Pastwatch: the Redemption of Christopher Columbus by Orson Scott Card

Orson Scott Card, known for his Nebula Award winning book Ender's Game, has given us another incredible creation that is perfect for all age groups. In his book Pastwatch, the world is in a global crisis. Famines, droughts, global warming, and lack of energy resources have left the world in turmoil. It is up to a small group of scientists to travel back in time and figure out what root cause for all the corruption in the world. This group of scientists believes if they alter the past at the moment when Christopher Columbus arrived in the Americas it will solve all the suffering in the world and restore the planet back to its natural state. They learn that their time machine can actually send information to the past unlike previous ones that only showed videos and dialogues so they know that they have the power to rewrite history. The three main characters: Kemal, Diko, and, Hunahpu choose to travel back in time and influence the outcome of the discovery of America by strategically placing themselves around the savage villages in an attempt to change the outcome. They have to be extremely cautious because erasing all the suffering in the world by messing with the past can have some irrevocable consequences. I really enjoyed this book because it alternated between the stories of the Pastwatch members and the life of Christopher Columbus until they finally converge when he arrives in the Americas. - Mike N., class of 2012