Ian McDonald: 'Chaga'/'Evolution’s Shore‪'‬

Ian McDonald is a major SF writer, whose River of

Gods (2004) won the British Science Fiction

Association award for Best Novel, and was

shortlisted for the corresponding Hugo, Arthur C.

Clarke, and British Fantasy Society awards. Chaga

(published in the US as Evolution’s Shore) is the first

novel of his ‘Chaga Saga’ (1995–2000), about a

very unusual alien invasion of Kenya and the

southern hemisphere. It was short-listed for the John

W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Novel in

1996. This study contains Notes, detailed Annnotations, an Essay and a Bibliography. The

Essay, called ‘The Heart of Chaganess’, details and

investigates McDonald’s use of Heart of Darkness,

Joseph Conrad’s famous novella of imperialism in

Africa, as a central part of his devastating indictment

of the ‘First World’s’ AIDS policy. Many illustrations

and hyperlinks.