On the trail of the mystery of Saturn's disappearing moons, network journalist Gaby McAslan find herself in Aftrica researching the Kilimanjaro Event: a meteor which landed in Kenya causing the striking African landscape to give way to something equally beautiful - and indescribably alien. Dubbed the Chaga, the alien flora destroys all man-made materials, and moulds human flesh, bone and spirit to its own designs. And when Gaby McAsland finds the first man to survive the Chaga's changes, she realizes it has its own plans for humankind.
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. Learn more. |
Book Description
Product details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Product Description
About the Author
SALES POINTS * First volume in a trilogy by the author of Necroville. * Chosen by Locus magazine as one of the SF novels of 1995. * McDonald has won the Philip K. Dick Award and been shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award. * 'One of the finest writers of his generation, who choses to write science fiction because that is how he can best illuminate the world' New Statesman
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
One of the most moving pieces of sci-fi I've read for a while- restored my faith in a genre that I thought I'd left for dead. McDonald's work is political, but with a rare subtlety: he's got a real grasp of global cultural conflict, and how it might be affected by some unusual, external event (what Iain M Banks might call an 'Outside Context Problem!). Stylisctically, McDonald has found the perfect balance between the overripe poetics of 'Hearts, Hands and Voices', and the over-slangy, occasionally derivative cyberbanter of 'Out on Blue Six'. He delivers generous, sympathetic characterisation, even to the UN bad-hats, but especially (and, for SF, unusually) to the female charcaters. Gaby McAslan is more than an off-the-peg feisty journalist, and Oksana, the Russian pilot, is as life-affirming a character as you'ld ever hope to meet. The Chaga itself is described with an old-fashioned sense-of-wonder often missing from more cynical near-future novels, and yet remains oddly plausible. At the same time, the prose easily scales back down to football matches and love affairs, the day-to-day life of humans amongst a wondrous event that has politicized their world. The sequel, Kiriniya, ties up loose ends and expands the scope of the story hugely, but hasn't quite the impact. Nonetheless, it's also recommended.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
This is one of the most intelligent novels about alien contact I have read. Novels about 'the alien' can tend to be so mundane - the aliens are basically humans with a few changes, or easily recognisable as based on other earth species. McDonald avoids these pitfalls. His 'Chaga', named after the Kenyan tribe who first discover it, is a bizarre, self-replicating, absorbing, learning, mutating substance, being and process all at once. The UN (dominated ny the Americans) treat it like a threat, a disease to be stopped at all costs. This of course becomes another cover for racism against the Africans, but it is the Africans who realise that adpation is the key. By the end of the book this appears to bee shifting the world balance of power to Africa, a trend which continues in the equally wonderful sequel, Kirinya. McDonald's lush descriptive skill and eye for the cultural and natural landscape of Kenya form the base of this book, but his characterisation and plot structuring are equally impressive. Gaby, Faraway, Tembo, Shepherd, Oksana and many others are characters who breathe and demand your attention. The plot is tight, taut and packed with incident, humour, brutality, love - in short, all the things that make us human; nothing is out of place, nothing superfluous. Overall, one of the most human, hopeful and intelligent novels of the near future I have read.
By N. Gregory
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Wonderful characterisation as usual, but the idea of biological packages being our first alien contact is a fascinating and unique one. His characters suffer, but it is the suffering of the real world, its politics and fear and violence. He always makes me think as well as giving me the escape of fantasy.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
›
Go to Amazon.com to see both reviews
2.5 out of 5 stars
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
