitely will not be my last. Great book. Started out a little slow but I was completely drawn in as soon as Gaby McAshlan hit the Chaga. A great read on its own merits but I was drawn philosophically as well. The conflict between Western civilizations (UN) trying to manipulate the outcome in 3rd world countries (Africa) was compelling. Especially in light of a situation that seems like an inevitable occurrence on the entire planet. When I thought about the alternative of the Western world doing nothing, unfortunately, that was equally plausible. The fact that the novel takes place in the near future made it very easy to visualize. I thought that the bulk of the sex and romance in the story was mostly gratuitous and McDonald did not flesh out some of the more interesting characters. I found Gaby's roommate Miriam Sondhai to be a very interesting character and wanted to learn more about her . I thought the ending with Gaby's lover Shepard in space was a little much as well, although I did enjoy the descriptions of the conditions in space and would like to know just what he saw when he went into the Big Dumb Object. I have been waiting patiently for the sequel to be published in the states.

McDonald has the ability to take strange and disturbing ideas and make great novels out of them. One of the few writers whose work I would read even if I disliked the subject matter. And one of the few writers who can toss away preconceived notions and begin to imagine what advanced biotechnology could really do.

Novels with aliens in can be disastrous. They are too much like odd versions of ourselves, or a few earth species mixed together. Ian McDonald's vision avoids these pitfalls. His 'Chaga' is a substance, a machine, a being (or beings), a process and many other things all at once. None of them are remotely human or earthlike, yet there are hints that it has something to do with our own evolution. Given the rich descriptive skill with which McDonald evokes the utter strangeness of the rapidly growing Chaga, you might expect him not to be so good at human characters. You'd be wrong. His characterisation is superb - Gaby, Faraway, Tembo, Shepherd, Haran, Oksana and others are all believable people not cartoon cutouts. They invade your thoughts and beg you to care about their lives. The best thing of all though about this book is that it shits all over the idea that the USA is and will always be the most important place on the planet from a great height. While the Americans and the Europeans are running around treating the Chaga like a threat, a disease, many of the Africans realise that adaption, symbiosis, is the key to their future, and the future of the planet as a whole. By the end of the book Africa is turning the tables on the USA; this theme is continued in the equally wonderful sequel. Together, this book and its sequel add up to one of the most humane, hopeful, rich and wonderful science-fiction tales to have been written in recent years.