Call number
Series
Genres
Publication
New York: Tor Books, 2005.
Pages
364
Description
Now in a Tor Essentials edition, Robert Charles Wilson'sSpin, a Hugo-winning novel of breathtaking cosmic scope. One night in October when he was ten years old, Tyler Dupree stood in his backyard and watched the stars go out. They all flared into brilliance at once, then disappeared, replaced by a flat, empty black barrier. He and his best friends, Jason and Diane Lawton, had seen what became known as the Big Blackout. It would shape their lives. The effect is worldwide. The sun is now a featureless disk--a heat source, rather than an astronomical object. The moon is gone, but tides remain. Not only have the world's artificial satellites fallen out of orbit, their recovered remains are pitted and aged, as though they'd been in space far longer than their known lifespans. As Tyler, Jason, and Diane grow up, space probe reveals a bizarre truth: The barrier is artificial, generated by huge alien artifacts. Time is passing faster outsidethe barrier than inside--more than a hundred million years per day on Earth. At this rate, the death throes of the sun are only about forty years in our future. Jason, now a promising young scientist, devotes his life to working against this slow-moving apocalypse. Diane throws herself into hedonism, marrying a sinister cult leader who's forged a new religion out of the fears of the masses. Earth sends terraforming machines to Mars to let the onrush of time do its work, turning the planet green. Next they send humans...and immediately get back an emissary with thousands of years of stories to tell about the settling of Mars. Then Earth's probes reveal that an identical barrier has appeared around Mars. Jason, desperate, seeds near space with self-replicating machines that will scatter copies of themselves outward from the sun--and report back on what they find. Life on Earth is about to get much, much stranger.… (more)
Awards
Hugo Award (Nominee — Novel — 2006)
Locus Award (Nominee — Science Fiction Novel — 2006)
Sunburst Award (Shortlist — 2006)
SF Site Reader's Choice (2005)
SF Site Editor's Choice (#1 — 2005)
John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (Finalist — 2006)
Seiun Award (Nominee — 2009)
Geffen Award (2006)
Kurd Laßwitz Preis (Winner — 2007)
Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire (Winner — 2008)
Prix Aurora Award (Finalist — 2006)
Locus Recommended Reading (2005)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2005-04
Physical description
364 p.; 9.8 inches
ISBN
0765309386 / 9780765309389
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User reviews
LibraryThing member MikeFarquhar
For some reason, Robert Charles Wilson has never had much luck in getting books published in the UK. I've just finished Spin his Hugo Award winning novel from last year, imported from America.
Wilson likes writing about societies changed by a sudden defining event, and then getting into the
Tyler Dupree has grown up with his two best friends, the twins Jason and Diane Lawton, children of a brilliant aerospace engineer, ED Lawton, and their drunken cardiologist of a mother; Tyler's mother, with longstanding connections to the Lawtons, works for them as a housekeeper.
When the three are still teenagers, they - along with many others across the globe - are staring into the sky the night all the stars suddenly vanish. Initially stunned, the world soon realises that the entire planet has been encased inside an artificial bubble - quickly christened the Spin - restricting access from the Earth to the world beyond, and shielding the planet from the outside. More remarkably, the world's scientists soon discover that time is passing far more slowly within the bubble...for every year that passes on Earth, roughly one hundred million years pass in the universe outside. As that knowledge sinks in, it becomes clear that the lifespan of the Earth is suddenly measured in terms of a generation; while forty years pass within the bubble, outside it the Sun will age, expand, contract and die, taking the bubble-encased world with it.
Wilson's book takes that premise and runs with it on several levels - the immediately obvious one of who has done this and why; why encase the Earth in what seems like a protective cocoon only to hasten its demise in the heatdeath of the Sun?; the more social question of what difference would it make to the world and the people in it if we knew that our time had suddenly become finite?; and the purely personal level of Tyler, Jason and Diane.
Jason is a genius; already groomed by his father to take his place in the family business, the Spin rapidly becomes Jason's entire life. He dedicates himself to understanding it, to probing beyond it, and sending out increasingly ambitious missions exploiting the time differential on either side of the bubble, quickly rising to head a highly influential think tank that puts him on first name terms with the President. Crippled with a version of MS, he eventually draws Tyler, who has gone to medical school and become a doctor, back into his life, to act as his personal physician. Diane meanwhile, who Tyler has always loved, reacts in a completely opposite way, embracing one of the new religious cults that have sprung up in the wake of the Spin, marrying one of them, and effectively vanishing from Jason and Tyler's lives for huge chunks at a time.
The book is narrated by Tyler in two different time streams; in the present, we follow the three friends from just before the fall of the Spin through the thirty or forty years that follow, as both they and the world undergo changes as a result of their cocooning. In the future, forty or so years from now, Tyler and Diane are on the run, racing towards something we slowly begin to understand.
There's much more to Spin's ideas; along the way Wilson covers matters of terraforming, human evolution and artificial intelligence, as part of Lawton's increasingly ambitious schemes to pierce the mystery of the Spin, and to try to guess the minds of the aliens - christened Hypotheticals - presumed to be responsible for what has happened; as well as dealing with the broader themes of how people react to death, whether sudden and unexpected, or when the whole world is given a 40 year death sentence. Wilson juggles all that through two time frames, tying together the novel's threads to a satisfying conclusion.
