Call number
Series
Genres
Publication
Toronto; New York; Bantam, 1988.
Pages
355
Description
It all began thirty years ago on Mars, with a greenperson. But by the time it all finished, the town of Desolation Road had experienced every conceivable abnormality from Adam Black's Wonderful Travelling Chautauqua and Educational ‘Stravaganza (complete with its very own captive angel) to the Astounding Tatterdemalion Air Bazaar. Its inhabitants ranged from Dr. Alimantando, the town’s founder and resident genius, to the Babooshka, a barren grandmother who just wants her own child—grown in a fruit jar; from Rajendra Das, mechanical hobo who has a mystical way with machines to the Gallacelli brothers, identical triplets who fell in love with—and married—the same woman.
Media reviews
Within the covers of the book, one finds love and hate, romance and betrayal, rationalism and mysticism. And through it all, the sense of how a place, a real, authentic place, can shape peoples’ lives. For, even when characters leave Desolation Road, they do not escape the town’s influence.
Desolation Road ... surprises, delights, then surprises and delights again. Spanning centuries, the book includes transcendent math, alternate realities, corporate dystopias, travelling carnivals, post-singularity godlike AIs, geoengineering, and mechanical hobos, each integral to the plot.
Awards
Locus Award (Finalist — First Novel — 1989)
Gigamesh Award (1993)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1989
Physical description
355 p.; 7.1 inches
ISBN
0553270575 / 9780553270570
Similar in this library
User reviews
LibraryThing member richardderus
Rating: 4.75* of five
The Book Report: Earth can't sustain its current population in the style to which all 7 billion of us wish to become accustomed, and no one is predicting a sudden outbreak of common sense and birth prevention to bring the numbers down. What are we to do?
Move, of course. Where?
Well, Mars, for one. The Remote Orbital Terraforming and Environmental Control Headquarters (ROTECH for short) consortium is created on the Motherworld, sent into a moonbelt orbit around Mars, and given a thousand years of development, has finally produced a planetary ecosystem that can sustain unsuited humans in the open.
ROTECH governs Mars as lightly as any frontier is governed. People, let loose from cities and rules, pretty much do what comes naturally. They have babies, they make farms, they organize themselves into Us and Them, and they do it all at breakneck speed without worrying too hard about consequences. When Consequences rain down from the Heavens, well, adapt or die.
Ian McDonald does in 363 pages what others do in 1000. He makes Mars come alive, he peoples it with fabulous characters (human and cyborg and robotic), he creates a logical thought experiment...how can humanity survive its inevitable wearing out of the Motherworld?...and uses it to tell us about ourselves, about what we are *actually* made of, and about what triumphs and tragedies flow naturally and inevitably from that.
My Review: I adore this book.
There.
No, really, that's it. I adore this book. You should read it, especially if you point your booger-holder at the sky when science fiction is mentioned. I don't read THAT people should read this. If you don't, then you should be ashamed of your inflexibility.
I even re-read [[Jane Austen]] recently. And liked it. So. What's that “I don't like THAT” stuff again?
The Book Report: Earth can't sustain its current population in the style to which all 7 billion of us wish to become accustomed, and no one is predicting a sudden outbreak of common sense and birth prevention to bring the numbers down. What are we to do?
Move, of course. Where?
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More than one place. There's the Metropolis, the geosynchronous city in space reached by fixed space elevators; but that's filling up too; wherever shall we go?Well, Mars, for one. The Remote Orbital Terraforming and Environmental Control Headquarters (ROTECH for short) consortium is created on the Motherworld, sent into a moonbelt orbit around Mars, and given a thousand years of development, has finally produced a planetary ecosystem that can sustain unsuited humans in the open.
ROTECH governs Mars as lightly as any frontier is governed. People, let loose from cities and rules, pretty much do what comes naturally. They have babies, they make farms, they organize themselves into Us and Them, and they do it all at breakneck speed without worrying too hard about consequences. When Consequences rain down from the Heavens, well, adapt or die.
Ian McDonald does in 363 pages what others do in 1000. He makes Mars come alive, he peoples it with fabulous characters (human and cyborg and robotic), he creates a logical thought experiment...how can humanity survive its inevitable wearing out of the Motherworld?...and uses it to tell us about ourselves, about what we are *actually* made of, and about what triumphs and tragedies flow naturally and inevitably from that.
My Review: I adore this book.
There.
