Killing Time (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

It's 2023, and the Web has almost destroyed the world. While cyberspace's early pioneers promoted the Net as a revolution in human communication, America has instead become a society of desk-bound introverts who believe everything they read. The federal government has been "bought" by a Microsoft-style corporation. Any semblance of central authority has vanished. As the Net infiltrates India and Pakistan, fevered nationalists and terrorists find one more medium through which to spread the word.

With Killing Time, Caleb Carr (The Alienist, The Angel of Darkness) manages to create a future that's both frightening and nostalgic. The novel's narrator, Dr. Gideon Wolfe, longs for a world before technology swallowed people's minds and imaginations. Through a series of complex misadventures, beginning with the murder of his best friend, Gideon finds himself joining a ragtag army of scientists and inventors who hope to take it back. Heading up this '60s-style revolutionary cell is a brother-sister team--genetically engineered geniuses with silver hair and shining eyes. Aboard their ultramodern ship, Gideon learns the extent of the damage done. When they dive below the surface of the Atlantic, he looks out the window and sees

not an idyllic scene of aquatic wonder such as childhood stories might have led me to expect but rather a horrifying expanse of brown water filled with human and animal waste, all of it endlessly roiled but never cleansed by the steady pulse of the offshore currents.

Carr's future is suffused with regret. It's also rife with mystery and suspense; in every chapter the stakes are raised a little higher, the apocalypse hovers a little closer. This author is a master of the cliffhanger, of cryptic warnings that return to haunt our hero later in the text. Occasional flashes of humor relieve the prevailing ominousness, and a beautiful girl with a huge gun appears at regular intervals to keep things humming. Fans of Steve Erickson's end-of-the-world novels will likely enjoy this adventure in the Internet age, where the sheer amount of information has induced not quantitative changes in the human psyche, but qualitative ones. --Ellen Williams

From Publishers Weekly

Famous for his bestselling thrillers re-creating old New York (The Alienist; The Angel of Darkness) and trained as a military historian (The Devil Soldier), Carr leaps into the future for his third novelDand lands with a thud. Set about 25 years ahead, the first-person narrative describes the grim adventures of Gideon Wolfe, a bestselling author who joins forces with a band of outsiders intent on alerting the world to the dangers of excess information untempered by wisdom. By 2023, the Internet has multiplied wildly the ability of power possessors to deceive the general populace, resulting in a globe devastated by ecological blight and filled with near-zombies glued to computer screens. Some groups have escaped this fateDparticularly those living in unwired if disease-ravaged areas of Africa and AsiaDand a few, led by the enormously wealthy and brilliant brother-and-sister team of Malcolm and Larissa Tressalian, have vowed to fight it. These two, with a small crew, bring Gideon aboard their fantastic flying/diving fortress vehicle. They explain that for years they've seeded world-shaking disinformationDfor instance, that Winston Churchill plotted the outbreak of WWI and that St. Paul advocated lying about the life and miracles of Jesus in order to spread the faith. They've planned to reveal these hoaxes as such, to warn about the power of disinformation, but they're stymied by both the cleverness of their own lies and by a new threat that sees one of their hoaxes lead to possible nuclear Armageddon. This book is as much didactic essay as novel, filled with preachy talk. Characters are broad but memorable, and there's some brisk action, but the suspense relies too much on forebodings and cliffhangersDno doubt because the text originally appeared as a serial in Time magazine, from November 1999 to June 2000 (it's been slightly revised for this edition). The prose Carr uses is elaborate, near-VictorianDperhaps a holdover from his other novelsDand ill suits a futuristic tale. As readers navigate it, they won't be quite killing time, but they'll be wounding it for sure. (Nov.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Random House; 1st edition (November 7, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679463321
• ISBN-13: 978-0679463320
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (246 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #903,471 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Despite a strong beginning, this book ultimately fails, December 9, 2000

By	Debbie Lee Wesselmann (the Lehigh Valley, PA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

"The world wants to be deceived": this is the premise of Caleb Carr's new novel, set in the near future, 2024. By this time, the United States not only has had its first female president, but she has been assasinated. Much of the world has suffered through a global economic collapse and a plague, and the seas are filled with sewage and no life. A band of educated idealists takes it upon themselves (arrogantly, I might add) to better the world through their deceptions, which are made easy by the "modern" internet and the high level of technology. Of course, control is a slippery thing to contain.

After I survived the first short chapter that sounded annoyingly like the Myst/Riven series of computer games, I found myself reading furiously. Then, strangely, Carr lost my interest. His characters began pontificating and debating and justifying their actions so much that I could no longer stand it. Characterizations? Barely there. Vivid scenes? Sorry. This book is not filled with bad writing, as another reviewer states, but rather bad fiction. Carr seems to have forgotten how to show, not tell, and the result is heavy-handed and hardly believable fantasy fiction.

If you read numerous books during the year, this is an okay addition to your list, but don't bother if you read only occasionally. You'll find far more rewarding books out there.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Well, the idea was interesting, November 19, 2000

By	Benjamin L Lewin (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

Well, I'll start by saying that I do think that Caleb Carr is a very talented writer, HOWEVER, this book is an amateur effort, at best. Every chapter ends with heavy handed foreshadowing, and a cliff hanger which seems to be thrown in to keep you from putting the book down in disgust. The characters are very one-dimensional, especially the main character, and the book almost feels like a Luddite rant. Up until the end, technology is described as a purely destructive force, but then it is used to solve all the worlds ills in a Deus ex machina-like resolution, which to me felt like Star Trek's universal translator. To sum things up, while I do think that Caleb Carr writes very good historical thrillers, science fiction fables are not his forte. I would suggest picking up any James Morrow book instead of reading this.

33 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars new genre but same quality writing, November 8, 2000

By	"cacophony7" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Being a big fan of THE ALIENIST and ANGEL OF DARKNESS (which I actually liked better), I quickly devoured this latest novel by Caleb Carr. If you're familiar with Mr. Carr's work you'll know he usually writes period thrillers which introduce real-life people and events into a fictional tale. While I knew (from advance reviews) that this book wasn't historical (actually, it's set in the near future), I found the writing style and unique tone to be very smiliar to Mr. Carr's other novels. The book gets off to an exciting start with the main character of Dr. Gideon Wolff running from pursuing enemies in Africa - from page one I was sucked in and wanted to learn more. The story itself and it's central subject matter are fascinating - I don't want to give away any of the plot secrets, but overall the book is about how "truth" is easily manufactured by the public's willingness to believe whatever information the media and internet feed us. Even though this book is a new genre for Mr. Carr, I think you will find it an engrossing and timely read.