Search results for ""Author Ian McDonald""

The Moon wants to kill you. It might not get there first.Luna is a gripping thriller about five corporate families caught in a bitter battle for supremacy in the harsh environment of the moon. It's very easy to die on the moon, but with its vast mineral wealth it's also easy to make your fortune. Following the fortunes of a handful of disparate characters, from one of the lowliest workers on the moon to the heads of one of the most powerful families, LUNA provides a vast mosaic of life on this airless and terrifying new home for humanity.This is SF that will be perfect for fans of Kim Stanley Robinson and Ken Macleod alike.'McDonald is one of the best world builders I've ever read' - Tamora PierceReaders are being swept away by LUNA: NEW MOON:'It's a great epic read. It's also filled to the brim with imminently plausible science. Not a single thing was out of place'- Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'Luna: New Moon gets an undisputed 5* from me. It is a perfect sci-fi' - Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'Masterful science fiction and highly recommended' - Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'What. A. Book . . . it leaves you wanting more - and promises to be able to sustain more' - Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'Ian McDonald never fails to disappoint, and he never repeats himself . . . This book is not boring. It has no weaknesses and takes no prisoners' - Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'The sci-fi of my dreams, it hit all of my buttons. This family! The moon! World building!' - Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

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Ian McDonald's poetry embraces Caribbean possibility with a romantic fervour which still acknowledges what is harsh and painful in the region. He has both the gift to see 'the ibis-bird in pigeons' and an ironical consciousness of the poet's gilding eye. There are love poems of lyric grace and stunning simplicity; exuberant paeans to nature in all its beauty, fierceness and cruelty; narratives which grip and characters who are powerfully memorable. Here is a celebration of life which is made all the more intense by the consciousness of mortality which lurks behind every vivid occasion.Readers who have enjoyed Ian McDonald's recent work in the much praised collections Mercy Ward and Essequibo will be delighted by these earlier poems, only a few of which have been available to date in anthologies and Caribbean literary journals.Ian McDonald is Trinidadian by birth and Guyanese by long residence and adoption. He is the author of the recently filmed The Hummingbird Tree, four collections of poetry and a play. He edits Kyk-over-Al.

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From the vantage point of later middle life, Ian McDonald's collection looks into the heart of time passing: the coming death of ageing parents, the old men, the 'archive' of a disappearing Guyana who die one by one, the sight of 'my own lines of age' and the loss of pleasure in the glittering carnival of the senses. There are rich blessings of the arrival of a new child coming unexpected at this stage of life; and the consolations from books and in the power of art to preserve - at least for a time. But the very joys are made more piquant by the inescapable sense of the transitoriness of all things.Poems of moving domestic intimacy and humour ('To alarm their father's half to death / New-born babies hold their breath'), valedictory requiems for the characters who have given Georgetown life its flavour and regret for the country's loss of civility during its darkest recent years and songs in praise of nature are all part of a vision which looks into the darkness but says, 'Yes, it is as you say, / But let us get just one thing straight: / There is beauty in the world / ... And the star-tree blossoms in the night, / Night that will have an end' and asserts, 'Between silence and silence, there should be only praise.'Ian McDonald is Trinidadian by birth and Guyanese by long residence and adoption. He is the author of the recently filmed The Hummingbird Tree, four collections of poetry and a play. He edits Kyk-over-Al.

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From the vantage point of later middle life, Ian McDonald's collection looks into the heart of time passing: the coming death of aging parents, the old men, the sight of 'my own lines of age' and the loss of pleasure in the glittering carnival of the senses. There are joys in the rich blessings of the arrival of a new child coming unexpected at this stage of life, but those joys are made more piquant by the inescapable sense of the ephemeral. Poems of moving domestic intimacy and humor ('To alarm their fathers half to death/New-born babies hold their breath'), valedictory requiems for the characters who have given Georgetown life its flavor and regret for the country's loss of civility during its darkest recent years and songs in praise of nature are all part of a vision which looks into the darkness but says, 'Yes, it is as you say, / But let us get just one thing straight: / There is beauty in the world/ ... And the star-tree blossoms in the night, /Night that will have an end.'

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Corta Helio, one of the five family corporations that rule the Moon, has fallen. Its riches are divided up among its many enemies, its survivors scattered. Eighteen months have passed.The remaining Helio children, Lucasinho and Luna, are under the protection of the powerful Asamoahs, while Robson, still reeling from witnessing his parent's violent deaths, is now a ward - virtually a hostage - of Mackenzie Metals. And the last appointed heir, Lucas, has vanished from the surface of the moon.Only Lady Sun, dowager of Taiyang, suspects that Lucas Corta is not dead, and - more to the point - that he is still a major player in the game. After all, Lucas always was a schemer, and even in death, he would go to any lengths to take back everything and build a new Corta Helio, more powerful than before. But Corta Helio needs allies, and to find them, the fleeing son undertakes an audacious, impossible journey - to Earth.In an unstable lunar environment, the shifting loyalties and political machinations of each family reach the zenith of their most fertile plots as outright war between the families erupts.

