Ian McDonald
Ian McDonald, a famous sci-fi writer, lives with Patricia his wife in Belfast, in Ireland. Born in 1960 in the city of Manchester, Ian mainly focuses when working on his novels on the development of modern technologies and one such area is nanotechnology and how it influences the lives of different societies.
His parents hailed from Scotland, and they moved to Belfast when Ian was five years old. Ian faced the tumultuous era of Northern Ireland during the 1968-1999 period of his life, which profoundly influenced the shaping of his scientific ideas. He applied these thoughts to his writing about the lives of different societies when working on his novels.
His initial literary work of fiction appeared when he was 22 years, in Belfast in a magazine published in 1987 and was experimenting with new methods of writing fiction. His sheer commitment to writing turned him into a professional writer by 1987. He also took to writing script for television productions that led him to join the Sesame Workshop, writing scripts for the main production of Sesame Tree in Northern Island. Ian published Desolation Road, his first novel, in 1988. The story revolved around the people living in the future on the planet Mars. He released ‘Ares Express’ as the sequel to this in 2001.
The Chaga Saga of Ian McDonald
Ian’s work came to the limelight with Chaga Saga winning acclaims from critics. The Saga included three novels: Chaga Tendeleo’s Story and Kirinya. The first was titled ‘Evolution’s Shore’ in the United States of America. The stories revolved on the African Aid Crisis.
Ian also published another book in 2004 titled the ‘River of Gods’. The story revolves around India in the 21st Century. “Brasyl” written in 2007 was a story based in South America around the eighteen and twenty-first centuries. “Brasyl” was nominated for the Hugo Awards in 2008 under the best category for novels, going on to be nominated further for other prestigious awards among which were the Warwick Prize. He succeeded in winning an award for the best novel offered by the British Science Fiction Award in 2008.
Luna: New Moon by Ian McDonald
Ian published Luna: New Moon in 2015. It is a story revolving around a family’s industry on the moon and its stakeholders. The other title for Luna: New Moon, which critics called it, is ‘Game of Thrones’ and Ian himself called it ‘Game of Domes’. Ian McDonald is now said to be writing the sequel to Luna ‘The Wolf Moon’ and expects to publish in September. Before writing Luna, he wrote the preamble to the novel and called it ‘The Fifth Dragon’.
Awards won by Ian McDonald
Ian McDonald was nominated and won many awards and for many of his literary work. He was awarded the Lucus Award for Desolation Road in 1989, winning the PhilipK. Dick Award for King of Morning, Queen of Day in 1991 The Kurd-Laßwitz award for his book Sacrifice of Fools. He also won the Preis award in 2001 and went on to win the award for best novel from British Science Fiction for River of Gods in 2004.
In 2001, Ian was also successful in winning the prestigious Theodore Sturgeon Award for Tendeleo’s Story and in 2007 for his book ‘The Djinn’s Wife’ he was successful in winning the Huge Award for Best Novelette. The British Science Fiction Association adjudged two of his Novels as the best book. These were Dervish House in 2011 and Brasyl in 2002.
The extensive list of fiction and other works by Ian McDonald is highly impressive. He has written over 30 novels so far, of which many are award winners. He also contributed largely to bloggers and similar cyberspace creations. This master TV script writer still shows his unlimited talent in science fiction writing, from time to time.
