Hopeland

Product Information

McDonald published Luna: New Moon, the first volume of a proposed science fiction duology, in 2015. [9] [13] [14] It explores the dangerous intrigue that surrounds the five powerful families who control industry on the Moon. [9] McDonald said of the novel in August 2014, "I’m still writing about developing economies, it’s just that this one happens to be on the Moon." [9] Before critics called the novel " Game of Thrones in space", [13] [15] [16] McDonald himself dubbed it " Game of Domes" and " Dallas in space". [9] Luna was optioned for development as a television series before its release. [15] [17] The sequel, Luna: Wolf Moon, was released in March 2017. [18] A third novel, Luna: Moon Rising, [19] was released in March 2019. [20] McDonald previously published the novelette "The Fifth Dragon", a prequel to Luna in the same setting, in the 2014 anthology Reach for Infinity. [9] [21] [22] I'll admit I hadn't read the blurb. It's Ian McDonald, and it's called Hopeland... why would I read the blurb? So part of my confusion is my own fault. But having now looked at the blurb it's actually of little to no use in explaining what on earth this is about, so I don't feel too bad. And there, at one level, you have it - like a system of three stars in motion, Raisa, Amon and Finn will weave complex, unpredictable paths through two decades and more, and their perturbations will ring down the centuries. That's the book. At another level of course we have only just begun. We will learn about the Hopelands - a chaotic, sprawling "family" ('Don't fall in love with my family!') which anybody can join, across time, space and cultures and which has its own centres, or 'hearths' everywhere, its own ways of doing things, even its own religion. We will also learn about the Brightbornes, a formidably eccentric clan whose house can't be found unless somebody shows you. Some magic there, surely, but it's matters of fact magic. She stares up into his face. She is exhausted, eyes sunken, face jazzy with sweat and dust, nails chipped. We should pause at this point to posit an homage to Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle, with its notion of a karass. Not only are the Hopelands a karass, but the concept derives from a man, Karl-Maria Lindner, who studied a tropical culture—the Polynesian islands of Ava’u—just as Vonnegut’s Bokonism arose from the tropical Caribbean island of San Lorenzo. This fertile, resonant notion of self-selecting “families” has always been a theme in SF, from Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land to Doctorow’s Eastern Standard Tribe.

Ian McDonald (British author) - Wikipedia Ian McDonald (British author) - Wikipedia

opens in a new window opens in a new window opens in a new window opens in a new window opens in a new window

On display in this book is a familiar virtue of McDonald’s, seen in works such as River of Gods and Brasyl: the ability to depict a culture in both large and granular details across historical eras. But new to his quiver is the intense lyricism of the prose, the Crowleyesque feyness and sense of fatedness. Narrated in the present tense, the book manages to convey both an immersive immediacy of action and a sense of myth and fabulism. Science Fiction & Fantasy Books by Award: 1993 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End . Retrieved 29 March 2009. The parts that made me cry concerned the people of Ava' u surviving a catastrophic storm, only to discover that their aquifer has been breached by the sea so their home is no longer habitable. The entire nation become climate refugees and take an extraordinary journey north to settle in Greenland. Amon's connection to Raisa catalyses this and the epic voyage is seen through his eyes. This sequence of survival, solidarity, and adaptation is astonishingly moving, as it never veers into sentimental cliche or trivialises the plight of refugees. It also features a very striking scene when the ships from Ava' u encounter the ruins of an offshore libertarian community that has descended into chaos and death. This failed attempt to build a nation purely on contractual relationships makes a very effective contrast to the webs of connections both protagonists build. Midway through I found myself intimidated by the book’s length, the dense prose, the randomness of the plot, the number of characters. I found many of the characters stubbornly unmemorable, and worse, there were times when I didn’t care what happened to them, or the situations they were in. a b c Alexander, Niall (21 September 2015). "The Long Run: Luna: New Moon by Ian McDonald". Tor.com . Retrieved 12 December 2015.

Hopeland by Ian McDonald Paul Di Filippo Reviews Hopeland by Ian McDonald

Ian McDonald is one of the very best science fiction writers in the world. His novels are fearless, brilliant, wise-they illuminate and entertain spectacularly. —Kim Stanley Robinson, New York Times bestselling author She is a rooftop away already, crouching against the air-glow of Rich- mond Buildings like a superheroine. The higher lights of Soho Square hang like a sequin curtain behind her. I also love some of the digs at some recent trendy technologies like crypto. It treats them with the suspicion that they deserve. They met while London burned. A encounter during a riot brought Amon Brightbourne together with Raissa Hopeland on a mad rooftop hunt for a family heirloom: a Tesla Coil. But there is no such thing as chance where Amon is concerned: he's been exiled from his family home because he's both cursed and blessed with the Grace — he lives a charmed life, but at the expense of those closest to him. The Grace made him fall in love with Raissa, and with her family, the extraordinary Hopelands — a family like stars in the sky, scattered but connected in constellations of affection, parenthood, love and responsibility. Revealing The Menace from Farside, a New Novella from Ian McDonald". Tor.com. 29 May 2019 . Retrieved 26 August 2019.The narrative structure and storytelling just did not work for me. A story like this is so dependent on character work and yet I found myself struggling to connect to this family. While this novel still some it's good points, I was overall left disappointed from initial expectations.

