Hopeland

By: Ian McDonald

Narrated by: Esther Wane

Length: 19 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

A time-traveling, futuristic saga of a family trying to outlast and remake a universe with a power unlike any we’ve seen before

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.

From rioting London to geothermal Iceland to the climate-struck islands of Polynesia, from birth to life to death, from tranquility to terror to joy, Raisa’s journey will encompass the world. But one thing will always be true.

Hopeland is family―and family is dangerous.

©2023 by Ian McDonald (P)2023 by Blackstone Publishing

So much to love, but ultimately flawed

This is a book full of wonderful ideas, prose, characters, but it is also a slog to get through. It’s not quite a novel, more like a collection of micro narratives with recurring themes and characters, the whole thing connected together mostly by the passage of time. There is a beginning, a middle and an end, but the beginning is too slow, the middle devoid of significance and the end is too long in coming. As a novel it simply doesn’t quite work, a discussion of pacing seems almost besides the point. Overall it’s never quite clear why you should care. All that being said, it has a quiet, patient music all of its own that I think will stay with me for a while. It’s not a waste of time, but it asks much of the reader and gives back only slowly and on its own terms.

Took awhile for me to get into it. Really enjoyed the last half.

Slow start with the multiple narratives. I suddenly started to enjoy it. Probably around 60% in

Climate problems and solutions

Ian McDonald’s Hopeland is a tale of future climatic impact and at the same time a simple boy meets girl. The title refers to an extended family that seems to become a part by choice. One woman from the Hopeland clan develops a relationship with a boy who has musical abilities as well as the ‘grace’ which brings him good luck, but bad luck to everyone else around him. The girl runs off to Iceland and embarks on a succession of one successful business after another eventually using volcanos as a source of carbon-free energy. The boy ends up in the Pacific on a nation island which becomes unsustainable due to weather. The entire nation transition to Iceland to work there.

McDonald seems to have started the book with one direction and then headed off to another as glob-al warming progressed. Both characters are somewhat larger than life and seem to be blessed with a Midas touch. The story rambles around and while engaging never seems to focus on resolution of central issues.

The narration is well done with solid character distinction. Pacing is relaxed.

Weaves together the best strands of McDonald’s work

I love Ian McDonald’s work across various things he does, but I think this might be the most I’ve paused to either laugh or wonder at the lyricism of phrasing since Desolation Road.

This book has the playfulness, magical realism, and spunky girl protagonist of Ares Express, but chooses to follow her and other protagonists as they mature through Anthropocene turbulence. There’s the view-from-the-South of Chaga, Brasyl, and River of Gods, the love of cosmopolitanism and fluid identities of Luna, and the near-future immediacy of The Dervish House.

If you’ve liked anything McDonald’s written before, it’s all blended perfectly here, wrapped into the story of love and tragedy and a moiety that might save the world.

Esther Wane does an enviable job of keeping up with McDonald’s densely eclectic vocabulary, and brings life and accent to Irish, English, Polynesian, Icelandic and Inuit characters.

This has been my favourite fiction experience of 2023.

Tainted By Identity Politics

The story—published in 2023—is obsessed with pronouns and "blankslatism" identity politics. For example, it promotes the idea that a child isn't a boy or a girl until they decide what they are. It also promotes the normalization of promiscuous sexuality.

I'm not surprised this story was free to listen, as I would have returned it if I had spent a credit on it. I stopped listening about half way through.