The novel isn't without faults; Tyler Dupree, perhaps inevitably given his viewpoint role in the story, comes over as altogether too bland and passive most of the time, a quality that is addressed and explained away by other characters in the book (nearly always a bad thing I think). There are a couple of slightly odd subplots (notably a mysterious box of Tyler's mother, and some heavy handed pointers that all seem to be leading to a big revelation about Tyler, but instead play out with rather more of a fizzle with two of the book's minor supporting characters - and while the actual revelation that is built to is quite satisfying, you can't help but feel cheated out of something different), but in the main nothing is really wasted here.
Tightly written, full of big hard SF ideas, but grounded in the concerns of its very human characters, Spin is an entertaining read. Of the other contenders for the Hugo last year, I've read all but one, and this definitely places above Charlie Stross' Accelerando and George Martin's A Feast for Crows; I'm not sure it was a more deserving winner than Ken Macleod's Learning the World would have been, but I've got a definite soft spot for his writing.
Recommended.
Wilson likes writing about societies changed by a sudden defining event, and then getting into the
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small-scale ramifications of those events as well as the bigger pictures. Spin reads like the culmination of a structure he has been trying out in previous books like Darwinia.Tyler Dupree has grown up with his two best friends, the twins Jason and Diane Lawton, children of a brilliant aerospace engineer, ED Lawton, and their drunken cardiologist of a mother; Tyler's mother, with longstanding connections to the Lawtons, works for them as a housekeeper.
When the three are still teenagers, they - along with many others across the globe - are staring into the sky the night all the stars suddenly vanish. Initially stunned, the world soon realises that the entire planet has been encased inside an artificial bubble - quickly christened the Spin - restricting access from the Earth to the world beyond, and shielding the planet from the outside. More remarkably, the world's scientists soon discover that time is passing far more slowly within the bubble...for every year that passes on Earth, roughly one hundred million years pass in the universe outside. As that knowledge sinks in, it becomes clear that the lifespan of the Earth is suddenly measured in terms of a generation; while forty years pass within the bubble, outside it the Sun will age, expand, contract and die, taking the bubble-encased world with it.
Wilson's book takes that premise and runs with it on several levels - the immediately obvious one of who has done this and why; why encase the Earth in what seems like a protective cocoon only to hasten its demise in the heatdeath of the Sun?; the more social question of what difference would it make to the world and the people in it if we knew that our time had suddenly become finite?; and the purely personal level of Tyler, Jason and Diane.
Jason is a genius; already groomed by his father to take his place in the family business, the Spin rapidly becomes Jason's entire life. He dedicates himself to understanding it, to probing beyond it, and sending out increasingly ambitious missions exploiting the time differential on either side of the bubble, quickly rising to head a highly influential think tank that puts him on first name terms with the President. Crippled with a version of MS, he eventually draws Tyler, who has gone to medical school and become a doctor, back into his life, to act as his personal physician. Diane meanwhile, who Tyler has always loved, reacts in a completely opposite way, embracing one of the new religious cults that have sprung up in the wake of the Spin, marrying one of them, and effectively vanishing from Jason and Tyler's lives for huge chunks at a time.
The book is narrated by Tyler in two different time streams; in the present, we follow the three friends from just before the fall of the Spin through the thirty or forty years that follow, as both they and the world undergo changes as a result of their cocooning. In the future, forty or so years from now, Tyler and Diane are on the run, racing towards something we slowly begin to understand.
There's much more to Spin's ideas; along the way Wilson covers matters of terraforming, human evolution and artificial intelligence, as part of Lawton's increasingly ambitious schemes to pierce the mystery of the Spin, and to try to guess the minds of the aliens - christened Hypotheticals - presumed to be responsible for what has happened; as well as dealing with the broader themes of how people react to death, whether sudden and unexpected, or when the whole world is given a 40 year death sentence. Wilson juggles all that through two time frames, tying together the novel's threads to a satisfying conclusion.
The novel isn't without faults; Tyler Dupree, perhaps inevitably given his viewpoint role in the story, comes over as altogether too bland and passive most of the time, a quality that is addressed and explained away by other characters in the book (nearly always a bad thing I think). There are a couple of slightly odd subplots (notably a mysterious box of Tyler's mother, and some heavy handed pointers that all seem to be leading to a big revelation about Tyler, but instead play out with rather more of a fizzle with two of the book's minor supporting characters - and while the actual revelation that is built to is quite satisfying, you can't help but feel cheated out of something different), but in the main nothing is really wasted here.
Tightly written, full of big hard SF ideas, but grounded in the concerns of its very human characters, Spin is an entertaining read. Of the other contenders for the Hugo last year, I've read all but one, and this definitely places above Charlie Stross' Accelerando and George Martin's A Feast for Crows; I'm not sure it was a more deserving winner than Ken Macleod's Learning the World would have been, but I've got a definite soft spot for his writing.
Recommended.
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LibraryThing member ChrisRiesbeck
What I would call a perfect SF book, or least one without major flaws, to my eyes. There are many books I love, but for the ending, or the long dry stretch, or the inadequately developed premise, or the cliched characters. With Spin, the human story and the SF ideas both develop organically over
Highly recommended.
