The Chronoliths

Rating:
Summary: A Brilliant concept; hypnotically executed
Review: I was bowled over by this book, and am now a big fan of the author, who was new to me, even though I've been reading SF since 1961 (he deserves far more publicity). Wilson is an excellent, down-to-earth writer, and his prose is interesting and free of cliches. The Chronoliths takes a nuclear idea and develops it utterly convincingly, so you think (and I was a Physics major), "This could really happen". It is the future influencing the present,with *nonlinear looping effects*, and Wilson makes you believe it -- the idea and the execution are both top-notch SF.

Rating:
Summary: Could Have Been Better!
Review: Monuments proclaiming victories by a future despot start appearing around the world. These monuments appear indestructible and wreck destruction where they land. Suddenly the world faces the inevitability of bleak future ruled by an unknown an evil presence that calls itself "Kuin."

Turmoil erupts, and cults calling themselves Kuinists start springing up. In the meantime a small group of government scientists start studying the monuments (chronoliths), to discover if they can be prevented from appearing or at least destroyed. They know they have less than 20 years to solve the riddle or the future will be as the chronoliths proclaim.

This is the backdrop behind the book, which principally deals with a man (Scotty), who by chance gets drawn into working with the scientists, mainly because he was present when the first chronolith appeared. Scotty must deal with abandoning his baby daughter when she was most in need and his own poor marriage collapsing. He carries a great deal of guilt with him for many years. Then when his daughter is whisked away by a Kuinist cult, Scotty goes to a support group where he meets Ashley, a woman whose son was also [lured] into the Kuinist cult. With Ashley, Scotty reinvents his life. Ashley is a woman in great need. Unlike with Scotty's first wife, Scotty is there for Ashley to help her get through difficult times.

This book has limited science fiction in it and is more political in nature. Being a big science fiction buff, I was a little bit let down by that. There is also a big climatic scene toward the end of the book where I felt the author's descriptions were lacking, which made it difficult for me to picture accurately what was occurring.

Not wanting to give anything away about the ending, I will only say that the book is in great need of a sequel.

Rating:
Summary: Monuments of Wars Won in the Future
Review: When I first read about Robert Charles Wilson's book, "The Chronoliths" I was very intreiged by the idea. The book is set in the not too distant future where the main character, ScottWarden, witnesses a large Washington Memorial-like monolith in the jungles of Chumphon. The monolith was created by a person named Kuin to celebrate his conquring of the area twenty years and three months in the future.

As we learn more about Scott's personal life, these chronoliths keep appearing throughout the world marking Kuin's conquest of the planet. As each chronolith appears, the world sinks deeper into depression and strife. Scott is hired by an old college professor, Sue Chopra, who is the leading research scientist of the chronoliths. Together, they try to solve the mystery of the strange objects, how they appear, and how to defeat Kuin before the entire world falls under his future control.

Overall, I felt that this was a pretty good book. It was a little slow to get started, but after about a third of the way through, it started picking up speed. The last third was a very fast read as I wanted to learn how they defeated Kuin. The book takes place over a twenty-year timeframe, which has large gaps within the story, so as large as seven years. I'm not sure that I enjoyed the end of the book though. I think it is very tough to write about time travel (I'm not sure what else to call this) without getting caught up in the paradoxes that are associated with it. Without giving away the end I'll use an analogy: Imagine that you read of your death before it happened, wouldn't you avoid the circumstance that created your death and thus live?

The only other complaint I have about this book is the fact that it's written in first person. I'm not a big fan of first person, which may have contributed to taking me a third of the book to get involved with it.

I felt Wilson did a good job of making you think with his topic. I think it was a pretty original story. He did a lot of work to come up with the chronoliths, the tau turbulance theory, and the outlook of the future. This book is worth the read.

Rating:
Summary: BORING WITH NO CLIMAX
Review: THIS BOOK LEFT ME FEELING EMPTY. THE NATURE OF THE CHRONLITHS AND THEIR ORIGIN IS NEVER EXPLAINED. ALL WE ARE TOLD IS THAT THEY WERE SENT BY SOMEONE NAMED "KUIN"- IT IS NEVER EXPLAINED WHO HE IS OR WHY HE SENT THE CHRONOLITHS. I FIND THIS TYPE OF WRITING TO BE EXTREMELY DECEIVING- AN INTERESTING MYSTERY IS PROPOSED, BUT THE AUTHOR THEN MAKES NO ATTEMPT TO RESOLVE THE MYSTERY OR TIE UP ANY LOOSE ENDS.