No, really, that's it. I adore this book. You should read it, especially if you point your booger-holder at the sky when science fiction is mentioned. I don't read THAT people should read this. If you don't, then you should be ashamed of your inflexibility.
I even re-read [[Jane Austen]] recently. And liked it. So. What's that “I don't like THAT” stuff again?
Show Less
LibraryThing member ChrisRiesbeck
An amazingly assured first novel. I've noticed that other online reviews see their favorite "odd" author in this novel, e.g., Jack Vance. For me, the strongest echoes were of R A Lafferty and Bradbury. But unlike Lafferty, who could never quite make the novel form work, or Bradbury, whose Martian
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Chronicles was clearly no coherent narrative, McDonald is able to weave this collection of tall tales into a cohesive whole. This is a Mars supposedly terraformed to its current livable state, but that's just to make it seem like SF. People travel by railroad or old planes, the traveling side show comes to town periodically, etc. All important points in time have a repeating form, e.g., 12 minutes of 12, 6 minutes of 6, and so on. The stories tell of the founding, growth, heyday, and eventual downfall of the town of Desolation Road. I was concerned in the first chapter that archness and distance would make the book a hard slog, but either I or the author learned better. The weakest section for me was the new SF space opera style war that occupies most of the final fifth of the book. Tachyonic beams, giant robots, people never just killed but blown into bloody smears, deaths by the 100's of thousands -- all overkill, literally and figuratively. Fortunately the book's denouement recovers nicely. Recommended. Show Less
LibraryThing member paradoxosalpha
Wow. This book is over twenty years old, and no one I know personally has ever recommended it to me. What's wrong with you people? The jacket copy promising "every conceivable abnormality" had me expecting a more comical romp than the wry and profound storytelling McDonald provides in his first
Although in many ways the most science-fictiony of science fiction--a story set on Mars during a period of human settlement--there are many other literary veins enriching Desolation Road. The little serendipitous town by the train tracks certainly has a 19th-century-US Western feel to it that gave the book a steampunk vibe (this well before the coinage of the genre label). Some readers have accused McDonald of "magical realism" in this Martian novel, which nevertheless intensely engages religious and political themes. The net effect for me was something like a hybrid between Little, Big and Dune.
There must be manifold influences and allusions that flew past me. Critics commonly point to homages to Jack Vance and Ray Bradbury. The 1985 Terry Gilliam movie Brazil is "sampled," if you will, in chapters 25 and 35. Cory Doctorow notes that the Catherine Wheel in the religion/planetary administration of MacDonald's Mars alludes to the music of David Byrne. It's clear that McDonald has taken the old Clarke "indistinguishable from magic" saw to heart, and thus lays himself open to the charge of fantasy in SF drag, but if time travel is acceptable as science fiction, the rest of this kit should pass muster.
Sometime around page 150 I started to wonder, "What's with all the characters being sexually active at the age of nine?" It wasn't until I read about the grandfather of mature grandchildren thinking "the thoughts a man of forty-five thinks" that I realized these are Martian years! There are no C.E. dates in the book, but the story must start in the 28th century at the earliest, given some information about the timescale of "manforming" Mars. It takes place over roughly three human generations, each of which conveniently corresponds to a "decade" in Martian reckoning (i.e. 18.8 of our years).
McDonald very comprehensively adheres to the framing of Mars as "the world," with the word "earth" used only to reference soil and planetary surface, while planet Earth is called "the Motherworld." And still the Martian milieu is full of clever evocations of 20th century mass culture.
The chapters are short and delicious, the vivid characters abundant, and the plot is so manifold that each of chapters 57 through 63 constitutes an independent climax, leaving room for a further half-dozen chapters of denouement and closure. It is a well-formed independent novel, and it does not in any way beg a sequel. The one McDonald eventually wrote (Ares Express) doubtless leverages the terrific world-building in Desolation Road, but I won't be surprised if it is at a significant remove from the characters and events in its predecessor.
This is one of those books that I devoured rapidly, and then toward the end I started to feel sad that it would soon be over. I recommend it without reservation.
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novel.Although in many ways the most science-fictiony of science fiction--a story set on Mars during a period of human settlement--there are many other literary veins enriching Desolation Road. The little serendipitous town by the train tracks certainly has a 19th-century-US Western feel to it that gave the book a steampunk vibe (this well before the coinage of the genre label). Some readers have accused McDonald of "magical realism" in this Martian novel, which nevertheless intensely engages religious and political themes. The net effect for me was something like a hybrid between Little, Big and Dune.
