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"Card makes a strong case for being the best writer science fiction has to offer." --"The Houston Post"
"A bold and compassionate alternative history filled with believable historical and fictional characters. The author of "Ender's Game" and the "Alvin Maker" series clearly demonstrates his brilliance as a weaver of possibilities." --"Library Journal"
""Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus" is the best book Orson Scott Card has written since 1985, when his "Ender's Game" won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards." --"Philadelphia Inquirer"
"Readable and engaging, full of likable heroes and unmistakable villains...."Pastwatch" raises many significant and vital questions about humanity's social development, that mixture of flaws and promise." --"Locus"
"A bold and compassionate alternative history filled with believable historical and fictional characters. The author of "Ender's Game" and the "Alvin Maker" series clearly demonstrates his brilliance as a weaver of possibilities." --"Library Journal"
""Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus" is the best book Orson Scott Card has written since 1985, when his "Ender's Game" won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards." --"Philadelphia Inquirer"
"Readable and engaging, full of likable heroes and unmistakable villains...."Pastwatch" raises many significant and vital questions about humanity's social development, that mixture of flaws and promise." --"Locus"
Product Description
In one of the most powerful and thought-provoking novels of his remarkable career, Orson Scott Card interweaves a compelling portrait of Christopher Columbus with the story of a future scientist who believes she can alter human history from a tragedy of bloodshed and brutality to a world filled with hope and healing.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Intelligent Book by Card at His Best,
By
This review is from: Pastwatch (Mass Market Paperback)
This is one I remember starting and for some reason I never finished some years ago. I found it in the attic recently when I was sorting books.
This book was very good and I have absolutely no idea why I never finished it first time round. This is classic Card, with some clever plots, woven into a science fiction story that is creative and original. Like so much of his work, religion plays a central role in this book - but this is not a religious book itself. As usual Card has done his homework, and there is plenty of the history of Christopher Columbus here, as well as some other interesting ideas about Noah's flood and such like. This is both history and alternate history, as people in our own future look back on the lives of people in the past using a machine that allows them to spy on the past. In this future world warfare has at last ceased - mankind is at peace and projects are underway to fix the damage we have done to our world. Meanwhile the Pastwatch historians look regretfully at all the evil mankind has perpetrated to get to that point. One event seems to be especially cataclysmic - the voyage of Christopher Columbus to find the shorter (sic) westward passage to the Indies (Asia). As usual, one could pick a few holes in the science and such like - but not for any good reason. This is an intelligent novel from Card when he was at his zenith. Sadly his most recent books have not always been up to this standard, but this one is most definitely worth a read.
9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great weave of history and sci-fi!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus (Hardcover)
I see most of the reviews are positive but the couple that aren't mention the same thing - lack of antagonistic characters. Last I checked, there were more choices than man vs man in great literature. There is also man vs nature and that is what this is all about. Nature is personified as "the past" and it is up to the protagonists to conquer nature and change the future. One of Card's best, this one really left me pondering over the possible outcomes and paradoxes.
8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A provocative alternative history from Uncle Orson,
By Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (VINE VOICE) (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)
This review is from: Pastwatch (Mass Market Paperback)
Harlan Ellison always maintains he writes "speculative fiction," not science fiction or fantasy. Certainly his term of choice applies to Orson Scott Card's effort in this volume. In our generation the undeification of Christopher Columbus has come a long way and he has become a whipping boy for a lot of intellectual efforts. Card places his character at the center of one of the most provocative "what if" books I have ever read.I am using "Pastwatch" in my Science Fiction class this fall as an example of the altnerative history sub-genre, but I would argue this book would be useful in an actual history class as well. Not because it is "true" in any meaningful way, but because it raises questions useful to students of the past. THe question of Columbus as "hero" or "devil" is a pertinent discussion for it leads to the evaluation of other historical figures as well. More importantly it drives home the idea of actions have consequences, which are amply touched upon in the book. From slavery to syphilis, from colonization to chocolate, there are issues worth considering. Even the subplots are useful to class discussion. Card’s narrative reveals the “real Noah,” which truly extends the idea of mythic figures pretty far back in human history. There is usually a kernel of truth in any mythic narrative and trying to discover it or figure it out can lead to spirited class discussions. Beyond that, Orson Scott Card is imminently readable, and has long been one of the favorite authors of students in my experience. There are collections of “What If” books around that can provide other examples, but “Pastwatch” is at the heart of the so many issues important to the study of history that it is at the top of the list in its utility. Besides, it is a good yarn with the expected Card characterizations in which intellectual effort is as passionate as romance.
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