3.8 stars – I’m giving this a slightly lower rating because I’m so conflicted based on what I know about the author versus what I read in "Pastwatch: Redeeming Christopher Columbus".I've heard Orson Scott Card is a homophobe and actively works to promote his extremist views—but NONE of that comes through in his writing, at least not that I've seen. And frankly, I’m impressed with the heavy themes of tolerance and equality that are so prominent in "Pastwatch: Redeeming Christopher Columbus". I do...

This is a really interesting book that unfortunately stumbles in the final act. I was hooked by the way Orson Scott Card splits the narrative. One half vividly portrays Christopher Columbus as a flawed but driven man, single-mindedly pursuing his mission for years. The other half follows researchers from the future who are studying Columbus, grappling with the ethical minefield of potentially interfering with the past. I especially appreciated how the researchers' knowledge, theories, and goals ...

Orson Scott Card's highly entertaining 1996 novel, *Pastwatch: Redeeming Christopher Columbus*, is a time travel book and so much more. It's a must-read for fans of time travel books! Many great science fiction/fantasy writers have had fun and great success with time travel as an extension of their speculative vision. Heinlein, Poul Anderson, Bradbury, de Camp, H.G. Wells, Vonnegut, Twain, and Piers Anthony, to name just a few. There seem to be as many approaches to the time travel conundrum as...

My next stop on my time travel journey was *Pastwatch: Redeeming Christopher Columbus*, the 1996 novel by Orson Scott Card. This was my introduction to Card, one of the most prolific science fiction authors working today; his *Ender* saga alone is more impressive than most writers' entire careers. Rumor had it that *Pastwatch: Redeeming Christopher Columbus* was intended to be the start of a series, and with its attention to both character and history, along with its dedication to telling a real...

Before I dive in, I have to admit I have a weird relationship with Orson Scott Card's books. I might really like or even love a book or series, but when I stumble upon one I absolutely hate, I feel like tearing the heavens apart and demanding Card compensate me for the mental anguish it caused. I mean, I hate-hate-hate-hate **Pastwatch: Redeeming Christopher Columbus** with a passion that verges on religious zeal. There's no 'meh,' no disappointment, not even mild annoyance. Just pure, unadult...

This is an ideas book, not a character-driven one. In *Pastwatch: Redeeming Christopher Columbus*, Orson Scott Card explores the concept of a group deliberately traveling back in time to alter events, aiming for a "better" human history. It's the height of hubris, really, for any group of mortals to think they can accurately predict future events enough to know what to "improve." I agree with Card that humanity would have to be on the brink of extinction before allowing such an experiment. Ther...

4.0 to 4.5 stars. Another superb novel by Orson Scott Card. Apart from *Empire*, which I didn't like, I've found Card's novels to be consistently excellent. Both *Speaker for the Dead* and *Hart's Hope* are on my list of "All Time Favorites" (with *Ender's Game* not far behind). I was surprised that *Pastwatch: Redeeming Christopher Columbus* wasn't nominated for any of the sci-fi awards during its year. It was definitely worthy of being recognized as one of the best books of 1996. Highly RECOM...

Okay, so *Pastwatch: Redeeming Christopher Columbus* is... a choice. And not a good one. Honestly, it's steeped in a white supremacist reading of history that's just plain offensive. The whole idea is that Native Americans from the *future* meddled with the past to send Columbus to America because their future turned out so awful. Like, *they* screwed it up so badly they needed Columbus to 'fix' things. The book tries to soften some of Columbus's worst atrocities, painting him as some religious...

Nobody can blame Orson Scott Card for using Sci-Fi as a platform for propaganda; the medium itself (world-creation/world-defining) almost demands it. But unless you're particularly keen on the idea that Mormon "family values" are somehow universal and applicable throughout all of human history, you might not dig *Pastwatch: Redeeming Christopher Columbus*. I didn't. If you're the type who watches the History Channel and finds it deeply insightful, somehow missing the inherent bias in a historica...

Like all of Orson Scott Card's works, *Pastwatch: Redeeming Christopher Columbus* is well-written science fiction. However, similar to his *Rachel and Leah*, the characters pretending to be historical figures aren't very accurate. I enjoy good fiction and exciting narratives, but I dislike fiction pretending to be history, or a work that blurs the lines between history and fiction so much that you can't tell where imagination ends and facts begin. The idea that Columbus's voyage forever changed...