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Our Review
History in the Making
Though his background is in military history, with his bestselling thrillers
The Alienist and
The Angel of Darkness, Caleb Carr proved he could walk the historical-fiction walk on the streets of old New York. In
Killing Time, a high-stakes technothriller that will leave your head spinning, Carr turns a new corner, conjuring up a haunting vision of the future that is as much a meditation on modern technology as it is an ominous glimpse of technology's consequences.
The year is 2023. Since the E. coli breakout of 2021, hamburgers have become a luxury, the oceans have become lifeless masses of brown sludge, and the air in New York has grown so polluted the mayor advises citizens to stay indoors for anything less than an emergency. But that's not all: A staphylococcus epidemic decimated 40 million people worldwide in 2006, and a devastating stock market crash leveled global economies in 2007. More importantly, the information age has not made good on its promise of a "free exchange of knowledge." Instead, societies have fallen victim to a "love affair with information technology," and their citizens have been virtually brainwashed by information under control of the nations' leaders. The structure of society itself has undergone an immeasurable shift, and only those countries whose poverty has kept them unwired have been spared.
But even a world in chaos can be turned upside down. Dr. Gideon Wolfe, a successful criminal profiler and professor of psychology at John Jay University in New York, is visited by the widow of John Price, the famed special-effects wizard who was murdered only days earlier. Mrs. Price gives Wolfe a computer disc with now-famous footage of President Emily Forrester's assassination, proving the footage had been tampered with and the Afghani accused of killing the president was nothing more than a digital image concealing the true culprit's identity.
A few short hours after Wolfe brings the evidence to his old friend Max Jenkins, a private detective, Jenkins is murdered. Wolfe is then swept onboard the amphibious ship of a small group of resistance fighters led by Larissa and Malcolm Tressalian, who soon catapult him into a new understanding of the world. The Tressalians reveal to him their responsibility for a number of historical "discoveries" that in recent years have discredited everything from the New Testament to human evolution to Winston Churchill. What began as mischievous tampering now threatens to yield disastrous global effects.
Reminiscent of George Orwell's 1984, with a tip of the hat to The Matrix, Killing Time combines traditional elements of the mystery and thriller with Carr's unique historical and psychological insight. Although at times Carr lapses into preaching about the dangers of runaway technology, this novel is ultimately a reflection on the vulnerability of history under the control of those in power. And although we can't predict the future for Caleb Carr, we can certainly commend him for offering us this terrifying glimpse of history in the making.
Elise Vogel is a freelance writer living in New York City.
George Magazine
Caleb Carr's mindblowing Killing Time has ruined the future for me. Now I'm going to spend the next 25 years waiting for the world to turn out exactly the way Carr eloquently imagines it in this twisted, hilarious, touching yarn that involves so many mysterious threads that I'm reading it again. Killing Time is an intimate family drama told against a global backdrop, from a born storyteller who's invented a new way to write.
George
Mind-blowing...twisted, hilarious, touching...an intimate family drama told against a global backdrop, from a born storyteller who's invented a new way to write.
Denver Post
Startling...a daring step...a book of ideas and an allegorical warning against a future that must be avoided.
Washington Post Book World
Fast-moving...a high-velocity tour of the year 2023.
USA Today
A non-stop thrill ride...Carr is a master of the cliffhanger.
Carol Memmott
Fans of Caleb Carr will be astounded by Killing Time, a techno-terrifying tale of the information age run amok. It's a high-speed connection to our most paranoid thoughts about where our wired world is heading.
— USA Today
Publishers Weekly
Famous for his bestselling thrillers re-creating old New York (The Alienist; The Angel of Darkness) and trained as a military historian (The Devil Soldier), Carr leaps into the future for his third novel--and lands with a thud. Set about 25 years ahead, the first-person narrative describes the grim adventures of Gideon Wolfe, a bestselling author who joins forces with a band of outsiders intent on alerting the world to the dangers of excess information untempered by wisdom. By 2023, the Internet has multiplied wildly the ability of power possessors to deceive the general populace, resulting in a globe devastated by ecological blight and filled with near-zombies glued to computer screens. Some groups have escaped this fate--particularly those living in unwired if disease-ravaged areas of Africa and Asia--and a few, led by the enormously wealthy and brilliant brother-and-sister team of Malcolm and Larissa Tressalian, have vowed to fight it. These two, with a small crew, bring Gideon aboard their fantastic flying/diving fortress vehicle. They explain that for years they've seeded world-shaking disinformation--for instance, that Winston Churchill plotted the outbreak of WWI and that St. Paul advocated lying about the life and miracles of Jesus in order to spread the faith. They've planned to reveal these hoaxes as such, to warn about the power of disinformation, but they're stymied by both the cleverness of their own lies and by a new threat that sees one of their hoaxes lead to possible nuclear Armageddon. This book is as much didactic essay as novel, filled with preachy talk. Characters are broad but memorable, and there's some brisk action, but the suspense relies too much on forebodings and cliffhangers--no doubt because the text originally appeared as a serial in Time magazine, from November 1999 to June 2000 (it's been slightly revised for this edition). The prose Carr uses is elaborate, near-Victorian--perhaps a holdover from his other novels--and ill suits a futuristic tale. As readers navigate it, they won't be quite killing time, but they'll be wounding it for sure. (Nov.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.