There must be manifold influences and allusions that flew past me. Critics commonly point to homages to Jack Vance and Ray Bradbury. The 1985 Terry Gilliam movie Brazil is "sampled," if you will, in chapters 25 and 35. Cory Doctorow notes that the Catherine Wheel in the religion/planetary administration of MacDonald's Mars alludes to the music of David Byrne. It's clear that McDonald has taken the old Clarke "indistinguishable from magic" saw to heart, and thus lays himself open to the charge of fantasy in SF drag, but if time travel is acceptable as science fiction, the rest of this kit should pass muster.
Sometime around page 150 I started to wonder, "What's with all the characters being sexually active at the age of nine?" It wasn't until I read about the grandfather of mature grandchildren thinking "the thoughts a man of forty-five thinks" that I realized these are Martian years! There are no C.E. dates in the book, but the story must start in the 28th century at the earliest, given some information about the timescale of "manforming" Mars. It takes place over roughly three human generations, each of which conveniently corresponds to a "decade" in Martian reckoning (i.e. 18.8 of our years).
McDonald very comprehensively adheres to the framing of Mars as "the world," with the word "earth" used only to reference soil and planetary surface, while planet Earth is called "the Motherworld." And still the Martian milieu is full of clever evocations of 20th century mass culture.
The chapters are short and delicious, the vivid characters abundant, and the plot is so manifold that each of chapters 57 through 63 constitutes an independent climax, leaving room for a further half-dozen chapters of denouement and closure. It is a well-formed independent novel, and it does not in any way beg a sequel. The one McDonald eventually wrote (Ares Express) doubtless leverages the terrific world-building in Desolation Road, but I won't be surprised if it is at a significant remove from the characters and events in its predecessor.
This is one of those books that I devoured rapidly, and then toward the end I started to feel sad that it would soon be over. I recommend it without reservation.
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LibraryThing member jnwelch
Desolation Road by Ian McDonald was very good, and well worth reading. I didn't love it as much as some people have (ahem), which I understand puts me in the category of "heretical apostate." Can't tell you how many times I was put into time out for that one when I was young.
Dr. Alimantando
This book has some beautiful moments. The descriptions of the music played by the extraordinarily gifted The Hand, of the kind I have found pathetically lame in other books, were instead transporting. The scene in which his music tries to draw rain to parched Desolation Road is extraordinary. The rebellious All Swing Music is similarly well-described. A scene in which an elderly town couple explores their strangely enlarging garden, using twine to help them find their way back to the gate, is, well, idyllic and sublime. I hope my wife and I get a chance like that someday.
There were some things that didn't work so well for me. The author has a penchant in the book for long lists of object types or places or people which had me wiping the glaze from my eyes. "There were young men, old men, middle-aged men, tall men, short men, fat men, thin men, sick men, healthy men, bald men, hairy men . . ." This sentence goes on for 16 more lines!
That's a minor quibble in this expansive, creative work. It's filled with memorable characters, including the Greatest Snooker Player in the World and a reluctant goddess of machinery. The author undoubtedly had a good time writing it, and there are a lot of good times for the reader in it as well.
Dr. Alimantando
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unexpectedly has a greenperson emerge from the Martian desert and help him construct, from recently deceased technology, what will become the town of Desolation Road. A little different from your average fare, right? The book then goes through 23 amazingly event-packed years set in Desolation Road or tying back to it (although if my math is right, that'd be something like 46 here). Lust, romance, avarice, power hunger, religious longing, and a whole host of other strongly felt human yearnings, bring both growth and calamity to Desolation Road, and also help it dodge dissolution and annihilation. There's some fancy footwork with a localized, time-altering chronometer threaded throughout the story which also helps keep Desolation Road whole.This book has some beautiful moments. The descriptions of the music played by the extraordinarily gifted The Hand, of the kind I have found pathetically lame in other books, were instead transporting. The scene in which his music tries to draw rain to parched Desolation Road is extraordinary. The rebellious All Swing Music is similarly well-described. A scene in which an elderly town couple explores their strangely enlarging garden, using twine to help them find their way back to the gate, is, well, idyllic and sublime. I hope my wife and I get a chance like that someday.
There were some things that didn't work so well for me. The author has a penchant in the book for long lists of object types or places or people which had me wiping the glaze from my eyes. "There were young men, old men, middle-aged men, tall men, short men, fat men, thin men, sick men, healthy men, bald men, hairy men . . ." This sentence goes on for 16 more lines!
