wonkothesane

Is anyone else here a fan of Ian McDonald's "Chaga" series. I came across Evolution's Shore once in a bookstore, snapped it up because of the cool, poetic sounding title, and I absolutely loved it. (I have read it three times.) I also like the sequel, Kirinya, but not as much) and I am waiting for the much delyed third book "Ananda"...

I also have the short story from the series, "Tendeleo's Story"

I found the depiction of the alien "Chaga" to be utterly mind-blowing and, well, out of this world, and the depictions of Africa were viseral and compelling and made me sick to my stomach and enchanted, all at the same time. And I really came to *care* about the protagonist, Gabby McAslan...

So just wondering, anyone else here ever read this series...I'd love to discuss it and hear other's comments...

- wonko

Caligula

Series??? I've had and loved Evolution's Shore for years, and was completely unaware that it was a series! Thanks for the heads up!

wonkothesane

There is a sequel "Kininya", that is out-of-print in the US I think, but not in the uk...( try http://www.aazon.co.uk ) and a novela called "Tendeleo's Story" (not about Gaby from the first book, but it does mention her bf) and a third book called "Ananda" *supposedly* on the way, who know's when...

I hope so, because the author has still left many questions unanswered - like who created the Chaga, and *why*...

And I think that besides the original short story "Toward's Killimanjaro", there is another short story about Gaby...

One warning..the first book ended on kind of an upbeat note, but the second book begins on a very down one. I think that he neglects some of the potential from the first book. That was my only big complaint.

- wonko

Adora

Oh, I think I remember reading that when I was about 12. It had the alien forest-symbiote thing that destroyed any artificial products, right? And something about tattoos on people and disappearing moons.

wonkothesane

Yeah...the Chaga spores (nanomachines) disolved a lot of inorganic materials, most clothing (I think) and often anything hydrocarbon based - but some artifical materials were "Chaga-safe" (the spores didn't disolve them) for some unknown reason.

Actually, what the Chaga did and didn't disolve was more a matter of where the Chaga was in it's evolution: early on the spores disolved everything, then later, as they "learned" more, the absorbed less and less. In fact, they could even be "programed" to replicate things, from coffee makers to diamond-fiber-composite airplanes and space-ships and eventually even a "space-elevator". Also, new foods introduced into the Chaga - even Diet Coke - would often be disolved and later replicated by some new plants.

Same for people: early people were either absorbed into the Chaga and/or radically changed. Later people less so. It was like the Chaga was "experimenting" on people - trying out new evolutionary variations and mutations. And later on the Chaga would make distinct groups of specific types of people - like the "space monkeys", or the people that had the long tubes comming out of their spines that conneted them to the "forest" or to large walking symbotes...

Tatoos...not sure if I remember that...one guy had a whole mini-Chaga ecosystem replace his skin, and I think it was described as looking like a tatoo from afar...and one lady was altered to have butterfly-like wings-things with tatoo-like markings that could display television images picked up by a reciever in her spinal cord...

In the first book, the first spores in the solar system camabalized Ganymede and used it's materials to construct new seed pods and the "Big Dumb Object".

- wonko