Ian McDonald (Author)

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Ian McDonald 1997 at the 9th SF Days NRW

Ian McDonald (born March 31, 1960 in Manchester ) is a British writer .

Live and act

Ian McDonald was born in Manchester in 1960 to an Irish mother and a Scottish father. In 1965 he moved to Northern Ireland with his family . He dropped out of a degree in psychology without a degree, was unemployed for a long time and took on various jobs. At times he worked for a missionary society and supervised a Ugandan girls' choir during a tour through Ireland, but also wrote for Sesame Tree , the Irish branch of Sesame Street . He published his first SF story in 1983 in the short-lived magazine Extro , looked around for other publishing options and came in contact with Bantam Books, who asked him about a novel. Then McDonald wrote Desolation Road . He has been a freelance writer since 1987.

reception

Many novels and stories are shaped by the Northern Ireland conflict, very often conflicts of interest and disputes between ethnic groups are portrayed that differ in origin or religion. For example, his novel Fool's Sacrifice is about a conflict between humans and aliens who immigrated as refugees. Two ways of life collide in hearts, hands and voices , one biologically rooted and one technically oriented, although there is no answer given the question of which is better. Another recurring theme at McDonald's is the conflict between high-tech developments and conditions in developing countries.

The Chaga cycle (previously consisting of the short story Zum Kilimanjaro , the novels Chaga and Kirinya and the novella Tendeléo's Story ) describes how biological packages hit the earth and create zones of a wildly proliferating alien life in which the earthly ecology is completely absorbed becomes. The author is very interested in the way people and states deal with it, whether they see alien biology as a deadly threat or as an opportunity for an AIDS cure. The reactions reveal a lot about social structures, power and discrimination.

In the novel River of Gods , McDonald describes an India split into individual states in the year 2047, in which artificial intelligences meet techno-Hinduism. The texts of the short story volume Cyberabad Days also take place in this world.

criticism

  • Karsten Kruschel on hearts, hands and voices : "Mathembe itself has the genetically inherited ability to shape living beings at will from basic biological material; and at some point she decided that speaking is not worth the effort. She is considered dumb. This literary device allows Ian McDonald to show both the Confessional and the proclamatory ideas, sayings and views from the outside. Because Mathembe describes the world not with words but with body language, she is able to see through the mendacity, bigotry and idiocy of both religions / ways of life. The brutalities of the armored and electronic empire soldiers and those of the virus and biological weapons working "warriors of destiny" on the other hand differ only technologically. Both sides inflict suffering on the people they claim to fight for. So the book is in addition to a direct reaction to conditions in Northern Ireland, also mirrors similar conflicts all over the world. The story of Ian McDonald's eviction is nothing more than what is called "ethnic cleansing" in bleeding Yugoslavia: left-handed genocide and right-handed genocide and vice versa. The style of the novel is that of search: Mathembe seeks the family torn into the chaos of war - and, unconsciously, a way out of the dilemma. That Ian McDonald finds no other conclusion than the flight into the transcendent - a peace virus transmitted by kiss - seems typical of such conflicts. The knot is Gordian. "

Awards

  • 1989 Locus Award , Desolation Road , Best Debut Novel
  • 1991 Philip K. Dick Award , King of Morning, Queen of Day , Best Novel
  • 1993 BSFA , Innocent , Best Short Story
  • 1995 Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis , Scissors Cut Paper Wrap Stone , Best Foreign Language Novel
  • 1999 Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis, Sacrifice of Fools , Best Foreign Language Novel
  • 2001 Sturgeon Award , Tendeléo's Story , Best Short Story
  • 2005 BSFA , River of Gods , Best Novel
  • 2007 Hugo Award , The Djinn's Wife , Best Story
  • 2007 BSFA, The Djinn's Wife , Best Story
  • 2008 BSFA, Brazil , Best Novel
  • 2009 Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire , Roi du matin, rein du jour (French translation of King of Morning, Queen of Day ), best foreign language novel
  • 2009 Philip K. Dick Award, Cyberabad Days , Special Mention
  • 2010 BSFA, The Dervish House , best novel
  • 2011 John W. Campbell Memorial Award , The Dervish House
  • 2016 Gaylactic Spectrum Award , Luna: New Moon , Best Novel

Works (selection)

Anthologies
  • Empire Dreams . Bantam Books, New York 1988, ISBN 0-553-27180-6 .
    • German translation: Star dreams. SF narratives . Bastei-Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 1993, ISBN 3-404-24166-5 .
  • Speaking in tongues . Gollancz, London 1992, ISBN 0-575-05062-4 .
  • Cyberabad Days . Gollancz, London 2009.
stories
  • Tendeléo's story . Peter Crowther (Ed.): Futures. Four novellas . Warner Books, New York 2001, ISBN 0-446-61062-3 .
    • German translation: Tendeléo's story. In: Peter Crowther (Ed.): Infinite Limits . Bastei-Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 2003, ISBN 3-404-23266-6 .
  • White noise. In: Peter Crowther (Ed.): Taps and sighs . Subterranean Press, Burton, MI 2000, ISBN 1-892284-74-X .
  • Blue Motel. In: Ellen Datlow (Ed.): The Year's best fantasy and horror. 8th annual collection. St. Martin's Griffin, New York 1995, ISBN 0-312-13219-0 .
  • The luncheonette of dreams. In: Peter Crowther (Ed.): Narrow Houses. Warner Books, New York 1994, ISBN 0-446-60157-8 .
  • Kyle meets the river. In: Peter Crowther (Ed.): Forbidden Planets. Daw Books, New York 2006, ISBN 0-7564-0330-8 .
Novels

Filmography (selection)

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In: Wolfgang Jeschke (Ed.): The Science Fiction Year 1995 . Wilhelm Heyne Verlag , Munich, ISBN 3-453-07967-1 , p. 721.
  2. ↑ a b Translated by Michael Kubiak.
  3. ↑ A comic novel .
  4. ↑ a b Translated by Irene Bonhorst.
  5. ↑ This novel is considered a sequel to the novel Chaga .

Web links

Commons : Ian McDonald (author)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME McDonald, Ian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British writer
DATE OF BIRTH March 31, 1960
PLACE OF BIRTH Manchester