 One of McDonald's Best Books, 2008-09-19
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.
 Irritating, 2004-02-04
I bought this through one of the Amazon lists, because I found its title in distinguished company. Result: one of the worst books I have ever read. What turned me off since the very beginning was the style: contrived, artificial, kitsch, not to mention that the main character -- a pathetic monument to female ambition -- wasn't interesting at all.
Interesting idea that gets lost in sex and politics, 2003-02-23
I bought this novel because I had read a novella McDonald had written about the Chaga, and found the concept interesting. Reading this novel, the same interesting parts about the Chaga, and it's origins, still engaged me. However, I have some very big problems with the story:1. McDonald's main Character, a woman, is a promiscuous as Madonna, but unlike her does not have the ability to make 100's of Millions for those who tolerate her. In short, she's a slut, and maybe I'm old-fashioned, but as much as she sleeps around, I can't imagine the other characters in the book seeing through to her apparent heart of gold. In my experience, women like this are not taken seriously, which McDonald's plot demands they do. Times have not changed that much. 2. The amount and lurid descriptions of her sexual encounters in the book could have been left out, or left to the imagination, without any loss to the narrative. One gets the impression that McDonald was using it as filler to advance the plot. Pretty lame. 3. The political message comes through loud and clear: Africans - hearts of gold, Americans and non-British Europeans (with one exception - the idealistic Doctor/romantic entanglement) evil, racist scoundrels. I lived in Africa for several years...you can't put this romantic nonsense by me. I actually closed the book at one point and stopped reading for a few days because of some of this garbage. The slams against the U.S. are pretty blatant. Sorry Ian, we won. 4. The book is less hard science fiction than a novel about dramatic social change with the Sci-Fi thrown in to keep you interested. There was actually less concrete info about the Chaga in this whole novel than in the novella I read (which also featured evil Americans, I have to admit). In fact, the whole book reminds me of something by Samuel R. Delaney, and I HATE Delaney books. For all that, I read it through, and enjoyed some parts, but the whole left me unsatisfied. It won't be a favorite, and will go to the donation box when I get a chance.
Brilliant. Just brilliant., 2003-01-30
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 loved this book, 2002-02-04
This is the second book I've read by Ian McDonald. The first was Terminal Cafe, and like that book, this one is set in and about a transformation of humanity. That is, the characters carry out their drama with the back drop of humanity transcending from our current existence into "the next level." It's a theme pioneered (I think) by Arthur C. Clark's Childhood's End. Whereas Childhood's End was a tour of that transformation with characterization more of an afterthought, Evolution's Shore is about people living life with the "change" in progress as a backdrop. I haven't actually finished it yet, but I was so taken with the book and so enthusiastic about it I HAD to write a review. I hope the last 1/5 is as good as the first 4/5s or I'll have to write a followup. But I don't anticipate having a change of opinion.... Get the book. It is a GREAT read!
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