The Chronoliths

by Robert Charles Wilson

Book Overview

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...

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0812545249
• ISBN13: 9780812545241
• Release Date: June 2002
• Publisher: Tor Books
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.37 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 4.2" x 6.7"

Customer Reviews

Interesting, well written, but slow...

I love SF, including hard science fiction, which I expected this to be, plus it sounded very intriguing, but I have to admit it was just OK for me. Although the premise was good and detailed, I was disappointed in how slow moving it was for me. It was probably because the main character was so "down" throughout the entire book, so character interaction wasn't really compelling. It was so "dry" it didn't hold my attention. Since there are so many other fantastic SF books, I probably won't read any more book by this author, despite his creativity and attention to detail.

Absolutely excellent and highly original science fiction

_The Chronoliths_ by Robert Charles Wilson has one of the most intriguing and original premises I have ever read in a science fiction novel. The book is presented as a memoir written in the first person by the main character, Scott Warden. He began the book relating his experiences in 2021 in an expatriate beach community in Thailand, where he was living with his wife, Janice, and their very young daughter, Kaitlin. Pretty much unemployed slacker "beach lizards" by his own description, fights with his wife over their future after his contract job as a computer programmer ended were forgotten after an extraordinary event. He and his friend Hitch Paley - a very colorful sometime-drug deal - journeyed a number of miles away to investigate the most extraordinary rumors. In an uninhabited forest near Chumphon a 200 foot tall stone pillar suddenly and very violently appeared overnight, collapsing all trees within a quarter mile and freezing ice out of the air in an immense and sudden blast of cold that accompanied its unexpected arrival. Hitch and Scott are among the first to arrive on the scene, skirting the Thai security cordon, seeing for themselves that the four-sided ice-encrusted pillar looked like it was made of some sort of deep blue glass, of incredibly smooth material that was obviously very exotic. Just before they left the pillar (to avoid being caught) they noticed that there is some writing on it, an inscription of some sorts. Though not able to read it themselves, it is later made public by the press. Written in a strange combination of pidgin Mandarin and basic English, it made clear that the monument was commemorating a battle, that it was erected in celebration of the surrender of southern Thailand and Malaysia to the forces of someone named Kuin. The fact that no one knew who this Kuin was was unusual enough, but even more startling was the date given for the battle; December 21, 2041. Twenty years in the future. Not long after that, another, even larger pillar appeared in the center of Bangkok, virtually obliterating the city with its violent arrival, killing thousands. From that point on the book follows two threads, both of which intertwine. At the level of the "big picture" still other pillars suddenly and violently appear in Asian cities, killing tens of thousands, coring the hearts out of living cities, weakening and later virtually destroying national governments. Governments scramble at the technical level to study the exotic material of the pillars, to find out how they are being created, that if they are from the future how they are being sent back in time, scientists struggling to see if there is a way a pillar can be detected before its arrival and perhaps lives could be saved. At the political and societal level people become more and more worried about this Kuin. Who is he? What does he want? Is his victory inevitable? Will his apparent conquests be confined just to Asia, or it will spread to Africa, Europe, and

Stirring, thoughtful SF

In "The Chronoliths," Robert Charles Wilson depicts a world on the brink of disintegration. Capably and sensitively told from the viewpoint of an alienated computer programmer, this unsettling novel begins with the inexplicable overnight appearance of a gigantic monolith from the near-future. As more of the enigmatic structures arrive across Asia (accompanied by tell-tale rises in radiation that allow mystified scientists to predict when the next "Chronolith" will make its appearance), political alliances crumble and the world gradually falls into a sort of apocalyptic stupor. For the "Chronoliths" appear to be victory monuments dedicated to a Hitler-like warlord who rises to power in a mere twenty years. And then things get weird: those unlucky enough to witness a Chronolith "touchdown" find themselves victims of "tau turbulence," an acausal phenomenon that casts severe doubt on the reality of "coincidence." Like M. Night Shyamalan's "Signs" on a planetary canvas, "The Chronoliths" is intellectually fascinating and distinctly human; there's not a wasted word or misplaced scene in the whole book. "The Chronoliths" is a masterpiece by a writer who knows precisely what he's doing, and certainly one of the very best SF novels of the decade.

