‘What do you really know about the past?’ he asked. ‘How can you know what really happened? Are you so certain of what you have experienced that you can say: Thus it truly was and not otherwise? Think hard about it! I assert that only what is told is real. And even that for only a brief time.’
The Cusanus Game by Wolfgang Jeschke is an interesting newer addition to the time travel novel. It is a weighty book that touches on history and time, philosophy, quantum physics and string theory, and climate change.
The bulk of the book takes place in 2052. A nuclear disaster on the French-German border has made a large segment of northern Europe uninhabitable. Climate change is forcing the migrations of millions of people from the coasts and from areas that are fast becoming desserts. The world is in the midst of societal instability and crumbling governments. Terrorist groups spring up to protect the borders against immigrants or demand old people die so the young and unemployed can get jobs. Most people are just trying to get by and live their lives as best they can.
Domenica Ligrina is just completing her university studies in botany when she is contacted by a mysteries group affiliated with the Pope. Domenica is offered a job in which she can put her botanical knowledge to work in saving the world. It is all very hush hush, and she and a few of her friends from university go through a long and rigorous interview process at the end of which they must decide, without fully knowing what is expected of them, whether they will take the job or not. Domenica signs up; she is curious, she wants to work, and she has nothing to lose.
It slowly becomes clear that she has been recruited to be a time traveler. She will be sent back to 1450 Europe on a mission to collect plants and seeds that have gone extinct and bring them back with her to the present. Her friend Renata will be doing the same. But not all travelers collect plants. While undergoing training and preparation in Venice, she meets Frans who is an expert in architecture and has been traveling to learn about and bring back samples of, the various types of woods used in the foundations of Venice. Venice is rotting and this knowledge will allow the nanobot technology to molecularly repair the wood that holds the city up.
But what is the Cusanus Game? This refers to a game created by Nicholas of Cusa. The game is played on a large (5 feet x 5 feet) wooden board. On the board are concentric circles marked 1-9 with the center unnumbered. The object is to toss a ball about the size of an orange as close to the center circle as possible. But the ball is not perfectly round and the board is not flat. The players cannot aim directly for the center and no two throws will ever be exactly alike. The game is meant to be unpredictable and teach the players how to accept failure with good humor. The center is also meant to represent Christ and teaches that we cannot reach him directly because we are flawed, but if we persist, we will eventually get close.
Domenica’s story is like the Cusanus Game. She starts by aiming directly at her goal but goes far astray and eventually learns that her goal was not what she thought it was to begin with. When she finally figures this out she makes a great discovery about herself and the world, knowledge that was there all along but she was unable to see it because she was aiming at the wrong thing.
This being a fat and heady book, I have left out much. It is good science fiction. Well written and heavy on the science. If you have read Stephen Hawking or Brian Greene you will do just fine with the physics in the book. But if you don’t know anything about string theory or branes you can still read the book but will have a bit of trouble with the science. And there is quite a lot of science often laid out in loving detail.
It will also help you if you have knowledge of different theories of time travel and what one can and cannot do in the past or the future. It is not required that you have read other time travel scifi books, but it helps. Because things get, as my favorite Doctor says, timey-wimey. You will eventually come to a chapter that makes you stop and wonder if you haven’t read it before. And you will page back and find that yes, you did read a chapter just like this one about 70 pages back. But as you keep reading this new chapter which is going along word-for-word like the already read one, you will notice different details crop up that suddenly change what happens. Such chapters occur several times and it is really fascinating how each small change causes a deviation in the outcome.
For a fat, heady book, it moves along at a pretty good clip. There is a train journey in the middle that kind of bogs down a bit but after that the pace picks up again and fairly races to the end. The book was published in Germany in 2005 and just translated and published in English in 2013. I don’t know what took so long, but I am glad I got to read it.
I was almost ready to say add this to my list until you mentioned the science. I’ll be honest I’m intrigued by the premise because it sounds really interesting but a lot of detail of science and I’m probably lost! π
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Iliana, you definitely have to like science in order to read this one. I’d say you could skip over all the really detailed parts but then you’d be skipping over most of the book!
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I think I would flounder with this as science and math are not my strong suits and I have read very little (well, pretty much nothing really) in those areas, but the premise sounds really intriguing nonetheless. I like the idea of a more modern time travel book. At first I thought you were daring to read a dystopian novel in January–but it sounds like it’s really more than that.
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It sounds fascinating but dense in parts. I might try it – hope my skimming skills will be in order!
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It is really interesting in how it uses physics to explain time travel. Not sure how skimming would work on it though you could give it a try π
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Danielle, there actually isn’t any math, it’s all the physics without the math if that helps at all π I thought it a really interesting take on time travel. It’s not a dystopian novel even though it takes place in a future time that is falling to pieces. The time travel is an attempt to retrieve and save some things that have been lost in order to create a better future. There are hints that it works and the future is better but we are never entirely sure.
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Ever since I finished 11/22/63 last month, I’ve had a hankering to read about time travel. And then I finished “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” by Jack Finney. I didn’t know I liked either time travel or science fiction, but apparently I do. I’m currently reading Time And Again by Jack Finney. The “science part” in “The Cusanus Game” would be way above my head, though. My eyes glaze over when someone starts talking physics. It is the only course a professor ever suggested I drop…almost pleaded with me to drop…out of his course. Sigh. I didn’t want to be in the old fart’s course anyway.
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Grad, yay! A scifi convert! Well if it helps, the physics in the book is all theory and no math. There is a lot of it though since it is what is used to explain how the time travel works. But it’s really interesting if you like that kind of thing and professor will be giving you a hard time if you don’t entirely understand it π
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This sounds very good and intriguing, but I know FOR SURE I would struggle with the science. But perhaps it would be a goodie for Mr Litlove? Hmmm, now there’s an idea!
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Litlove, it’s a very enjoyable scifi book that uses real science for a change. It takes the science part of science fiction quite seriously. If Mr. Litlove enjoys theories of time travel he will definitely find this one interesting.
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Interesting book, and one that I am completely unfamiliar with. As much as I do read science fiction, and occasionally hard sf, I’m certainly not up on those scientific concepts. There’s too much fiction to read, you expect me to read nonfiction?! π
Seriously fun to discover a book wholly new that contains one of my favorite sfnal tropes, time travel. Enjoyed your review very much.
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Carl, thanks! I found out about the book on some list somewhere of scifi that took on climate change and this one seemed the most interesting. It’s published by Tor and I am surprised I didn’t see it mentioned on their blog when it came out. Or maybe it was and I just ignored it for some reason. I bet you would like Brian Greene’s books on string theory. He is quite fond of using the Simpsons to demonstrate concepts and even knowing a little bit comes in handy for books like this one! π
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Now science and the Simpsons is something I could get in to. π
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Heh, oh yes, your view of the universe will never be the same once Homer explains relativity to you π
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I’ve seen this title several times lately, but this is the first review I’ve read. You’ve definitely caught my interest on this one–adding it to my list!
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Jen, a good hard SF book is sometimes hard to come by, so many seem to leave out the science part of the equation these days. Hope you enjoy it should you read it!
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