Just Finished Reading: Pastwatch – The Redemption of Christopher Columbus by Orson Scott Card

In the distant future the remnants of the human race – now reduced to 700 million people – are busily rebuilding the planet most recently ravaged by war and ecological disaster. Hoping to recover the lost treasures of our cultural heritage they begin scanning past ages in order to recreate lost works of art. Other operatives in the Pastwatch organisation collect data on long dead cultures and one team sends shockwaves through their hierarchy when they apparently discover that some of the people being watched can sense them. It is not long before the idea is raised that information could be sent into the past to ‘correct’ the future. Whilst the debate rages amongst the scientists and politicians another discovery rocks them to their core. Such manipulation has already taken place! Pastwatch agents from an alternate – now vanished - future have managed to manipulate Christopher Columbus in order to focus his attention on finding a way to Cathay over the Atlantic thereby discovering the America’s. But why did they do that? Was the alternative of not sailing West so much worse than what had already occurred? Would it be possible to manipulate this pivotal figure again and save the world from destruction even if it meant that the existing timeline would be reset yet again?

This was a pure delight to read. Books such as this explain the fact why I’m still reading SF after 35 years. Incredibly well written and full of interesting ideas this is much more than a shining example of alternate history. It is a well researched and illuminating study of what was and what very well might have been. It is a ‘what-if’ par excellence. Card has managed to produce a deeply adult tale of exploration, tribulation and redemption as well as an intriguing story of a possible utopian future full of hope. As usual with such rare gems I both wanted to devour this book and savour every page, ever event and every character. As you might imagine I now want to find out as much as possible about the period to see just how much of the authors detailed storytelling is real. It certainly felt real so I guess he did his job sufficiently for me to totally suspend any disbelief I might have had. This is probably the best book I’ve read in the last 12 months and one of the best in the last 5 years. Its attention to detail and simultaneous breadth of vision is literally breathtaking. I found myself staring at a page more than once completely blown away by the quality of the ideas washing around inside my head. Such feelings are rare indeed especially after the thousands of books I’ve read. It’s the feeling of finding something uniquely good, of finding something great and the wistful feeling of wanting to read it for the first time again. It was the feeling I remember from my teenage years when I first discovered SF. I know by saying such things I’ll probably raise some peoples expectations too far and they’ll be disappointed by the book itself but somehow I don’t think so – at least I hope not. This is a truly wonderful work of speculative fiction that should delight anyone with any hint of a ‘what-if’ questioning mind. I can not, as you may have noticed, recommend it too highly. Quite superb.