What do You think about The Chronoliths (2002)?
In The Chronoliths, the world is rocked by the sudden arrival of massive obelisks, or "chronoliths," which appear to be a future conqueror's monuments to battles that have not yet occurred. As the chronoliths continue to appear, the world descends into economic and social chaos. Robert Charles Wilson is a brilliant writer and this is standard fare for him: a character story involving normal people caught up in major, world-altering preternatural events.While The Chronoliths has an interesting premise, it is flat and intensely boring at times. Much of the action occurs elsewhere when the viewpoint character is not present. Wilson fails to use the chronoliths' potential. They are fascinating objects but they are reduced to a setting, a mere backdrop by which our hero, Scott Warden, looks retrospectively on his life. To make matters worse, Warden is unlikable and apathetic. We often get the sense that he isn't involved in the story but rather that he just happens to be standing there when the story occurs.Wilson almost always surprises the reader with something completely unexpected at the end. Unfortunately, there are few surprises here. The chronoliths turn out to be disappointing and less interesting than expected. Overall, The Chronoliths was anti-climactic. Whereas most Wilson novels leave the reader feeling awed, I finished it thinking, "Is that it?" If you're a Wilson fan you may enjoy this one, but it is hardly Wilson's greatest achievement. If you haven't read Spin or Blind Lake, I suggest going there first.
—Josh
"The Chronoliths" is a science fiction story set in the near future that describes the events that occurred in one man's life after he witnessed the arrival of a large monument from the future in Thailand. As time goes on, more monuments appear around the world, causing political upheaval and a growing effort to uncover the root of this mystery. The story explores the nature of reality, asking fascinating questions like, "Are some events inevitable?" and "What can we do to change the future?" And, while it delves into some pretty intense topics, it doesn't drown the reader in physics (which I appreciated as a reader who knows very little about physics!). What I found most exciting about this book was the way in which the story is presented; all from the point of view of an ordinary man who is quite flawed. Yet he also seems honourable, a view that forms over the course of the book as we follow his life and his relationships, with his family and with his former professor, Sue, who draws him into her research about the monuments, called 'chronoliths'. Another thing I found very interesting about this book was its narration style. Like one of my favourite books, World War Z, it is written as an account of an era, by a narrator looking back on the situation that once was. This style allows for the reader to participate in the narrator's personal reflection of the events he is describing, which a really intriguing way of getting to know him. This book might seem anti-climactic to some, since it is not packed with action, but I prefer to think of it as a character study, so it did not disappoint. (4 stars out of 5)
—Katherine
It's the 21st century, and nothing has really changed. Things are going pretty much as we expect - the rich are getting richer, the world is ticking along, and people are busy not thinking about the future. Oh, plenty of people say they think about the future, but when they say that, they usually just mean their future. Not THE future.Scott Warden doesn't even think about his future. He's an expat beach bum living in Thailand, barely supporting his wife and his young daughter, and pretty well content to stay that way. Until, of course, he is invited to see the first of the Chronoliths.The Chronolith is a towering monument - ice-cold and ice-blue, it stabs hundreds of feet in the air and is made of no material that science can identify. At the base, there is an inscription, proclaiming a great military victory - 20 years in the future.An unknown warlord named Kuin will, in about two decades, run roughshod over the world, erecting these time-violating towers in his wake. And, through coincidence or causality, Scott gets pulled into the attempt to stop Kuin before he can even get started.It's a fun book, and I really like Wilson's style. He kind of sucks you in, and that's something I haven't gotten in a long while. what's more, he is an intelligent writer, in more ways than one. He not only manages to explain the theoretical underpinnings behind his plot - some pretty abstract theoretical physics - but he's also careful to show the psychological and social implications of the Chronoliths. How would people react to the sure and certain knowledge that, in twenty years' time, a supremely powerful warlord would start rampaging across the world? How would different social classes and age groups react, and what would be the political and economic results?Without getting bogged down in technicalities, Wilson does an excellent job at painting a future in decline. Not a dystopia by any means, just one of those periods where things aren't so good - where they could get much worse just as easily as they could get much better.I enjoyed him so much, I think I'll go right on to the other book of his that I have....
—Chris
