The Chronoliths

A few years in the future, massive monuments marking the victories of a warlord known only as "Kuin" start appearing around the world. The dates on them are about 20 years into the future. As more and more of the monuments appear, it becomes obvious that Kuin is using some unknown technology to not only mark his victories, but to send the announcements into the past - possibly in the belief that warning the world in advance that he's already won will make his victories even more guaranteed.

As scientists scramble to try and figure out how the massive monuments (chronoliths) are being deployed, and theoreticians debate about whether Kuin's actions are self-fulfilling and/or have created a paradox that will change Kuin's very existence, a programmer called Scott gets swept up in the events surrounding the chronoliths and finds his life permanently entwined with them from the appearance of the very first. Through Scott's memoirs we learn of his history with the chronoliths and his involvement, at first just as an observer, but later working with a group of the scientists studying the temporal phenomena around them, and finally involved in an attempt to try and destroy one. Meanwhile the world itself is dramatically changed simply by their arrival; groups of "Kuinists" form, convinced that Kuin is inevitable and that humanity may as well just embrace their future overlord.

The science and in particular the theories around the chronoliths are really interesting, in particular the discussions of how Kuin might have changed time, and the idea that maybe there never was a Kuin, or at least not really a warlord, but if someone managed to send back the chronoliths and convince the world that there WOULD be a Kuin, then it would become a self-fulfilling prophecy as groups like the Kuinists embrace the 'inevitable' and make it come to pass, even if it hadn't ever really been. The science is cleverly written and the story sparks lots of interesting thinking along these lines So why only three stars? Because I found Scott himself a fairly unlikeable character, as are many of the characters in fact. Some aren't terrible, but as they're all seen through Scott's eyes there wasn't a single one I really fell in love with. In addition, Wilson chooses to define all the women in Scott's family (wives and daughters) by their relation to Scott. He is variously savior, swooping in at the last minute to rescue them, or they are beaten up and raped so we can see his reaction to it. They have so little actual existence of their own that we never even seem to find out what happens to his daughter's husband in the end. And yes, the story is told by Scott so to some degree it makes sense that he's telling it as if the world revolves around him, but it still felt like a very self-centered view of the world in which nobody else's character gets to develop and everything that happens to them happens because of its affect on Scott. Nobody in the story has anything happen to them that is irrelevant to Scott, and I just found that made for a rather boring narrative. And I want to know what happened to his daughter's life in the end - actually I'm far more interested in that than what happens to Scott, truth be told.

So in summary: interesting science, thought-provoking time paradoxes, strong start, moderately interesting middle, rather unsatisfying ending, and lots of women in fridges revolving around Scott as center of the universe.

Encore une fois Wilson a l’art de plonger des personnages ordinaires dans des situations extraordinaires. Il utilise le concept inusable et ô combien fascinant du paradoxe temporel. Une infime partie du futur est révélée à la face du monde. Un conquérant marque ses victoires par l’”émission” de monuments commémorant ses conquêtes. Sur Kuin on n’en sait pas plus, si ce n’est que la technologie utilisée est encore inconnue. Le narrateur fait partie de quelques anti-héros coincés dans un monde en mutation, aux prises avec des événements que la science conçoit à peine, évoluent au fil de plusieurs décennies dans une société en décomposition. L’Humanité sombre dans la paranoïa, les nations s’effondrent et le pessimisme s’empare des jeunes générations qui ont grandi avec l’attente du mystérieux Kuin. Cette menace dont on ne sait finalement rien engendre de nouvelles organisations politiques, de mouvements fanatiques, des crises économiques, des guerres. L’histoire tient la route de sa par son traitement profondément humain. Chez Wilson le propos est toujours fort et son approche de l’humanité toujours subtile et réaliste. Pas d’effets grandiloquents ni de grosses ficelles, on reste dans la sobriété et l’intelligence.
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