3.8- i rank this lower because im so conflicted based on what i know about the author vs what i read in this book. I hear OSC is a homophobe and actively works for his extremist views—- but NONE of that comes thru in his writing to date. And frankly I’m impressed with the heavy themes of tolerance and equality that is heavy in this book. I dont know what to make of it 🤔This story follows multiple characters from future who can watch the past for study but are unable to change anything. Of cours...

A really interesting book with a really dissapointing last third.I loved how half of this is the story of Christopher Columbus, portrayed as a not that likable but determined man, working towards a mission for years, and the other half is about researchers from the future studying him and the possibility of interfering with him. The researchers knowledge, theories and goals kept evolving and I much prefered that approach to having the same mission from the start. This really is a book about stud...

Orson Scott Card’s very entertaining 1996 novel Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus is a time travel book and so much more.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 seems to be as many approaches to the time travel conundrum as there are writers, but generally falling into...

The next stop in my time travel marathon was Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus, the 1996 novel by Orson Scott Card. This was my introduction to Card, one of the more prolific science fiction authors working; his Ender saga alone equals the flex of most writers out there. Pastwatch was rumored to be the beginning of a series, and with the attention to both character and history, as well as dedication to a rousing good tale, I couldn't be more excited to visit this world again.Past...

Before I start this, I just have to say I have this kind of funny reaction to Card's books. I may like or love a book/series but when I find one that I hate, I want to tear the heavens apart and demand Card pay for my mental illness that was caused by reading it.I mean, I hate-hate-hate-hate with a passion that borders on religious fervor. There is no meh or disappointed or even mild hatred or annoyance.This is because Card is a very good story teller. He's made a huge name for himself and this ...

This is an idea book, not a character book. In this book, Card is exploring the idea that a group of people would deliberately go back in time to alter events in such a way that human history would work out "better." The height of hubris, definitely, for any group of mortals to think they could predict future events accurately enough to know what to "improve." I think that Card is right that humanity would have to be in the brink of extinction before they would permit such an experiment.There ar...

4.0 to 4.5 stars. Another superb novel by OSC. Apart from Empire which I did not like, I have found Card's novels to be consistently excellent and 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 to see that this novel was not among the list of nominees for any of the SF awards during its year of eligibility. It was certainly worthy of being recognized as one of the best of 1996. RECOMMENDED!!

This is an interesting book but based entirely on a white supremacist view of history.The basic premise is that Native Americans from the future interfered in history to send Columbus to America because the future they created was so horrible.This book seeks to correct some of Columbus's more horrible actions but pretends that he was a religious man when he was a scammer and a liar.It's offensive as fuck.On every level.White folks create genocide on every continent they inhabit, create mass slav...

No one can begrudge Card for using Sci-Fi as a field for propaganda: the medium itself (world-creation/world-defining) by nature almost requires it. But unless you're rather fond of the idea that mormon "family values" are somehow universal, and extend throughout the whole history of humanity, than you might not go for this book. I didn't. If you're the sort who watches the history channel and finds it profound, somehow missing the propaganda within a narrative of human actions throughout record...

This is a well-written work of science fiction, as are all of Card's works. Like his Rachel and Leah, however, the characters of this book who pretend to be historical are not very accurate. I enjoy good fiction and exciting narratives. I dislike fiction masquerading as history or a work such as this blurring the lines between history and fiction so thoroughly that it is impossible to see where the imagination ends and facts begin. The idea that the voyage of Columbus changed the entire face of ...