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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN num: 9780553374353
ISBN number: 0553374354
Label: Spectra
Manufacturer: Spectra
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 356
Printing Date: November 01, 1995
Publishing house: Spectra
Release Date: November 01, 1995
Sale Popularity Level: 277781
Studio: Spectra
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Product Description:
It began in the year 2002 with strange activities on one of Saturn's moons. Then came the meteor strike on Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa, followed by an alien infestation by a strange vegetative life-form known locally as the Chaga. For Gaby McAslan and her SkyNet news team, this is the story of a lifetime - and a golden chance at fame. As the Dark Continent becomes a frenzied backdrop of apocalyptic anticipation, Gaby fights to be the very first to get to the truth behind the Chaga, only to come up against a wall of official secrecy. Suddenly rumors are spreading as fast as the Chaga: of people disappearing into the alien growth or being herded by U.N. troops into restricted 'research' camps. Soon it becomes clear that the real story is bigger than Gaby could every imagine - a story that must be told even if it means betraying the man she loves. Is the Chaga an invasion or a gift? Does it mean destruction or evolution? Does it spell the final chapter for humanity ... or just the beginning of the most amazing story of all?
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Rated by buyers 
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Evolution's Shore (or Chaga in the UK) is one of the most intelligent books about alien contact I have ever read. Similar in originality to Rama, the novel explores the impact of the settling of seemingly non-intelligent alien lifeforms that proceed to terraform Earth for the better. To further complicate matters, McDonald sets the impact zones in the third world and realistically portrays the reaction of the "first world" to alien contact in the hands of Africans.
While the writing does occasionally not keep pace with the ideas, McDonald has written a truly excellent book. I find myself wanting to sit down and talk with him about this world, wanting to find out more about it. And in a way, I wouldn't mind living there.
Rated by buyers 
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I bought this through one of the Amazon lists, because I found its title in distinguished company. Result: one of the worst books I have ever read. What turned me off since the very beginning was the style: contrived, artificial, kitsch, not to mention that the main character -- a pathetic monument to female ambition -- wasn't interesting at all.
Rated by buyers 
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I bought this novel because I had read a novella McDonald had written about the Chaga, and found the concept interesting. Reading this novel, the same interesting parts about the Chaga, and it's origins, still engaged me. However, I have some very big problems with the story:
1. McDonald's main Character, a woman, is a promiscuous as Madonna, but unlike her does not have the ability to make 100's of Millions for those who tolerate her. In short, she's a slut, and maybe I'm old-fashioned, but as much as she sleeps around, I can't imagine the other characters in the book seeing through to her apparent heart of gold. In my experience, women like this are not taken seriously, which McDonald's plot demands they do. Times have not changed that much.
2. The amount and lurid descriptions of her sexual encounters in the book could have been left out, or left to the imagination, without any loss to the narrative. One gets the impression that McDonald was using it as filler to advance the plot. Pretty lame.
3. The political message comes through loud and clear: Africans - hearts of gold, Americans and non-British Europeans (with one exception - the idealistic Doctor/romantic entanglement) evil, racist scoundrels. I lived in Africa for several years...you can't put this romantic nonsense by me. I actually closed the book at one point and stopped reading for a few days because of some of this garbage. The slams against the U.S. are pretty blatant. Sorry Ian, we won.
4. The book is less hard science fiction than a novel about dramatic social change with the Sci-Fi thrown in to keep you interested. There was actually less concrete info about the Chaga in this whole novel than in the novella I read (which also featured evil Americans, I have to admit). In fact, the whole book reminds me of something by Samuel R. Delaney, and I HATE Delaney books.
For all that, I read it through, and enjoyed some parts, but the whole left me unsatisfied. It won't be a favorite, and will go to the donation box when I get a chance.
Rated by buyers -
I would strongly agree with the reviewer above who said that science fiction often falls into anthropocentrist thinking, and that Ian McDonald is one of the few who can get past that to see the truly ALIEN. It's a rare skill.
What most of the reviews leave out is that this book combines an adventure story, a career story, a (great) love story, and has a political and geographical backdrop so vivid it stops the reader dead in his tracks sometimes. Few popular novels deal with Africa at all. Even fewer science fiction novels do. This would be one of the most ambitious undertakings--and McDonald pulls it off. I didn't think the ending was predictable, or that the political stances were cliche. In fact, the ending is rather unresolved. McDonald manages to convey a sense of hope rather than a neatly tied up bundle of plot strings. But it still satisfies.
There are few authors who can make you think of the universe as a place that is young and new and full of the unknown, full of possibilities. McDonald did it with one of his earliest (the earliest?) novels, "Desolation Road" and he does it again here in a less fantastic (yet still fantastic) setting.
Not everyone gets tingles down their spine reading this book. But enough do (and I did) that I'd wholeheartedly recommend it.
Rated by buyers -
This is the second book I've read by Ian McDonald. The very first was Terminal Cafe, and like that book, this one is set in and about a transformation of humanity. That is, the characters carry out their drama with the back drop of humanity transcending from our current existence into "the subsequent level."
It's a theme pioneered (I think) by Arthur C. Clark's Childhood's End. Whereas Childhood's End was a tour of that transformation with characterization more of an afterthought, Evolution's Shore is about people living life with the "change" in progress as a backdrop. I haven't actually finished it yet, but I was so taken with the book and so enthusiastic about it I HAD to write a review. I hope the last 1/5 is as good as the very first 4/5s or I'll have to write a followup. But I don't anticipate having a change of opinion....
Get the book. It is a GREAT read!
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