Customer Reviews

The Chronoliths.

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(34)
3 star:		(25)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I once read an interview with Peter F. Hamilton (author of the Night's Dawn Trilogy) where he stated that the trick to writing good science fiction was including enough detail to make the story plausible, but not enough that it evoked serious criticism from the reader. "The devil", the common wisdom goes, "is in the details."

In "The Chronoliths", Robert Charles Wilson demonstrates an understanding of that balance. Moreover, he has artfully wrapped it in a refreshing plot and sprinkled it with characters that seem to be underappreciated by other reviewers who have written here. The details surrounding the space-time concepts and exotic particle physics seem plausible enough for the near-future genre, but the crisp ideas that give this book strength lie not in the hard sciences, but in sociology. Wilson firmly grasps one of the most fundamental concepts in sociology - the concept of reification. As the chronoliths appear, marking sites where Kuin is victorious in battles 20 years into the future, the idea of reification emerges as the backdrop of the novel. Though Kuin is unknown, posses no army or resources, he comes to be recognized as the unstoppable conqueror in the minds of people who begin seeking to join him - it is the monuments that created Kuin. The central question becomes, "How is it that an idea that exists in the minds of people becomes external to them and coercive of them?"

Despite what some reviewers have submitted, I think Wilson demonstrates talent for character development; the problem is that he doesn't seem to favor these characters consistently. Scott is undeniably developed, anyone can relate to his inconsistencies, his loyalties, his fears and his needs. Sue - a respectable soul, heroic in action and personality - had all of the right ingredients for a great character, but these ingredients just didn't bake long enough. Wilson is to be credited, however, in developing Sue as a gay character whose sexuality was no more remarkable than that of her straight counterparts - notable, if not deep. Still, Wilson introduces literary devices which excuse these problems, even if the story does not completely recuperate.

The story is refreshing, strong in science and deftly leveraging concepts in social dynamics that sociologists and marketing executives will envy. You will not be disappointed!

What would you do if, very suddenly, an enormous blue glass obelisk appeared in the middle of your city, destroying much of it and killing thousands? And the inscription at its base indicated that it was a monument raised by a victorious warlord a couple of decades in the future? That's the armature around which Wilson has constructed this story of Scott Warden, skilled mid-level computer tech, and his ex-wife and daughter. There's also his sort-of buddy, Hitch Paley, and Sue Chopra, his sometime employer and perhaps the only person who can get a handle on what the monuments mean. Because they continue to appear over the years, apparently mirroring the conquests of Kuin, all across Asia and the Middle East and then Latin America. Who is Kuin -- or, rather, who will he be? Should the world prepare to try to fight him? Or just regard his ascendancy as inevitable and accommodate him? But there might not be much of a society left by the time of Kuin's arrival. The thing is, this is actually the story of the people involved, what they go through over the course of the pre-Kuin years, how they adapt to economic collapse and the spread of military & governmental secrecy and power born of desperation. It's a very powerful story and it's the first work by Wilson I've read, but it certainly won't be the last.

I haven't read any of Robert Charles Wilson's other books, so I don't know how typical this one is of his output. But it's a darned fine book. It's difficult to review it without including any spoilers, but I won't give away any details that you wouldn't learn in the first few pages.

Here's the deal: It's 2021, and software developer Scott Warden is hanging out in Thailand with his wife and daughter when a big giant monument just sort of _appears_ out of nowhere, causing massive damage and death. What's even odder is that an inscription on the monument (dubbed a "Chronolith" by journalists) makes clear that it commemorates some sort of military victory by somebody named "Kuin" -- twenty years and three months in the future.

The rest of the story, of course, I'm not going to tell you. But it's very cool.

It will probably take you eighty or a hundred pages to get your mind around Warden (at least it did me). He's not in general a very sympathetic character, but give him time to grow on you; he's as interestingly flawed as, say, Charlie Armstead in Spider and Jeanne Robinson's _Stardance_, and you'll find that there _are_ reasons he's the way he is.

You'll also like Sulamith (Sue) Chopra, an academic odd duck who is both an engaging character and a handy person to have around for another reason.

See, most of the actual _science_ in this book takes place offstage, and Wilson relies on a device that's at least as old as Dr. John H. Watson's chronicles of Sherlock Holmes: there really _is_ some science behind the events in the novel, but the narrator isn't the one who knows it, so he conveniently doesn't have to explain it. Well, Sue Chopra does know it, and she gets to give little bits of pseudo-explanation in terms of "tau turbulence" and such -- but since Warden, rather implausibly, just can't get a handle on her explanations, the reader never really learns much about it. (That's the main reason I deducted a star from the book's rating.)