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100s of pages, reaching a sound conclusion for both. Yes, there are two sequels, but the novel does not just stop, as did Jo Walton's otherwise excellent "Just City". Yes, the explanation of the bubble that cuts Earth off from the rest of the universe is cosmic in both time and space, with surprising reveals along the way, but the explanation isn't incomprehensible, as was Greg Egan's in "Quarantine." The human story, tracking a handful of major characters over the decades, through catastrophic changes, maintains a singular focus on the flawed but never annoying narrator, from youth to advanced adulthood. I never grew tired hearing the details of his life, relationships, emotions, confusions, and failures. A secondary character near the end ties this aspect of the novel together: "We're all strangers, to ourselves and each other. We're never formally introduced." Yes, characters deliver lectures rather than dialog at certain points, but that's the price speculative SF has to pay in a personal narrative.Highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member auntmarge64
One clear night, three teenagers are hanging out on the lawn when the stars and moon disappear. Not much changes for humanity, because the tides continue to come in and out, and there is still a sun, albeit a fake one, which brings light, heat and the seasons. Behind the scenes, scientists begin
Wonderful storytelling with clever flights of scientific fancy. Although the first in a trilogy, this also stands complete as a story. There is one big gap in reasoning towards the end which left me hanging a bit in trying to suspend disbelief, but perhaps I'm wrong and it will be cleared up in a sequel. Otherwise, a most enjoyable read.
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probing the barrier, and their discoveries have huge import for human understanding of the future (or lack thereof) for life on Earth. The three teens grow up and take their places in life: one a brilliant scientist involved with unraveling the mysteries of the Spin, one (the narrator) a physician who stays close and ministers to him, and one who takes the religious approach to coping with the apparent intentionality of the masking of Earth.Wonderful storytelling with clever flights of scientific fancy. Although the first in a trilogy, this also stands complete as a story. There is one big gap in reasoning towards the end which left me hanging a bit in trying to suspend disbelief, but perhaps I'm wrong and it will be cleared up in a sequel. Otherwise, a most enjoyable read.
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LibraryThing member psybre
Spin is a marvelous novel. I found the plot engaging from start to finish. It contained the most entertaining and fluid prose I have read this year. The main characters remained interesting throughout due to believable but unpredictable reactions to the extraordinary events that occurred. I liked
Recommended for all speculative fiction readers (with a possible exception to those requiring hard science).
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the love stories in the book; a triptych of three loves: eros expressed of the protagonist, philia and philosophy expressed by Jase, his friend, and love of self and self-preservation through a large cast of characters. I very much appreciate and enjoy hard-sf, and although there was some soft science in the book it was easy for me to overlook considering the level of adventure, sense of awe, and suspense in the book, In fact, I felt true separation anxiety whenever I had to put this book down; and I simply could not stop reading the final 100 pages, despite hunger and lack of sleep.Recommended for all speculative fiction readers (with a possible exception to those requiring hard science).
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LibraryThing member rivkat
Not too long from now, while privileged twins and their housekeeper’s son are watching, the stars go out. The Earth is sealed off from the rest of the universe, nearly stopped in time, as the solar system ages around it, with incomprehensible technology keeping an illusion of the sun in place so
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that most life goes on—at least until the sun dies, which will be within about 50 subjective years. Wilson can’t decide whether he cares more about the human reactions to impending extinction or the science, and, with his chilly narrator, he never made me connect with the characters. I see why it won the Hugo: it really does try Big Ideas, and it’s not indifferent to the fact that sf is made with people; it just didn’t gel for me. Show Less
LibraryThing member JDubba
Spin is a coming of age love story set in a backdrop of apocalyptic science fiction. Wilson uses a creative technique that divides the story into two long running threads, the culmination of a flashback thread that ends the novel where the future thread begins. He uses the back and forth between
Early in the story, the entirety of the planet Earth is trapped in what scientists eventually discover is a space-time bubble that is causing time outside the bubble to accelerate at an incredible pace relative to the time inside the bubble, hurtling the Earth through time towards the heat death of Sol, evidently within 40 to 50 years rather than the normal 5 billion years it would take to occur in normal time.
Beyond the very surface driven plots about growing up and falling in love, there were some interesting and more subtle subtexts about the moral and ethical dilemmas raised by the impending end of the human race. While this is ultimately our likely end, by compressing the time frame to a single generation, it brings the importance of such a nature squarely to the forefront. What is the meaning and importance of life when all life is disappearing? This question has the same relevance whether humanity suffers a cataclysmic event in 50 years or fades out with the last of the universes energy in 50 billion. By thinking in more concrete terms such as 50 years however, the sense of importance for the question is put in a new perspective.
Also in-mixed are some scientific concepts related to extra terrestrial exploration and settlement, and playing with the concepts of long term evolution on sentient beings, nano-tech, artificial life and some other basic scientific fodder. While intriguing at a high level, the science is fairly soft, which works well to kept the story moving at a good pace, but doesn't satisfy that pragmatic science itch that is handled by someone like Kim Robinson.
Not to be left out, Wilson addresses the conflict of science and religion. While it's not spelled out directly, religion is basically given the role of consolation for those who want to stick their heads in the sand regarding reality and pragmatism. Divisive and end the end counter productive. Other than as a plot device to set up particular situations for two of the characters, there is not much new added to the debate here.
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past and future to build suspense and let the mystery of the story unfold.Early in the story, the entirety of the planet Earth is trapped in what scientists eventually discover is a space-time bubble that is causing time outside the bubble to accelerate at an incredible pace relative to the time inside the bubble, hurtling the Earth through time towards the heat death of Sol, evidently within 40 to 50 years rather than the normal 5 billion years it would take to occur in normal time.
Beyond the very surface driven plots about growing up and falling in love, there were some interesting and more subtle subtexts about the moral and ethical dilemmas raised by the impending end of the human race. While this is ultimately our likely end, by compressing the time frame to a single generation, it brings the importance of such a nature squarely to the forefront. What is the meaning and importance of life when all life is disappearing? This question has the same relevance whether humanity suffers a cataclysmic event in 50 years or fades out with the last of the universes energy in 50 billion. By thinking in more concrete terms such as 50 years however, the sense of importance for the question is put in a new perspective.
