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Ian McDonald (British author)

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Occupation
  
Novelist

Role
  
Novelist

Name
  
Ian McDonald

Genre
  
Science fiction

Nationality
  
Scottish & Irish


Ian McDonald (British author) httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonsthu

Awards
  
Philip K. Dick Award, Hugo Award for Best Novelette, Locus Award for Best First Novel, BSFA award for best novel

Nominations
  
Arthur C. Clarke Award, Hugo Award for Best Novel

Books
  
The Dervish House, Brasyl, River of Gods, Planesrunner, Desolation Road

Similar People
  
Ian MacDonald, Paolo Bacigalupi, James Tiptree - Jr, Seanan McGuire

Master of science fiction ian mcdonald interviewed by francesco verso


Ian McDonald (born 1960) is a British science fiction novelist, living in Belfast. His themes include nanotechnology, postcyberpunk settings, and the impact of rapid social and technological change on non-Western societies.

Contents

Ian McDonald (British author) httpsimagesnasslimagesamazoncomimagesI9

Richard morgan and ian mcdonald in conversation at eastercon 2007 part 1


Early life

Ian McDonald (British author) Ian McDonald British author Wikipedia

Ian McDonald was born in 1960, in Manchester, to a Scottish father and Irish mother. He moved to Belfast when he was five and has lived there ever since. He lived through the whole of the 'Troubles' (1968–99), and his sensibility has been permanently shaped by coming to understand Northern Ireland as a post-colonial society imposed on an older culture. He became a fan of SF from childhood TV, and began writing when he was 9.

Career

Ian McDonald (British author) Ian McDonald Zeno Agency Ltd

McDonald sold his first story to a local Belfast magazine when he was 22, and in 1987 became a full-time writer. He has also worked in TV consultancy within Northern Ireland, contributing scripts to the Northern Irish Sesame Workshop production of Sesame Tree.

Ian McDonald (British author) Amazoncom Luna Wolf Moon A Novel 9780765375537 Ian McDonald

McDonald's debut novel was Desolation Road (1988), which takes place on a far future Mars in a town that develops around an oasis in the terraformed Martian desert. He published a sequel, Ares Express, in 2001.

Ian McDonald (British author) Planesrunner by Ian McDonald review Telegraph

Published between 1995 and 2000, the novels Chaga (US title Evolution's Shore) and Kirinya, with the novella Tendeléo's Story, form the 'Chaga Saga', which is particularly notable for its analysis of the AIDS crisis in Africa. The protagonist is Ulster journalist Gaby McAslin, whose outsider's eye both observes the African landscape and sees what the "UN quarantine zone" is doing to Kenya and Kenyans. Gaby's story, with that of her daughter, continues in Kirinya. Tendeléo's Story is seen through the eyes of a young Kenyan girl who escapes to the UK, only to be deported back to Kenya as an unwanted alien.

The image of the unstoppable wave of transformation was nicked from [1982 Star Trek movie] The Wrath of Khan: it's the Genesis device, slowed down, and once I had that, it became a rich source of metaphors: for colonialism, new technology, globalisation, change, death. If the Chaga is colonialism, it's a unique kind that allows the people of the poor South to use and transform it to meet their needs and empower themselves: it's a symbiosis.

McDonald's River of Gods (2004) is set in mid-21st-century India, and Brasyl (2007) is set in the 18th and 21st centuries in Lusophone South America. Brasyl was nominated for, and reached the longlist of, the £50,000 Warwick Prize for Writing.

McDonald published Luna: New Moon, the first volume of a proposed science fiction duology, in 2015. It explores the dangerous intrigue that surrounds the five powerful families who control industry on the Moon. McDonald said of the novel in August 2014, "I’m still writing about developing economies, it’s just that this one happens to be on the Moon." Before critics called the novel "Game of Thrones in space", McDonald himself dubbed it "Game of Domes" and "Dallas in space". Luna was optioned for development as a television series before its release. The sequel, Luna: Wolf Moon, is set to be released in March 2017. McDonald previously published the novelette "The Fifth Dragon", a prequel to Luna in the same setting, in the 2014 anthology Reach for Infinity.

Won

  • Locus Award – First Novel (1989): Desolation Road
  • Philip K. Dick Award – Best Collection (1991): King of Morning, Queen of Day
  • Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis (1999): Sacrifice of Fools
  • Theodore Sturgeon Award (2001): Tendeléo's Story
  • British Science Fiction Association Award – Best Novel (2004): River of Gods
  • Hugo Award – Best Novelette (2007): The Djinn's Wife
  • British Science Fiction Association Award – Best Novel (2007): Brasyl
  • John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (2011): The Dervish House
  • British Science Fiction Association Award – Best Novel (2011): The Dervish House
  • Gaylactic Spectrum Award — Best Novel (2016): Luna: New Moon
  • Nominations

  • Nebula Award for Best Novelette (1989): Unfinished Portrait of the King of Pain by Van Gogh
  • Arthur C. Clarke Award – Best Novel (1990): Desolation Road
  • Locus Fantasy Award (1992): King of Morning, Queen of Day
  • Arthur C. Clarke Award – Best Novel (1993): Hearts, Hands, and Voices
  • British Science Fiction Award (1992): Hearts, Hands, and Voices
  • World Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction (1994) : Some Strange Desire
  • Philip K. Dick Award – Best Novel (1994) : Scissors Cut Paper Wrap Stone
  • British Science Fiction Association Award – Best Novel (1994) : Necroville
  • John W Campbell Memorial Award – Best Novel (1996): Evolution's Shore
  • British Science Fiction Association Award – Best Novel (1995): Chaga
  • The John W. Campbell Memorial Award (1996): Chaga
  • Arthur C. Clarke Award – Best Novel (2005): River of Gods
  • Hugo Award – Best Novel (2005): River of Gods
  • Hugo Award – Best Novel (2008): Brasyl
  • Warwick Prize for Writing (2008/9) and reached prize longlist announced in November 2008: Brasyl
  • The John W. Campbell Memorial Award (2008): Brasyl
  • Locus SF Award (2008): Brasyl
  • Nebula Award (2008): Brasyl
  • Hugo Award – Best Novel (2011): The Dervish House
  • Locus Award – Best SF Novel (2011): The Dervish House
  • Arthur C. Clarke Award – Best Novel (2011): The Dervish House
  • British Science Fiction Association Award – Best Novel (2015): Luna: New Moon
  • Blog and online interviews

  • "Cyberabad". Archived from the original on 25 June 2007. 
  • "Interview with Ian McDonald". 
  • "Locus Online: Ian McDonald interview excerpts". 
  • "Ian McDonald - SFeraKon 2010 GoH intervju - Fantasy Hrvatska". 
  • "Episode 72: Live with Gary K. Wolfe and Ian McDonald". 
  • References

    Ian McDonald (British author) Wikipedia