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The Chronoliths
by Robert Charles Wilson
(Tor Books, $6.99, paperback, 320 pages, first published 2001, this
edition 1 June 2002; ISBN: 0812545249.)
Tor Books is the unofficial American home of Canadian  fantastic
fiction. From the Northern series of genre anthologies co-edited
by Montrealer Glenn Grant, to English-language books by a number Québécois
authors, to regular releases by Ottawa fantasist Charles de Lint and
Toronto science fiction writer Robert Sawyer, Tor has given Canadian
writers a tangible presence south of the border.
Perhaps the most acclaimed of the Canadians on its roster is Robert
Charles Wilson. The Chronoliths is his fourth Tor release, and
his eleventh book altogether.
The macrostory of this novel involves the sudden and violent appearance
of gigantic monoliths proclaiming the future conquests of a mysterious
warlord named Kuin. These chronoliths, as the media dubs them, seem
to be sent from the future and are composed of a heretofore unknown
substance. The arrival of each chronolith is marked by intense bursts
of cold and destruction. Around the world, in a near future beset by
the same inequities and global social problems known today (only perhaps
more so), many people, faced with a hopeless future in a political system
that doesn't seem to care about them, see in the enigmatic Kuin not
a conqueror but a saviour.
Against this backdrop, the novel follows the story of Scott Warden,
a witness to the first chronolith manifestation. He is an ordinary man
who wishes nothing more than a safe and quiet life. However, he and
his loved ones repeatedly find themselves entangled in the world of
intrigue and violence surrounding the chronoliths.
The novel's greatest strength is the deft way it balances both the
micro and macro stories, each enriching the other. The Chronoliths
revels in exciting speculative ideas while offering a poignant personal
tale of coping with extraordinary circumstances.
Originally published, in slightly different form,
in The Montreal Gazette, Saturday, 13 October 2001.
Claude Lalumière's Fantastic Fiction
is a series of
capsule reviews first published in the Saturday Books
section of The Montreal Gazette.
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