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Space Books Media Book Reviews

The Chronoliths 243

Posted by timothy from the take-a-licking-keep-on-ticking dept.
Brooks Peck writes: "The Chronoliths, by the underappreciated* Robert Charles Wilson, is a finalist for the 2001 Hugo Award and Campbell Award. The tale begins in 2021 with the abrupt arrival of the first Chronolith, a 200-foot-high monument of unknown composition that memorializes a military victory. It's dated twenty years in the future. More Chronoliths follow, blinking into existence with explosive force--usually in the centers of cities. Each is grander than the last, and each lauds another victory by a leader who does not currently exist."
The Chronoliths
author Robert Charles Wilson
pages 301
publisher Tor Books
rating 8.5
reviewer Brooks Peck
ISBN 0812545249
summary Big honking monoliths beam in from the future.

Witness to it all is our narrator, Scott Warden. There's nothing special about this guy. He's no clever scientist, no tough soldier. He's just a computer programmer who happens to be close to the location of the first arrival. After that he's pulled into the Chronolith investigation by a series of seeming coincidences. But where the manipulation of time is involved, coincidence becomes a slippery concept--something his co-investigators are well aware of.

I consider this quiet, unassuming novel to be on the cutting edge of science fiction for this reason: it creates a literary metaphor for our current view (and fears) of the near future. Just as giant, mutant bugs stood for our fear of the bomb in the '50s, the Chronoliths represent our fear of what's just around the corner today. But today we can no longer easily predict what the future holds. Science changes things too quickly--so quickly that we can only say with confidence that we cannot say what the future will be like.

Science fiction writers have devised a variety of means to cope with this threat to their livelihood. Vernor Vinge pulls off a plausible (and excellent) space opera in A Fire Upon the Deep by having the universe limit how far science can progress depending on its location in the galaxy. Other writers retreat to the very near future. The rise in popularity of alternate history stories could be another byproduct of this dilemma.

But in The Chronoliths Wilson doesn't resort to any tricks. The novel is all about the unknowableness of the future, as represented by the Chronoliths themselves: impenetrable, unstoppable, and, most importantly, of our own making.

*Perhaps one reason Wilson isn't as well known as he should be is that his novels are not as strong as his short fiction. The Chronoliths, interestingly, is his first novel written in first-person, the point of view he chose for many of his best short stories including "The Perseids" and "The Inner Inner City."

You can purchase The Chronoliths from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
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The Chronoliths More

The Chronoliths

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  • Link is broken (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The link from the main page was broken

  • Er... This doesn't sound right... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by dmarien ( 523922 ) <dmarienNO@SPAMdmarien.com> on Friday July 12, 2002 @10:34AM (#3871097) Homepage
    "t's dated twenty years in the future..."

    Okay, i'm with you so far...

    "and each lauds another victory by a leader who does not currently exist."

    So, teenagers are winning the wars fought in the future? I knew the dexterity I had built up with a gamepad would come in handy some day... My giant robot remote controlled robot can beat yours anyday!
    • > "and each lauds another victory by a leader who does not currently exist."

      > So, teenagers are winning the wars fought in the future?
      Not having read the book, I don't know. But I'd take a guess that the leaders don't exist at the point in the fictional-future that the monument appears. At least, that's how I read it.

      > I knew the dexterity I had built up with a gamepad would come in handy some day
      If, on the other hand, your interpretation is the correct one, you don't exist and therefore should be vaninshing in a puff of logic about....now :)
    • I, like most here, haven't read the book. My guess though would be that they don't exist as leaders yet, though they probably exist as people. I've probably never heard of whoever will be leading the free world (?) in 20 years so he doesn't exist as far as I'm concerned. Then again, maybe I should read the book. Looks interesting.
    • So, teenagers are winning the wars fought in the future?

      Maybe he means that the person involved exists today but is not currently a leader.

      e.g. I am 23 right now but in 19 years I become a great leader and change my name to 'Zardan the indesctructible'. A year after that I win a great victory and the memorial says "Zardan the Indestructible won a great victory" The leader who wins the victory (me) is in his 40's and the name is not that of someone who exists as a leader today.