Also in-mixed are some scientific concepts related to extra terrestrial exploration and settlement, and playing with the concepts of long term evolution on sentient beings, nano-tech, artificial life and some other basic scientific fodder. While intriguing at a high level, the science is fairly soft, which works well to kept the story moving at a good pace, but doesn't satisfy that pragmatic science itch that is handled by someone like Kim Robinson.
Not to be left out, Wilson addresses the conflict of science and religion. While it's not spelled out directly, religion is basically given the role of consolation for those who want to stick their heads in the sand regarding reality and pragmatism. Divisive and end the end counter productive. Other than as a plot device to set up particular situations for two of the characters, there is not much new added to the debate here.
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LibraryThing member wealhtheowwylfing
How the FUCK did this book win a Hugo?
It's not hard to explain, I suppose: insert infodumps of "hard" sf every few pages, focus the book on a bland every-man who pines for his untouchable childhood sweetheart, add a couple monologues about how humanity just wants to understand the universe but oh
Putting aside the main character, who has the internal life of a turnip and possibly even less of an external life (seriously all he does is follow Jason and Diane around and listen to their infodumps), the plot is nonexistent. Here's the premise: when Tyler and his bffs Jason and Diane are children, a membrane encloses the earth. A certain amount of sunlight is allowed through, but otherwise our planet is enclosed into almost cryogenic stasis, as one hundred million years pass outside the membrane and only one year within it. On the one hand, this means that within a single human lifetime, the sun will die. On the other hand, it means that when humans can remotely accomplish things in outer space we'd never dream of otherwise, like terraforming Mars in what seems to us like a single day. Cool! Unfortunately, this awesome astro stuff takes second seat to the interminable explanations of the incredibly obvious. Not a single chapter goes by without someone (er, let me rephrase--someone male. There are three supporting female characters: one is a religious nut, one says very little, and one is a drunk whose alcoholism is mentioned LITERALLY EVERY SINGLE TIME she is mentioned and who seems to exist solely so Tyler will seem well-informed in comparison. Absolutely none of these women have much in the way of dialog or personality, and none of them have agency in the plot.) telling another character something obvious. Here's an example: She [Jason's mom, a physician who is now an alcoholic, oh hey, did I mention she drinks? She drinks. She's always drinking!] looked genuinely frightened. "Is any of this true, Jason?"
"Most all of it," Jason said calmly.
"Are we really on the brink of disaster?"
"We've been on the brink of disaster since the stars went out."
"I mean about oil and all that. If the Spin hadn't happened, we'd all be starving?"
"People are starving. They're starving because we can't support seven billion people in North American-style prosperity without strip-mining the planet."
WOW. Jason is the only person to have ever realized we might run out of oil. This is an example of a big problem with this book: the only way Jason and Tyler are able to be smart is by writing everyone around them as ignoramuses. At another point, Tyler goes off on his hot young fuck-buddy because she dismisses Spin as "We're in a sort of cosmic baggie and the universe is spinning out of control, yada yada yada." This pretty accurate summary apparently warrants a two-page diatribe wherein Tyler decries the common public's astronomical ignorance. Jason or Tyler explains the idea that time passes differently inside and outside the membrane surrounding the earth like fifteen times in this book. Thanks, but I got it the first time; it's not that complex an idea. Wilson has an annoying tendency to try to create tension by cutting people off in the middle of exposition, just when they're poised to reveal something big. Aside from the clear artificiality of the device, the reveals are never actually that surprising.OMG the aliens had a reason for putting the earth inside a time-controlling membrane! OMG the mysterious love letters came from a woman! OMG other races have come up with the idea of sending out self-replicating networks to transmit data! OMG the Martians actually have their own culture! Duh.
Sorry for all the capslock. This book was a disappointment.
It's not hard to explain, I suppose: insert infodumps of "hard" sf every few pages, focus the book on a bland every-man who pines for his untouchable childhood sweetheart, add a couple monologues about how humanity just wants to understand the universe but oh
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god it's so vast, and boom, a paint-by-the-numbers Hugo winner. It was SO FUCKING MIND-NUMBINGLY BORING.Putting aside the main character, who has the internal life of a turnip and possibly even less of an external life (seriously all he does is follow Jason and Diane around and listen to their infodumps), the plot is nonexistent. Here's the premise: when Tyler and his bffs Jason and Diane are children, a membrane encloses the earth. A certain amount of sunlight is allowed through, but otherwise our planet is enclosed into almost cryogenic stasis, as one hundred million years pass outside the membrane and only one year within it. On the one hand, this means that within a single human lifetime, the sun will die. On the other hand, it means that when humans can remotely accomplish things in outer space we'd never dream of otherwise, like terraforming Mars in what seems to us like a single day. Cool! Unfortunately, this awesome astro stuff takes second seat to the interminable explanations of the incredibly obvious. Not a single chapter goes by without someone (er, let me rephrase--someone male. There are three supporting female characters: one is a religious nut, one says very little, and one is a drunk whose alcoholism is mentioned LITERALLY EVERY SINGLE TIME she is mentioned and who seems to exist solely so Tyler will seem well-informed in comparison. Absolutely none of these women have much in the way of dialog or personality, and none of them have agency in the plot.) telling another character something obvious. Here's an example: She [Jason's mom, a physician who is now an alcoholic, oh hey, did I mention she drinks? She drinks. She's always drinking!] looked genuinely frightened. "Is any of this true, Jason?"
