The Chronoliths [IMPORT] (Hardcover)

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!

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.)