Hopeland by Ian McDonald (book review).
One of the things that Science Fiction is very good at is speculating about possible futures based on current trends. It can highlight the disasters that will overtake our planet if we humans do not change our ways. An important function of the genre is to act as a ‘dire warning’. Most novels of this kind portray a bleak future. Very few offer solutions. Kim Stanley Robinson’s trilogy, beginning with ‘Forty Days of Rain’, took civilisation to the brink, one we are rapidly approaching, before offering a way forward. In ‘Hopeland’, Ian McDonald tackles a number of issues.
Members of what is essentially a cult adopt the family name “Hopeland,” but in this case, it is benign and advantageous to them. Karl-Maria Lindner designed a social experiment in which members were an extended family. Though the original iteration only lasted a few years, the principals survived. Raisa Peri Antares Hopeland was born into the family. Amon Brightbourne meets her in 2011 in the midst of the London riots while looking for a music venue he expects to be performing at. Raisa is involved in a race to reach a Tesla coil before Finn Mikael Hamal Hopeland becomes an Electromancer.
The philosophy underlying the Hopeland community is that all children are kids. Everyone brings them up, and they are genderless until they choose to become either a boy or a girl. It takes the pressure off children to conform to stereotypes and to have a childhood. Amon’s family is equally strange. His home is a rambling and crumbling manor in Ireland. The eldest son of the line is visited around puberty by an entity called the Bright Boy, which bestows a charmed life on them. They survive disasters, but there is a price: their good luck comes at the expense of others. The men of the family cannot stay in one place too long, or others will experience bad luck. The most fascinating thing about Brightbourne Hall is the music. A system of mechanical gears and levers is powered by water to create a piece of music that will take a thousand years to complete. It is the music, not the house, that brings people back to Brightbourne.
Although the start of the novel is 2011, it swiftly moves into the future. After a brief liaison with Amon, Raisa moves to Iceland, where the Hopeland community is initially composed of two women, Jebet and Hulda, who use Iceland’s geothermal energy to grow crops. There, Raisa gives birth to her child, Atli. In accordance with Hopeland philosophy, Atli is raised genderless, until he decides that he is a boy sometimes when Atli is other and uses the pronoun ‘hé’. For this reader, it makes the text much easier to understand than the convoluted terms some authors favor. This remains a background but relevant theme. The main focus of the novel is on the lives of Raisa and Amon.
Climate change and its ramifications are a reality.
In Iceland, Raisa sees the glaciers retreating. She helps Jebet and Hulda increase their yield of crops and sells them by the roadside. She has visions of replanting the trees that once covered the country and would be viable in the wake of the retreating ice. While the projects are successful, though not without setbacks, it is only when Sindri Ólafursson proposes that they farm data instead of plants that Raisa’s fortunes soar. Geothermal power is key. The company becomes PBV (Powered by Volcanoes) and is a radical solution to the world’s need for cheap energy.
Meanwhile, Amon has made his home in a remote Pacific island group. The increased power of storms is an effect of climate change. When a megastorm hits the islands, it wipes out all of the infrastructure, making them uninhabitable. The gigantic cruise liners that were in port when the storm struck became a refuge for the islanders once the passengers had been flown out. It is Amon’s connection with Raisa that led to the suggestion that the islanders relocate to Greenland, which is rapidly becoming ice-free. The voyage is not without complications, both physical and political.
All this time, the music at Brightbourne continues to play.
McDonald is dealing with important issues that are affecting our planet globally. He doesn’t seek to cure them but embraces the inevitable changes, and within the context of the very enjoyable story he is telling, he looks at possible solutions. We, as humans, need to adapt, find new sources of energy that do not make the situation worse, and work out ways of dealing with fresh climactic disasters and the consequent migration of people. McDonald offers some suggestions for a way forward. It is a pity that most politicians will not listen.
This is a powerful story dealing with current themes while embracing the long view. Just as the Brightbourne music will play for a thousand years, governments should be planning on the same scale. Highly recommended.
Pauline Morgan
January 2024
(pub: Gollancz. 637 page hardback. Price: £25.00 (UK only). ISBN: 978-1-399-60573-1)
check out websites: www.gollancz.co.uk and www.orionbooks.co.uk
