Back to the Future Sacrifice of Fools

At last! Ian McDonald's Sacrifice of Fools can be purchased again.

I wrote about it on CSNI before (in 2008! Jesus, how long have I been doing this?), and mention it quite regularly when asked about great crime fiction novels set in Northern Ireland. Ian McDonald's contribution just happens to involve aliens. From space, like.

McDonald further proved his crime fiction street cred in 2014 with his contribution to Belfast Noir. So it's a good time to go back and check out his futuristic vision of Northern Ireland, though we've already caught up with the projected date, and still there are no damn hoverboards.

Anyway, you can get it and three other McDonald classics through one of his new ebook publishers, Open Road. I applaud the company for its good taste.

Take a Filmtrip into the Future

Declan Burke (pictured right) raised some interesting points in a Crime Always Pays blog post last Thursday. He considered the state of the book (or fate of the writer) in ten years time. Not being in the possession of a crystal ball, his ruminations left me with a number of unanswered questions. Scary, considering that I’m as likely to be published for the first time in ten years as I am this year. It’s just the way the industry is.

In fact, I was complaining about a general lack of enthusiasm, encouragement and output to a screenwriting friend the other day and the conversation turned to a Belfast-based production company that seemed to be doing some pretty innovative stuff.

Filmtrip’s website states, “We are a boutique production company specialising in film & TV cross platform productions, mobile app development and online.”

One of their cross platform projects involves Ian McDonald (pictured above left), a highly celebrated and award-laden science fiction writer from Belfast. His recent books include River of Gods and Brasyl and they deal with growing technology in a society not ready for it. Incidentally, he’s also written one of my favourite Northern Irish crime fiction novels, Sacrifice of Fools which blends police procedural, dirty politics, the crime underworld, social commentary and aliens.

It’s fitting that a writer who spends so much time looking to the future be involved in this project. Judging by the article on the Filmtrip website, E8 will sprawl many forms by exploiting every bit of entertainment technology it can get its grubby mitts on.

I look forward to the results.

The Friday Project - Sacrifice of Fools by Ian McDonald

Declan Burke, thon ragamuffin from CAP has been spreading the word about this project, spear-headed by Patti Abbot. Seems like a just cause. So, feast your eyes on this week's offering.

Ian McDonald is an award winning science fiction writer who's lived in Northern Ireland since childhood. But in Sacrifice of Fools he has created a unique blend of crime and science fiction. Sacrifice of Fools follows an ex-convict who became an expert in the alien Shian culture while serving time in The Maze, a Northern Irish prison. His expertise makes him a trusted figure among the Shian community of Northern Ireland and he gets caught up in an investigation when a prominent Shian family is brutally murdered.

I'm a fan of most genres in fiction, so for me, this was a gripping read. But really, the Shian aliens could be taken as a metaphor for any ethnic minority in any country. However, setting the novel in Northern Ireland, an already divided society, adds a whole new dimension. So don't be running away from it just because you hate Star Trek!

What struck me about the book, published in 1996 (pre-Good Friday Agreement) but set a few years in the future, was how often McDonald's predictions were on the money. Example, one of the supporting characters is a female catholic cop in the newly formed Northern Ireland Police Service. He nailed the concept of the reformed force and even the civilian attitudes towards it. But in our world, the RUC realised that the acronym NIPS wasn't the best, so we've got the PSNI now. Still, McDonald was pretty damn close.

Sacrifice of Fools was way ahead of its time and is still highly relevant. A lot can be learned about Northern Ireland through this story. Or it can just be enjoyed as a great crime story with a science fiction twist.

You know, just thinking about it, I'd like to read it again.