The Chronoliths

{ June 2022 - Verified ebook for complete book description, cover image, table of contents, separation of book (front/ back matter, parts, and chapters), and epub format error checking. } Paperback, 304 pages Published: 2001 Edition: Orb Book (2011) John W. Campbell Memorial for Best SF (2002) Winner Hugo Award for Best Novel (2002) Nominee Locus Award for Best SF Novel (2002) Nominee Scott Warden is a man haunted by the past-and soon to be haunted by the future. In 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 form of matter. And the inscription chiseled into it commemorates a military victory--sixteen years in the future. Shortly afterwards, another, larger pillar arrives in the center of Bangkok-obliterating the city and killing thousands. Over the next several years, human society is transformed by these mysterious arrivals from, seemingly, our own near future. Who is the warlord "Kuin" whose victories they note? Scott wants only to rebuild his life. But some strange loop of causality keeps drawing him in, to the central mystery and a final battle with the future.

21st century Thailand, Scott is a slacker in a beach community of expatriates, barely supporting his family. One day he witnesses the appearance of a 200-foot stone pillar in the forested interior.

VOYA

Scott Warden and his family are living a marginal existence in southern Thailand in 2021 when the first chronolith arrives with a rumble and a shock wave of bitter cold and radiation. It is a massive, three-hundred-foot-high blue pillar, celebrating a military victory that will take place twenty years in the future. Scott is among the first to arrive on the scene, linking him inexorably with subsequent chronoliths. Some arrive in uninhabited areas;others devastate cities. All are monuments to victories by a mysterious future leader called Kuin. Later, Scott, divorced and living in the United States, is offered a job by physicist Sue Chopra, whom he had met while a student at Cornell. Sue is working on the chronoliths and making even more progress than her government bosses realize. As new chronoliths appear ever closer to Europe and America, economies crumble and violent cults appear in the name of Kuin. Scott undertakes a desperate mission to Mexico to rescue his own daughter, who has been drawn into a Kuinist cult. Although by now scientists can predict the arrival of a chronolith, they are still powerless to destroy them. Sue believes that if a chronolith could be destroyed, the mythic power of Kuin would erode. Wilson writes intelligent, well-crafted, original science fiction that results in an excellent read. The hero is a flawed being who gradually redeems himself. The other characters are likeable, self-centered, or frightening, but always believable. The author's premises might be less so, but the plot moves along nicely to a surprising and satisfying conclusion. VOYA CODES:5Q 3P S A/YA (Hard to imagine it being any better written;Will appeal with pushing;Senior High, definedas grades 10 to 12;Adult and Young Adult). 2001, Tor, 256p, $22.95. Ages 15 to Adult. Reviewer:Rayna Patton—VOYA, December 2001 (Vol. 24, No. 5)

Scott Warden is a man haunted by the past—and soon to be haunted by the future. In 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 form of matter. And the inscription chiseled into it commemorates a military victory—sixteen years in the future. Shortly afterwards, another, larger pillar arrives in the center of Bangkok—obliterating the city and killing thousands. Over the next several years, human society is transformed by these mysterious arrivals from, seemingly, our own near future. Who is the warlord "Kuin" whose victories they note? Scott wants only to rebuild his life. But some strange loop of causality keeps drawing him in, to the central mystery and a final battle with the future. The Chronoliths by Robert Charles Wilson is a 2002 Hugo Award Nominee for Best Novel and the winner of the 2002 John W. Campbell Memorial Award. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied. Scott Warden is a man haunted by the past-and soon to be haunted by the future. In 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 form of matter. And the inscription chiseled into it commemorates a military victory--sixteen years in the future. Shortly afterwards, another, larger pillar arrives in the center of Bangkok-obliterating the city and killing thousands. Over the next several years, human society is transformed by these mysterious arrivals from, seemingly, our own near future. Who is the warlord "Kuin" whose victories they note' Scott wants only to rebuild his life. But some strange loop of causality keeps drawing him in, to the central mystery and a final battle with the future. The Chronoliths is a 2002 Hugo Award Nominee for Best Novel and the winner of the 2002 John W. Campbell Memorial Award. At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied "AIn twenty-first-century Asia, the appearance of huge stone pillars that emit ionizing radiation and bear inscriptions commemorating military victories from the future draws Scott Warden into the mystery of these bizarre monuments and a confrontation withthe future"-- Publisher