Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus (Book Review)
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At least once a day, whether we realize it or not, we make decisions that cause our own reality to change course. The moment before such decisions what we perceive of as time is flowing right along smoothly. Suddenly, a fork appears in the road. Perhaps it is a decision to quit a job, or perhaps it is something much smaller such as writing a letter. Regardless of the seeming importance at the time, these choices create our futures. It is often fun to look back and pick out those major moments that brought you to where you are today.
Now take this idea and apply it to something much larger—like human history. That is what Nebula and Hugo Award-winning author Orson Scott Card has done in his novel Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus. There have been countless events since the rise of civilization that have created the world in which we now live. Indeed such moments can be traced back to the Big Bang itself. But what if you could isolate one moment in time that was so pivotal that it could completely undo everything that we know. Card feels that he has found that moment.
There were a lot of atrocities and wrongs that came out of the Spanish conquest of the Caribbean and surrounding areas. Two great civilizations were lost and others were denied their chance to rise. And it's hard to believe that so much killing, pillaging, and enslavement could be done in the name of Christ. The only reason that it is believable is because it has happened so many times throughout our bloody history. Columbus may not have seen the problem with allowing such things at the time, but what if something happened that made him question the right of those with white skin to look down upon and deny rights to those with skin that is brown. What if
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