      It's confusing wording but perhaps that is what he means.
    • Read that as 'doesn't currently exist as a leader'. The person, in fact, is assumed to be somewhere, and because of the strange looping effect of knowing the future, is drawn forward into leadership by his own future successes. In fact, multiple potential leaders appear, all assuming that they will be the one that the Chronoliths refer to.

      Really, it's a pretty good book, but frankly, not one of my Robert Charles Wilson favorites. I'll take Mysterium or Memory Wire, or A Bridge of Years anyday. His older stuff is better than his newer stuff, IMHO.

    • Ender's Game (Score:3, Interesting)

      by ThereIsNoSporkNeo ( 587688 )
      Come now, certainly at least a few of you slashdotters out there have read Ender's game. Everyone knows that children make the most skillful and deadly military leaders. It is just one of those known facts.
  • I picked this up the other day (along with "Dead Girls [amazon.com]" (or available here [amazon.ca]) by Nancy Lee which was pretty good and I am not just saying that because I know the author) just for the fun of it.

    It has an interesting style and brings up questions about the nature of destiny and time, but I found it a bit unsatisfying. There were a number of fairly standard plot devices, although given a bit of a twist by the idea that the characters knew that they were somehow destined to come together.

    All in all I would rate it about 6/10.

  • Review is confusing (Score:2, Insightful)

    by pgpckt ( 312866 )

    What exactly is this book about? I find this book review lacking in the detail and length of normal book reviews. I would have expected a better review of the book, perhaps chapter by chapter highlights.

    From the review, it sounds like big statues to future events randomly appear. But I don't know what that means to the characters. How do people react to this? Do people try to prevent the wars before they start? Does it matter who the victor is? Does anyone ever figure out why these statues are appearing? Assuming they are being sent by humanity from the future, what is the motivation of those that send the statues? Are they warnings?

    I am having a hard time understanding the genre of the book and its plot from the review. If anyone else has read it, post your experiences.

    On an unrelated note, anyone else notice the karma system has changed? Apparently, my karma is now "excellent." Man, I want a point system back!

    • Re:Review is confusing (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Chairboy ( 88841 ) on Friday July 12, 2002 @10:41AM (#3871150) Homepage
      Chapter by chapter highlights? Are you certain you are not looking for the Cliff Notes version of the book instead?

      I suppose it's fairly common to confuse the concept of a review vs. Cliff Notes....

    • Re:Review is confusing (Score:4, Funny)

      by dmarien ( 523922 ) <dmarienNO@SPAMdmarien.com> on Friday July 12, 2002 @10:43AM (#3871167) Homepage
      The reviewer allready answered this. Look in the table that precedes the review...

      "summary: Big honking monoliths beam in from the future."

      Don't know how much more concise it can get... :)

    • Re:Review is confusing (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Darkfred ( 245270 ) on Friday July 12, 2002 @10:50AM (#3871212) Homepage Journal
      Umm you seem to be thinking this is a high school book report. What you have here is actually a book REVIEW and is meant to do nothing but whet your appetite for reading the book, as well as give a few opinions about how it stacks up relative to other books.
      Also the only kind of book reports that give chapter subjects and highlights are for purchasing technical or text books.

      But since you are obviously some sort of alien who only reads slashdot this may have been the only kind of book review you've seen.

      Regards,

    • I most respectfully disagree about this review. It gave me exactly what I needed to know to decide if the book might be something I would want to invest my time in.

      Of course, I also loathe movie trailers that give away most of the plot. From any summary medium like a review or a trailer, I want to know what the subject matter is about, not the details of what the subject matter is.

      Ow... I think I accidentally got Zen there for a moment and gave myself a headache...

    • It's hard to even tell it's a book he's talking about. it could be some game or some back room pot smoking gibberish that could include things like "maybe each atom is like a little solar system. with the nucleus being the sun and the electrons the planets" "whoa dude, trippy"

      let me put it in your language (as best i can fudge, i'm not a programmer myself...

      "programmer" =! "good book reviewer"

      hmmm, not sure how to say, could be, but not necessarily... damn 1 cred class of c++ two years ago, i can't remember that shite!

      ---is it drinking alone if you're talking to someone on IM?