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The third and final book in Ian McDonald's epic Luna series, acclaimed as one of the most exciting and important SF series of the decade. Perfect SF for fans of Gravity and The Martian looking for a large scale space-based epic.Akin to the mafia families of The Godfather, the families of the five Dragons who control the rich resources of the moon are locked in an endless and vicious struggle for supremacy and now the peace that reigned while the moon was colonised is breaking down. Which of the scions of the dragons will gain supremacy? Or will the moon, with its harsh vacuum, it's freezing dark and blazing, irradiated light be the final winner?Readers love the Luna series:'All in all, it has been a marvelous, gut-wrenching, exhilarating journey on the moon and their ambitious, gorgeous, arrogant, resilient and tenacious citizens. I highly recommend the trilogy to all SF fans' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'Phenomenal. The third act is absolute bonkers. Never before has the "Game of Thrones in space" comparison hit the mark as much as this one did' Jeremy Szal'This trilogy falls into the "rarefied masterpiece territory" category, a thing of literary daring, achievement and accomplishment. A suitable comment is "wow"' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'Astonishing conclusion to a superb trilogy' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐Books in this series:Luna: New MoonLuna: Wolf MoonLuna: Moon Rising

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In the CHAGA novels Ian McDonald brought an Africa in the grip of a bizarre alien invasion to life, in RIVER OF GODS he painted a rich portrait of India in 2047, in BRASYL he looked at different Brazils, past present and future. Ian McDonald has found renown at the cutting edge of a movement to take SF away from its British and American white roots and out into the rich cultures of the world.THE DERVISH HOUSE continues that journey and centres on Istanbul in 2025. Turkey is part of Europe but sited on the edge, it is an Islamic country that looks to the West. THE DERVISH HOUSE is the story of the families that live in and around its titular house, it is at once a rich mosaic of Islamic life in the new century and a telling novel of future possibilities.

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Ian McDonald’s Collected Poems (2018) was marked by a late flush of exceptional new poems that addressed both the infirmities of ageing as well as its continuing joys. That flow of memory has continued, addressing a long, rich life from a childhood in Antigua, youth in Trinidad and an adult life lived in Guyana. It was not to be halted by anything as malleable as the word “collected”, and this collection of poems from the past four years is more than just a “brawta” to bring back from the market to enjoy. There is the mystery of why certain memories, dormant for decades, suddenly emerge, like a childhood nightmare still as real 80 years later, or how in one’s own elder years, recollections of one’s parents take on a pertinence and vividness of presence. But it is not merely the past that revisits but an immersion in the present that has never been more real and precious in every respect. If the world has become, increasingly, one’s house and garden, its inhabitants one’s wife, children and grandchildren, it is experienced as not a jot less rich than anything in the past –indeed ever more precious for its evanescence. Ian McDonald writes that he is simply the recipient, the receiving station of what arrives in his head. He denigrates his gift for exactness, for the telling detail, for the right word, gifts that have been cultivated by a long life of writing.

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Stewart Brown and Ian McDonald present a multi-faceted portrait of the significance of cricket to the Caribbean and the attraction of Caribbean cricket to the outside world. With poems, calypsos, stories, extracts from novels, essays, speeches and articles, the editors show cricket inhabiting all areas of the Caribbean imagination. From its expression at the highest level on the global field of play, to the no less titanic struggles on the bumpier fields of the village or the sugar estate, this is a celebration of those who forged an art out of a game, those who transformed a colonial sport into the cutting edge of Caribbean nationalism, and, in the 1970s and 80s changed forever the nature of the game."The Bowling Was Superfine is a gem. So purely cut, it sends light sparkling off in a hundred, different directions."ESPN CricInfoStewart Brown has edited several anthologies of Caribbean writing, including The Heinemann Book of Caribbean Poetry (with Ian McDonald, 1992) and The Oxford Book of Caribbean Short Stories (2009). He also edited The Art of Derek Walcott (Seren, 1995) and All are Involved: The Art of Martin Carter (Peepal Tree, 2000). Ian McDonald is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has served as a judge for the Guyana Prize for Literature. He is the author of the 1969 novel The Hummingbird Tree (2004), which was recently made into a BBC film, four collections of poetry and a play.

