The Broken Land

Rating:
Summary: Captivating.
Review: McDonald swept me away with his unique view of organicals amidst a futuristic world of modern day conflicts. I fell in love with Methembe, the lead character, from the beginning and the undertones of spirituality kept this novel alive. I highly recommend to anyone interested in a hard sci-fi novel.

Rating:
Summary: Woo-hoo, organicals and diaspora
Review: Personally, I find this to be one of Ian McDonald's better books. I've always been a fan of organic technology in sci-fi so I am always pleased to see a book that uses it. Unfortunately, his use of organicals tends to mirror typical sci-fi technology a little too closely. McDonald usually includes some sort of discussion of spirituality (thankfully not overdone). In this work, he does a great job of weaving this theme in amongst a tale of diaspora in a nation torn with religous conflict. While the setting's technology can get a little cheesy at times, the political backdrop makes for a truly interesting tale. Over all, the author's writing in this book is very good. I am a very critical grader, and so even though I enjoyed many parts of this book, the overall literary quality makes me tend to rate this one at a three (it would take an astonding masterpiece of literature that happened to appeal to me personally to get a five). I would most certainly recommend this book to any sci-fi fan.