    • Why repling to myself is bad form, I thought I should clear up that I wasn't asking for a cliff notes version, nor a spolier summary. I did however think it would be nice to clear up what is going on in this book (since from the review it is unfamilar to anything I have read). By chapter summaries, I meant I was hoping for a little more detail of what is going on in this book, what motivates the characters, and why these statues are appearing. This review didn't do that. There is not enough material for me. I do agree with those that commented they didn't want the book spolied. Neither do I, but I do need more to go on for a book that deviates from any plot lines that I am familar with.

      I hope this clears that up a bit :)

    • Re:Review is confusing (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Nomad7674 ( 453223 ) on Friday July 12, 2002 @01:08PM (#3872152) Homepage Journal
      Not sure this is a better review, but here is my take on it:

      An unknown terrorist leader from the future begins beaming back monuments to himself through time (think of the Washington Monument appearing suddenly in the middle of colonial virginia), which tell of a terrible war where this terrible leader won everything. These monuments appear with more and more frequency as time moves on, and the world begins to panic as they imagine a new Ghengis Khan, Hitler, or Hannibal. Like people claiming to be the Messiah today, people begin taking on the name of the leader and claiming to be HIM in their own areas of the world. Chaos threatens to engulf the world, as our heros try to find a way to prevent an outcome which has apparently already happened.

      Basically, I found the book interesting, but not exciting or compelling. The narrative was diverse and the ideas unusual, but in the end many threads were left unexplored and the book sort of peters out rather than ending with a bang. If you like speculative fiction, this will fill a pleasant afternoon but is not a "must-have."

      At least that is my two cents.

    • On an unrelated note, anyone else notice the karma system has changed?

      I wondered about this last night [slashdot.org]. I just want to know why no one told us.

  • "unknowableness" is a.k.a. uncertainty.
    • I'm not sure they're the same thing - Uncertainty can be reduced by using better measurement methods. Unknowableness can't be reduced, or it wouldn't be unknowableness.
      • Dude -- i'm uncertain about a lot of things that'll happen in the future... Will the earth implode, or be taken over by little green men? Will I get fired this afternoon if/when my boss finds out he's paying me to troll slashdot? I just don't know...

        A ruler isn't going to increase certainty of these events which I can't forsee.

    • uncertain != unknowable Something is "unknowable" if it is not possible to know it. (think epistemology) Something is "uncertain" if it may or may not happen.
    • "Ineffable". i.e. "The ineffable will of Bob".

      I forget which Douglas Adams book that's from... Any Douglas Adams fans around here today to remind me? I'm thinking it mighta been Mostly Harmless, but I'm not sure...

    • Re:F.Y.I (Score:3, Funny)

      by DrVxD ( 184537 )
      > "unknowableness" is a.k.a. uncertainty.
      Heisenberg unknowableness principle doesn't have the same ring to it though, does it?

  • "just a computer programmer" (Score:5, Funny)

    by DrVxD ( 184537 ) on Friday July 12, 2002 @10:40AM (#3871140) Homepage Journal
    > He's just a computer programmer
    Whaddya mean, JUST a computer programmer. Didn't you know that the geeks will inherit the earth?
    • Being a computer programmer does not automatically make somebody a geek.

      Some would say that unless a person can write code, read schematic diagrams, and maybe even solder, 'geek' status is questionable.

      'Hardware' isn't plugging together stuff with a phillips screwdriver in your hand. And 'writing code' isn't just shoving together something that will compile and run in C. Assembly language might even be added as a fourth requirement.

      Not that any of these things prevent wannas from ordering 'geek gear' from 'ThinkGeek' or other poseur salons.
    • No no.. That's "Meek" not "Geek." Unless of course the bible had a misprint...

  • Future Dating? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Ryan_Terry ( 444764 ) <messedupfmjNO@SPAMhotmail.com> on Friday July 12, 2002 @10:41AM (#3871148)
    **Disclaimer** I really know nothing about carbon dating, just babbling here...

    Now unless the "Born On" date was stamped to the bottom how exactly does one Future Date something? Does it actually gain more carbon that it would have now, so that by the time we see it the carbon is right?
    • I think they mean that there's a date engraved on the monuments that is 20 years in the future. Course, I havn't read this yet, so it's just a guess. But seeing as nobody else on here has, I don't mind posting this. :-)

    • Re:Future Dating? (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      **Disclaimer*** I'm not roman but
      ...you could just carve MXLI on it.