But boy, does the narrative draw you in. You'll probably have a hard time putting it down. You won't have any trouble keeping the characters straight, either; Wilson paces things nicely and gets everybody properly introduced. And it does all come together in the end, very neatly.

Don't expect a hope-filled, Spider-Robinson-like resolution, though; this is a pretty dark book and the characters are put pretty thoroughly through the mill.

(By the way, extra points to Tor Books for a very nice piece of cover art. Unlike Baen, Tor seems to have its covers designed by people who actually read the books, and that view of the giant Chronolith next to the Wat comes straight out of the text.)

In the twenty-first century, American expatriate Scott Warden wastes his life enjoying the pleasures of a Thailand beach community while ignoring the needs of his wife and daughter. However, his wastrel life abruptly ends when the monolith suddenly appears in the nearby forest, destroying trees and dispensing high levels of radiation. On the artifact is an inscription celebrating a military victory that happened sixteen years into the future.

A second pillar lands in downtown Bangkok, destroying the city and killing many of its residents. Once again a military victory that occurred in the future is commemorated with a plaque. Other Chronoliths land all over Southeast Asia, causing havoc and sending Scott and his peers fleeing across the Pacific back to America. In Baltimore, Scott meets physicist Dr. Sue Chopra, who is studying the Chronoliths. She believes that the future is reaching back through time to create its past. Scott, now working for Sue, wonders whether the linear inevitability of the future with its conquering warlord Kuin can be stopped by the present choosing the path to the future?

When it comes to a thinking person's science fiction novel, genre fans know Robert Charles Wilson is one of the best. His latest tale, THE CHRONOLITHS, is a strong story focusing on the time-space continuum with the future seemingly stretching its hand into the present. Mindful in many ways of the basic theme behind The Terminator, readers will accept the time travel premise and not care that it appears conceptually flawed. Mr. Wilson provides a powerful appealing story line that hypnotizes the audience into a one sitting read.

Harriet Klausner

As many other reviewers have said, the concept of this book is very interesting. However, two things annoyed me about the book. First, there are numerous plot mistakes in the story. Stupid little things that probably won't annoy everyone but did annoy me. For example, characters don thermal protective suits in order to avoid freezing during an arrival. However, these suits don't seem to include gloves as people routinely touch freezing metal and leave skin behind. A minor oversight perhaps, but hard to believe that they would forget to include gloves. Small technical discrepencies like this abound and are distracting because they hurt the story's plausibility.

Second, the ending was not very satisfying. The end just doesn't have any real payoff. You don't cheer for the hero because he isn't very likeable. You don't really cheer for anyone. This book reminded me of Robert Silverberg's The Alien Years. Both books have a similar melancholy tone and unsatisfying endings.

I wanted to like this book but cannot heartily recommend it.

The central idea of this novel is so good that you figure even if things aren't really what they appear, it's still got to be a worthwhile read: Huge monuments are appearing around the world proclaiming the conquest of various regions by a conqueror named Kuin some 20 years in the future. Our hero, Scott, is one of those present when the first monument appears, and ends up as part of a team researching the Chronoliths, even as he watches the world disintegrate around him in anticipation of that future, although Kuin himself is otherwise a complete unknown.

The downside to the novel is that it's mostly about the anticipation of that future, and when we get there the climax isn't big and fitting enough to provide a satisfying payoff.

In many ways, the story is only peripherally about the Chronoliths. It's really about Scott, the disintegration of his marriage in the wake of the first Chronolith's arrival, his efforts to maintain a relationship with his daughter, and the growth of a worldwide movement based around Kuin (though it could really be based around any revolutionary premise). But for a book which focuses so tightly on the characters, the character elements aren't particularly compelling. The drama among them seems writ very small next to the scientifiction ideas, and we rarely feel the visceral emotions that must surround the conclusions of some of the episodes of the story. The first-person narrative (told by Scott many years after the events he chronicles) keeps the reader at a distance from his feelings.

