Evolution's Shore

Evolution's Shore, Ian McDonald, Bantam Spectra, 1995

This novel takes place in near-future East Africa, near Mount Kilimanjaro. A meteor strike has unleashed an infestation of alien vegetation that resists all human attempts to stop it. It is always growing, and anything it encounters that is not organic, like plastic or metal, is transformed almost instantly. Some people choose to live inside the infestation, called the Chaga, creating all sorts of weird societies, while others leave the Chaga genetically transformed.

For Gaby McAslan, a young TV reporter from Ireland, and her SkyNet news team, the question is: Is this an alien invasion, or does this signal the next stage in human evolution? Along the way, she has to negotiate a torturous UN bureaucracy that wants everything their own way. Never far away, physically, or in Gaby's thoughts, is the ever-expanding Chaga.

I really loved this book. It's very much grounded in reality, and McDonald does a great job of putting the reader in the middle of the story. Brilliant is not too strong a word for this book.