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Product Description
From the Hugo-winning author of Spin, an exuberant adventure in a post-climate-change America
In the reign of President Deklan Comstock, a reborn United States is struggling back to prosperity. Over a century after the Efflorescence of Oil, after the Fall of the Cities, after the False Tribulation, after the days of the Pious Presidents, the sixty stars and thirteen stripes wave from the plains of Athabaska to the national capital in New York. In Colorado Springs, the Dominion sees to the nation's spiritual needs. In Labrador, the Army wages war on the Dutch. America, unified, is rising once again.
Then out of Labrador come tales of the war hero “Captain Commongold.” The masses follow his adventures in the popular press. The Army adores him. The President is...troubled. Especially when the dashing Captain turns out to be his nephew Julian, son of the President’s late brother Bryce--a popular general who challenged the President’s power, and paid the ultimate price.
As Julian ascends to the pinnacle of power, his admiration for the works of the Secular Ancients sets him at fatal odds with the Dominion. Treachery and intrigue will dog him as he closes in on the accomplishment of his lifelong ambition: to make a film about the life of Charles Darwin.
About the Author
ROBERT CHARLES WILSON was born in California and lives in Toronto. His novel Spin won the Hugo Award in 2006. He won the Philip K. Dick Award for his debut novel A Hidden Place; Canada’s Aurora Award for Darwinia; and the John W. Campbell Award for The Chronoliths.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
This novel purports to be a true account of events written by one Adam Hazzard, a Church-educated literate farm hand, who witnessed the rise (and presumed fall) of one Julian Comstock. At the beginning, the reader is told that s/he will know of the events to come, which is unlikely as this is a story from the future, set in an America that has declined catastrophically when the oil ran out and the global economy crashed.
The power in this future America is the Church of the Dominion, a union of Christian Churches, from mainstream to the oddball: Adam Hazzard's Church of Signs for example uses snakes as a part of worship. The economy is mainly agriculture, with a few people ('aristos') owning the land, and everyone else either being leased workers (who 'loan' their labour for food and lodgings) or indentured hands, who are wage slaves. The government is 'elected' by the aristos who pledge the votes of their leased workers. Its main task is fighting a war against invading Europeans, known colloquially as the 'Dutch'. This war is a re-run of American Civil War-style fighting, except with some technological twists: sub-machine guns and long-range artillery, the latter supplied by the Chinese. The Presidency is inherited, and the current President, Deklan Conqueror, is Julian's uncle. It is suspected that Deklan had Julian's father killed, because of his successes in the war. The narrative begins with Julian, Adam and one Sam Godwin, a military veteran, who advises and protects Julian, trying to escape a draft into the Army, ordered by Deklan to get Julian to the front and a fatal encounter with a bullet. Finally, Julian is a free thinker, who reads prohibited books from the previous age of the Secular Ancients, about Darwin, and the scientific achievements of the old America, which sets up a major faultline in the story.
But the story takes second place to the artifice of this book. The writing style is mock nineteenth century, filtered through a prim Christian, who has read a limited range of popular hack-written fiction. The text itself is used knowingly for amusement, for example with funny footnotes. Hazzard enounters a journalist and later a publisher and these are stereotyped to the hilt. Other texts by Adam Hazzard play a major part in the plot and eventually he gets to write a 'bestseller' himself which has a cover depicting, inter alia, an octopus, which is not in the story but which make the book more saleable.
While there are resonances with the current political landscape in America and the story itself is fun, this book lacks the originality and sweep of imagination that previously characterised this author.
