Hopeland

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Science Fiction & Fantasy Books by Award: 1991 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End . Retrieved 29 March 2009. They met while London burned. A encounter during a riot brought Amon Brightbourne together with Raissa Hopeland on a mad rooftop hunt for a family heirloom: a Tesla Coil. But there is no such thing as chance where Amon is concerned: he's been exiled from his family home because he's both cursed and blessed with the Grace — he lives a charmed life, but at the expense of those closest to him. The Grace made him fall in love with Raissa, and with her family, the extraordinary Hopelands — a family like stars in the sky, scattered but connected in constellations of affection, parenthood, love and responsibility. I found myself marveling at the idea of Hopeland -- a community that accepts anyone, of any mindset, race, orientation, ANYTHING -- that prides itself on being a Family of choice -- that just does WHATEVER THAT WORKS. She turns on the ladder and throws a tablet of glow down to him. Her phone. As he holds it in his cupped hands like a sacrament, it drops into power-saving mode. Five percent. He switches it off. 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.

Ian Mond Reviews Hopeland by Ian McDonald – Locus Online Ian Mond Reviews Hopeland by Ian McDonald – Locus Online

So... the story starts in London, in 2011, during the riots. It's not about the riots, but they certainly set a scene. Raisa meets Amon entirely accidentally - she's racing across roof tops, he's looking for a micro-gig he's meant to be playing at. He helps her win, she invites him to a party with her family, and... it basically goes from there. Occasionally together, often apart, Raisa and Amon live through the next several decades. And see, it's not like they become hugely important politicians or scientists or celebrities - this isn't the story of hugely significant people. It's a story of two people - and their families - living through the consequences of climate change and everything else in the world right now. They have their impact, it's true, and sometimes on a large scale, but more often in the pebble-and-avalanche way. 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.

And it's this, more than anything, that makes me say, "Hey! Ya'll! You should read this! We should make this happen!" While it has a little romance and a little tragedy, I don't really see this as a genuine star-crossed lovers kind of romance. Not at all. Their lives are beautiful, whether they are together or apart. This is more of a FAMILY saga, one that keeps developing, adapting, growing stronger even while the world changes so much.

Hopeland by Ian McDonald | Waterstones

We don’t look at time right. We’re chronologically lopsided. We can think about millions of years in the past but not millions of years in the future. We can think about the age of the dinosaurs, or the Romans, but we can’t push our minds two thousand years ahead, let alone millions... We can think about the time when we were not, but we can’t think about the time when we will not be. [loc. 1726] What else? Corporate and geopolitical shenanigans, the squabbles of gods and an element of possible fantasy or magic that is very much part of the texture of the story but kept as subsidiary theme. Again, any other author I can think of would make 'electromancers' fighting duels with Tesla coils across the rooftops, and declaring themselves the protectors of London, the centre of the story. Or else the cursed family with its own haunting spirit. Or... Instead, here those things are real and important but very far from being at the centre of things, rather they deepen and add weight to what is a glorious, complex and engaging story, one that creates an entrancing world of its own and one that it is simply a joy to visit. Eccentric and adventurous, this is equal parts a delightfully mad love story and a rich and picturesque family saga. The popping action sequences reinforce author Ian McDonald’s swift and distinctive writing style. The setting is vast, from London to Iceland to Polynesia, and Raisa’s journey provides a unique take on time travel and electromancy as she sets out to remake the universe. Perfect for fans of Stephen Baxter.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. This techy thriller opens with a desperate heart-pumping race through 20th century London, where the lives of Amon Brightbourne and Raisa Hopeland collide in the midst of anarchy. Wielding lightning, Raisa seizes the Tesla coil for her people, becomes the Arcmage of Spitalfields, and triggers cataclysmic events that will span decades. Mesmerized by her, Amon follows her into the bizarre world of the Hopelands. If every person is a star, the Hopelands are a constellation, a cultish people with a story. He’s drawn to their family because he was exiled from his own, due to the Grace, which grants him a charmed life to the detriment of those around him.

Hopeland - Ian McDonald - Google Books Hopeland - Ian McDonald - Google Books

We open amidst the 2011 riots in London. A hapless fellow—something of an Ichabod Crane type, in both appearance and nature—is wandering cluelessly through the dangerous streets. His name is Amon Brightbourne. He is a musician looking for the agreed-upon location of his next gig. His music is unique, insofar as it is mainly bespoke compositions tailored to just one listener—although he does perform for large audiences as well. He measures up the gap. Run in, launch, the landing, traction: all against him. For him: the Grace. He makes his run, throws himself over the street, lands hard, pitches forward, breaks his fall with his hands. No shut up listen. A map line. Zero degrees eight minutes two point one two seconds west. Me in Streatham, him up in Muswell Hill. If we stray more than twenty metres off the line, it’s game over.’ On display in this book is a familiar virtue of McDonald’s, seen in works such as River of Gods and Brasyl: the ability to depict a culture in both large and granular details across historical eras. But new to his quiver is the intense lyricism of the prose, the Crowleyesque feyness and sense of fatedness. Narrated in the present tense, the book manages to convey both an immersive immediacy of action and a sense of myth and fabulism.

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I'll admit I hadn't read the blurb. It's Ian McDonald, and it's called Hopeland... why would I read the blurb? So part of my confusion is my own fault. But having now looked at the blurb it's actually of little to no use in explaining what on earth this is about, so I don't feel too bad. We don’t learn what happened to Amon after this shattering break for some time. But finally he resurfaces—in Ava’u, of all places, the omphalos of the Hopeland mystique. His new destiny at first seems that of merely an eccentric expatriate. But circumstances soon propel him too onto the global stage. And then comes the grand reunion of the two star-crossed lovers, amidst much international tumult and fanfare. But a terrible misunderstanding tears them apart, and sends Amon on a journey through the ever-extending Hopeland family, touching lives and shaping the course of the unfolding 20th century. Raissa's life is also changed by that moment, from free spirit to major player in the unfolding story of the 21st century in an Iceland transformed by the Artic thaw. McDonald's debut novel was Desolation Road (1988), which takes place on a far future Mars in a town that develops around an oasis in the terraformed Martian desert. [3] He published a sequel, Ares Express, in 2001. [4] A long stream of swift syllables in a language he does not recognise ends in a dead intercom. To the final door.