A good story, extraordinarily well told

I haven't read any of Robert Charles Wilson's other books, so I don't know how typical this one is of his output. But it's a darned fine book. It's difficult to review it without including any spoilers, but I won't give away any details that you wouldn't learn in the first few pages.Here's the deal: It's 2021, and software developer Scott Warden is hanging out in Thailand with his wife and daughter when a big giant monument just sort of _appears_ out of nowhere, causing massive damage and death. What's even odder is that an inscription on the monument (dubbed a "Chronolith" by journalists) makes clear that it commemorates some sort of military victory by somebody named "Kuin" -- twenty years and three months in the future.The rest of the story, of course, I'm not going to tell you. But it's very cool.It will probably take you eighty or a hundred pages to get your mind around Warden (at least it did me). He's not in general a very sympathetic character, but give him time to grow on you; he's as interestingly flawed as, say, Charlie Armstead in Spider and Jeanne Robinson's _Stardance_, and you'll find that there _are_ reasons he's the way he is.You'll also like Sulamith (Sue) Chopra, an academic odd duck who is both an engaging character and a handy person to have around for another reason.See, most of the actual _science_ in this book takes place offstage, and Wilson relies on a device that's at least as old as Dr. John H. Watson's chronicles of Sherlock Holmes: there really _is_ some science behind the events in the novel, but the narrator isn't the one who knows it, so he conveniently doesn't have to explain it. Well, Sue Chopra does know it, and she gets to give little bits of pseudo-explanation in terms of "tau turbulence" and such -- but since Warden, rather implausibly, just can't get a handle on her explanations, the reader never really learns much about it. (That's the main reason I deducted a star from the book's rating.)But boy, does the narrative draw you in. You'll probably have a hard time putting it down. You won't have any trouble keeping the characters straight, either; Wilson paces things nicely and gets everybody properly introduced. And it does all come together in the end, very neatly.Don't expect a hope-filled, Spider-Robinson-like resolution, though; this is a pretty dark book and the characters are put pretty thoroughly through the mill.(By the way, extra points to Tor Books for a very nice piece of cover art. Unlike Baen, Tor seems to have its covers designed by people who actually read the books, and that view of the giant Chronolith next to the Wat comes straight out of the text.)

A quietly written, thoroughly involving grabber

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.

A one sitting read

In the twenty-first century, American expatriate Scott Warden wastes his life enjoying the pleasures of a Thailand beach community while ignoring the needs of his wife and daughter. However, his wastrel life abruptly ends when the monolith suddenly appears in the nearby forest, destroying trees and dispensing high levels of radiation. On the artifact is an inscription celebrating a military victory that happened sixteen years into the future. A second pillar lands in downtown Bangkok, destroying the city and killing many of its residents. Once again a military victory that occurred in the future is commemorated with a plaque. Other Chronoliths land all over Southeast Asia, causing havoc and sending Scott and his peers fleeing across the Pacific back to America. In Baltimore, Scott meets physicist Dr. Sue Chopra, who is studying the Chronoliths. She believes that the future is reaching back through time to create its past. Scott, now working for Sue, wonders whether the linear inevitability of the future with its conquering warlord Kuin can be stopped by the present choosing the path to the future? When it comes to a thinking person's science fiction novel, genre fans know Robert Charles Wilson is one of the best. His latest tale, THE CHRONOLITHS, is a strong story focusing on the time-space continuum with the future seemingly stretching its hand into the present. Mindful in many ways of the basic theme behind The Terminator, readers will accept the time travel premise and not care that it appears conceptually flawed. Mr. Wilson provides a powerful appealing story line that hypnotizes the audience into a one sitting read.Harriet Klausner