The power in this future America is the Church of the Dominion, a union of Christian Churches, from mainstream to the oddball: Adam Hazzard's Church of Signs for example uses snakes as a part of worship. The economy is mainly agriculture, with a few people ('aristos') owning the land, and everyone else either being leased workers (who 'loan' their labour for food and lodgings) or indentured hands, who are wage slaves. The government is 'elected' by the aristos who pledge the votes of their leased workers. Its main task is fighting a war against invading Europeans, known colloquially as the 'Dutch'. This war is a re-run of American Civil War-style fighting, except with some technological twists: sub-machine guns and long-range artillery, the latter supplied by the Chinese. The Presidency is inherited, and the current President, Deklan Conqueror, is Julian's uncle. It is suspected that Deklan had Julian's father killed, because of his successes in the war. The narrative begins with Julian, Adam and one Sam Godwin, a military veteran, who advises and protects Julian, trying to escape a draft into the Army, ordered by Deklan to get Julian to the front and a fatal encounter with a bullet. Finally, Julian is a free thinker, who reads prohibited books from the previous age of the Secular Ancients, about Darwin, and the scientific achievements of the old America, which sets up a major faultline in the story.
But the story takes second place to the artifice of this book. The writing style is mock nineteenth century, filtered through a prim Christian, who has read a limited range of popular hack-written fiction. The text itself is used knowingly for amusement, for example with funny footnotes. Hazzard enounters a journalist and later a publisher and these are stereotyped to the hilt. Other texts by Adam Hazzard play a major part in the plot and eventually he gets to write a 'bestseller' himself which has a cover depicting, inter alia, an octopus, which is not in the story but which make the book more saleable.
While there are resonances with the current political landscape in America and the story itself is fun, this book lacks the originality and sweep of imagination that previously characterised this author.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
This is an extremely well realised novel that succeeds both as a story of a dystopian future and as an exercise in in the literary style of C19th American writers.
The protagonist is one Adam Hazzard, who is recording a memoir of his friend Julian Comstock and his rise to prominence. Mr Hazzard is writing nineteen years after his friend's rise, and some two hundred and eighty years in our future.
This future is one of Robert Charles Wilson's great achievements in this book. Our world has collapsed with the end of oil and a number of related human and ecological disasters. By the time of the events of the book, civilisation has been restored to C19th century levels. The United States, with its capital in Manhattan, has grown to sixty states and is in a state of almost constant warfare in Labrador with the "Dutch" (the soldiers of Mittel Europa, dominated by Germany) for control of the North West Passage. America is divided into rejuvenated but dangerous cities and rural estates where "Aristos" rule over the leasing classes (freemen reliant of the Aristos) and the indentured - essentially slaves descended from urban refugees who gave their service for food during the End Of Cities. Social conformity is enforced by the Dominion which oversees the recognised churches and suppresses dangerous knowledge
Julian Comstock, nephew of President Deklan Comstock who had his father killed for becoming too popular, is sent to obscurity in the Mid-West. Here, he befriends the humble Adam Hazzard. Forced to flee, accompanied by Julian's tutor and protector Sam Godwin, the friends undergo a series of adventures that lead, via the battlefront, to Manhattan. Here Julian will finally have the opportunity to spread his radical, rational message.
Robert Wilson is able to use this future not simply to pastiche Victorian America, but to offer a commentary on other times and places, including our own, and offer some thoughts on the nature of belief and its relationship to science. Julian's fascination with Charles Darwin is particularly well handled to show that the Inquisition was not the only obstacle to scientific thought.
Although the focus is on C19th references, Wilson has not restricted himself to that. The Dominion clearly stands comparison to the Inquisition (although not that alone) and Julian's career resembles the Emperor Julian the Apostate, as is clear from his name.
Robert Wilson's other triumph is in his realisation of a C19th century literary style. He does this deftly and in a manner that keeps the modern reader's attention. Mark Twain is an obvious influence, but I suspect that the Memoirs of Ulysses S Grant also have a place in Mr. Wilson's inspiration. He invests Adam Hazzard with a clear eye, but an enduring political innocence (possibly not as innocent in the later stages). One of the best recurring literary jokes is Adam recording verbatim his Canadian wife's French remarks without actually understanding them.
