Thursday, February 20, 2003
Title: Chaga [aka: Evolution's Shore]
Author: Ian McDonald
Publisher: Gollancz
With Chaga I have a curious situation. This novel by Iain McDonald is based on a short story, which I have read. It is also followed by a sequel, Kirinya, which I have also read. So approaching the novel Chaga itself is interesting. Made more complicated by the realisation that the novel Evolution's Shore and Chaga are the same book and I managed to get both of them at the same time. Evolution's Shore is the American edition and Chaga is the British, the change of title, like so many of these decisions seems odd and a little obscure.
It is 2008 and Gaby has just been accepted for a journalism course in London when one of Saturn's moons disappears. For her this is an omen that whatever this event is it will be her story. As she goes through her course what this event represents unfolds with arrivals of material from space. Meteor-like packages come down in Africa, in the territory of the Wa-Chaga tribe. The material that starts to spread from this point becomes known as Chaga. The alien material absorbing and transforming everything in its path, advancing incrementally every day, helped by the arrival of further packages. By the end of her course Gaby manages to get assigned to Africa, where the Chaga has been spreading, UNECTA troops evacuating each village in the path. Refugees rippling outward as a new and alien environment grows at the heart of the continent.
Chaga fits into a Science Fiction cycle of works that includes Bruce Sterling's The Artificial Kid and Paul McAuley's Secret Of Life. The idea of how a substance can spread and transform - microbes, or nanobes rebuilding everything in its path. Dealing with the concept of alien, without actually having obvious/physical aliens. A more creeping sense of horror of consumption than screaming space ships and death rays. McDonald's particular tactic is to deal with it, the people that lived there adapting to it as they either flee or resign themselves to whatever may lie in these territories, or the way in which governments react to the incursion.
One of the things I particularly like about Chaga, and Kirinya in turn, is the location McDonald has chosen. Deliberately choosing Africa rather than some first world country. From there he steps into territory less often covered by Science Fiction. Then builds in a way that means that every response is knocked off by that cultural difference. The idea that Africa would deal with this kind of event differently. The idea of how the rest of the world would react to Africa.
Of course to make Chaga readable McDonald also needs his characters. Gaby is the lead, too ambitious as a reporter, she pursues the story even to the point where she steps into the unknown. The upside is that she is driven and will get the story out there. The downside is that she won't even notice as she walks all over everyone she knows in the process. So while we chart the spread of the Chaga we also witness the rise and fall of Gaby MacAslan.
With Ship Of Fools and Kirinya I became a fan of McDonald's work, from that Chaga does not disappoint.
RVWR: PTR
February 2003
