McDonald published Luna: New Moon, the first volume of a proposed science fiction duology, in 2015. [9] [13] [14] It explores the dangerous intrigue that surrounds the five powerful families who control industry on the Moon. [9] 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." [9] Before critics called the novel " Game of Thrones in space", [13] [15] [16] McDonald himself dubbed it " Game of Domes" and " Dallas in space". [9] Luna was optioned for development as a television series before its release. [15] [17] The sequel, Luna: Wolf Moon, was released in March 2017. [18] A third novel, Luna: Moon Rising, [19] was released in March 2019. [20] McDonald previously published the novelette "The Fifth Dragon", a prequel to Luna in the same setting, in the 2014 anthology Reach for Infinity. [9] [21] [22] A visionary literary SF novel about a vast family intimately linked - a new way for mankind to live.

Ian McDonald (British author) - Wikipedia Ian McDonald (British author) - Wikipedia

This begins as a fast-paced urban fantasy, then progresses to become an ambitious cli-fi saga. The story is animated by a complicated love story involving (not exclusively) the electrifyingly spunky Raisa Hopeland and the cursedly fortunate Amon Brightbourne. McDonald's unique writing style is a real feature of the novel. His concise and spare sentences are routinely intermingled with carefully-wrought metaphors: like a cross between Ernest Hemmingway and James Joyce. There some really gripping descriptive passages too, including of a global warming-supercharged cyclone as it hits a South Pacific Island. Ian McDonald has written so many straight-up, sci-fi masterpieces that I'll always read anything he publishes. This is a good novel: it's fun and serious. Yet this long book at times felt unfocused and hard to get through. In particular, the tempestuous relationship between Raisa & Amon - so central to the plot - seemed underdeveloped. Hopeland family is found family – while some people are born into it, most of them are adopted into it by choice. It's a loose affiliation of people who share a kind of religion, but it's not cult-ish; there's no central figure that controls things, people are spread all over the world, and everybody is a star – at least, they have a star (like Vega or Altair) in their Hopeland name.

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Shift to the South Pacific, where Amon Brightbourne (father of Raisa's child Alti) takes up residence on the island (and kingdom) of Ava'u. Climate change is going to affect Ava'u too, and leads to an exodus that brings these far-flung places together.

Hopeland by Ian McDonald - Tor/Forge Blog Excerpt Reveal: Hopeland by Ian McDonald - Tor/Forge Blog

OK, that's the context. But the real appeal of this book is the interaction of characters and development over decades (and beyond, at the epilogue). The story starts in London, in 2011, where we meet the two main characters. Amon Brightbourne is a musician and composer, and, as we soon learn, someone who has been touched by a charm that makes things always work out well for him but not well for anything or anyone he hangs around with for too long. He meets Raisa Peri Antares Hopeland, who takes his phone, because hers is running out of power and she needs its mapping power to win the race to become a new arcmage, an Electromancer, someone who controls one of the great Tesla coils that protect the north. She is part of the Hopeland family, a vast extended family, that really redefines the whole concept of family. Replete with deft, unforgettable character portraits, quite a few of which involve gender-fluid souls (you are not likely to pass by the outrageous Kimmie Pangaimotu, Amon’s Polynesian roommate), and several subsidiary love stories—Amon and Raisa may not be quite as perfect as Smoky Barnable and Daily Alice, but they come close—and many exciting set pieces of action, this novel elegantly walks the tightrope between comedy and tragedy, individualism and realpolitik. Its time frame—starting in the past and moving into out future—echoes that same interesting tactic from Delany’s Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders, and in fact some other stylistic and thematic Delanyesque influence is at work here too. That's what a number of the Hopeland family members say to people they meet, and then darn it all, it happens again. She is a rooftop away already, crouching against the air-glow of Rich- mond Buildings like a superheroine. The higher lights of Soho Square hang like a sequin curtain behind her.I win,’ she says simply and because the words cut no night, speaks them again, speaks them to the heedless city. ‘I win!’ Truly. It's rather beautiful. Especially today, when it feels like everything is falling apart, this kind of sheer optimism rather destroys me. The true stars of Hopeland are members of two ancient, secret societies. There’s Raisa Hopeland, who belongs to a globe-spanning, mystical “family,” that’s one part mutual aid, one part dance music subculture, and one part sorcerer (some Hopelanders are electromancers, making strange, powerful magic with Tesla coils).