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Hopeland is not a nation. It is not a cult. It is not a religion.Hopeland is a community. It is a culture. It is a family.When Raisa Hopeland, determined to win her race to become the next electromancer of London, bumps into Amon Brightbourne - tweed-suited, otherworldly, guided by the Grace - in the middle of a London riot, she sets in motion a series of events which will span decades, continents and a series of events which will change the world.Amon falls in love in that moment of chaos, but being loved by him can have a cost. And while Raisa has Hopeland, Amon has a family of his own, and they have their own secrets.From rioting London to geothermal Iceland to the climate-struck islands of Polynesia, from birth to life to death, from tranquillity to terror to joy, Raisa's journey will encompass the world. But one thing will always be true.Hopeland is family.'How the hell do you research - much less write - a novel this ambitious and wide-ranging? Why did I find myself weeping uncontrollably on a train yesterday as I finished it, literally squeezing my chest over my heart as it broke and sang at the same moment?' - Cory Doctorow

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August 15th, 2047. Happy Hundredth Birthday, India ... On the eve of Mother India's hundredth birthday, ten people are doing ten very different things. In the next few weeks, all these people will be swept together to decide the fate of the nation. From gangsters to government advisors, from superstitious street-boys to scientists to computer-generated soap stars, River of Gods shows a civilization in flux - a river of gods.RIVER OF GODS is an epic SF novel as sprawling, vibrant and colourful as the sub-continent it describes. This is an SF novel that blew apart the narrow anglo and US-centric concerns of the genre and ushered in a new global consciousness for the genre.

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Five kids are on a sleepover in a restored wilderness project in Ireland. With them, three teachers and one Ranger: Lisa. She is 26, longing to leave her job, out of her depth and soon to find herself mired in a nightmare. Strange things have been happening at Lough Carrow, a vast rewilding project on the site of a former commercial peat-bog. Livestock mutilations. Rumours, myths from the neighbouring villages. Strange, unidentifiable tracks. On the trek in to the sleepover site they sight animals that have not yet been introduced to the park - wolves, wolverines, things older. Things thought long extinct. As they near the centre of the wilding a boy realises he''s forgotten his meds. A teacher volunteers to take him back to the visitor centre. Sure, what could go wrong? That night the camp is attacked. A teacher is dragged away. Lisa''s group is marooned in the wild. It is night, the four remaining kids are terrified, they need to get back to the ARK, but th

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This kit provides fun reading practice for children who have mastered the basics of phonics. It''s an ideal way to help support your child''s school phonics learning in Year 1/P2.The kit includes: Six fiction and non-fiction books that children will be able to read using their phonic knowledge. Leaflet to demystify phonics and explain the Phonics Screening Check, so you can feel confident supporting your child. Poster and stickers to keep your child motivated and engaged.My Phonics Activity Kit 3 covers sounds at Letters and Sounds Phase 4 and 5 that children learn in Year 1/P2. Look out for Essential Letters and Sounds Phonics Flashcards Pack 3 for more support of Phase 5 sounds.Essential Letters and Sounds is a phonics programme aligned to Letters and Sounds, designed to get all children to read well, quickly, published by Oxford University Press. Expertly developed by teachers from Knowledge Schools Trust, it is fully validated by the Department for Education. This kit can be us

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It all started thirty years ago on Mars. By the time it was finished, the town of Desolation Road had been witness to every abnormality yet seen on the Red Planet. From Adam Black's Wonderful Travelling Chautauqua and Educational 'Stravaganza, to the Astounding Tatterdemalion Air Bazaar, nowhere else boasts such sights for the wandering lucky traveller. Its inhabitants are just as storied. From Dr. Alimantando -- founder and resident genius -- to the Babooshka, a barren grandmother with a child grown in a fruit jar; from Rajendra Das, mechanical hobo whose way with machines bordered on the mystic, to the Gallacelli brothers, identical triplets who fell in love with - and married - the same woman.There's nowhere quite like Desolation Road. Once you go there, you may never be the same again.

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Hopeland is not a nation. It is not a cult. It is not a religion.Hopeland is a community. It is a culture. It is a family.When Raisa Hopeland, determined to win her race to become the next electromancer of London, bumps into Amon Brightbourne - tweed-suited, otherworldly, guided by the Grace - in the middle of a London riot, she sets in motion a series of events which will span decades, continents and a series of events which will change the world.Amon falls in love in that moment of chaos, but being loved by him can have a cost. And while Raisa has Hopeland, Amon has a family of his own, and they have their own secrets.From rioting London to geothermal Iceland to the climate-struck islands of Polynesia, from birth to life to death, from tranquillity to terror to joy, Raisa's journey will encompass the world. But one thing will always be true.Hopeland is family.

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Ian Macdonald's RIVER OF GODS, painted a vivid picture of a near future India, 100 years after independence. It revolutionised British SF for a new generation by taking a perspective that was not European or American. BRASYL will do the same for South America's largest and most vibrant country.A story that begins in the favelas, the slums of Rio, and quickly expands to take in drugs, corruption, and a frightening new technology that allows access to all the multiple worlds that have slipped into existence in other planes everytime we make a decision.This is rich, epic SF that opens our eyes to the world around us and posits mind-blowing alternative sciences. It is a landmark work in modern SF from one of its most respected practitioners.

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