Kaleidoscope Century is a science fiction novel by John Barnes. First published in 1995, it is part of the author's Century Next Door series. Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... DeFoes Robinson Crusoe, Newspaper edition published in 1719 A novel (from French nouvelle, new) is an extended fictional narrative in prose. ... John Barnes, (born 1957) is a prolific science fiction author, whose stories often explore questions of individual moral responsibility within a larger social context. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... An author is the person who creates a written work, such as a book, story, article or the like. ...

The narrator, at first appearing to be thirty-five, wakes up May 27, 2109 in an apartment on human-settled Mars. With no memory of his past, he goes to his werp, a voice-activated laptop computer, and learns that his name is Joshua Ali Quare and that he was born in 1968. From this frame story and a box containing several objects from his past, Quare pieces together what he believes is true about his life leading to the early twenty-second century. It is soon clear that he is unburdened by any form of morality. The Narrator is the entity within a story that tells the story to the reader. ... May 27 is the 147th day (148th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 218 days remaining. ... The twenty-second century comprises, for some, the years 2101 to 2200. ... Borj-e Sefid apartments in Tehran, Iran An apartment (or flat in Britain and other Commonwealth countries) is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building. ... Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the solar system, named after the Roman god of war (the counterpart of the Greek Ares), on account of its blood red color as viewed in the night sky. ... Laptop with touchpad. ... 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ... A frame story (also frame tale, frame narrative, etc. ... ...

Joshua ran away from home early in his teens to escape his abusive father; while he stayed in an upstairs apartment at Gwenny's Diner, Joshua's mother, a Communist Party member, surreptitiously helped him. He entered the Army at the behest of some Party organizers, and he was put in contact with a KGB operative who provides him with an injection to keep him from receiving or transmitting AIDS, enhance his memory, and periodically regenerate his body, becoming younger with each regeneration and complementary recent memory loss. In modern usage, a communist party is a political party which promotes communism, a sociopolitical philosophy based on the particular interpretation of Marxism put forth by Vladimir Lenin. ... US Army Seal HHC, US Army Distinctive Unit Insignia The Army is the branch of the United States armed forces that has primary responsibility for land-based military operations. ... The KGB emblem and motto: The sword and the shield KGB (transliteration of КГБ) is the Russian-language acronym for State Security Committee, (Russian: ▶ (help· info); Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti). ... The Red Ribbon is the global symbol for solidarity with HIV-positive people and those living with AIDS. Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome (or acronym AIDS or Aids), is a collection of symptoms and infections resulting from the specific damage to the immune system caused by infection... Memory is the ability of the brain to store, retain, and subsequently recall information. ...

Joshua's US Army career is spent in Operation Desert Storm (the First Oil War in the novel) and the "Second Oil War" which culminated in a march on Tehran. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the KGB diversified and became "the Organization," a counter-insurgency group that supplied technical and logistic support to every side in the Eurowar, a NATO-Central European Union-Russian conflict in the early 21st century. Among the innovations of the Eurowar were Simulation Modeling Optimizing Targeters (SMOTs) a jump from smart weapons to "brilliant weapons" that attacked an enemy country's natural resources and means of production. Joshua as an agent for The Organisation starts a gang rape by US soldiers and a series of bombings. As a soldier in the war, Joshua raped a woman and killed her and her family. After the Eurowar ended, Joshua took in "Alice", a war orphan from Prague in a incident where he got the dog tag -- and inspiration for future alias -- "John Childs". See also: 2003 invasion of Iraq and Gulf War (disambiguation) C Company, 1st Battalion, The Staffordshire Regiment, 1st UK Armoured Division The Persian Gulf War was a conflict between Iraq and a coalition force of 34 nations led by the United States. ... Map of Iran and surrounding lands, showing location of Tehran Tehran is a metropolis of 14 million situated at the foot of the towering Alborz range. ... The KGB emblem and motto: The sword and the shield KGB (transliteration of КГБ) is the Russian-language acronym for State Security Committee, (Russian: â–¶ (help· info); Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti). ... The NATO flag NATO 2002 Summit in Prague The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), sometimes called North Atlantic Alliance, Atlantic Alliance or the Western Alliance, is an international organisation for defence collaboration established in 1949, in support of the North Atlantic Treaty signed in Washington, D.C., on April 4... The 21st century is the century that began on 1 January 2001 and will last to 31 December 2100. ... BOLT-117 laser guided bomb Precision-guided munitions (smart munitions or smart bombs) are self-guiding weapons intended to maximize damage to the target while minimizing collateral damage. Because the damage effects of an explosive weapon scale as a power law with distance, quite modest improvements in accuracy (and hence... An agent is an autonomous entity with an ontological commitment and agenda of its own. ... This article is about explosive devices. ... An orphan (from the Greek ορφανός) is a person (or animal), one or both of whose parents have died. ... Prague (Czech: Praha, German: Prag, see also other names) is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. ... Dog tags of a U.S. Army soldier during World War II For the tag worn by dogs, see dog tag. ... Look up Alias in Wiktionary, the free dictionary The term alias may refer to— an assumed name, or pseudonym. ...