VOYA
In 2023, Gideon Wolfe, psychiatrist and historian, receives a disk from the widow of a famous special effects wizard. Wolfe takes it to a detective friend, and while discovering that the disk contains altered footage of the president's assassination, the detective is killed. Shocked, Wolfe begins seeking answers. During his quest, he is abducted by an invisible air (and water) craft headed by Malcolm Tressalian, the brilliant, physically handicapped son of the creator of the satellite system that supports the twenty-first century Internet. Malcolm's beautiful sister, Larissa, also on board, instantly falls in love with Wolfe. He learns that he was selected to join the members of the group and assist in their quest to alter the world by creating and manipulating information. Malcolm and Larissa, horribly abused by their parents (whom they murdered), use their father' s wealth and their talents to outwit the ruling political and economic powers that have destroyed the environment and caused worldwide wars and devastation. What follows is a hodgepodge of hectic chases and pursuits, international intrigue, and political diatribe, interspersed with Malcolm' s periodic seizures and the obligatory Wolfe-Larissa love moments, all leaving the reader asking, "What happened?" and sometimes, "Who cares?" Every conceivable science fiction device is in this novel. Additionally, the adolescent prose and caricature—not character—development are quite disappointing. The transparent ending is no improvement. This is, as one young reader stated, a "bore of a book." Although Carr's previous novels, The Alienist (Random House, 1994) and The Angel of Darkness (1997), are widely enjoyed, sympatheticfans should discourage his further attempts at science fiction. VOYA CODES: 2Q 2P J S A/YA (Better editing or work by the author might have warranted a 3Q; For the YA with a special interest in the subject; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12; Adult and Young Adult). 2000, Random House, 274p, . Ages 14 to Adult. Reviewer: Laura Woodruff SOURCE: VOYA, June 2001 (Vol. 24, No. 2)
Library Journal
Historical novelist Carr moves from the past to the future in his latest novel. The year is 2023, and narrator Dr. Gideon Wolfe, a noted criminal psychologist, has just been asked to solve the murder of a special-effects man. The victim left behind an encrypted computer disc that revealed the existence of conspiracies at the highest level. Someone out there has been manipulating information to mislead and even terrorize the public. Who are they, and why are they doing this? During the course of his investigation, Wolfe makes some unusual allies who are experts in advanced technology. Perhaps they can shed some light on the matter, before Wolfe's enemies catch up to him. As usual, Carr's well-written prose deftly combines character development and a fast-paced plot. Fans of The Alienist and Angel of Darkness won't be disappointed by this futuristic adventure. Highly recommended for all libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/1/00.]--Laurel Bliss, Yale Univ. Lib. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
And now for something (almost) completely different from the author of the popular literary thrillers The Alienist (1994) and The Angel of Darkness (1997). Carr's bizarre cautionary tale, subtitled "A Novel of the Future" (and reminiscent of both H.G. Wells's tough-minded speculative romances and Jack London at his most engagingly deranged), examines the consequences of information overload and "image manipulation" in a craven new world in which two percent of the US population is in prison, the Balkans have re-erupted, and an ongoing war between India and Pakistan complicates international diplomacy and threatens the global community's stability, if not its survival. It's all a bit much for renowned criminologist Dr. Gideon Wolfe, whose employment by the widow of a murdered "special effects wizard" leads him to the discovery that the Afghani "terrorist" accused of the murder of US President Emily Forrester was framed by powerful anonymous vested interests. Dr. Wolfe is taken aboard an "airship" commanded by wheelchair-bound genius Malcolm Tressalian (images of Peter Sellers as Dr. Strangelove instantly leap to mind) and his gorgeous sister Larissa (an accomplished scientist and phlegmatic assassin). Wolfe gradually deciphers the full connotative meaning of the Latin epigram (Mundus vult decipi) that motivates the Tressalians' highly skilled crew, but finds he cannot share Malcolm's obsession with "the deceptions of this age, and my own attempts to reveal them through deception." The ensuing melodrama moves (in and out of earth's orbit, with the greatest of ease) from the uninhabited island of St. Kilda off the coast of Scotland to Kuala Lumpur in search of Israeli terrorist DovEshkol,thence to Moscow, and darkest Africa. Carr whizzes quickly through this entertaining nonsense in a hit-or-miss manner that's perhaps a little too compressed, especially at the rather hurried close, which (just barely) manages to suggest that Malcolm—far and away the most potentially interesting of the book's paper-thin characters—"had actually succeeded in his quest to conquer time." Fun, but awfully sketchy. Carr seems more at home in the past than in the future. Connelly, Michael A DARKNESS MORE THAN NIGHT Little, Brown (400 pp.) Jan. 2001
