Desolation Road

I picked up this trade paperback in Barnes & Noble's 'cause I can never have too many copies to lend out. Guess what? It's full of typos!! As obvious as unjustified, non-reflowed text, much less what seem like OCR misspellings. Who knows, maybe a real collector's item here. Still my favorite of his, though, even after all these years. Highly atmospheric.

Desolation Road I could not wait to read this book, so I read the massmarket paperback from an out of town library. The story is certianly enjoyable. But the COVER of this new edition with a picture of an atomic engine created by Stephan Martiniere's exceptional artwork getting ready to roll across Mars captured my fancy. I keep an advertisment for the new cover in our bookstore. I chuckle repeatedly knowing the town was named Desolation Road due to an alcoholic malapropism that stuck after the founder's celebration of his good fortune.

I've had this book sitting around forever. Literally, I think. I have had it since I was a teenager and never read it. With every move it somehow gets boxed up anyhow and shipped with me. I would see it and think that I needed to read it, and then somehow I would forget about it. Anyhow, I finally read it. I am not going to say that it is worth a 20 year wait, because what would be? But it is a pretty good book, and I enjoyed it enough that I think I will look up some of Ian McDonald's more recent works. Desolation Road was McDonald's first book, and was apparently released to all kinds of glowing praise. For a first science fiction novel, it definitely gets credit for imagination and unusual ideas. The book begins with Dr. Alimantando following a greenperson across a desert. This following, plus an unexpected accident lead to the founding of Desolation Road-- a town where no town is supposed to be. Rather than follow any one character, the book tells the story of the town itself. The structure of the book consists of a series of interconnected stories about the people who live in the town. It spans several generations. I am always a sucker for this structure of interlocking stories. (Another good example is The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden, by Catherynne M. Valente.) There is something about the pace and flow that I really enjoy. McDonald is also a good writer with solid craftsmanship. I engaged with the characters, and was interested in the fate of the town. I cannot exactly put my finger on how, but sometimes the plot felt a bit like much of a muchness. This was the only real flaw I can identify, but it kept me from loving the book instead of just liking it. Anyone out there recommend other McDonald books that would be worth the time to read?

Ian Mac Donald has a refreshing style that should appeal to all hardcore sci-fi readers tired of big spaceships and huge disasters. Here, the core of the plot is the human destiny, with its share of luck and coincidence ; if everything seems at first a bit disentangled, it all ties up in the end in a glorious finish wich is one of the best ever written. This book is like foreign food : try, and you'll find it excellent.

Ian McDonald's Desolation Road is undeniably his best book, a rich and vibrant tale of village life on a terraformed Mars. Reminiscent (intentionally) of the magic realist novels of Marquez and Llosa it transcends the science fiction genre without denigrating it, revelling in both worlds to the credit of each. This is one of those books that critics should hold up as an example of great writing in sf, especially because it won't disappoint even the most hardened veteran reader--literally, a book for everyone.