"Most all of it," Jason said calmly.
"Are we really on the brink of disaster?"
"We've been on the brink of disaster since the stars went out."
"I mean about oil and all that. If the Spin hadn't happened, we'd all be starving?"
"People are starving. They're starving because we can't support seven billion people in North American-style prosperity without strip-mining the planet."
WOW. Jason is the only person to have ever realized we might run out of oil. This is an example of a big problem with this book: the only way Jason and Tyler are able to be smart is by writing everyone around them as ignoramuses. At another point, Tyler goes off on his hot young fuck-buddy because she dismisses Spin as "We're in a sort of cosmic baggie and the universe is spinning out of control, yada yada yada." This pretty accurate summary apparently warrants a two-page diatribe wherein Tyler decries the common public's astronomical ignorance. Jason or Tyler explains the idea that time passes differently inside and outside the membrane surrounding the earth like fifteen times in this book. Thanks, but I got it the first time; it's not that complex an idea. Wilson has an annoying tendency to try to create tension by cutting people off in the middle of exposition, just when they're poised to reveal something big. Aside from the clear artificiality of the device, the reveals are never actually that surprising.
Sorry for all the capslock. This book was a disappointment.
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LibraryThing member LisaMaria_C
The premise is imaginative and unusual. In a recognizably contemporary world, a planetary-wide shield is placed over the earth blocking the night sky from view--outside that shield, over 200,000 years pass each day and within a generation the sun, a red giant, will swallow the earth.
The first
Wilson has a smooth, vivid style and the novel features complex and sympathetic characters. I was sucked in immediately--the narrative shifting between a present where Tyler is undergoing an ordeal, Diane at this side, and telling the story of what happened between the three of them since the night that changed the Earth. I liked how this book was able to not just work with Big Ideas in the best science fiction tradition, but also, unlike many a science fiction work, this was very much about the people in ways insightful and moving.
The first
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person protagonist, Tyler, was a child when he saw "the October Event" happen--stargazing with this two best friends, Diane and Jason, twins. Diana becomes a religious fanatic; Jason makes it his life work to find a way to study the phenomenon and find a way for humans to survive. Wilson has a smooth, vivid style and the novel features complex and sympathetic characters. I was sucked in immediately--the narrative shifting between a present where Tyler is undergoing an ordeal, Diane at this side, and telling the story of what happened between the three of them since the night that changed the Earth. I liked how this book was able to not just work with Big Ideas in the best science fiction tradition, but also, unlike many a science fiction work, this was very much about the people in ways insightful and moving.
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LibraryThing member RBeffa
Spin is one of the most satisfying science fiction novels I have read in years. Quite a few novels have good parts but this has a number of good parts and they tie together to create a rich and rewarding read. There's a lot of science to this novel, but I think not so much as to scare people off
There are quite a few excellent reviews available to peruse and rather than throwing a story summation here I recommend browsing the reviews of people who liked this. You will note a lot of people REALLY liked it. I am one of those types. Maybe the story idea will scare you off. I hope not. Part of the enjoyment of reading this was how there was a big central mystery as well as smaller ones and whenever I thought the story was going one way it went another and surprised me. I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys speculative fiction.
There are two novels that follow this, 'Axis' and 'Vortex' - I'm not sure how closely related but this is absolutely a standalone story.
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who only have read a little science fiction. Stuff gets explained. The stuff that doesn't get explained is what the people in the story are trying to figure out. The entire novel is built around character arcs.There are quite a few excellent reviews available to peruse and rather than throwing a story summation here I recommend browsing the reviews of people who liked this. You will note a lot of people REALLY liked it. I am one of those types. Maybe the story idea will scare you off. I hope not. Part of the enjoyment of reading this was how there was a big central mystery as well as smaller ones and whenever I thought the story was going one way it went another and surprised me. I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys speculative fiction.
There are two novels that follow this, 'Axis' and 'Vortex' - I'm not sure how closely related but this is absolutely a standalone story.
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LibraryThing member reading_fox
Very impressed. Hard sf with sympathetic characters, and a decent grasp of biology as well as physics. I'm not a big fan of the flashback writing style - when the plot moves forward in alternating chapters with the history of how the characters came to be where they are, the timelines converge in
Our hero then takes a known drug, and suffers from the side effects including grapholitis that causes him to write down his memories before they are forgotten. He begins the flashbacks with growing up as the poor kid on the rich block, son of the housekeeper to the eminent political science broker E.D. Lawson and his twins. He Tyler, and the twins Jason and Diane,get along very well together even though there is always a divide between them, Jason being ED's heir apparent and already dangerously intelligent, but not arrogant. There are only a few interludes of childhood before the next significant event occurs - the stars go out.
An alien induced semi permeable membrane known as the Spin has encapsulated the world and is accelerating it through time at the rate of several years a second. Doing the maths shows that the world is now in plausible danger of heat death from an aged sun. Not now, but within the lifetimes of the protagonists and any children. This has profound effects on society and the rest of the novel more or less looks at how people cope with knowledge of death. Real knowledge. And of course some ingenious technical ploys to save humanity.
A very unusual twist is that one of the major characters develops MS. This isn't a staggeringly rare condition (~1:1000) but given the stigma of a mental illness it is seldom encountered in genre fiction. It also isn't quite apparent why the author chose to include this. He got the details more or less right as far as I know, although somewhat exaggerated. Which is one of the few downsides - the MS wasn't totally true to life. The other I guess is the pacing, it is a fairly slow book, little actually happens through most of it - and the flashback nature means we know the hero doesn't suffer any permanent issues, so any tension in the few actions scenes is lost.
