A guide to: Ian McDonald: Chaga / Evolutions 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 audible study contains Notes, detailed Annotations, 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.