Although Robert Charles Wilson began as a short
story writer during the 1970s and wrote exclusively
at that length until his first novel appeared in
1986, his work at short length has proven to be
competent and occasionally interesting but not exceptional, and only one collection, The Perseids &
Other Stories (2000), has appeared. His novels, on
the other hand, began to attract considerable attention right from the outset, and most of his fiction after 1986 was book-length. His debut novel,
A Hidden Place (1986), describes the effect of a visitor from another reality on the lives of two people
from our own. Wilson’s brilliant depiction of the
characters and his skillful handling of their emotional and psychological crises led some critics to
compare him to Theodore STURGEON.
Memory Wire (1987) is an interesting blend of
cyberpunk preoccupations with almost magical
otherworldly images. A man with a motion picture
camera permanently installed in his body becomes
romantically entangled with an artist who is obsessed with an alien crystal that induces what
might be illusions or might be glimpses of an alternate reality. Gypsies (1989) involves parallel worlds
as well—in this case a series of alternate realities
through which members of one family can move by
an act of will. The conflict originates with a powerful figure from one of these shadow worlds who
wishes to lure the protagonists to their doom. A
man with an unusual partition between the halves
of his brain goes through a crisis in Divide (1990),
another novel that concentrates on the psychological landscape rather than the physical one.
A Bridge of Years (1991) is a time travel novel.
The protagonist finds a natural time tunnel back
to 1962 and hopes to settle there in a more amiable time, but upon arrival he discovers that another time traveler, from an even more distant
future, has already taken up residence. Aliens offer
humans immortality in The Harvest (1993), on the
condition that most of the human race accompany
them into space. Although the majority agree to
those terms, a handful remain behind on a now
underpopulated Earth. Mysterium (1994) is one of
Wilson’s best novels. An entire town finds itself
physically moved to an alternate, dystopian American dictatorship; the town’s sudden appearance
there causes considerable upset.
After a short period of inactivity, Wilson returned with Darwinia (1998), an intriguing variation of the alternate history story. In this case, all
of Europe disappeared in 1912, replaced by an uninhabited forest that seemed to be snatched out of
prehistory or perhaps an alternate universe. Although some small colonies have been established
there by the United States and other countries
outside the zone of change, most of the continent
remains unsettled and unexplored. The intriguing
setup and engaging story is weakened somewhat by
an unnecessary and unsatisfying explanation in the
final chapters. Bios (1999) follows the adventures
of a woman who has been bioengineered so that
she can live on an inimical alien world and study
the local ecosystem.
Wilson’s next two books would prove to be his
most impressive achievements. The Chronoliths
(2001) is a time travel mystery story reminiscent of
Time Bomb (1955) by Wilson TUCKER. Enormous
monuments begin appearing, apparently at random, in various parts of the world. The arrival of
each displaces the existing matter, with highly destructive consequences. Scientists studying the
phenomenon conclude that the monuments are
being projected back through time from the future,
where a single man has apparently welded the entire planet into a single dictatorship. Efforts are
made to find the man in the present and change
the course of history, but there is a growing cult of
people who worship the monoliths and believe that
the course of the future is immutable. Blind Lake
(2003) is a brilliantly conceived and executed scientific mystery. Scientists are using a new technology to spy remotely on an alien world, when they
themselves are isolated from the rest of humanity
by a strange phenomenon. Wilson is one of the
most thought-provoking writers in the field, and is
almost unrivaled in his ability to create realistic
characters and describe their reactions to unusual
situations.