I really enjoyed this. The deep time was neatly dealt with by the alien artifact, and the rest was clever, and plausible possible consequences of technology. The societal effects didn't seem to extreme, and were entertainingly varied. There was also a lovely hat tip to KSR's Red Mars, when a martian wanted to know what Earth thought about him, sure Burroughs and all the other usual suspects, but KSR made a nice contrast to the list - especially given how the martian came to be there. In general the book felt like a much softer Alistair Reynolds. The technology diluted by biology and set on earth.
Proper SF: far fetched but still possible. Plausible in the consequences, sympathetic characters and a look at how we - modern society, deal with a few issues of contemporary importance. Well worth reading.
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the penultimate chapters. But it does work well enough this time, gently taking the reader from an almost present day world of the opening flashbacks through the to extreme future that isn't too dissimilar that they end up in. The opening scene in the novel's present tense, shows a massive alien artifact in the ocean, but they aren't too concerned about it, and are heading that way the best they can off the radar from the authorities. Our hero then takes a known drug, and suffers from the side effects including grapholitis that causes him to write down his memories before they are forgotten. He begins the flashbacks with growing up as the poor kid on the rich block, son of the housekeeper to the eminent political science broker E.D. Lawson and his twins. He Tyler, and the twins Jason and Diane,get along very well together even though there is always a divide between them, Jason being ED's heir apparent and already dangerously intelligent, but not arrogant. There are only a few interludes of childhood before the next significant event occurs - the stars go out.
An alien induced semi permeable membrane known as the Spin has encapsulated the world and is accelerating it through time at the rate of several years a second. Doing the maths shows that the world is now in plausible danger of heat death from an aged sun. Not now, but within the lifetimes of the protagonists and any children. This has profound effects on society and the rest of the novel more or less looks at how people cope with knowledge of death. Real knowledge. And of course some ingenious technical ploys to save humanity.
A very unusual twist is that one of the major characters develops MS. This isn't a staggeringly rare condition (~1:1000) but given the stigma of a mental illness it is seldom encountered in genre fiction. It also isn't quite apparent why the author chose to include this. He got the details more or less right as far as I know, although somewhat exaggerated. Which is one of the few downsides - the MS wasn't totally true to life. The other I guess is the pacing, it is a fairly slow book, little actually happens through most of it - and the flashback nature means we know the hero doesn't suffer any permanent issues, so any tension in the few actions scenes is lost.
I really enjoyed this. The deep time was neatly dealt with by the alien artifact, and the rest was clever, and plausible possible consequences of technology. The societal effects didn't seem to extreme, and were entertainingly varied. There was also a lovely hat tip to KSR's Red Mars, when a martian wanted to know what Earth thought about him, sure Burroughs and all the other usual suspects, but KSR made a nice contrast to the list - especially given how the martian came to be there. In general the book felt like a much softer Alistair Reynolds. The technology diluted by biology and set on earth.
Proper SF: far fetched but still possible. Plausible in the consequences, sympathetic characters and a look at how we - modern society, deal with a few issues of contemporary importance. Well worth reading.
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LibraryThing member framberg
"Spin" made for great end-of-the-year reading. It was fast-paced and interesting, with compelling characters and questions.
Wilson's novel envisions an Earth in crisis in the near future, protected from the dying sun by a membrane of unknown origin. The universe ages rapidly around the static
Wilson's novel envisions an Earth in crisis in the near future, protected from the dying sun by a membrane of unknown origin. The universe ages rapidly around the static
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Earth, which allows for facinating space exploration, including terraforming Mars. Wilson only addresses the global chaos that occurs tangentially, as his characters move through an altered world. Instead, Wilson uses his three main characters to adress different ways of dealing with the Earth's imminent demise, one through science, one through religion, and one through his relationships with the other two. These three characters are thoughtful creations, and it is through them that Wilson comments on humanity as a whole. Show Less
LibraryThing member tcgardner
If you and I knew the time the end of everything occured, how would we react? Would we give up? Fight? More than anything Spin explores a generation of humanity who see the end, up in the sky, for 25 years.
Someone has put a temporal shield around the earth and while a second passes on earth, 3
Robert Charles Wilson has written a literate SF novel about human spirit, religion, fatalism, hope, and charity. The SF is hard and good, the soft "people" story is very good. I really cared about the characters and empathized with them. I felt frustrated, sad, happy, and morose. I loved the novel. You will too.
Someone has put a temporal shield around the earth and while a second passes on earth, 3
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years pass in the rest of the universe. The suns is scheduled to explode in about 5 billion years and 25 years on earth can pass quickly.Robert Charles Wilson has written a literate SF novel about human spirit, religion, fatalism, hope, and charity. The SF is hard and good, the soft "people" story is very good. I really cared about the characters and empathized with them. I felt frustrated, sad, happy, and morose. I loved the novel. You will too.
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LibraryThing member crazybatcow
Quick summary? It's a decent sci-fi with detailed character development.
It's science fiction so, of course, you have to accept the possibility of things that may not exist. And, nope, at the end we may not know why the Spin occurred, but, really... if an extra-planetary life force decided to play
There is a LOT of character involvement/development... so a lot of 'touchy-feely' stuff that may not usually be in a sci-fi... it's well done but if you like your sci-fi hardcore (Asimov/Niven) you might find it a bit too much development.
