Kaleidoscope Century
by John Barnes
Review by Sean Doorly

The touch of my thumb on the security plate activates it. Must be mine. The screen clears. Words swim up:
YOUR NAME IS JOSHUA ALI QUARE. HIT RETURN.

I do.

WELCOME TO 2109, JOSHUA, YOU MADE IT AGAIN. READ THE NEXT PART CAREFULLY.

YOU ARE ON MARS. THE YEAR IS 2109 AND YOU NO LONGER WORK FOR THE KGB, MURPHY'S COMSAT AVENGERS, NIHON-AMERICA, OR THE ORGANIZATION. THERE IS NO MORE SOVIET UNION, NO MORE EUROPEAN COMMONWEALTH, AND NO MORE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. EARTH IS COMPLETELY CONTROLLED BY RESUNA. YOU ARE PHYSICALLY JUST OVER SIXTY YEARS OLD. A NEW IDENTITY HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED FOR YOU AS "REAGAN FOSTER HINCKLEY," A JOKE WHICH YOU AND MAYBE A DOZEN HISTORIANS WILL GET.

What made me pick up "Kaleidoscope Century?" First, I scanned the shelves for new books by my favorite authors. No dice. (And a note to David Gerrold: please finish the Chtorr series.) Next, I started scanning covers, and something about "Kaleidoscope Century" caught my eye even though the cover is standard sci-fi. (A spaceship rocketing to an asteroid with a hazy planet looming in the background.)

I've never read anything by John Barnes before but I'm always looking to add to my favorite author list. I flipped the novel over and read the back synopsis and short reviews. "Kaleidoscope Century" tells the tale of the near-immortal Joshua Ali Quare and his adventures with spies, time travel, and Martian colonies. Fine so far. My final test -- I flipped to the front and read the sample passage. I was hooked. (To prove my point, I've included the front-page passage above.)

"Kaleidoscope Century" is a series of flashbacks and flash forwards, with violence and mayhem strewn throughout. Joshua works as a spy for a secret organization with ties to the KGB, and he is injected with a drug that gives him a perfect memory and heightened senses. The catch, however, is that every fifteen years he loses his memory and has to recreate his past.

But wait -- with every awakening, Joshua also knocks ten years off his chronological age. He is also a slightly different person every time he awakens from his memory losses.

During some of his incarnations, Joshua does horrendous things, and when he awakens he wonders if he really is a monster who rapes and kills for pleasure -- or if it's the influence of another agent and friend named Sadi.

Thanks to the thoroughly readable "Kaleidoscope Century," Barnes has made a loyal reader out of me.