Couldn't put it down, and it made me go look up Calabi-Yau

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	• The Chronoliths Robert Charles Wilson Tor Science Fiction, 2002 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 108 reviews view larger image
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Fantastic world-building, plodding pace...

It may only have 300 pages, but it sure does seem a good deal longer. Unfortunately, this works against Wilson here rather than to his credit. In the opening, he creates this extraordinary, intriguing idea, and then never fully puts it to good use.

First, it must be said that Wilson's ability to create a legitimate and believable near-future are to be commended. With a timespan ranging from 2021 to around 2070, the technological and social developments seem very plausible and well-reasoned. Subtle changes from the present day are well-integrated, and don't seem to be forced or contrived. Basically, the setting created here is fantastic, including the situation established by the arrival of the Chronoliths. The plot taking place in this wonderful setting however, is not nearly as admirable.

I suppose that the chief complaint that I have against the plot is that it is so heavily character-based. Towards the latter half of this book, I kept asking myself, "What of real importance has happened so far?" I found myself answering, "Not much of anything." The characters and the world they live in grows and develops and changes, but to me, this does not constitute a plot, it constitutes the creation of a setting. So as a character study of the individuals involved it works admirably, but as for what these characters are actually doing, it's a disappointment. The ending was certainly decent, and connected well to many ideas introduced earlier in the novel, but the length here is disheartening.

3 Stars: A truly interesting future world and likable enough characters, but the plot seemed to drag on without much of a focus or ability to maintain interest.

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Couldn't put it down, and it made me go look up Calabi-Yau

I've been working hard to read a lot of the ARC's I received at Book Expo America and have read and reviewed three. But on a recent trip, I finished one and had only my trusty backup emergency paperback in my bag. It was The Chronoliths by Robert Charles Wilson, recommended to me by my friend Christopher (who also turned me on to Illium).

Christopher is 2 for 2; I could not put this book down. And he made me use the Internet to connect the dots of my long ago Physics degree and go back and refresh my old brain on manifolds and their relationship to quantum mechanics (yeah, I know...geek boy).

The Chronoliths tells of massive monuments that spring up instantaneously, the first one in Thailand, observed by our main character Scott. All of them have inscriptions of a battle won some twenty years in the future by a warlord named Kuin. Another springs up in the middle of Bangkok, causing devastation. The monuments are named Chronoliths, and begin showing up all over Asia, apparently foretelling the path of conquest of this future warlord.

The science is, of course, how can these monoliths be sent twenty years back in time, and how to stop them. Because as they appear with alarming regularity, mankind begins to believe that there is no way to stop them and society sees itself as doomed. A former college professor of Scott's, Sue Chopra, believes she can first predict and then stop the Chronolith's from forming, with some string theory / M-theory constructs:

I did not then and I do not now understand the physics of the Chronoliths, except in the pop-science sense. I know the technology involves the manipulation of Calabi-Yau spaces, which are the smallest constituent parts of both matter and energy, and that it uses a technique called slow fermionic decohesion to do this at practical energy levels. As to what really happens down there in the tangled origami of spacetime, I remain as ignorant as a newborn infant.

The pacing is this book is perfectly written. The science is integrated in with the story so that you barely notice it, done so by having the point of view for the novel from a man who is not a physicist or mathematician, so information gets dumbed down for him. But the science is written in a way that it made me follow the links back through the Internet to get an update on these theories. As was discussed during a session at Apollocon today (see John's notes at SF Signal), it's called science fiction for a reason; don't use them as science text books, but they make you think, remember and research the current theories and learnings.

Also, as a counterpoint to string theory, see Peter Woit's blog.

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Difficult book to pigeon hole

This was a really interesting idea, well told. The ending didn't quite work for me, but until the last 50 or so pages I was hooked. It's a sophisticated treatise about time travel and expectation creating reality. In the year 2020 a huge chronolith appears in Thailand, a man made monolith commemorating a military victory 20 years in the future. Then more and more of them come and the world comes apart, under the stress of these battles yet to come, these victories against armies unknown by a victor we have yet to meet. It was complex and thoughtful with the occasional gleaming sentence. I enjoyed spending time with Scott and his struggles and successes and would def recommend this book. A-

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Scott Warden is a man haunted by the past-and soon to be haunted by the future.

In early twenty-first-century Thailand, Scott is an expatriate slacker. Then, one day, he inadvertently witnesses an impossible event: the violent appearance of a 200-foot stone pillar in the forested interior. Its arrival collapses trees for a quarter mile around its base, freezing ice out of the air and emitting a burst of ionizing radiation. It appears to be composed of an exotic form of matter. And the inscription chiseled into it commemorates a military victory--sixteen years in the future.

Shortly afterwards, another, larger pillar arrives in the center of Bangkok-obliterating the city and killing thousands. Over the next several years, human society is transformed by these mysterious arrivals from, seemingly, our own near future. Who is the warlord "Kuin" whose victories they note?

Scott wants only to rebuild his life. But some strange loop of causality keeps drawing him in, to the central mystery and a final battle with the future.

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