That's a minor quibble in this expansive, creative work. It's filled with memorable characters, including the Greatest Snooker Player in the World and a reluctant goddess of machinery. The author undoubtedly had a good time writing it, and there are a lot of good times for the reader in it as well.
Show Less
LibraryThing member RobertDay
In his first novel, quietly and without anyone noticing*, McDonald re-made Bradbury's Mars for a new generation. All the magic, the weirdness and the wonder is there, plus all the gizmos of our time and a few more besides.
*including the UK publishing industry for too long a time, alas!
*including the UK publishing industry for too long a time, alas!
LibraryThing member RobertDay
In his first novel, quietly and without anyone noticing*, McDonald re-made Bradbury's Mars for a new generation. All the magic, the wierdness and the wonder is there, plus all the gizmos of our time and a few more besides.
*including the UK publishing industry for too long a time, alas!
*including the UK publishing industry for too long a time, alas!
LibraryThing member craso
An exiled scientist travels across an expansive red desert in pursuit of the green man. He stops at a small oasis created by a depressed orph, a terra-forming machine. The orph asks him to destroy it and use his parts any way he wishes. He uses the parts to found the town of Desolation Road. The
The novel starts with short vignettes about each of the inhabitants of Desolation Road. These small stories are magical with mystical characters and events. A traveling carnival train visits with an angelic being on display. A man in a motion picture suit uses is red guitar to bring the first rain storm.
The world building is fascinating. You are never told the name of the planet, but you learn that the planet has been colonized and that the atmosphere is carefully monitored and manipulated. The people of the planet have created their own religion based on technology and Christianity.
When the children of Desolation Road come of age, ten years old, they leave to find their destinies. Other characters leave for other reasons. That's when the story twists and becomes dark. Some of the characters become idolized and some become reviled. The stories become violent and desperate. If the novel had stayed more fantastic and less violent I would have liked it better.
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town becomes a refuge for outcasts, wanderers, dreamers, and those seeking sanctuary. The younger generation leaves to seek their fortunes with all roads eventually leading back to Desolation Road.The novel starts with short vignettes about each of the inhabitants of Desolation Road. These small stories are magical with mystical characters and events. A traveling carnival train visits with an angelic being on display. A man in a motion picture suit uses is red guitar to bring the first rain storm.
The world building is fascinating. You are never told the name of the planet, but you learn that the planet has been colonized and that the atmosphere is carefully monitored and manipulated. The people of the planet have created their own religion based on technology and Christianity.
When the children of Desolation Road come of age, ten years old, they leave to find their destinies. Other characters leave for other reasons. That's when the story twists and becomes dark. Some of the characters become idolized and some become reviled. The stories become violent and desperate. If the novel had stayed more fantastic and less violent I would have liked it better.
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LibraryThing member Greymowser
One should never go to a closing down sale at a book store. The temptations are too great.
LibraryThing member kaipakartik
Absolutely bloody brilliant. Ian McDonald is a fine writer.
Each chapter is beautifully written and most of the characters are utterly memorable and compelling.
The science fiction is in the details.
The book is set in a mars that is being terraformed for human survival. McDonald plays with the
Each chapter is beautifully written and most of the characters are utterly memorable and compelling.
The science fiction is in the details.
The book is set in a mars that is being terraformed for human survival. McDonald plays with the
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characters, challenges your assumptions about what a Science Fiction novel should be. I am glad Pyr pulled this out and published this gem again. Show Less
LibraryThing member Sherm1
This is a book about magical things happening on Mars. It is a pure fantasy with only the thinnest and occasional veneer of science fiction. The writing is good and the characters well-drawn and amusingly quirky, along the lines of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" but not as funny.
Whenever
Whenever
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the going gets rough, the author trots out whatever magical device comes to mind. Time gets rewound to fix awkward developments, the electric-guitar-of-death brings on the rain, etc. If that kind of thing doesn't bother you, you'll like this book. Otherwise skip it. Show Less
LibraryThing member suzemo
This is the first work I’ve read by Ian MacDonald and I (mostly) really enjoyed it. McDonald knows how to write. He knows how to write fluidly and beautifully and have fun with his words, which I really appreciate. Most of the book is lyrical and fun, and I loved the imagery and magical realism
This book is about the town of Desolation road... it starts with the founding and the slow addition of characters. The writing about founding of the town, the new characters rolls around your brain and relaxes and slowly feeds you the atmosphere and the characters.
