Spin
by Robert Charles Wilson
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Book Reviews of Spin
Book Review: The Sun Is Not the Same in a Relative Way
Summary: 5 Stars
Winner of the 2006 Hugo Award, Charles R. Wilson's book is superb, and is a deserved winner of that best science fiction novel of the year award. I've read one of his previous novel's, Blind Lake, which was good, and was nominated for an award, not quite 5 stars, but a hint at Wilson's capabilities, which comes to fruition in Spin. It's like seeing an NFL team make a good run through the playoffs one year; upgrade/make changes, then magnificently win the Super Bowl in a subsequent year.
Spin has an easy-going style that's a bit misleading. It feels like something anyone can write, which of course is a sign of a great novel; when making what they write seem easy. It is a scorching page turner, with mini-cliff hangers at the end of what seems every chapter. Wilson has also set up several story lines, some across several time lines, so one can have a few cliff-hangers on at any given moment, and one may have to read a chapter or two to get back to the story line continuing where the cliff-hanger let off at. This isn't a negative on the novel, just an affirmation of what an enjoyable and compelling read it is. The main protagonists are a trio of childhood friends and how they grow up during the world of the Spin. This setup of characters is a great dynamic and has been used successfully in other novels, big and small, such as Schimatrix, Nova, Ender's Game and the Harry Potter series. Two of the characters are brother and sister, so instead of a competing love triangle, there is single pairing love interest, but nevertheless the members of the trio are friends of sorts, and their characterization is excellent.
As you've probably read, the Spin is a semi-permeable membrane surrounding the earth. Time has been speed up by many magnitudes within the membrane; so much so that one generation is facing the extinction of the planet via the sun going nova. This scenario is similar to many other novels that deal with differing rates on the passage of time, or in time travel, but they usually deal with a ship or a person, but what was unique about this is that in essence it's dealing with time travel for the entire planet. However, it's not dealing with worm holes/black holes etc, but instead with some other unexplainable science that would allow the entire planet to be cordoned off and speed up in time. Dealing with a dynamic society of six billion people, people deal with the eventual end of the world differently. However, this speed up of the surrounding universe leads to interesting observations of changes to the universe that would normally not be possible in one's lifetime, and of course attempts to end the Spin and the much greatly accelerated eventual demise of the planet.
It is with embarrassment to the SFWA, the organization that determines the winner of the other "science fiction" award, that the novel wasn't even nominated for the Nebula award, although to the those that have followed the antics of the SFWA, not that surprising. Spin isn't overtly political, but for those that follow typical Big Media writings it will appear so, since the novel takes on and comments on many aspects of world society and the effects they cause, rather than just blame the all the world woe's on simplistic reasoning's. This came up by one previous reviewer's claim that the politics in the novel is moderate to republican. What does that mean. Well to be moderate is to be hated by everyone and it's not enough to be just `moderate' since there's the `if you're not on our side you're on their side.' Anyway, you could probably very well read this novel without any of this being forefront which is another great joy of the book.
This is a superb novel, understated and a compelling read. Five stars.
Book Review: A fantasy in slow rotation.
Summary: 3 Stars
Twelve year old Tyler Dupree is enjoying a crisp autumn night stargazing with his close friends Jason and Diane Lawton when without warning, all the stars and the moon vanish from the sky. Someone out there, for reasons unknown, has placed the Earth and all of humanity inside a big, black, general relativistic bag. How the people of the world and especially the Duprees and Lawtons deal with this state of affairs as their lives go on inside the SPIN is the subject of the book. Some see it as the end of the world, some as a new beginning and some take the easy way out.
R.C. Wilson presents a good understanding of relativity and sets forth some fascinating illustrations of the vast time spans of the universe contrasted against the tiny blip of human lives. It is also great to see someone writing about the implications of variable time, which, in my opinion, have been neglected far too long. He also does a good job laying out space program politics. On the other hand, the author reveals a jaundiced and outsider view of the aerospace industry, both public and private sector, and displays an ignorance of the true trappings of power and wealth. (The children of billionaire business founders and government program heads in their own right, who might also be targeted by foreign agents, simply do no jump in their friends Honda for an unscheduled cross country drive.)
There is some great science fiction technology and philosophy toward the end of the book but it ultimately crosses the line into science fantasy. I wasn't really drawn into this novel and one of the reasons was the hero, Tyler Dupree. He comes off as a passionless slug of below average intelligence who remains in the center of attention for no apparent reason. He rarely takes any action that directs the course of the story. Also the premise that human civilization is so special that some great universal entity will descend and prevent us from destroying ourselves is a bit hard to swallow. We are only self important. If we become extinct, like it or not, the universe at large will take little notice of the event. It was made that way.
