I've been meaning to reread The Chronoliths for some time now, and this year I have found the perfect excuse (not that I needed one), but I sort of like it when 'planets align': 2021 is the year when the first chronolith appeared in Chumphon.It surprised me how fresh I still had it in mind, when most of the details seem to fade in time. Not this time though; the only new thing is that I saw the chronoliths a bit different this time around.Kuin could be either Quinn, Adam's middle name, and possi...

Scott Warden is a man haunted by the past-and soon to be haunted by the future.Time travel - only it is backwardsIn 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 f...

In a lot of ways, this is an excellent novel full of well-conceived characters driven by a slowly disintegrating society. Add suddenly appearing strange event/objects, the Chronoliths, and watch our near-future implode.This is not an action-fueled novel. It is family-driven, obliquely and curiously propelled by the inclusion of old colleagues and the slow social collapse of our world. Think Spin, but not with the stars disappearing. Just add big monoliths that suddenly warp space-time, appearing...

Storyline: 4/5Characters: 3/5Writing Style: 3/5World: 4/5This is one of my favorite science fiction reads thus far this year. Others I've enjoyed about as much include The Mote in God's Eye and Anvil of Stars, though I think The Chronoliths was the best of the three. I would place it on a shelf with "idea" books - a category I very much enjoy. Other, similar books that it shares shelf space with include Philip Jose Farmer's To Your Scattered Bodies Go, John Scalzi's Old Man's War, Vernor Vinge's...

Frankly, I don't think I'm able to say much about it because I don't think I understood it completely. No, I'm sure I didn't.The premise is this: chronoliths are suddenly starting to appear all over Asia and expand in some other regions. They are monuments from an unknown material which praise the victory of one named Kuin in wars which will occur 20 years in the future. Nobody knows who is Kuin, but the world is thrown into chaos, because some of these giants appeared in the middle of cities, d...

This is my second read of this one. It is an exceptionally good novel; has the beginnings of what is so great about his Spin novel which he published a few tears later. I would recommend this as a great start if you are interested in reading RCW’s work. Truly a talented author of the genre.

This is a fine mix of Big Idea SF with human drama on a much smaller scale. The Big Idea is a conqueror from the future named "Kuin" who is somehow able to send massive monuments to his victories back in time, where they stand invulnerable and ominous over the lands he is destined to conquer. The first ones are in Thailand, but over the next few years they appear all over Asia. Some materialize in relatively unpopulated areas, but some appear in the middle of cities, flattening them with shockwa...

In The Chronoliths, the world is rocked by the sudden arrival of massive obelisks, or "chronoliths," which appear to be a future conqueror's monuments to battles that have not yet occurred. As the chronoliths continue to appear, the world descends into economic and social chaos. Robert Charles Wilson is a brilliant writer and this is standard fare for him: a character story involving normal people caught up in major, world-altering preternatural events.While The Chronoliths has an interesting pr...

On the positive side, this book did have interesting ideas. It unfolded nicely over a span of several years, cataloging changes and effects -- showing economic downturn, how people's way of living changed. There were moments when I was engaged, and interested in what was going to happen next.But I found these moments were few and far between. I couldn't stand the narrator -- the kind of guy who screws up his first marriage, and manages to shakily repair his relationship with his daughter, barrin...

In our near future, the chronoliths start arriving out of thin air across the world – enormous, destructive monuments to conquests that, according to the engravings, won’t occur for twenty more years. Scott writes his memoir, telling of his presence at the arrival of the first chronolith in Thailand and the set of extraordinary experiences that keep his life entwined with the mystery and the slim hope of averting global disaster. The chronoliths arrive from the future, and they bring with them a...