The Chronoliths

Scott Warden is a man haunted by the pastand soon to be haunted by the future. In early 21st-century Thailand, Scott is a slacker in a beach community of expatriates, barely supporting his wife and daughter. One day he witnesses an impossible event: the appearance of a 200-foot stone pillar in the forested interior. This is no ordinary artifact. Its arrival collapses trees for a quarter mile around its base, freezing ice out of the air and emitting a burst of ionizing radiation. It appears to be composed of an exotic form of matter. And the inscription chiselled into it commemorates a military victory sixteen years in the future. Not long after, another, larger pillar arrives in the center of Bangkokobliterating the city and killing thousands. Over the next several years, human society is transformed by these mysterious arrivals from, seemingly, its own near future. Who is the warlord whose victories they note? Scott wants only to rebuild his life. But some strange loop of causality keeps drawing him, to the central mystery and a strange final battle with the future. Tense, emotional, rigorous, and exhilarating, The Chronoliths is another masterpiece from one of the finest SF writers now working.