It was wonderful. And then about three quarters of the way through the book it lost me. All of a sudden I couldn’t keep the characters apart. I would have to pause to remember who was who, why they were running around wherever they were and wonder why we were even there.
There was an overly contrived scene/reason/giant plot device to bring all of the characters back, and to be honest, I just didn’t care that much anymore. The melody of the writing had been lost, and to be honest, it definitely lost me.
I loved the greenperson and I definitely loved the character of Doctor Alimantando.
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he presents.This book is about the town of Desolation road... it starts with the founding and the slow addition of characters. The writing about founding of the town, the new characters rolls around your brain and relaxes and slowly feeds you the atmosphere and the characters.
It was wonderful. And then about three quarters of the way through the book it lost me. All of a sudden I couldn’t keep the characters apart. I would have to pause to remember who was who, why they were running around wherever they were and wonder why we were even there.
There was an overly contrived scene/reason/giant plot device to bring all of the characters back, and to be honest, I just didn’t care that much anymore. The melody of the writing had been lost, and to be honest, it definitely lost me.
I loved the greenperson and I definitely loved the character of Doctor Alimantando.
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LibraryThing member santhony
This is a highly unusual novel. It is labeled science fiction, though much of it could have been set in the late 19th, early 20th century American West. It involves the founding and evolution of a small settlement on the surface of Mars. Though many years in the future, for very long stretches,
Then, BOOM, you have time travel. The kind of weaponry you might expect on 22nd century Mars makes an appearance. Magical realism crops up from time to time. There are segments of economic evolution that bring to mind early 20th century labor unrest. Like I said, a highly unusual novel.
I read the author’s River of Gods, and thought it fantastic; The Dervish House less so. I believe this book was first published in the 1980s, though this edition was printed in 2009. As an aside, whoever proofread it, should be fired. It is littered with misspellings and typeset errors. In any event, it is strange, though moderately entertaining. I suspect many will find it not to their taste.
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technology is virtually non-existent. Travel is largely by train, there are antique airplanes and dirigibles. While there is reference to orbiting space stations and circumstances on Earth, the community operates largely as a Western cow town.Then, BOOM, you have time travel. The kind of weaponry you might expect on 22nd century Mars makes an appearance. Magical realism crops up from time to time. There are segments of economic evolution that bring to mind early 20th century labor unrest. Like I said, a highly unusual novel.
I read the author’s River of Gods, and thought it fantastic; The Dervish House less so. I believe this book was first published in the 1980s, though this edition was printed in 2009. As an aside, whoever proofread it, should be fired. It is littered with misspellings and typeset errors. In any event, it is strange, though moderately entertaining. I suspect many will find it not to their taste.
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LibraryThing member Caragen87
Mars has been colonized. But People are still people, and people being people, they still fall for venality, vice, greed and plain simple snooping on other people's business.
This is an epic told from a pioneering, smalltown perspective with a measure of human-scale myth woven in. And very humorous
This is an epic told from a pioneering, smalltown perspective with a measure of human-scale myth woven in. And very humorous
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in unexpected ways. Show Less
LibraryThing member jkdavies
This read like a rich series of fables linked together in a progress from a rural idyll to an industrial destruction. It has the energy of his later works, but I prefer the riotous phrases and characters in e.g. River of Gods.
LibraryThing member kingmob2
Wow. Just amazing.
LibraryThing member AltheaAnn
Didn't like it AT ALL.
It's sort of like, "What if Tom Robbins tried to write The Martian Chronicles?"
Well, if you think that sounds good, you might like this book. But I didn't.
It's the story of a small town formed 'by accident' 100 years after the colonization of Mars. It focuses on different
But it was really barely a sci-fi novel. This is to sci-fi as the The Flintstones is to Clan of the Cave Bear.
The narrative was all over the place, being intentionally absurdist, trying to be funny, and also trying to make some kind of non-SF social commentary, jamming politics in there - I don't even really know what the author was trying to do.
But I didn't like it.
It's sort of like, "What if Tom Robbins tried to write The Martian Chronicles?"
Well, if you think that sounds good, you might like this book. But I didn't.
It's the story of a small town formed 'by accident' 100 years after the colonization of Mars. It focuses on different
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characters and events in the town's short history.But it was really barely a sci-fi novel. This is to sci-fi as the The Flintstones is to Clan of the Cave Bear.
The narrative was all over the place, being intentionally absurdist, trying to be funny, and also trying to make some kind of non-SF social commentary, jamming politics in there - I don't even really know what the author was trying to do.
