Mysterium (Mass Market Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The residents of Two Rivers, Mich., wake up one morning to find themselves in a changed world. The entire town and the top-secret government research facility that was located near it have been blasted into a parallel world. Their own history has been erased and they are faced instead with a repressive government controlled by a powerful church that professes a version of Gnostic Christianity. The governing Proctors plunder the town for information, gaining the knowledge to build an atomic bomb; to prevent the contagion of ideas, Two Rivers is designated as the first test site. A few residents--history teacher Dex Graham, physicist Howard Poole, along with Linneth Stone, a cultural researcher sent from the outside to study these "aliens"--slowly piece together the events that brought them to this strange universe and begin to fight against the forces that now control them. The solution lies in a mysterious fragment found in a Middle Eastern desert that turns out to be part of a "wormhole boat," a device for traveling between parallel worlds that physicist Alan Stern came upon and piloted as he took the town of Two Rivers with him into a world that echoed his own obsessions. Wilson ( The Harvest ) blends science, religion, philosophy and alternate history into an intelligent, compelling work of fiction.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

An alien artifact transports the small town of Two Rivers, Michigan, to an alternate universe, where political repression is the order of the day and survival an ever-growing concern. The latest novel by the author of The Harvest ( LJ 11/15/92) and The Bridge of Years ( LJ 8/91) offers a study in culture shock as simple people find their values and their future irrevocably redefined. Wilson is a graceful storyteller who relies on the power of his characters to convey the underlying messages of his tale. This belongs in most libraries.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Spectra (February 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553569538
• ISBN-13: 978-0553569537
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #757,368 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent parallel universe adventure , August 29, 2005

By	Tim F. Martin (Madison, AL United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Mysterium (Hardcover)

Mysterium_ by Robert Charles Wilson is a very well done, engrossing earlier work of the author's, one that I don't believe has gotten anywhere near the attention of his later works (such as _Darwinia_, _Bios_, and _The Chronoliths_). It is also unfortunately out of print, though there are a great many used copies out there at relatively cheap prices.

_Mysterium_ is a book one could place in the "island in the sea of time" sub-genre of books on alternate history and parallel universes, one made famous recently by of course _Island in the Sea of Time_ by S. M. Stirling (1998), _1632_ by Eric Flint (2000), and _Weapons of Choice_ by John Birmingham (2004) and their sequels, the premise being that some little corner of the modern day world (or a whole fleet instead of an island or a town in the case of _Weapons of Choice_) of our Earth gets sent into the past (which becomes from that point on a parallel universe, when those people from our time interact with the rest of the world). _Mysterium_ differed in two respects; first, this story came first (for whatever that is worth), as it is copyright 1994, and second, the town of Two Rivers, Michigan found itself in is a parallel universe from the beginning, contemporaneous with our Earth but with a history that diverged from our own close to two thousand years ago. But I get ahead of myself.

An archaeological team working in a remote area of Turkey on what was believed to be a rather unremarkable prehistoric site came across what looked like a bit of jade embedded in the soil. Remarkable in its own right, further digging revealed that what was assumed to be a small piece was actually part of a much larger item that was not actually jade but some strange substance with extremely unusual optical properties. Of great interest - and unfortunate to its discoverers - the item was also extremely radioactive, many of those who discovered it dying quickly of radiation sickness. Obviously an item not of this Earth, with Turkey's permission the United States government removed it under heavy protection to a new research facility built just to study it, one set up on an old and largely abandoned Indian reservation near the quiet town of Two Rivers, Michigan. The base, very much aloof and apart from the town, at first piqued the curiosity of the locals, wondering what the meaning of the new base was in an era of declining defense spending and also hopeful of new jobs. When the new jobs don't really materialize to any great degree and the base stayed extremely quiet, they quickly forgot about it.

