Julian Comstock reviewed in the Washington Post

Continuing its epic run of marvelous mainstream, genre, print and online review coverage, Robert Charles Wilson’s JULIAN COMSTOCK receives a splendid review in the Washington Post (daily circ: 724,242) in one of the prestigious newspaper’s rare Science Fiction feature. Full review below, followed by a rundown of the amazing coverage this book continues to elicit!

The past reemerges in the future in “Julian Comstock” (Tor, $25.95), Robert Charles Wilson’s charming (if occasionally silly) post-apocalyptic western. In the late 22nd century — years after the Efflorescence of Oil, the Fall of the Cities, the Plague of Infertility, the False Tribulation and the Pious Presidents — America has reverted to a neo-Victorian society of superstition and totalitarian religiosity.

Narrator Adam Hazzard is a naif, the childhood friend of the title figure, although Adam is of the feudal “leasing class” while Julian is an “Aristo” and nephew to the crazed American president, Deklan Comstock. Fleeing conscription in what was once the Canadian West, the two end up joining the army in a memorable if ill-fated battle against Dutch forces in Labrador. Julian emerges a national hero, in no small part due to Adam’s exaggerated published narratives of their activities. They are lauded in New York City, now the seat of the nation, where Julian’s political fortunes rise at the same time that he pursues his dream of filmmaking. But on the night he premieres his long-planned Charles Darwin biopic (a silent film, since the talkie technology has yet to be reclaimed), the capital falls to a Dominion-backed army coup.

Additional coverage for JULIAN COMSTOCK:

http://www.locusmag.com/Reviews/2009/06/gary-k-wolfe-reviews-robert-charles.html

http://io9.com/5302253/robert-charles-wilson-talks-about-movies-and-limits-to-the-singularity

http://io9.com/5273064/22nd-century-darwinians-challenge-the-church-in-julian-comstock

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/06/24/julian-comstock-robe.html

“JULIAN COMSTOCK is a rich and rewarding story—I’ve barely scratched the surface of its themes here. Expect to see it on next year’s Hugo shortlist; it certainly deserves to be there.”
—SFGospel.com

Read Robert Charles Wilson’s 3-part interview with Brian Francis Slattery on Tor.com:
Part 1 — “It’s like Guernica repainted by Norman Rockwell. And I thought it would be a great way to tell a story about a post-collapse 22nd-century America.”
Part 2 — “How bizarre would contemporary headlines look to Herman Melville or Harriet Beecher Stowe? Air war over Afghanistan, a black Democratic president, gay marriage: this stuff would never have been considered “plausible” prediction, back in the day. And yet here we are.”
Part 3 — “A writer doesn’t have to master every moral dilemma in order to find drama in it. You just have to be sensitive to it.”

From *PW:
“Hugo-winner Wilson (Axis) perpetrates a kind of skewed steampunk novel set in a postcollapse, imperial United States returned to 19th-century technology and mores…Written with the eloquence and elegance of a Victorian novel, this thoughtful tale combines complex characters, rousing military adventure and a beautifully realized, unnerving future.”

From *Kirkus Reviews:
“Post-apocalyptic power struggle from Hugo Award winner Wilson…expertly handled prognostication with more than a touch of somber magnificence.”

Eccentric Orbits
Unseeing in the ‘City’
In the Union-Tribune on Page E4

Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America
Robert Charles Wilson
Tor, 416 pages, $25.95

Jumping closer geopolitically to home, young Adam Hazzard narrates the tale of how Julian Comstock, and Julian’s guardian-mentor Sam Godwin, leave the little Athabaskan town of Williams Ford, just ahead of the military draft and wind up at war anyway.

Besides the draft, there’s a good reason for Julian to bug out. He’s the nephew of the hereditary president of the United States, and his father, the military hero of the invasion of Panama, was hanged for treason. After a while, incognito in the Wild West, Julian and Sam have good reason to worry about what would happen if President Deklan Comstock got wind of Julian’s whereabouts.

Adam only gradually learns this; he’s a backwoods boy, 17 as the story starts, and pretty much as innocent as the Dominion, which regulates the religion in the country, would like him to remain. He has the narrative voice that you could imagine a young Teddy Roosevelt delighting in, flatly observing the ordinariness of his upbringing and the novelty of going out into the world.

America in the 22nd century is a pretty good fit for the sort of bully adventures TR enjoyed, too, what with a lot of our present-day technology decayed into plastic mulch and bits of corroded metal. Travel is by foot, horse and steam train; the Age of the Efflorescence of Oil is long gone, and the political and economic picture changed radically during what is called the False Tribulation. The Dominion oversees the accepted churches – which seem mostly Protestant – and is a strong part of the government. Don’t know how much Teddy would’ve liked that, nor what he’d think of the system of owners, leaseholders and, essentially, serfs, but damn, the boys have Adventures!

Between the Lines: Make room on the bookshelf
By Allen Pierleoni
THE SACRAMENTO BEE

“Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd Century America” by Robert Charles Wilson (Tor, $25.95, 416 pages; on sale June 23): Yes, it’s sci-fi, but it crosses genre boundaries to mix adventure with Western, religion with politics. America is in turmoil, re-emerging as a world power, when a legend named Julian Comstock makes his mark on the international scene. Turns out the president of the United States is chagrined to learn Julian is his nephew – and a threat to his power. Wilson won a Hugo Award for “Spin.”