    • Re:Future Dating? (Score:5, Informative)

      by ajs ( 35943 ) <[ajs] [at] [ajs.com]> on Friday July 12, 2002 @10:51AM (#3871221) Homepage Journal
      Carbon dating only tells you how long it's been since an organic life form died. Thus it does not work on a) things that have never lived or b) things that are currently alive. If it worked in reverse, you would be able to tell me when I was going to die (sort of the topic of a R.A.H. short story, "Timeline").

      To be even more general, carbon dating assumes many things about the state of the atmosphere, sun, and organic life. It would work on another world, but the parameters are different.

      This is why after a certain horizon (measured in tens of thousands of years, AFAIK), you have to switch to something like Uranium-decay. Even still after you start going past a significant percentage of the Earth's history (say 500M-1B years) it starts getting hard to back up any specifics.

      Any geologitsts want to chime in here?

      • Re:Future Dating? (Score:4, Informative)

        by Peyna ( 14792 ) on Friday July 12, 2002 @10:53AM (#3871232) Homepage
        You also get things like a few nuclear weapon explosions messing it up too.
        • How can that have any effect?! Certainly a few tens of thousands of years from now, we'll see changes, but the geologic record that exists today is totally unchanged. Until the topsoil, plants, sea beds, etc of today become the rocks of tomorrow, uranium dating will still give us a pretty good idea of the age of a mineral sample won't it?
          • Do you not know how radiocarbon dating works? When all those nuclear tests were done it f'd up the amount of Carbon-14 in the atmosphere. Thus, in the future, it will be difficult to date objects from 1950+.

          • Re:Future Dating? (Score:2, Interesting)

            by Xeriar ( 456730 )
            We use Potassium-Argon dating along with Uranium dating, and another method (altogether called 'isochronic dating') to determine the age of the Earth.

            Sortof.

            These methods can only really determine when a given rock last solidified, becuase the daughter products can otherwise escape. Thus the oldest rock we've found for the Earth is 3.3 billion years or so, whereas the Moon dates to 4.55.

            Carbon-14 dating is tied to the atmospheric levels at a given point in time, which is correlated to tree-ring data (going back ~8,000 years) and another method which I forget. Because nukes produce C-14, it will appear to be a spike in the atmospheric data for future archeologists to puzzle out.

            • And of course there is the opposite effect caused by all the C12 we're pumping into the environment thanks to our use of fossil fuels.

              I feel sorry for the radiocarbon dating people.

              Best wishes,
              Mike.

            • IIRC Tree-ring data is used to 'calibrate' carbon-14 dating, because they usually don't exactly match up too well. Carbon-14 dating is relatively decent for younger things that were at one time alive. Of course, I can't quite figure out how coal, which is supposed to be millions of years since dead, stills has detectable levels of C-14 in it. I think that dating techniques are far from any kind of closed book, and need much more refinement than we currently have. We might be on the right track, but they need much more work.
            • Why would they have to "puzzle it out"? I assume that someone is recording atmospheric C-14 levels currently so there is no reason why future scientists would have to use tree rings. If you assume future scientists will still be using C-14 data, why not assume they will have (current level of knowledge) + X instead of (current level of knowledge) - X?

              Do you think at some point all of humanity will forget that we did nuclear tests? This is like the people worrying about putting up monoliths around the nuclear waste dump. In 500 years will English be a dead language? There are people around today translating 5000 year old writtings and 500 years from now linguists will have a much larger "rossetta stone" (think Library of Congress).

      • On a slightly off-topif vein, this reminds me of one of my favorite travesties of logic: a christian group once tried to "disprove" the usefulness of carbon dating. They had a technitian (against his protests) carbon date a live plant). Of course, the result was completely wacky, but you could interpret it as meaning that the plant was several thousand years old.

        From this, the conclusion was drawn that carbon dating doesn't work. Heh.

