5/8/08
Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Colombus
Pastwatch is an academic organization dedicated to documenting human history. They do so by using a
new technological device called a "TrueSite" which allows them to actually look at the past through a sort
of TV screen (like in the movie Deja Vu with Denzel, I'm pretty sure they ripped this book off
cuz it's the exact same thing). The story takes place in the future, where the Earth is finally a peaceful
place, and there are no more wars or starvation. The only problem is that after all the wars, there are only
a couple million people left.
An African girl named Tagiri
- a member of Pastwatch- is at the center of the story. She begins
using the TrueSite to trace back her ancestors, reliving their lives. She is horrified to find the brutal
effects of slavery on her family and tribe. She investigates deeper, and finds more occurances of rape,
slaying, and enslavement. Disgusted, she becomes obsessed with the idea of slavery and concludes that this has
got to be humanity's darkest trait. Eventually she comes across Columbus. With his voyage, he single-handedly
changed the face of the western world and brought hundreds of years of misery to these people.
What intrigued her the most about Columbus was his determination to sail west. Why? It's almost as if he had some information nobody else did, almost as if he knew what he would find. Tagiri concludes that Columbus' arrival in the new world is the single most important event in human history, an event that if reversed might prevent the millions of deaths from the conquest.
The book's point of view shifts from Tagiri and her team, to that of Columbus as he makes his way up the ranks until he manages to convince the king and queen to allow him to command a fleet of ships in a voyage. As you see his story progress, you also see Pastwatch's research progress as well, focusing on Columbus and trying to figure out a way to somehow prevent him from reaching new land.
This is about as much as I'll say about the story, because I feel that one of the best things about
reading this book is finding out on your own how things will unfold.
My Experience
This book was recommended to me at work about five years ago by some white dude that saw me reading a book about the conquest of Latin America. He said "Oh, I think I have a book you'll be interested in." He let me borrow it, and I read it skeptically. I'm not into hardcore sci-fi; I don't like Star Wars and I hate Star Trek. When I saw this was a sci-fi author I thought I wasn't going to like it. Damn was I wrong. This book is fucking tight.
I re-read it recently because I saw it at the store and remembered how much I liked it, so I bought it. It never got boring, and with the point of view changing from chapter to chapter it kept getting interesting. For example, Tagiri saw something on the TrueSite that no one had ever seen before, and indicated that it might be possible to do more than just view the past, but to actually interact with it. Then the chapter ends and it switches to Columbus. He's going through his own shit, so when something interesting happens to him, the story switches back to Pastwatch and your anticipation keeps mounting. Obviously it was written with this intention, but damn it worked for me. I found it hard to put this book down once I read enough into it.
One of the better aspects of the book is that the author makes every word count. There's no descriptions of rooms, with lavish artwork on the walls detailing how expensive they must be and giving you like three paragraphs of their history. Fuck that, what you get is more story progression by the page.
Another cool thing is that it gets you thinking. Several moral and ethical issues come up, such as if you were able to change the past, should you? Doing so would change the present, meaning everyone in the present would never have existed. Essentially, to save people in the past, you would sacrifice the lives in the present. The idea that "the world is finally at peace and why change it now" comes up, but that is countered with "that doesn't justify the deaths of people, what that basically says is their deaths are worth it because our lives are ok, therefore our lives are more important." It's pretty dope.
The coolest part was when they consulted a scientist of Mayan descent that had been studying the Aztecs, Toltecs, Mayans and other tribes (which us as Mexicanos, are all our people). He had input on the native's politics, and they touched on the subject of the Aztec Empire being on the brink of collapse when the conquistadores came. What could be done, if anything, to unite the people to effectively fight off the foreigners? Seeing that play out was fucking tight.
I recommend this book to anyone willing to sit down and read it. The book is more of a historical novel than a sci-fi book, so don't make a mistake of passing it up like I almost did. Sadly the only thing I didn't like about the book was the final chapters. Everything leads up to a potentially epic ending, but somehow everything just sort of fizzles to tranquility. It was alright, but it could have been so much more. Actually, because I felt let down I'm giving this book the 4 1/2 instead of a flat out five.