Tuesday, November 20, 2001
Title: Kirinya
Author: Ian McDonald
Publisher: Millennium
Kirinya is a sequel to Ian McDonald's Chaga. The Chaga is an alien life form/material that has crashed to earth. What it is is never quite clear (though for me that maybe because I haven't read Chaga), but the fact that it is sweeping across Africa as a slow wave assimilating everything in its path is fairly clear. At the same time there is an alien object in the sky which seems to be related to the Chaga. Kirinya follows on from the aftermath of Chaga - the southern hemisphere for the most part has been assimilated by the nano-virus and a new form of life has come out the other side. The people are healthier and some are becoming post-human, they have access to all sorts of nano-tech. But at the same time they are regarded with fear and horror by the northern hemisphere. Which leads to a hot-cold war where the infected nations are held in strict quarantine, killing where need be. At the same time more is being found out about the alien object in space, which is under the authority of the north, though is increasingly being hijacked by the Americans. As the strength of the new nations increases it is clear that their politics will have to be acknowledged and that the object may well be the key.
Gaby was a journalist who was heavily involved in reporting the onset of the Chaga. During that time she became pregnant, but couldn't leave Africa because her baby was deemed to be infected. Her daughter is now in her teens, exhibiting some of the post-human abilities that the Chaga affords it's offspring. The two women clash and in the process follow two different paths within the emergent political schism of the southern hemisphere. With which McDonald gives two related characters to tie the whole together, while at the same time driving the characterisations on their differences and personal conflicts.
To date I have read a number of McDonald's short fiction works, which I have pretty much enjoyed, one of these even being related to this storyline. With that this is the first of his novels I have read, the reason for picking this one up in particular being that related story and the fact I came across Kirinya rather than Chaga. One of the joys of Kirinya is the scope and the sheer mass of ideas that McDonald manages to work into the whole - combining politics, a transformed way of life, post-human abilities, nano-technologies and a wonderfully detailed and contrasted space environment all at the same time. This amount of work going on give the piece a manic edge to a degree which gives a sense of revelling in the ideas and giving an extra drive to the momentum of the work.
RVWR: PTR
November 2001
