Matt's Blog

Just finished reading Pastwatch The Redeption of Christopher Columbus by Orson Scott Card. When I describe this book to people, I get that they don't think it's as cool as I think it is. Probably I can't explain the premise very well. It's about some people from the future that go back in time to change the results of Columbus discovering America. (The earth is a mess and the human race is reeling from centuries of poor choices.) What they basically do is prepare the Americans technologically to not be such pushovers in the face of Spanish conquest, prepare the Americans spiritually to be more open to Christianity (doing away with human sacrifice for example, and at the same time nurturing the idea that god is tired of human sacrifice and is now ready to scrifice himself for humans), and giving Columbus some extra time stranded on Haiti to be indoctrinated with some 21st (or maybe 22nd) century Christianity so he will see that killing and enslaving the natives doesn't jive much with the teachings of Christ. It told a bit more of the story of Columbus than I was interested in, but overall it was a fun read. Of course i think that about anything by Card, including his OSC Reviews Everything columns, are worth one's time.