Human beings are far from perfect. Whether it's the mundane error that manifests from simple inattention or the harsh words spat in a moment of anger, we do and say things we would give anything to take back. For while errors are instantaneous, their consequences can last a lifetime: ending relationships, ruining careers, destroying families. But while a single human's thoughtlessness has the power to wound, civilization's wrongs can end the world. After all, only a civilization's racism, xenophobia, stubbornness, can defeat entire populations. Only this groupthink can make possible the aggressive mindset necessary to create nuclear weapons programs and use their destructiveness against sentient beings. If we'd give anything to take back rash words, what would we give to take back 9/11, or Hiroshima, or the Kennedy Assassination, moments in time in which the world shuddered onto a newer, darker course? Mr. Mullen speculates in his fascinating and expansive novel.
In present day Washington D.C., the nexus of the world's greatest empire, individual events, insignificant in their singularity, are converging fast on a single moment in time. Though,separately, they lack the necessary momentum to throw the world into chaos, collectively, their power might well ignite a nuclear war that will devour civilization as we know it. The Conflagration, as it will be known, will plunge humanity into centuries of darkness and despair, survivors scrabbling to piece back together a few pieces of their broken world just in the hope of making the next day a bit better than the previous. Anything more ambitious than that will be beyond them for generations. But then order will re-emerge, an order that will allow the weaving together of a society, a newer and better evolution of humanity which will not make the same mistakes of the prior civilization, a humanity that will strive to be perfect, harmonious and pure.
In this future time, when confronted with evidence that a rebellious faction within this supposedly perfect society is using time-travel technology to return to previous eras, in an attempt to meant the broken past, this new and better civilization flails for answers. How could such an abomination occur right under their own noses? Feverishly, they train a small squad of special agents to follow the dissidents back into the timeline, armed with orders to kill the tamperers at every opportunity. History must be preserved. For if history is tinkered with, what will become of the perfect civilization? What if it never emerges? What if humanity is snuffed out and darkness reigns forever?
Zed, one such operative, is returned to the early 21st century where, in the shadow of the Beltway, he works and kills to preserve the future. Ruthlessly determined to execute his mission, Zed's belief in his destiny does not waver until he begins to encounter alarming discrepancies between what he was told by his handlers and the truth he can see with his own eyes. Afraid to return to his time for fear his growing suspicions will be confirmed, Zed turns, instead, to a grieving woman whose brother was killed in the Iraq War and an idealistic but disenchanted agent of the megalithic national-security apparatus to help him uncover a terrifying truth, that nothing is what it seems to be and that the fate of humanity now rests in his uncertain hands.
The Revisionists is a methodical and moving portrait of human desire and the lengths to which we will go to make our wishes reality. Zed, the operative from the future, is fuelled by grief born of tragedy which blinds him to the lies he's been told. But when the blinders come off, he knows he must act, if only to honor the memory of those he has lost. Tasha, the sister of the dead lieutenant, is radicalized by her despair into opposing an endless war that has claimed so many and done so little. Leo, the national security agent, tries to do one good deed to make up for a terrible mistake and, in doing so, sets off a chain of events that nearly brings down the whole house of cards, all for the affections of a woman through whom he can expunge his sins. Yes, this is fundamentally science fiction, but the author has chosen to deploy the conventions of the genre as a means of telling a human story about love and loss and their unparalleled power to change the world.
Mr. Mullen brings an essayist's gravitas to one of science fiction's most abused tropes (time travel), creating one of the most thoughtful examinations of this endlessly fascinating technology in some time. His conclusion, that it, like nuclear weapons, is a power we are not sufficiently wise to wield, rings true. After all, while technology is amoral, its wielders are not. They can put it to whatever use they desire, good or ill, a prospect that should rightfully dampen the enthusiasm of the proponents of time travel.
We learn from our mistakes. If we erase them, we learn nothing. If darkness is the price we must pay for our folly, then darkness it is. For anything else is just an easy way out. And we are already experts at that. (4/5 Stars)
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