The novel “The Chronoliths” by Robert Charles Wilson was published for the first time in 2001. It won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award.
Scott Warden remained in Thailand with his wife and daughter after finishing a job as a software developer. He spends a lot of time with Hitch Paley, another American who does illegal jobs, especially as a smuggler. The two men are among the first to see a kind of monolith that has appeared in the jungle under very strange circumstances. The object bears an inscription commemorating a military victory by a mysterious Kuin twenty years in the future.
An infection contracted by Kaitlin, Scott Warden’s daughter, is the main cause of the divorce between him and his wife. The experience with the monolith leads Scott to meet Sue Chopra, a scientist who was his teacher during his college years and is studying the monoliths that started appearing one after another around the world. No one knows who the mysterious Kuin is, yet more and more political and social movements claim to be inspired by him, upsetting the political landscape of various nations.
“The Chronoliths” is told in the first person by Scott Warden, an overall ordinary and not particularly nice man who found himself in the midst of a totally extraordinary situation such as the appearance of a huge monolith arrived from the future. He thinks he found himself in that situation by chance but Sue Chopra tells him many times that nothing happens by chance. It’s one of the themes that offer food for thought in the novel although the answer depends enormously on the validity of the hypothesis offered regarding time travel.
It must be said that “The Chronolites” isn’t exactly a hard science fiction novel because the scientific principles behind time travel are only hinted at without going in-depth. Calabi-Yau spaces are mentioned several times with vague explanations. There are even fewer mentions of possible time paradoxes.
Robert Charles Wilson is interested in recounting the consequences of the arrival of the monoliths, which are called chronoliths, on a social level with political implications. The leader celebrated in the inscriptions called Kuin remains a mystery yet for many, he becomes a sort of messianic figure who gives life to religious cults.
Scott Warden is an ordinary person but for this very reason, he sees closely the influence that the mysterious Kuin has on other ordinary people, including his daughter. Young people looking for reference points are the ones who are most attracted to the Kuinist cult, but many people of Scott’s generation also join that cult.
Circumstances, whether by chance, fate or otherwise, lead Scott Warden’s family to be close to important events for several years. This justifies his centrality in the narrative even if at times, I got the impression that Robert Charles Wilson went on a little too long. That’s especially true of Scott’s parents, who aren’t as close to those events but still have plenty of space.
My satisfaction with “The Chronolites” is only partial probably because I read it after the magnificent “Spin“, which Robert Charles Wilson published some years later. The narrative structure of the two novels bears several similarities with extraordinary events that have profound social consequences. “Spin” also has a cosmic dimension that remains present throughout the novel with much stronger developments than the appearance of the chronoliths.
Actually, if you don’t let its dark tones make you sad, “The Chronolites” is a great novel. Kuin’s identity is a mystery, yet for a lot of people, the arrival of the chronoliths is enough to change their lives in various ways explored by Robert Charles Wilson. The exploration of what faith in Kuin is with all its ramifications and consequences is the main reason why I recommend reading this novel.