        Kind of like pointing a gun at your foot, turning off the safety, pulling the trigger and then claiming that guns can never be safe.... The sad part is that even today many anti-science types still recite the mantra that carbon dating is "known not to work".
        • So what you're saying is that certain religious groups have certain ideas which are so ill-founded as to be laughable, yet they will take every opportunity to use those ideas to embarass themselves in public? Fortunatly for them, stupidy is not the obstacle to survival that it once was :-)

      • oysters (Score:4, Interesting)

        by coyote-san ( 38515 ) on Friday July 12, 2002 @11:13AM (#3871370)
        You also have to pay close attention to the biological processes involved. One of the favorite "proofs" that evolution is all wrong and therefore the literal interpretation of the Christian book of Genesis *must* be accurate is the fact that some breed of oyster (or at least some type of clam) preferentially uses one isotope of carbon over another. It's enough so that you can pull an oyster from the ocean, eat most of the meat, and date the rest as thousands of years old.

        I don't remember the mechanism involved, but it's something that makes sense to the scientists involved and they can account for it. But anyone who's only had the standard K-12 exposure to science would be utterly confused by the results.

        • Re:oysters (Score:3, Funny)

          by merlyn ( 9918 )
          It's enough so that you can pull an oyster from the ocean, eat most of the meat, and date the rest as thousands of years old.
          Hey, I've been to that oyster bar. That explains it!

      • Entertaining part of Timeline, if you noticed, is that it has Mr Lazarus Long.

    • Actually, if it was in the future, and came to the past, it would have lost more of the carbon isotope than the rest of the world. Since the carbon decays and that is what is measured, it would have decayed into the future, where it was sent to the past. So it would still be possible to carbon date it, if it had carbon in the first place, and if carbon dating could get it to that specific of a year.

      But like someone else said, its probably date stamped.
  • I highly recommend this book. The link to it at Amazon is here [amazon.com]

  • Good scifi (Score:5, Insightful)

    by bravehamster ( 44836 ) on Friday July 12, 2002 @10:45AM (#3871177) Homepage Journal
    But today we can no longer easily predict what the future holds. Science changes things too quickly--so quickly that we can only say with confidence that we cannot say what the future will be like.
    Science fiction writers have devised a variety of means to cope with this threat to their livelihood.

    Science fiction has _never_ been about "this is what the future will be like!". Well, some of the crappy stuff is. The best science fiction is all about what-if. Good science fiction places characters in strange circumstances that may or may not bear any relation to a plausible future for humanity. The fun is in seeing how humans (or aliens for that matter) would deal with these circumstances. What-if there was an alien loose on your ship with acid for blood and lightning quick reflexes? What-if a colony of nanobots became self-aware? What-if we found the sun was inhabited with creatures who were slowing down the fusion processes at the center? The plausibility of these scenarios _actually happening_ is slim to none. But that has nothing to do with whether or not this is good science fiction. For me personally, if the story is based on hard science, then thats when I stop caring about the plausibility of the story.

    Any science fiction writer who sees himself as a prophet for the future needs to find a new line of work, like say, I don't know, start a cult [scientology.org] for instance.

    • You are absolutely correct. The best Sci-Fi is all about the what-if's. I have read essays by Bradbury, Asimov, and a few others all supporting this philosophy.

    • Re:Good scifi (Score:5, Funny)

      by DrVxD ( 184537 ) on Friday July 12, 2002 @11:07AM (#3871337) Homepage Journal
      > The plausibility of these scenarios _actually happening_ is slim to none

      So, earth creature, we have succeeded in lulling you into a false sense of security. You will kneel before the might Kr'a,nuth when he comes to take your pathetic little planet. All your chronoliths are belong to us.

    • Re:Good scifi (Score:2, Insightful)

      by charlesc ( 50846 )
      That's why people still care about "The Martian Chronicles", even so far as to make it required reading in some schools. The sense of wonder and the unknown and opportunity that the characters feel really jumps out and makes the reader feel the same wonder, even though we know none of that stuff is really going to happen in the time frame laid out by the book (or maybe ever).

      All the aliens and doodads and gizmos and bending universes and lasers and exploding planets in the world don't make up for a shitty story and paper doll characters.

  • cronolith? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Sogol ( 43574 ) on Friday July 12, 2002 @10:48AM (#3871195) Journal
    Cronolith: (noun) any entry in /etc/crontab whose width exceeds 80 characters

  • I found this book... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by eaeolian ( 560708 ) on Friday July 12, 2002 @10:50AM (#3871211)

    ...unsatisfying. While the premise is very interesting - always a good start in SF - the execution is somewhat lacking, as the plot elements are very guessable in a lot of places. I also thought the way the social unrest was depicted was overly-simplified, and the ending left something to be desired.