Wilson has achieved the most difficult of feats with works of this type - he manages to maintain the style throughout. Other authors rarely achieve this; for instance, both Connie Willis in "To Say Nothing Of The Dog" and Adam Roberts in "Swiftly" have anachronistic lapses.
This book works well on all levels. Highly recommended.
The protagonist is one Adam Hazzard, who is recording a memoir of his friend Julian Comstock and his rise to prominence. Mr Hazzard is writing nineteen years after his friend's rise, and some two hundred and eighty years in our future.
This future is one of Robert Charles Wilson's great achievements in this book. Our world has collapsed with the end of oil and a number of related human and ecological disasters. By the time of the events of the book, civilisation has been restored to C19th century levels. The United States, with its capital in Manhattan, has grown to sixty states and is in a state of almost constant warfare in Labrador with the "Dutch" (the soldiers of Mittel Europa, dominated by Germany) for control of the North West Passage. America is divided into rejuvenated but dangerous cities and rural estates where "Aristos" rule over the leasing classes (freemen reliant of the Aristos) and the indentured - essentially slaves descended from urban refugees who gave their service for food during the End Of Cities. Social conformity is enforced by the Dominion which oversees the recognised churches and suppresses dangerous knowledge
Julian Comstock, nephew of President Deklan Comstock who had his father killed for becoming too popular, is sent to obscurity in the Mid-West. Here, he befriends the humble Adam Hazzard. Forced to flee, accompanied by Julian's tutor and protector Sam Godwin, the friends undergo a series of adventures that lead, via the battlefront, to Manhattan. Here Julian will finally have the opportunity to spread his radical, rational message.
Robert Wilson is able to use this future not simply to pastiche Victorian America, but to offer a commentary on other times and places, including our own, and offer some thoughts on the nature of belief and its relationship to science. Julian's fascination with Charles Darwin is particularly well handled to show that the Inquisition was not the only obstacle to scientific thought.
Although the focus is on C19th references, Wilson has not restricted himself to that. The Dominion clearly stands comparison to the Inquisition (although not that alone) and Julian's career resembles the Emperor Julian the Apostate, as is clear from his name.
Robert Wilson's other triumph is in his realisation of a C19th century literary style. He does this deftly and in a manner that keeps the modern reader's attention. Mark Twain is an obvious influence, but I suspect that the Memoirs of Ulysses S Grant also have a place in Mr. Wilson's inspiration. He invests Adam Hazzard with a clear eye, but an enduring political innocence (possibly not as innocent in the later stages). One of the best recurring literary jokes is Adam recording verbatim his Canadian wife's French remarks without actually understanding them.
Wilson has achieved the most difficult of feats with works of this type - he manages to maintain the style throughout. Other authors rarely achieve this; for instance, both Connie Willis in "To Say Nothing Of The Dog" and Adam Roberts in "Swiftly" have anachronistic lapses.
This book works well on all levels. Highly recommended.
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I am really not a fan of post apocalypse novels, but Robert Charles Wilson has done a good job with this one and I found it entertaining and humorous. It starts in a very Mark Twain mode with two young men fleeing the agents of a despotic hereditary President across Canada and into battle in Quebec. The scenery is painted well and the characters were engaging. The plot kept moving through battles with the Europeans over Labrador and finally to New York where the readers encounter the ruling classes of
an expanded United States. Unlike a lot of after-the-fall stories, Wilson adds humour to his tales. Some ironic and some slapstick. Such as the recreation of the life of Charles Darwin. A jolly good read.
an expanded United States. Unlike a lot of after-the-fall stories, Wilson adds humour to his tales. Some ironic and some slapstick. Such as the recreation of the life of Charles Darwin. A jolly good read.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Runaway soldier movie maker
A post apocalyptic near future work of science fiction that shows a rather different America in the late twenty second century. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Paul Tapner
Slightly disappointing
If I recall I bought this on the basis of a recommendation on BoingBoing (a slightly breathless recommendation, too). Read more
Published on 14 April 2010 by R. Palmer
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