swingbeat 5/26: The Chronoliths by Robert Charles Wilson

Ah, I found a few more RCW books, after reading "Spin". This one also won an award.

The Chronoliths detail the story of a man and 20+ years of his life, when one day while vacationing in Thailand a big translucent monolith appeared in a field, devastating/freezing areas around it. The thing about it is that there is a date, and then name of a person/entity, "Kuin". This "Chronolith" signified the date that Kuin conquered that region, and it was 20 years ago.

As time went on, more Chronoliths appeared, and it tells the story of how the protagonist and his scientist friends try to discover who Kuin is, and what to do with the Chronoliths.

The book was pretty interesting with a nice buildup to the ending... which I thought was a big letdown. The story is detailed up to just before the date of the first Chronolith, and then swims past the next 20 years. I was expecting more, and while I understand the author's point to what he did with the story, I thought it was a bit hand-wavy... I wasn't a big fan. It wasn't even that big of a surprise ending/revelation (IMHO). But alas, it won some awards so you might like it :).

I haven't given up on RCW... already started on another book...