    On the plus side, the characters do come to life, and the story sweeps you along pretty well, and has a couple of interesting sub-plot twists. Overall, not a bad read, but it's not something I'll stand on the rooftops and shout about, either.

  • Good book, read it recently. (Score:5, Informative)

    by dpilot ( 134227 ) on Friday July 12, 2002 @10:51AM (#3871224) Homepage Journal
    Specifically, I read it on June 18, on airplanes and in airports taking a trip with my daughter.

    Good book, though IMHO "The Harvest" is still my Robert Charles Wilson favorite. (Kind of like "Childhood's End" but different.)

    To clear up a few basics, the Chronoliths appear, smashing cities where they do. They have writing on them, commemorating a battle victory 20 years in the future. No carbon dating needed, they read the information. If you suddenly had a big monument materialize obliterating your city, would you be prone to distrust the writing on it?

    Of a more interesting nature is a hero who is a hero by working his craft, not his fists. This aspect is reminiscent of Neal Stephenson's works or "Crosstime Engineer". (Author forgotten, but I think he was Polish) In most fiction no matter what the profession of the hero, the hero-work seems to get done with fists and guns. Nice to see a change.
    • Leo Frankowski is the name of the author. Really nifty little series.. (Crosstime Engineer) Gets abit corny into the 6th book but is a fun read.
      --Angus
    • > If you suddenly had a big monument materialize obliterating your city, would you be prone to distrust the writing on it?
      If it said "we come in peace", probably.
    • Hey, give us a spoiler summary. Someone! I'm never going to read this book, but my curiosity is getting the better of me and I want to know what happens.
    • Of a more interesting nature is a hero who is a hero by working his craft, not his fists. This aspect is reminiscent of Neal Stephenson's works
      Yeah, wasn't it neat how Snow Crash and Diamond Age didn't have lots of violence, car chases, and explosions?

      Oh wait--they did. Dang.

  • Woo hoo! (Score:5, Funny)

    by LittleGuy ( 267282 ) on Friday July 12, 2002 @10:53AM (#3871233)
    The tale begins in 2021 with the abrupt arrival of the first Chronolith, a 200-foot-high monument of unknown composition that memorializes a military victory.

    So, the Red Sox finally win a World Series?
  • I read Chronoliths and my favorite part was the beginning. The ending was my least favorite part, which probably means I didn't "get it". While enjoyed the concept of the book it didn't live up to my expectations.

    The entire book leads up to the arrival of the unkown conqueror Kuin. The pace increases with each new Chronolith. However when the date foretold on the first Chronolith arrives the book dries up and decides that it wasn't so interested in dealing with Kuin at all. I was disappointed.

    As far as the Hugos go my favorite this year is American Gods. I thought I'd hate the book, judging from its title and the fact that I'm not American at all. I nearly didn't read it, but in the end decided I couldn't make a fair judge of the other Hugo nominees without reading it. I am very glad I did. The American in the title refers to being of all of America, not just the USA.

    Neil Gaiman's Coraline just came out as well, and my copy's already in the mail.
    • As far as the Hugos go my favorite this year is American Gods. I thought I'd hate the book, judging from its title and the fact that I'm not American at all. I nearly didn't read it, but in the end decided I couldn't make a fair judge of the other Hugo nominees without reading it. I am very glad I did. The American in the title refers to being of all of America, not just the USA.
      Neil Gaiman's Coraline just came out as well, and my copy's already in the mail.

      I didn't think that I would like American Gods very much, but I picked it up on the recommendation of Uncle Willy [wilwheaton.net] and found out that I enjoyed it quite a bit. In fact, I just reread it again a couple weeks ago beore I started passing it around to my friends. It's not particularly dense reading (I finished it in one lazy Saturday) but is still quite entertaining.

  • Other reviews (Score:5, Informative)

    by Alien54 ( 180860 ) on Friday July 12, 2002 @10:56AM (#3871258) Journal
    Other reviews

    http://www.sfsite.com/10b/cl114.htm [sfsite.com]

    http://www.januarymagazine.com/SFF/chronoliths.htm l [januarymagazine.com]

    http://www.mervius.com/books/chronoliths.htm [mervius.com]

  • Never read anything by this Robert CHARLES Wilson guy, but Robert ANTON Wilson [rawilson.com] wrote some pretty cool, messed up books. Try the Illuminati trilogy....
  • Has anybody noted that there are shitloads of Robert Wilsons who specialize in Sci-Fi/Paranoia/Conspiracy -subjects?

