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Pastwatch

the Redemption of Christopher Columbus
Feb 24, 2018airyen rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
In a distant future where the problems of climate change and world hunger have been averted, scientists have developed machines to look into the past and formed Pastwatch, an organization of historians who use these machines. When Tagiri, one of the prodigies of Pastwatch, traces her family back through history and witnesses the horrors of Atlantic slavery through her family’s history, she begins to pioneer the Columbus project. Because it seems that Columbus sought a crusade to Constantinople, not Asia, the Columbus Project seeks to find out why he tirelessly worked to gain support for a trip west and whether he can be stopped to end the bloodshed caused by European conquest. The novel follows Tagiri, her daughter Diko, and other members of Pastwatch as they uncover an alternate history that could have been, as well as seek to create an alternate history to erase the bloodshed of their world I thought the premise of the book was fascinating: time machines to see the past but not visit it (or can they?), women (of color no less) looking at history and demanding correction of its wrongs, and conceiving an alternate history where Columbus did not lead European conquest of the Americas. Orson Scott Card is great at building whole worlds off a concept, and it was interesting how he introduced conflict from the past into a utopian future. This was actually a reread of this book for me; the first time I read it, I loved it. The second time, though, I don’t like it as much. There’s a lot of shoehorned and even harmfully stereotyped diversity (there are no white characters in the book, but the Black characters still live in grass huts and the Turkish character is nearly fanatically religious; the Black characters’ stories are solely tied to their tragic family histories of slavery). Despite following multiple generations of Pastwatch researchers (Tagiri, then Diko), the story isn’t character-focused at all and will often spend chapters discussing dry historical finds, then bounce back into some romance subplot with not a lot of chemistry. Lastly, the plot can just be boring sometimes: the story alternates chapters back and forth between the Columbus project and Christopher Columbus himself, who frankly isn’t that engaging as a character. Characters make choices that seem extreme or illogical, and it seems like a lot of big assumptions are made (even considering this story is speculative fiction about time travel and alternate history) about cultures. I’d recommend this book if you can read past some questionable plot points, “romance,” and insensitivity, because the concept is still pretty cool. But this book is definitely written by a classic sci-fi writer, and while the idea that Columbus may not be a hero but a villain may seem groundbreaking for him, the execution isn’t the best.