The only thing that might be bothersome is that some parts seem to have been repeated. For example - early in the story there'll be a description of sending a satellite into space, then a couple hours later in the story there's another description which sounds very similar to the first. I didn't check to confirm how similar it was, but it's close enough to give me the feeling that it was copied and pasted... this sort of repetition occurs a half dozen times throughout the story.
The story may not answer all the questions it raises, but it's a good sci-fi story with significant character development.
It's science fiction so, of course, you have to accept the possibility of things that may not exist. And, nope, at the end we may not know why the Spin occurred, but, really... if an extra-planetary life force decided to play
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with us, would we know the why of it? Probably not. That's part of the point of the story - humankind might think everything is 'knowable' but... is it?? There is a LOT of character involvement/development... so a lot of 'touchy-feely' stuff that may not usually be in a sci-fi... it's well done but if you like your sci-fi hardcore (Asimov/Niven) you might find it a bit too much development.
The only thing that might be bothersome is that some parts seem to have been repeated. For example - early in the story there'll be a description of sending a satellite into space, then a couple hours later in the story there's another description which sounds very similar to the first. I didn't check to confirm how similar it was, but it's close enough to give me the feeling that it was copied and pasted... this sort of repetition occurs a half dozen times throughout the story.
The story may not answer all the questions it raises, but it's a good sci-fi story with significant character development.
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LibraryThing member AsYouKnow_Bob
I spotted a bug in the premise that dampened my enjoyment of this one.
LibraryThing member Shrike58
This little commentary is not spoiler free, so keep that in mind.
As I was reading this, I'll admit that I didn't see what the big deal was. While not bad, I didn't consider this tale of slow-moving apocalypse to be exactly Hugo-winning material. This is particularly since the characters didn't
Where Wilson does deserve a tip of the hat is in his climax, as that was nothing I was expecting. And you know something? Why shouldn't events play out that way? This is after reading the perspective on post-human life offered by Alastair Reynolds in "Revelation Space" and Charles Stross in "Accelerando," where one is essentially left with the sense that as a species we almost may as well end it all now. Or you can call it an inverse take on either Greg Bear's "Blood Music" or Dan Simmons' "Hyperion" series.
This is not to mention that I like the notion of literally sailing between worlds.
Still, it's the consensus of my book group that what we have here is a strong novella struggling to get out of a so-so novel.
I've also been wondering where Robert Wilson fits in the current genre ecology, and it might just be that he's the new Clifford D. Simak. At the very least his speciality is the reaction of fairly average people to massively transformational events, much as Simak's was, and there's some of the same sense of nostalgic rememberance that Simak really did have down pat. Which is still not my favorite thing I might add.
As I was reading this, I'll admit that I didn't see what the big deal was. While not bad, I didn't consider this tale of slow-moving apocalypse to be exactly Hugo-winning material. This is particularly since the characters didn't
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exactly move me, and if I want a sense of looming disaster I can get that just by reading the morning paper.Where Wilson does deserve a tip of the hat is in his climax, as that was nothing I was expecting. And you know something? Why shouldn't events play out that way? This is after reading the perspective on post-human life offered by Alastair Reynolds in "Revelation Space" and Charles Stross in "Accelerando," where one is essentially left with the sense that as a species we almost may as well end it all now. Or you can call it an inverse take on either Greg Bear's "Blood Music" or Dan Simmons' "Hyperion" series.
This is not to mention that I like the notion of literally sailing between worlds.
Still, it's the consensus of my book group that what we have here is a strong novella struggling to get out of a so-so novel.
I've also been wondering where Robert Wilson fits in the current genre ecology, and it might just be that he's the new Clifford D. Simak. At the very least his speciality is the reaction of fairly average people to massively transformational events, much as Simak's was, and there's some of the same sense of nostalgic rememberance that Simak really did have down pat. Which is still not my favorite thing I might add.
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LibraryThing member cdogzilla
Now that's using your imagination. Mr. Wilson serves up some pretty big what-ifs, but orbits them around the terra firma of unrequited love and familial tensions, integrating elements of hard and new wave sci fi (think Kim Stanley Robinson meets Samuel Delaney) into a well crafted story.
LibraryThing member KevlarRelic
This is a darn good book. I picked it up and was instantly torn away from my life to go and live in a world where the end of our species is important in a very immediate way.
LibraryThing member clong
I had mixed feelings about Spin. It was hard to avoid comparing this book to Greg Egan's Quarantine; in most ways I thought Spin was the better book.
As a book of ideas, Spin works pretty darn well, featuring several cool and in some cases new (at least to me) concepts, deftly woven together. It
Wilson's storytelling is also reasonably effective. The plot moves along, stays reasonably focused, builds tension at times, and gives a sense of closure where needed. I'm not convinced that the alternating timeframes (we're reading snippets of the conclusion of the story interspersed between longer chapters that narrate the earlier parts of the story) really helped--this certainly reduced some of the suspense we might have felt going into key events in the story.
My biggest complaint about the book is characterization. This is one seriously messed up group of people (think "Ordinary People" messed up), who interact in seriously disfunctional ways. I found the glacially slow to develop romance between Tyler and Diane to be unbelievable (there's no way this couple is going to live happily ever after). In an odd way, I found the seriously messed up bad guys (i.e., E.D. and Molly) to be more plausible than the seriously messed up good guys.
When it was all over, I couldn't help but think that the ending made all of the good guys' efforts largely irrelevant (only the reader is benefitted by them). In the grand scheme of things, everyone would have been much happier if they had gotten drunk and headed for the Cozumel, rather than trying to understand what was happening. That left me kind of depressed.