The book's consideration of the Chronoliths and their seeming-paradoxical nature is where the book is its best. Its most compelling central notion is the "feedback loop" which Kuin's actions are creating, not only by using the Chronoliths (presumably) to strengthen his hold on the future world, but by causing the future to in a sense become the past. Wilson pulls off this trick by refusing to give in to the "alternate futures" notion of time travel: The past can't be changed, so elements in the future which must have occurred due to the Chronolith's presence must therefore occur. It's clever, and provides a novel sense of motivation to some of the characters.

Where the story ultimately doesn't work, though, is that the answers to the central questions, "Who is Kuin?", "Why is he conquering the world?", "Why is he creating the Chronoliths", are disappointing, and it's there that the causality of the book also frays at the edges. I can respect that Wilson is writing a novel about individuals and that he wants to focus on Scott and his circle and make comments on the nature of humanity as the collective actions of many individuals and their small concerns, but it's tough to have a high-concept set-up like this and not deliver the high-concept payoff.

The novel does deliver an engaging narrative and some good ideas to chew on, and perhaps it's my hopes that need adjusting more than the story. Still it seems there could have been oomph here.

This book has received quite a few 4 and 5 star reviews, and it probably deserves every one of them. Were I to review this book solely upon the quality of Wilson's writing, I would have also given it a higher score. But unfortunately, I must also take into account that this was simply not my cup of tea. It was very original, but as I read on, I found myself less interested in the story and more interested in picking out my next book.

The year is 2020, and a massive world war is coming. Nobody knows this until one morning, when a 200-foot tall monument shows up in Thailand- Announcing that someone named "Kuin" has conquered the country-Twenty years in the future. As more and more of these Chronoliths (victory monuments from the future) arrive in other countries and cities- the world erupts into panic.

There's not much more to the plot than this, but Wilson does a fine job choreographing the world's reaction to this bizarre attack from our future. With an expert understanding of sociology, Wilson depicts the way people might react to this kind of chaos, from the viewpoint of the government, the military, the economy, different generations and more. The book's atmosphere feels like the Cold War, or Vietnam as they were viewed from home. You can imagine yourself in that future world, glued to the TV- stunned and fearful of the news.

I love Sci-Fi, but I guess I needed something a little more fantastic or attention grabbing than this. Maybe I need more action or suspense. My main problem was that Wilson gives us many questions early in this book, but never really delivers any answers. The idea of the Chronoliths was neat. The setting was realistic and engaging. But the characters were merely decent, and the story itself... left me unsatisfied.

In "The Chronoliths," Robert Charles Wilson depicts a world on the brink of disintegration. Capably and sensitively told from the viewpoint of an alienated computer programmer, this unsettling novel begins with the inexplicable overnight appearance of a gigantic monolith from the near-future.

As more of the enigmatic structures arrive across Asia (accompanied by tell-tale rises in radiation that allow mystified scientists to predict when the next "Chronolith" will make its appearance), political alliances crumble and the world gradually falls into a sort of apocalyptic stupor. For the "Chronoliths" appear to be victory monuments dedicated to a Hitler-like warlord who rises to power in a mere twenty years. And then things get weird: those unlucky enough to witness a Chronolith "touchdown" find themselves victims of "tau turbulence," an acausal phenomenon that casts severe doubt on the reality of "coincidence."

Like M. Night Shyamalan's "Signs" on a planetary canvas, "The Chronoliths" is intellectually fascinating and distinctly human; there's not a wasted word or misplaced scene in the whole book. "The Chronoliths" is a masterpiece by a writer who knows precisely what he's doing, and certainly one of the very best SF novels of the decade.

_The Chronoliths_ by Robert Charles Wilson has one of the most intriguing and original premises I have ever read in a science fiction novel. The book is presented as a memoir written in the first person by the main character, Scott Warden. He began the book relating his experiences in 2021 in an expatriate beach community in Thailand, where he was living with his wife, Janice, and their very young daughter, Kaitlin. Pretty much unemployed slacker "beach lizards" by his own description, fights with his wife over their future after his contract job as a computer programmer ended were forgotten after an extraordinary event. He and his friend Hitch Paley - a very colorful sometime-drug deal - journeyed a number of miles away to investigate the most extraordinary rumors. In an uninhabited forest near Chumphon a 200 foot tall stone pillar suddenly and very violently appeared overnight, collapsing all trees within a quarter mile and freezing ice out of the air in an immense and sudden blast of cold that accompanied its unexpected arrival. Hitch and Scott are among the first to arrive on the scene, skirting the Thai security cordon, seeing for themselves that the four-sided ice-encrusted pillar looked like it was made of some sort of deep blue glass, of incredibly smooth material that was obviously very exotic. Just before they left the pillar (to avoid being caught) they noticed that there is some writing on it, an inscription of some sorts. Though not able to read it themselves, it is later made public by the press. Written in a strange combination of pidgin Mandarin and basic English, it made clear that the monument was commemorating a battle, that it was erected in celebration of the surrender of southern Thailand and Malaysia to the forces of someone named Kuin. The fact that no one knew who this Kuin was was unusual enough, but even more startling was the date given for the battle; December 21, 2041. Twenty years in the future.

