Mediocre sci-fi; read Treason instead
Book review: Pastwatch by Orson Scott Card

Summary: a futuristic society, armed with technology that enables them to see into the past, feels collective guilt about humanity's prior transgressions against each other and nature. They seek to dramatically alter history by modifying the past around the time of Columbus's voyage.


This book is clearly well-researched, as evidenced by the bibliography. Card has done his homework on Columbus and on pre-Columbian native American societies. However, this novel lacks somewhat in character development, plot, and especially in believability. Card's primary error, I think, is that he asks the reader to believe in a world where individual actions have significant and accurately predictable effects on historical events; I lost interest in the story exactly when the characters started making speculative predictions about what would have happened if, and pretending that those predictions were entirely accurate. The story also (somewhat ironically) seems to bog down when the characters start actually making plans to alter the past. One saving grace is the chapter on how one of the time travelers, a native American named Hunahpu, first makes contact with pre-Columbian societies, playing God with future technology in order to impress the living shit out of the natives.

Ender's Game and Treason are better, and probably worth reading. I would rank this one, along with The Worthing Saga, as decent for a lazy afternoon trashy sci-fi read, but not worth going out of your way.


Any suggestions on what to read next?