Pastwatch has good and bad things going for it, and I will attempt to summarize them without spoiling things for a potential reader.

Con: While I love some of Card's novels, this one did not engage me in the same fashion, and while thought provoking, it just seemed slow and listless compared to some of his other books. The characters seemed not only distant and removed from each other, but from the readers. Romance, when it occurred, felt forced.

Pros: As a sci-fi fan, I love tampering with the time stream. This is the first time I can recall wondering what happens if you *don't* tamper with it, and Card has some unexpected ideas on that front. I really enjoyed learning more about Columbus (no idea if it was at all accurate, but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt), and the Mesoamerican civilizations were fascinating as well.

On the whole, I enjoyed it, but I don't think I would encourage others to put it at the top of their book piles.

The last half of this book saved it from getting a 2-star rating. It wasn't until the end of the book that things started getting good. It was at that point that Card really dove into the possibilities of time travel and manipulation. The first half of the book, in my opinion, was a failed attempt to associate the reader with the characters and fell flat. Characters, love interests, motives were not really developed that well.

I just wanted to take a second to recommend this book. I normally don't write reviews since everything that needs to be said about a book usually already has been. That is the case here as well. Having said that, I cannot recommend this book enough. Dealing with time travel is always tricky but Card deals with it masterfully. My only regret in reading this book is that it is not part of a series by Card involving alternate histories. While a very satisfying read, it just leaves you wanting more.

I'm a fan of sci-fi, but that's what I said aloud most often when reading this story.

I am struggling to express, even to myself, what I so disliked about this book. The writing was good, as you would expect from Card, although almost unbearably preachy. I guess it's the whole suspension of disbelief thing - the problem being that I just couldn't.

Not even in my wildest liberal dreams could I believe the premise of the story: That if someone had just loved Christopher Columbus - we would be living in a politically correct, environmentally friendly utopia.

I don't often write reviews. I'm not the best at summarizing plots. All I can tell you is that this book made me feel and think. I finished it in one day and as I got closer to the end I felt more and more desperate, because I didn't want it to end. The characters are all so well-developed and the plot is SO interesting. I don't agree with the author's philosophy in toto but it didn't even matter. I just really appreciate an author putting thought into something besides gadgets, tricks and twists. The book made me think, and it made me sad sometimes, and sometimes so mad I talked back at it, and sometimes so happy too. I just felt everything with this book.

At first I wished for a sequel so I could keep reading the story, but then I realized that Orson Scott Card put absolutely everything in the book that needed to be there, and nothing more, and nothing less. It's a perfectly contained treasure of a book.

Past Watch just misses, I think. The reason why it's so frustrating is that this book has the potential to be spectacular - better than Ender's Game, and better than just about any SF book that I have read.

The storyline is this: far in the future, a group of techno-historians watch events in the past via technology, in attempt to find learnings for their current day. When it becomes clear that their current society will not survive due to the mistakes of generations past, their task evolves from one of watching and learning, to one of finding a pivotal moment in history and trying to make a change for the better.

The moment they choose is Columbus' arrival to North America. In the eyes of the historians, it is Columbus' arrival that ushers in an age of war, and enslavement, and destruction of the environment. If they can change the course of history to let the Americas evolve in a different way, their own world will be saved (but they will cease to exist, as their society will have never been).

So the book follows two paths: 1) tracing the emergence of Columbus and his quest to convince the royal court of Portugal, then Spain to fund his trip; and 2) the actual attempts of the historians to "improve" history

The historical piece on Columbus is interesting. The speculation on how the Americas might have evolved differently was riveting.

But somehow, it seemed that Card ran out of gas in telling the story of the alternative evolution of the Americas. There was also too little discussion of how the future society came to terms with extinguishing their own existence in order to try and save humanity.

I think the bottom line is that this book needed to be a trilogy: the story of Columbus, the story of the historians, and the story of the alternative evolution of the Americas. The concept behind this book is incredibly ambitious, and Card does a reasonably good job executing it. He just needed more space to do it properly.

Awesome historical/science fiction from the author of the resplendent Ender's Game. It's the only onther book by that author that even comes close to commanding such magnificence.

Fantastic historical fiction with fully human seeming characters.