Not long after that, another, even larger pillar appeared in the center of Bangkok, virtually obliterating the city with its violent arrival, killing thousands.

From that point on the book follows two threads, both of which intertwine. At the level of the "big picture" still other pillars suddenly and violently appear in Asian cities, killing tens of thousands, coring the hearts out of living cities, weakening and later virtually destroying national governments. Governments scramble at the technical level to study the exotic material of the pillars, to find out how they are being created, that if they are from the future how they are being sent back in time, scientists struggling to see if there is a way a pillar can be detected before its arrival and perhaps lives could be saved.

At the political and societal level people become more and more worried about this Kuin. Who is he? What does he want? Is his victory inevitable? Will his apparent conquests be confined just to Asia, or it will spread to Africa, Europe, and the Americas? What can be done to stop him if anything? Are the pillars an indication that he cannot be stopped, is he actually creating the conditions for his own success, or instead sowing the seeds of his own destruction? The speculations on the nature of causality were fascinating, with various theories being presented on the effects these Chronoliths were having on future history. Governments started to fear that the researchers that they had working on the problem, coming closer to understanding the exotic material of the Chronoliths and more importantly their temporal displacement, might be more of a threat than a benefit; how do they know that they are not creating Kuin themselves, or training someone that would make the Chronoliths possible to start with?

Also very interesting was how society dealt with the issue of Kuin himself; some feared him, others embraced him. As nothing was known about Kuin other than the outcome of future battles and his Stalinist style of sculpture, he became a template for thousands if not millions of people around the world to project their fears, hopes, and desires. Thanks to the destruction of cities in Asia, the effects this had on the world economy, and expectations over what the world would be like with his arrival (increasingly viewed over the years with a near apocalyptic fear), no one and nothing escaped the effects of the Chronoliths.

At the personal level we follow Scott's life in the remainder of the century, as events progressed towards the dreaded days of the first battle described by the Chumphon pillar, following his life and that of his wife, daughter, and his friend as well as several others along the way that became part of Scott's life. Are their lives inextricably entangled with the Chronoliths? By virtue of being near the first pillar, are their lives tied up with each other and with the coming of Kuin, or is it just a coincidence? Do they have a special role to play?

I really enjoyed this book, the more I read, the more I wanted to read. As events unfolded, as the timeline in the book got closer to December 21, 2041, I found myself very eager, that I couldn't wait to find out just who this Kuin was and how the book would turn out. No less interesting were the lives of Scott, his friends, and family. I found the characters very well drawn, each quite distinct and memorable, and really cared what happened to them. I can honestly say they are some of the most detailed characters I have read of recently. Certainly Scott himself was very well crafted.

The book did not lack for action either, presented I thought in a realistic and very entertaining manner. An excellent book, I highly recommend it.

The Chronoliths by Robert Charles Wilson opens in Thailand in the 2020s. Out of nowhere, an enormous monument appears in the jungle. It bears a plaque commemorating a military victory in the year 2041, twenty years in the future...

It turns out to be the first of many. They are quickly dubbed chronoliths and Kuin, the mysterious military leader whose victories they commemorate, inspires cults all around the world, though as yet nobody knows who he is, for his campaigns have not yet begun. The chronoliths spread out from south east Asia as Kuin's military conquests expand his empire. More and more of the chronoliths appear in major cities and cause huge devastation and loss of life. Nevertheless the cult of Kuin continues to thrive though he himself remains elusive.

The novel finishes twenty years after it begins. Soon the first chronolith will begin its journey into the past. Where is Kuin?

The mechanics of the plot are a sheer delight, but that isn't what gives the book it's major strength. For me, the attraction was in both the very human story of the life and times of the viewpoint character and also the subtle fascination of the intellectual ideas it explores - how does feedback influence the relationship between cause and effect?