But I didn't like it.
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LibraryThing member isabelx
In the yellow flickering candlelight Rael Mandella picked up his son and daughter.
"Limaal," he said to the child in his right hand. "Taasmin," he said to the child in his left, and in doing so he cursed them with his curse, so that his right-handed rationalism passed into his son and his wife's
My third re-read of the month is Ian McDonald's first book, "Desolation Road". I have been wanting to re-read it for ages, and several mentions of it in the Science Fiction Fans group in the last couple of months, reminded me to add it to the list for this month. I found that I had forgotten a lot in the 11 years since I first read it. I remembered the founding of the town, various visitors such as Adam Black's Wonderful Travelling Chataqua and Educational 'Stravaganza, and the magical realist feel to the story, but I had completely forgotten the bad things that happen to the town later on. I remembered that there was someone mysterious who appeared in town every now and then, but had forgotten that both Dr Alimantando and the greenperson were time-travellers.
Desolation Road was founded by mistake, and its first inhabitants arrived there by chance, blown by the wind, or along the rails, or stranded on their way somewhere else, until the trains eventually began to stop at Desolation Road occasionally rather than thundering straight past. With the birth of his twin children. on the night of his family's arrival, Rael Mandella cursed the town as well as his two children, and the conflict between rationalism and mysticism runs through the history of Desolation Road like the threads in Eva Mandella's tapestry history of the town. This is a nice short book, but packs a lot of tory into its 373 pages long. It is divided into short chapters, just a few pages long, and the story progresses quickly from one incident to the next over the twenty-three martian years of Desolation Road's existence as the town gross into a religious centre and becomes a focus for political struggle.
For all this book's magical realism, there is nothing actually magical about this Mars. The Angels are machines and space-adapted humans involved in the ongoing terraforming of Mars, while the mystical powers that Saint Catherine of Tharsis, who planted the Tree of World's Beginning bestows on Taamsin Mandella and others are obviously nano-technological, while even the time-travel is scientifically based. At fist sight the children of Desolation Road seem alarmingly precocious, but when you realise that their ages are given in Martian years, their behaviour seems much more normal.
"Limaal," he said to the child in his right hand. "Taasmin," he said to the child in his left, and in doing so he cursed them with his curse, so that his right-handed rationalism passed into his son and his wife's
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left-handed mysticism passed into his daughter. They were the first natural citizens of Desolation Road, and their citizenship bestowed citizenship upon their parents and grandparent, for they could not press on to the land beyond the desert while there were still infants at the teat. So they stayed forever and never found the land beyond the mountains for which all Mandellas have been searching ever since, for they know that Desolation Road is always one step short of paradise and they are not content with that. My third re-read of the month is Ian McDonald's first book, "Desolation Road". I have been wanting to re-read it for ages, and several mentions of it in the Science Fiction Fans group in the last couple of months, reminded me to add it to the list for this month. I found that I had forgotten a lot in the 11 years since I first read it. I remembered the founding of the town, various visitors such as Adam Black's Wonderful Travelling Chataqua and Educational 'Stravaganza, and the magical realist feel to the story, but I had completely forgotten the bad things that happen to the town later on. I remembered that there was someone mysterious who appeared in town every now and then, but had forgotten that both Dr Alimantando and the greenperson were time-travellers.
Desolation Road was founded by mistake, and its first inhabitants arrived there by chance, blown by the wind, or along the rails, or stranded on their way somewhere else, until the trains eventually began to stop at Desolation Road occasionally rather than thundering straight past. With the birth of his twin children. on the night of his family's arrival, Rael Mandella cursed the town as well as his two children, and the conflict between rationalism and mysticism runs through the history of Desolation Road like the threads in Eva Mandella's tapestry history of the town. This is a nice short book, but packs a lot of tory into its 373 pages long. It is divided into short chapters, just a few pages long, and the story progresses quickly from one incident to the next over the twenty-three martian years of Desolation Road's existence as the town gross into a religious centre and becomes a focus for political struggle.
For all this book's magical realism, there is nothing actually magical about this Mars. The Angels are machines and space-adapted humans involved in the ongoing terraforming of Mars, while the mystical powers that Saint Catherine of Tharsis, who planted the Tree of World's Beginning bestows on Taamsin Mandella and others are obviously nano-technological, while even the time-travel is scientifically based. At fist sight the children of Desolation Road seem alarmingly precocious, but when you realise that their ages are given in Martian years, their behaviour seems much more normal.
Show Less