Hopeland - Ian McDonald - Google Books Hopeland - Ian McDonald - Google Books

It was a treat, a different type of treat even if it's a bit too obscure at time. The language is lyrical and complex, the storytelling hypnotic. A small, heart-warming, and heartfelt coda took me entirely by surprise, even though, in retrospect, I could see it was expertly but subtly foreshadowed. But it starts in more familiar disunity, with a frenzied but typically vibrant panorama of the 2011 London riots: A time-traveling, futuristic saga of a family trying to outlast and remake a universe with a power unlike any we’ve seen before. A weird one this, not sure what I make of it or even whether you’d file it under a particular genre. The most recent McDonald novel I read was Luna: New Moon, which I found dissatisfying. But I’ve read other works by him that were thought-provoking and full of brilliant ideas.music of extreme duration and the climate crisis; the sort of thing that inspired the Music in Ian McDonald’s Hopeland, devices to help us project our imagination lifetimes into the future, some at an even grander […] We first follow Raisa, who wanders in a kind of distraught fugue across the globe until she ends up in Iceland. And there she will stay for the next twenty-two years, bearing Amon’s son and creating a new community and high-tech business that will come to have global reach and consequences. I remain intentionally vague, so as not to spoil your fun. Beautifuly written, masterly delivered, and I just couldn't care less about the people and the (quite epic and eventful) plot. I'm pretty sure it's me. We don’t learn what happened to Amon after this shattering break for some time. But finally he resurfaces—in Ava’u, of all places, the omphalos of the Hopeland mystique. His new destiny at first seems that of merely an eccentric expatriate. But circumstances soon propel him too onto the global stage. And then comes the grand reunion of the two star-crossed lovers, amidst much international tumult and fanfare. a b Liptak, Andrew (29 December 2017). "The best science fiction, fantasy, and horror novels of 2017". The Verge . Retrieved 2 January 2018.

Ian Mond Reviews Hopeland by Ian McDonald – Locus Online Ian Mond Reviews Hopeland by Ian McDonald – Locus Online

Ian McDonald - SFeraKon 2010 GoH intervju - Fantasy Hrvatska". Archived from the original on 11 February 2017 . Retrieved 9 June 2013. What else? Corporate and geopolitical shenanigans, the squabbles of gods and an element of possible fantasy or magic that is very much part of the texture of the story but kept as subsidiary theme. Again, any other author I can think of would make 'electromancers' fighting duels with Tesla coils across the rooftops, and declaring themselves the protectors of London, the centre of the story. Or else the cursed family with its own haunting spirit. Or... Instead, here those things are real and important but very far from being at the centre of things, rather they deepen and add weight to what is a glorious, complex and engaging story, one that creates an entrancing world of its own and one that it is simply a joy to visit. And this is what I’m not sure about, because this blending of fantasy-romance with speculative science fiction is kinda like the thing those literary novelists end up doing when they try to write genre. always, the Clarke shortlist has generated excellent structural and substantive analysis. As in previous years (2017 and 2022), in… a b c "Science Fiction & Fantasy Books by Award: 2008 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End . Retrieved 29 March 2009.Andreeva, Nellie (17 August 2015). "Shane Brennan To Adapt Ian McDonald's Sci-Fi Book Luna As TV Series". Deadline Hollywood . Retrieved 10 October 2015. And took it off in front of a dozen pervs. I got the river, Finn got Euston and the West Coast Main Line. So, if the line says run over the roofs, jump over alleys, I run, I jump.’ She turns to show him his phone shining from her left arm. ‘GPS. The Arcmages are watching. Now, I got a race to win?’ Ian McDonald’s latest novel, Hopeland, is many things. It’s a fantasy novel with a strong science fictional core. Or it’s a science fiction novel with elements of fantasy. It’s an examination of new ways of making a family, and it’s an exploration of gender. It’s a great piece of climate fiction, and a novel about how we can cope, how we can do better, as the world gets more hostile. Music plays in important part. So does planning for the long term. And there are even elements of steampunk. All of this in a novel with a compelling cast of characters, told in a beautiful, literary style. It’s not a fast read — at least not for me, as I found myself slowing down at points to appreciate the prose — but it’s an enjoyable, fulfilling one. This will certainly be on my Hugo nominations ballot next year. She turns on the ladder and throws a tablet of glow down to him. Her phone. As he holds it in his cupped hands like a sacrament, it drops into power-saving mode. Five percent. He switches it off.