Rating:
Summary: A quietly written, thoroughly involving grabber
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Huh?
Review: I give this book two stars only because it has a promising premise.
Unfortunately the premise is not taken to any real extent. This is one of those stories that you keep reading hoping that it will all work out in the end. In this case it doesn't. Not even close. You are left with a big HUH? and a that's all feeling.
There was so much potential and at times I could feel the story moving in that direction only to have it slip away as it became tangible.

Rating:
Summary: A big concept novel, but the climax doesn't live up to it
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Great Concept Marred by Recycled Plot
Review: This is the first book by Mr. Wilson that I've read. I found it to be very well crafted, with strong dialogue and strong characterization. The science fiction concepts were intriguing and I enjoyed the entire read.

However, once I read Darwinia, I became greatly disappointed with The Chronoliths. The main character in Chronoliths is extremely similar to the main character in Darwinia. Both men are married and have a daughter. Early in the novel, their wives leave them due to their absence. I won't spoil more of Chronoliths, but if you're familiar with Guilford Law from Darwinia, you know Scott Warden from The Chronoliths. This does not apply just to his psychology, but to major plot elements.

I still would recommend The Chronoliths because it is indeed quite well written. I find it unfortunate that the main character and his story are not more original, even within the author's own body of work.

Rating:
Summary: could have been a lot better
Review: Great idea, great structure and decent execution. I applaude the author's creativity and story telling but the story just has no depth or unique styly. It doesn't hit you straight to your core it only scratches the first layer or two of your being. I urge the author to keep writing and exploring with his craft for he is talented. I just don't think this book is quite there. It was a fun read and moved relativley well. I am glad that I read it for the concepts alone. I don't know if I would have finished it if I didn't have so much free time on my hands at the time. It is averagely written and does not give you the hit that one expects when reading an imaginitie story of this type. I probably would give it a 3 and a half. Like I said the ideas are great but the writing is weak. I recomend it to those that are strongly interested in the idea, time travel, time webs, future paradoxes, and the magnetism of life and how it flows.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful book
Review: I bought this book based on some of the reviews, I've read here on amazon.com. This is the first book by this author I've read. I started reading it the day I got and just now, 4 hours later, have finished it. This is really an amazing story.

It starts in 2021 in Thailand when a huge monument, shaped vaugely like the Washington Monument, appears out of nowhere in the middle of a mountainous jungle. The monument appears to be made out of dark bluish glass-like material, is impervious to any known substance and has an inscription dedicating it to "Kuin's 1st victory - Dec 21st, 2041", 20 years in the future. Several months later another mysterious monument appears in the center of Bangkok, virtually destroying the city. As the monumnets continue to appear across Asia, all dedicated to military victories by Kuin, it is determined they can't be destoyed, even by atomic weapons. They can't be moved, even if all the earth around them is dug away, they just hang there. And their arrival sucks virtually all the heat out of the surrounding area, causing the nearby air to instantly solidify, the groundwater to instantly freeze, and a thermal shockwave to propagate.

The story is told in first person by a "code herder" named Scott Warden, who was in the area when the first monument (or Chronolith, as the press eventually dubs them) appears. His life and those of the people around him over the next 19 years are obviously affected by the march of the Chronoliths. First by economic deppression brought on by the collapse of the Asian economies, then by society drifting towards anarchy as people split into pro-Kuin and anti-Kuin camps. Throughout it all, he is hounded by nagging coincidences, the tau-factor of the Chronoliths themselves.

This book contains a truly staggering concept. If you could somehow start sending monuments to your military victories to the past, would they become self-fulfilling prophecies. This feedback-factor the book talks about is intriguing. Also intriguing is the concept of space-time as a cube of Minkowski ice. Imagine a cube of water freezing from the bottom up, the past is the static frozen water below, the present exists on the interface between the frozen water and the liquid above, and the malleable future is the liquid water on top. Chronoliths are hot spikes driven into the ice.

All in all, a great book. It's written in the first person, so you get a great feeling for the protagonist. The surrounding characters are equally well defined. It contains a minimum of invented technical jargon, because the author does a great job explaining concepts like the ones mentioned above. The book does leave some holes, just as would a similar story written by an average person detailing the last 20 years of his/her life, so the holes kind of add a nice feeling of authenticity to it.