Helpful Score: 4
I found this book to be a welcome relief from the common break-neck paced SF novel. The concepts seem simple on the surface; giant artifacts from the future are appear all over the world. The artifacts are man-made and mark the coming conquest of the world.
The events and characters have depth and complexity. Yet there is a subtly and grace to the writing style that brought the story more alive than most SF novels I've read.
Highly recommended!
The events and characters have depth and complexity. Yet there is a subtly and grace to the writing style that brought the story more alive than most SF novels I've read.
Highly recommended!
Helpful Score: 2
A novel of time and time changes, as a series near-future events impact the past. Causality is explored and the idea of "fate as inevitable" gets stretched in an interesting way. Recommended.
A very well crafted tale of time travel that avoids paradox. "Time travel only appears to be a paradox when viewed through a three-dimensional window."
The "science" is given to the reader through a character who doesn't really understand it, which is usually a pet peeve of mind since it gives the author an out as far as really thinking it through and making it make sense. Not so with this book--quotes from the scientist who DOES understand it gives you just enough information to make you stop reading, look up, and give it some intense thought. This is what I like about science fiction, and this book does it well.
While there is a great deal of violence in the story line, most of it is handled peripherally so the reader is not exposed to a lot of gratuitous action and gore.
This is my first exposure to this author and I will definitely seek him out again.
The "science" is given to the reader through a character who doesn't really understand it, which is usually a pet peeve of mind since it gives the author an out as far as really thinking it through and making it make sense. Not so with this book--quotes from the scientist who DOES understand it gives you just enough information to make you stop reading, look up, and give it some intense thought. This is what I like about science fiction, and this book does it well.
While there is a great deal of violence in the story line, most of it is handled peripherally so the reader is not exposed to a lot of gratuitous action and gore.
This is my first exposure to this author and I will definitely seek him out again.
I read Spin and Axis and really enjoyed them so I thought i'd try another work by Wilson. I wasn't disappointed. I really enjoyed this read. A very intelligent book that is at the same time character driven.
A software engineer, Scott, is 'on break' in rural Thailand when he and his drug-dealing buddy Hitch happen to be in the right place at the right (wrong?) time to be some of the first people to view the first of the Chronoliths - giant obelisks that appear out of nowhere, announcing the military victory of the enigmatic Kuin - dated to happen twenty years and three months in the future. And Thailand is only the first - soon more and more appear, causing widespread death and destruction, and causing not just awe but cults, secret societies, frantic military readying and scientific investigation.
The book has interesting thoughts on the physics of time, the social effects of monuments (and self-fulfilling prophecies).
However, although the writing in this book is noticeably more masterful than in the earlier book I read by Wilson, the 'feel' of its style, I thought, was still very 'mainstream-thriller.'
The book has interesting thoughts on the physics of time, the social effects of monuments (and self-fulfilling prophecies).
However, although the writing in this book is noticeably more masterful than in the earlier book I read by Wilson, the 'feel' of its style, I thought, was still very 'mainstream-thriller.'
facsinating read
I had been wanting to read this book for a while, so I eagerly tore into it when it arrived. Unfortunately, it was not a very satisfying read. The main character was hard to relate to and the milieu of the collapsing economy not well drawn out. Further, the overall mystery (where are the chronoliths coming from and how do we stop them!) was not solved with any satisfaction. The book would have been more interesting if it had shifted view points throughout rather than sticking with the main character who just seemed to stumble blindly through life (although perhaps that was part of the point the author was trying to make). In short-- the concept for the book was interesting, just not well executed.
Strange alien monuments appear on earth. What are they? And why are they here?
Interesting SF novel
Interesting SF novel
I really enjoyed this one. A time travel tale from the outside with a nice twist to it.