    Robert Anton Wilson [rawilson.com] being a prime example.

    Check it out in Amazon [amazon.com] sometime, when you're really bored...

  • Why? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by arcmay ( 253138 ) on Friday July 12, 2002 @11:04AM (#3871317)
    This "review" is essentially only two paragraphs long. While I know most people don't want to see spoilers, I'd rather see something a bit more meaty. Beyond mentioning that it is in the first person, there is absolutely no discussion of the style or flow of the book. Is there action? How is the character development? Most Amazon reader reviews go into more depth.

    That being said, I have read this book and it is quite good. Also, I found it refreshingly short: Average readers will finish it in just a few sittings. Wilson manages to tell a complete and satisfying SF story in a few hundred pages, which is occurring less and less often.

    Anyway, if your curiosity is piqued, check out a more complete review here: http://www.sfsite.com/10b/cl114.htm

  • I liked it (Score:5, Informative)

    by larry bagina ( 561269 ) on Friday July 12, 2002 @11:06AM (#3871329) Journal
    The strength of Robert Charles Wilson's latest book is not in the time travel per se, but rather the response of a group of fully-developed, sympathetic characters to the phenomena they are encountering.

    To my delight (and unlike so much literary fiction these days), Wilson's protagonists DO SOMETHING. It may not always be the right course of action, but there is an understandable human motivation when it is the wrong course of action.

    Scotty, the protagonist, is strong yet flawed, and his fascination with The Chronoliths is kept in proper perspective. Sue Chopra, the brilliant physicist, is handled gingerly by an accomplished author.

    The time travel theme -- the appearance of "artifacts" from the future -- is not new but is integral to the story. And this latter point is crucial to good science fiction. The science (regardless of what you think of time travel dynamics) is consistent and interesting and becomes a de facto character in the tale.

    The only area where the novel could've been strengthened was the development of Scotty's relationship with his father, and indeed, development of the father's character in general.

    Nevertheless, this is an entertaining and thought-provoking book with a broad scope, engaging characters and a very interesting ending.

    It is also an optimistic allegory to the hope and renewel that always follows tragedy, like the euphoria following World War II.

    It is well worth the read. Wilson is going to be a major force in speculative fiction in years to come.
  • I'm curious what other book genres typical "geeks" enjoy reading. I used to read a great deal of scifi but I moved away from it during college, not having much time for extraneous books. Now I find myself attracted to pseudo-history books like Dumas' The Three Musketeers and Scott's Ivanhoe. In some ways, these books are related to scifi playing what-if games. What genres do you guys like to read besides scifi (and manuals)?

    • Personally (not that anyone will care, but just add to the thread):

      - History: currently reading Barbara Tuchman's The Proud Tower - A Portrait of The World Before the War [epinions.com], a somewhat episodic but interesting review of the late 19th century. There are some fascinating correspondances with the current climate (the chapter on the anarchists is particularly interesting - I was a bit vague on them before, but there is a real resonance with the current terrorist threat).

      Another big favourite recently was A World Lit Only By Fire - The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance [epinions.com] by William Manchester. Many medieval history books can be pretty dry, but this one is a cracking good read.

      For fiction I used to be a big fan of John Irving - I think The Hotel New Hampshire remains my favourite book of his, though I'm less enchanted with his recent stuff.

  • Okay, so the idea of these monuments, their potential meanings about the near future and so on, might be interestingly enigmatic. A little derivative, but hey, it was a good idea so why not steal it? (If you didn't immediately think of 2001, you may be alone.)

    This doesn't sound anything like subtle, though. Gee, these huge (city stomping) monuments have specific dates on them, and they all commemorate military victories (yawn) by some sort of conqueror named "Kuin." Talk about your ploddingly obvious directions to go...

