Robert Charles Wilson’s books have been on my “must buy” list since he wrote THE CHRONOLITHS in 2002, and he’s gotten successively better without becoming a corporate retread machine. The ties of family, friendship and love in its infinite variations are central themes in his work. JULIAN COMSTOCK: A STORY OF 22ND-CENTURY AMERICA is no exception; it’s also Wilson’s best book yet.
As the title explains, JULIAN COMSTOCK is set in 22nd-century America, a post-oil land run as an empire by an emperor whose palace is New York’s Central Park. America has reverted to a pseudo 19th-century level of technology, and the culture has regressed to 19th-century norms and educational levels, as well. Most science is banned by the religious police, known as the Dominion, and any forbidden knowledge — textbooks, movies, history — is either destroyed or locked away from the rest of humanity.
But JULIAN COMSTOCK starts far from the action, in the remote countryside that was once northern Canada. The narrator of the events is Adam Hazzard, a commoner boy who’s both a literate fan of pulp fiction and the best friend of Julian Comstock, the nephew of the current American emperor and son of the previous emperor, who died under most peculiar circumstances. Julian has been exiled far from New York in the company of Sam Godwin, an old soldier who becomes a mentor/father figure to both boys. When the draft comes to their small town, the three flee for safe haven, thus setting of an amazing, circuitous adventure that is both hilarious and heartbreaking.
The soul of the novel comes from the character of the narrator, as he is diligent in chronicling the events, if a bit unreliable. Hazzard’s unreliability isn’t meant to hide mysteries, but as comic relief, as he spends a lot of time chronicling events that he completely misinterprets or details situations he never quite comprehends. What he lacks in savvy, however, he more than makes up for in earnestness and loyalty, as he follows Julian and Sam through war, politics and even filmmaking as Julian’s Quixotic attempt to re-educate the world and reform the 22nd century takes shape.
JULIAN COMSTOCK is a buffet of cool delights: The plot is epic; its steampunky Wild West future evokes the Bruce Campbell series THE ADVENTURES OF BRISCO COUNTY JR.; the characters are unique takes on classic archetypes; and the prose sounds authentically vintage without being hard to understand or difficult to read.
Wilson has taken themes and ideas from both current trends and hundreds of years of American culture, and created a book whose appeal shouldn’t be limited to just fans of science fiction and pulp adventure. There’s something here for everyone. JULIAN COMSTOCK is a singular achievement. —Ryun Patterson
Related posts:
- End of the Century
- Science Fiction America: Essays on SF Cinema
- The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century: 1910
- America’s Best Comics Primer
- The Wall of America
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Sounds intriguing. Gonna have to pick up a copy sometime.