Subject: Review of Kaleidoscope Century by John Barnes (fiction, sf)

From: [email-masked] (Steve Brock)
Date: 16 May 1995 01:13:12 GMT

KALEIDOSCOPE CENTURY by John Barnes.  Tor Books, 175 Fifth Ave,
N.Y., NY 10010, (800) 221-7945, (212) 420-9314 FAX.  349 pp.,
$21.95 cloth.  0-312-85561-3

                     Reviewed by Steve Brock

     I reviewed Barnes's last book, "Mother of Storms," last summer
as I traveled down the west coast from Vancouver, Canada, to
Tijuana, Mexico.  At the time, I noted that Barnes had been quite
prescient in writing a passage in which the pilot of the spaceship
which will save Earth's civilization contemplates reaching Earth
escape velocity on the 59th anniversary of the first lunar landing. 
I read that passage on the day that the U.S. was celebrating the
25th anniversary of the event (July 20).  With the book's release
date of the first week in July, I wondered if Barnes had planned
for readers to hit that passage on that date.  Unfortunately, there
is nothing startling in "Kaleidoscope Century," a book in which
"Sleeper" meets "Total Recall."
     "Kaleidoscope Century" takes the reader to Mars in the 22nd
century, where Joshua Ali Quare (Quaid from "Total Recall"?) wakes
up alone in a room with little else than a "werp," an interactive
computer on which he has recorded his past aliases and adventures,
many that contradict each other.  He's also ten years younger than
he was when he contracted the illness that wiped out most of his
memories.
     From the werp, Quare learns that he was a member of the KGB in
the late 20th century who was intentionally infected with a virus
that enables him to assume a new identity every fifteen years, and
"Kaleidoscope Century" alternates between Quare's assisted
recollections (working for an organization called "The
Organization," and fighting in computer wars with "Sadi," his best
friend), and his growing awareness of his present surroundings and
situation.  There are many surprises awaiting Quare on Mars, the
least of which is that Sadi has shown up and is now a female who
has taken over "The Organization."
     Though the future envisioned in "Kaleidoscope Century" isn't
a believable one and Barnes's scenario is a step below that of
"Mother of Storms," he has created a character perfect for Arnold,
who can say "I'll be back" every fifteen years, and never remember
saying it.  Grade: B.