With the title SPIN, (and a Hugo award) I expected a high paced plot line but this novel is more literary than commercial fiction and the plot is flat; frankly, parts of it are tedious. At first it seems that there are two converging storylines but in reality, sections of the ending have been pulled forward to keep the readers interest; a dodgy proposition at best and a cheap trick in the least. There is a good science fiction novel in there but nearly half of the book could be (and should have been) pared away without any loss to the reader.
As I read this Hugo winner for best novel, I wondered at times if winners are chosen the same way we choose presidential candidates. I hope not, but if this is the best the industry has to offer, it bodes well for some fresh faces to rise up in the Sci Fi market. I was not drawn back to this novel when I had to put it down as I am with a true five star book. If you want to be able to talk intelligently about the recent Hugo best novel, I recommend reading this book, it is passing. If you're looking for great science fiction entertainment and a fun read, pick up an old Asimov or Lois Bujold novel instead.
Reviewed by Hugh Mannfield [...]
Book Review: Hot Jazz at 78 RPM
Summary: 5 Stars
Robert Charles Wilson's SPIN is just the kind of story that most people crave: one that draws you in and captivates you from the opening pages and then doesn't let you go. The arc of the story stretches out over basically two time periods--"basically," because the problem of the passage of time is key to the storyline. When, in the time period nearly contemporary with ours, the stars "disappear" one night, you're mesmerized; you, like the main characters, want to know what that's all about. That some understanding of this phenomenon will escape you for a few hundred pages yet to unfold shouldn't daunt you. Wilson keeps you fascinated as you unwrap each aspect of the mystery like layers of an onion.
SPIN doesn't carry the traditional plot structure of a story. There's exposition, but no building up to any real climax; the resolution is satisfying, but only to an extent. You just know it's a set-up for more stories to come, and indeed the author returns to this concept elsewhere. No matter. Like with most good science fiction, what moves this story are the relationships and interactions between the characters, in this case three lifelong friends, Jason, who possesses a gifted intellect, his sister Diane, who's sharp but perpetually spiritually longing, and their somewhat melancholy, jazz-loving friend to whom they're inextricably tied together by the friendship of their fathers. The story is told from the point of view of this friend, Tyler, who throughout his life is deeply and not quite secretly in love with Diane.
Also like good science fiction, the novel is driven by big ideas, in this case, the eventual extinction of the human race and the problem of faith. "Death" is a tried and true subject of literature, but it's usually science fiction that takes that to the ultimate extreme, the end of the species. One thinks of the movie CHILDREN OF MEN, and the P.D. James novel upon which it's based. Like that work, SPIN has its nightmarish scenes of a world on the verge of destruction, but also like CHILDREN OF MEN, the sense of despair is leavened with hope and faith. (In some respects, "Children of Men" makes more sense to me as a title for Wilson's book, but alas!) Faith--and lack thereof--is the other recurrent theme, which is interwoven with the first. The circumstances that imperil humankind bring out some of the worst excesses of religious fervor borne out of fear. The story's dread-laced religiosity is contrapuntal to the deep and abiding faith between the three main characters. Ultimately, Wilson perhaps doesn't have a lot to say (here, anyway) on the significance of the survival of the human race or on the problem of faith in God, but perhaps it's enough that he raises the questions in a meaningful and provocative way.
Simply put, SPIN is a great read. Wilson writes extremely well, and there is a lack of the sort of editing gaffes that often spoil long science fiction novels like this one. It's a novel that, despite its length, you don't want to put down and you don't want to end--except to go outside and be thankful the stars are still there.
Book Review: Solid and Engaging Literary Science Fiction
Summary: 5 Stars
"Spin" is the first Robert Charles Wilson novel I've read, and based on this, it certainly won't be my last. If his other works are half as interesting as this book is, I think we'll have a swell relationship. It certainly reaffirms my faith in modern science fiction.