In the 2010s, Joshua worked in Quito, Ecuador on the GeoSync Cable and saw with Alice the beginning of the development of memes that would unify all countries and religions, leading to the War of the Memes (referred to in some of Barnes' other books) that culminated in the takeover of Earth by One True. By the time One True consolidated its hold on the people of Earth, Mars, the Jupiter and Saturn systems had been colonized for decades. Joshua steals another person's ID and becomes an ecoprospector on Mars. // The Decade as a Whole The 2010s decade refers to the years from 2010 to 2019, inclusive. ... Quito is the capital city of Ecuador. ... A geosynchronous orbit is a geocentric orbit that has the same orbital period as the sidereal rotation period of the Earth. ... This article is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Look up country in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Earth, also known as Terra, and Tellus mostly in the 19th century, is the third-closest planet to the Sun. ... Atmospheric characteristics Atmospheric pressure 70 kPa Hydrogen ~86% Helium ~14% Methane 0. ... Atmospheric characteristics Atmospheric pressure 140 kPa Hydrogen >93% Helium >5% Methane 0. ...

The best scientists and engineers of free humanity had developed the technology to unleash a singularity at the edge of the Solar System that would provide a return point in time and space for the descendants of five transfer ships sent to colonize other nearby star systems. When Joshua finally ventures forth to meet his Organization contact in Red Sands City, he's confronted by a tremendous hustle and bustle of people preparing for the transfer ship descendants to arrive from the 25th century and either destroy One True (and the population on Earth under its control) or confine it there. Santiago Ramón y Cajal Marie Sklodowska Curie This article is about the profession. ... Look up engineer in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Human beings are defined variously in biological, spiritual, and cultural terms, or in combinations thereof. ... Singularity has several different meanings: mathematical singularity - a point where a mathematical function goes to infinity or is in certain other ways ill-behaved. ... Presentation of the solar system (not to scale) The solar system comprises our Sun and the retinue of celestial objects gravitationally bound to it. ... The 25th century (Gregorian Calendar) comprises the years 2401-2500. ...

A fellow Organization agent named Sadi, who's undergone the same memory enhancement and bodily regeneration process Joshua has, meets him as a woman, his gender of choice after the Organization had perfected the process. From Sadi, whom he'd met as a woman after the Eurowar and also knew as a man, Joshua learns that it's possible to go through the singularity to 1988, when the technology to construct it was first built and put into orbit by the Soviets. By the time of the novel's frame story, Sadi has done this thirty times, each time changing history to his/her benefit. After a time as lovers, Joshua, who's repeatedly refused to accompany Sadi on these excursions through the singularity (also known as a closed timelike curve), is sent by her on a preset course through the singularity once more. Joshua makes plans when he comes back to the late 20th century to change history himself. Image of a woman on the Pioneer plaque sent to outer space. ... 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on a Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... History studies the past in human terms. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the...

However, Sadi also claims he's done this before, and he doesn't remember it. That's why he records everything in his werp and keeps the particular objects he does.