  • Try a sample (Score:5, Interesting)

    by sh00z ( 206503 ) <sh00z@[ ]oo.com ['yah' in gap]> on Friday July 12, 2002 @11:32AM (#3871480) Journal
    There's an excerpt (from the grossly-overpriced ebook version) here [peanutpress.com].
  • Robert Charles Wilson is very good author. His more recent works have less than thrilled me though. Chronolith is a good book, but not nearly as compelling as some of his older ones ("The Harvest", "Gypsies", "A Bridge of Years"). Those are some of his best books. I would definitely recommend checking out the Harvest if you ever have the chance.
  • Geesh where have I seen the alienated techno geek and the smart sexy vaguely foreign brainiac chick hook up before?

    Oh yeah, in a million other books.

    I hope the book is better than the reviews and synopses.
  • ...but I have to say that "The Chronoliths" would be a cool name for a heavy metal band.

    (Sorry for the OT post, but I couldn't resist)

  • I've read it (Score:2, Informative)

    by Jett ( 135113 )
    I'm a pretty picky reader, but I this book was recommended to me, so I decided to give it a try. I was very suprised by how much I got into it. It is a little predictable occasionally, and there are a few spots where it feels a little sparse, but overall it's a very solid book. It is both well written and entertaining, and the author does a good job of explaining the ideas he is exploring without detracting from the plot.
    I got the feeling that the author strongly identified with his characters and did his best to imbue them with realistic traits and emotions, which is something sci-fi isn't really known for.

  • Simple solution. (Score:4, Funny)

    by blair1q ( 305137 ) on Friday July 12, 2002 @11:56AM (#3871667) Journal
    Why would two of them appear?

    All you need to do after the first one is make your own, saying "Stop spamming our time period!" They're bound to see it and realize their mistake.

    That'll stop them.

    --Blair
    • All you need to do after the first one is make your own, saying "Stop spamming our time period!" They're bound to see it and realize their mistake.

      Naw, that'll just validate your time zone to them, and before you know it, BAM, you've got ads for 'hot alien escorts' and the like:)

    • More likely, M$ would buy the chronolith technology, engrave the TCP/IP specification on one, send it back in time, and patent it in the future using the `lith as an example of prior art. Poof- they own the internet.

      The possibilities of governments and corporations trying to chronologically trump each other with this technology could be both frightening and humorous.

      -Cybrex

      "Put CP/M on the PC, not MS-DOS!"
      -Chronolith that appeared in Boca Raton, FL, 1980

  • ...that no one has yet noted the parallel between the social unrest (and corresponding government reaction) in the book and the "war on terrorism(tm)" being prosecuted by the United States.

    Clearly, the Chronoliths are a weapon of terror (a rather clever one, I might add). And while terror is not the central theme of the book, it clearly is a considerable factor in the economic, social and political upheaval that is the backdrop for the main story line.

    I will let each reader decide for him/herself whether there is any conclusion to be drawn or not.

  • The Author's strength is ability structure his books around unique social themes, and populate his books with a number of interesting ideas. The reviewer pointed out that the main character is a programmer - but his job is actually to 'evolve code', producing algorithms that he doesn't always understand. Unlike many sci-fi stories, where the earth unites around a common enemy - we have a hundred sub sects worshipping these cronoliths or trying to destroy them. That the book is full of such speculations on where our society is headed and how it responds keeps it interesting.

    That said, the editor could have taken a chain saw, shredded half the book at random, and it would have been a better read. The authors mediocre style and character development don't warrant the long development sections. This yields a how-to-read it suggestion: If a section starts to bore you: just skip a few paragraphs or pages at a time. You won't miss anything.

    As an aside, has anyone noticed the new assumption behind many current works of fiction? In the 90's, we had consipiracy theories. Before that, there were all the Apocolyptic novels. In the past 2 years, many of the near future sci-fi books that I've read take the fall or decline of the United States as a foregone conclusion. Cronoliths is no exception to this new pessimism.

  • He's just a computer programmer

    Just? What am I? A troll that lives under a bridge?

  • Suddenly today, my karma changed to 'excellent'. Could this be from the future?

    maybe this post will reduce my karma to 'not so excellent'. Only time will tell.

  • Sorry, I don't normally troll, but I've been at work for about thirty hours straight.
  • My cousin reviewed [24th-century.com]this book a couple months ago.. although if I recall correctly he said there was no sex in it... which in this case was a good thing, I guess. Anyway, you can check out review for a slightly more insane take on this book if you just can't get enough.

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