This novel is almost impossible to describe in terms of labels. It is a touching love story. It is a multi-decade-spanning family drama. It is a bildungsroman. It is a hard science fiction novel. It is an apocalyptic fable. It is a sociological analysis of American society in the face of the terrifying and unknowable. I could go on. This is distasteful to some, who proclaim that Spin has no idea what it wants to be. This, I believe, is a purely reactionary stance to take: Spin is not confused, it is merely subversive in its approach to genre. Wilson is the latest in a long line of excellent science fiction writers who have expanded the scope of science fiction's concerns and thereby helped to strengthen the genre as a whole. Now, it is not exceptionally groundbreaking: Wilson is no Le Guin or Philip K. Dick. But it is unique and fascinating, and for that "Spin" has become one of my favorite recent science-fiction novels.
The plot is fairly minimalistic, but well paced. A mysterious, time-warping membrane surrounds the Earth, blocking out humanity's connection to the rest of the universe, and accelerating it into the future. This becomes a problem because after several billion years the sun will expand and become a supernova. Attempts to discover what this membrane is, and who, or what, put it there, comprise the majority of the novel's major plot points.
The love story element is fantastic and a genuine surprise. Good romantic plots (let alone sub-plots, as in this) are a rarity. But I found the extended and tortuous love between Tyler Dupree and Diane Lawton made for great reading. It avoids the fearsome Scylla and Charybdis of being boring on one hand and hyperdramatic on the other. There is pathos here, but it is realistic and regulated.
Character development is solid. The single best character in this novel is Jason Lawton, the passionate rationalistic scientist who leads efforts to uncover the mystery behind the Spin. He rang true for me, and the novel was particularly a joy to read whenever he entered the scene.
This novel isn't for everyone. One must be patient when reading this novel, as the suspenseful plot twists are surrounded by extended sections of character development and social analysis. I loved this aspect, but many won't. If you like your science-fiction thoughtful and reflective, you'll enjoy this book, however.
My one problem with Spin is the back-cover description, which contains multiple errors. For instance, it refers to the Spin membrane as a "planet-spanning shield," but it is not a shield at all. It is a filter. Moreover, Earth is only projected 3 billion years into the future, but the back cover says "300 billion years." What? This is a rather large error. The publisher needs to find someone competent to write these descriptions.
Book Review: drawn out
Summary: 2 Stars
I had to force myself to finish Spin, which was a disappointment. While I find this novel a definite improvement over the author's last (Blind Lake), on the whole I get the feeling that Mr. Wilson is having trouble finding a dependable voice. The first-person narrator of Spin could not be a less interesting character if you pulled him out of a line of people waiting to renew their drivers licenses in Medford, MA. He is given to ponderous statements like this (p. 50) "She also prayed....Praying to whom or for what I don't know. I don't know what people do when they pray." Probably just about anyone you stopped on the street today could answer that question if Tyler, the narrator, during the course of his life ever bothered have a conversation with a stranger. This is one of those deep observations that's supposed to be profound, but in fact comes across as so boneheaded, you put the book down and shake your head, you can't believe the narrator is so clueless about the human condition. It's just one of many lapses that completely drains Tyler of sympathy.
P. 327: "By comparison with the terraforming effort of previous years, the replicator launch was anti-climactic. It's results would be, if anything, greater and more subtle; but its very efficiency...failed as drama." I sort of feel like that's the problem with Mr. Wilson more often than not. His scenes fail as drama. He cannot write one action scene (and there are few enough in 450 pages to count on the fingers of one hand) to save his life. A ride in the trunk of a car, an explosion. Most of the book is one bedroom or office conversation after another, all about the Spin, and almost always between Jason the boy genius and Tyler. After two hundred pages, however, the sameness of the book's structure palls.
Mr. Wilson usually can create one or two solid characters in his novels, even when too often he surrounds them with overly familiar stereotypes. But Jason and Diane invite no sympathy because, somehow, Tyler doesn't convincingly convey any of his own. The twins' parents are standard stuffed shirts with predictable back-stories: Jason's cold ambitious and overbearing father E.D. and his predictably alcoholic out-of-touch mother Carol. For the short time that Tyler's own mother hangs around the novel before she dies of a stroke, he fails even once to make a real connection with her, and I can't help feeling that deep down Mr. Wilson himself doesn't have much interest in his characters either. All he cares about is the grand design that the latest batch of `Hypotheticals' has in store for mankind.
It may be time for Mr. Wilson to let go of the "something mysterious is being done to planet earth (again)" routine. He did a great job with Harvest, but the central SF events of Chronoliths and Darwinia and now Spin are tired and handled with no true sense of scale. I can't help thinking what a better job Bruce Sterling might have done with this material; he has a much better knack for full-blooded characters and dialogue than Mr. Wilson.