One night though - a mere twelve pages into the book I would like to add - mysterious bright lights and an explosion at the facility, just visible to those in the town, heralded a bizarre event, one that removed the entire town and the military base to a parallel universe, the exact same spot on the globe on a world with a totally different history, in an alternate Michigan. Fully aware that there was some accident at the base, the townspeople awoke to find the power, water, and phones out, and those few with battery powered radios not able to get any stations except for a very distant one, one that seemed to be putting on some quasi-religious radio play of all things. Most just went on with life for a bit as best they could, hopeful that the utilities would be restored, though several tried to leave town and made an amazing discovery; all roads and trails out of town just stopped, ending in a cut as sharp as if a laser had made it. So sharp was the divide that trees were split right down the middle along the line, bare heartwood exposed for all to see. The other side of the line, inches beyond the road, was virgin forest, deep dark woodlands that had never known an axe.

One of the locals who possessed a floatplane took off, hoping to uncover more of this mystery. He found that the town was now deep in the wilderness, all nearby other roads and towns long vanished, and what should be Detroit had completely different architecture, odd-looking cars, and even horse-drawn wagons. Heading back home, his flight apparently attracted the attention of the authorities of this world, who moved in with aircraft, tanks, and soldiers, putting the town under martial law.

The startled locals learned that they were in an alternate reality; they were not in the United States of America, but in an entity called the Consolidated Republic, a French-English nation that ruled most of North America and was regrettably run by an authoritarian religious theocracy. What's more, it was not a Christianity as the townspeople knew it; it became apparent later in the book that the Christianity in this world was a intolerant descendent of Gnostic Christianity, this world's history having diverged considerably during Roman times, as the Roman Empire never became Christian and indeed even to the present Apollo and other Greco-Roman gods were still worshipped in many countries of Europe (ones at war with the Consolidated Republic). The locals privately derided this world's Christianity as being practically polytheistic, while the Proctors (much feared Gestapo-like religious police of the Bureau de la Convenance Religieuse) despised the Two Rivers Christians as worshipping a "stick figure Christianity," one unbelievably crude and simplistic.

Regrettably, the conflict between Two Rivers and the authorities was much more severe as that, as the Proctors had dire plans for the town, for they believed it to be both incredibly useful as source of advanced technology and weaponry (being about roughly 50 years ahead of them) and as a blasphemous and dangerous threat to their social order. The remainder of the book dealt with the ugly plans of the Proctors and the secret resistance lead by several townspeople and their sympathizers.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Unique, October 20, 2006

By	Jedidiah Palosaari "Not My Real Name" (Fes, Morocco) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Mysterium (Hardcover)

Mysterium is a type of alternative history I've never read before. Imagine if Gnosticism had won out over orthodox Christianity, to the point that Gnosticism itself was considered to be truly orthodox, and what we know as Christianity a heresy? Wilson is to be congratulated for bringing in a new idea into the alternate history genre, something beyond a rehashed Civil War plot and really dealving into religious possibilities that can change the world.

Unfortunately, the characters are very thinly developed, to the point that we really don't care about what happens to them. There are long, drawn-out segments where nothing much happens and you have to skim the book to stay focused. And while the idea is excellent, Wilson gets his actual history of Gnosticism immensely wrong, to the degree that the departure point to create this new world could not actually have occurred.

The book still has mystery, which engages the reader. It gives a very good view of what a world might be like controlled by Gnostics- a huge variety of competing views, denial of the importance of the physical world, degregation of women, and the idea that only some are entitled to the special status. Wilson gives some nice overviews of Gnosticism worldview, incorporating Seth, Archons, Sophia, and even the god Mysterium into everyday use. But the ending is rushed, and confusing. Some will enjoy this if a book of higher quality isn't available.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mysterious Transportation, January 11, 2005

By	H.L. Mencken (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mysterium (Hardcover)

The books of Robert Charles Wilson, while cloaked in the familiar trappings of science fiction, are without exception quiet novels of character, of people forced to adapt to new situations and to remake themselves in a new world where the rules have been turned upside down. His work contains many of the same qualities of Roger Zelazny's ealy short stories, which were often considered weak on ideas but were written with such vigor and style that they forged his reputation back in the late 1960s.

In Mysterium, a possible alien artifact is taken to the small town of Two Rivers, Michigan, where a mysterious explosion somehow transports the entire population of the town into an alternate dimension. While keeping the tension running, Wilson sets a languid pace, affording us the opportunity to get know his characters, not just through the various problems they must now confront, but by examining how their past experiences dictate their responses to their present dilemma.