As a book of ideas, Spin works pretty darn well, featuring several cool and in some cases new (at least to me) concepts, deftly woven together. It
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certainly gave me things to think about.Wilson's storytelling is also reasonably effective. The plot moves along, stays reasonably focused, builds tension at times, and gives a sense of closure where needed. I'm not convinced that the alternating timeframes (we're reading snippets of the conclusion of the story interspersed between longer chapters that narrate the earlier parts of the story) really helped--this certainly reduced some of the suspense we might have felt going into key events in the story.
My biggest complaint about the book is characterization. This is one seriously messed up group of people (think "Ordinary People" messed up), who interact in seriously disfunctional ways. I found the glacially slow to develop romance between Tyler and Diane to be unbelievable (there's no way this couple is going to live happily ever after). In an odd way, I found the seriously messed up bad guys (i.e., E.D. and Molly) to be more plausible than the seriously messed up good guys.
When it was all over, I couldn't help but think that the ending made all of the good guys' efforts largely irrelevant (only the reader is benefitted by them). In the grand scheme of things, everyone would have been much happier if they had gotten drunk and headed for the Cozumel, rather than trying to understand what was happening. That left me kind of depressed.
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LibraryThing member tjd
A well-written book about an epic change to the earth.
LibraryThing member agis
How would humanity respond if an apocalypse was coming - but we had a lifetime to prepare? That's the primary question raised by Robert Charles Wilson's "Spin", where a dark, permeable membrane suddenly surrounds the earth one night - at which point the earth is accelerated through time, facing the
Tyler Dupree manages to be at the middle of this - the childhood friend of Jason Lawton, who becomes an expert on the membrane (named "The Spin") and formulates a grand plan to circumvent it. The novel is primarily about how people deal with impending doom - Jason turns to science, his sister Diane to religion; others become fatalistic, hope blindly, or just muddle through as Tyler does, watching things unfold.
Most of the book is told looking back, which drains tension from some scenes, but provides valuable setup for some later scenes that might be too disconnected otherwise. Diane's turn to religion is never entirely convincing; the reaction of the others as events move to a climax are more plausible. Further events - the cause of the Spin, and changes growing out of Jason's attempts to deal with the Spin - are dealt with well, raising as many questions as they answered, but good questions.
A spare plot thread or two conclude limply, but they're never on center stage; the central dilemma is handled well, and the later details are fascinating enough that you don't dwell on the bad threads for long. Wilson's prose is merely utilitarian, but the ideas stand strongly enough that Spin is a worthwhile read.
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destruction of the earth at the hands of a dying sun in 40-50 years.Tyler Dupree manages to be at the middle of this - the childhood friend of Jason Lawton, who becomes an expert on the membrane (named "The Spin") and formulates a grand plan to circumvent it. The novel is primarily about how people deal with impending doom - Jason turns to science, his sister Diane to religion; others become fatalistic, hope blindly, or just muddle through as Tyler does, watching things unfold.
Most of the book is told looking back, which drains tension from some scenes, but provides valuable setup for some later scenes that might be too disconnected otherwise. Diane's turn to religion is never entirely convincing; the reaction of the others as events move to a climax are more plausible. Further events - the cause of the Spin, and changes growing out of Jason's attempts to deal with the Spin - are dealt with well, raising as many questions as they answered, but good questions.
A spare plot thread or two conclude limply, but they're never on center stage; the central dilemma is handled well, and the later details are fascinating enough that you don't dwell on the bad threads for long. Wilson's prose is merely utilitarian, but the ideas stand strongly enough that Spin is a worthwhile read.
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LibraryThing member Abbyroad909
Good science fiction with an unusual level of character development. By the end the characters seem both familiar and realistic. Still, the best part of "Spin" is the idea, and then following through with a very plausible account of what would happen in such a situation. A great book, but the
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sequel, "Axis", definitely it not as good. If you enjoy "Spin", think about skipping "Axis". Show Less
LibraryThing member FishSpeaker
Really intriguing ideas. Pretty good characters. Easy to read. The only problem was a slow, reflective pace, exemplified by the book's format of telling the story simultaneously from several different times in the characters' lives. There was little dramatic tension throughout the book, which made
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for a nearly nonexistant climax. Show Less
LibraryThing member bzedan
Ooh, sciency. I can't really describe this book. It's a character study, both of the protagonist and of the two people he knew/knows best, and of humanity, I guess?I always have a soft spot for books written like someone writing from notes, or what they remember. This is that, and it also flicks
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back to the "now". Show Less
LibraryThing member aarondesk
Spin won the Hugo award in 2006 and the award was well worth it. Wilson puts together a fine novel detailing the human drama that takes place between the Lawton family and their friend Tyler Dupree as the apocalypse approaches. The twists and turns related to Mars, politics, religion,
***Spoilers below***
The ending however relies on several assumptions such as (1) all civilizations are doomed to fail, (2) nano-machines know best, etc., but nonetheless the ending is quite cool. This is really what good science fiction is about.
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nano-machines, bio-engineering, etc. all work together for this engrossing novel.***Spoilers below***
The ending however relies on several assumptions such as (1) all civilizations are doomed to fail, (2) nano-machines know best, etc., but nonetheless the ending is quite cool. This is really what good science fiction is about.
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LibraryThing member ZetaSyanthis
Definitely an interesting book, but for some reason, I just couldn't quite get into it. Not sure if it was the hype and awards surrounding it setting unrealistic expectations, but I just didn't think it was all that special.
The story was an interesting twist and such, but for some reason I was
The story was an interesting twist and such, but for some reason I was
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left with a 'bleh' kind of feeling at the end. I can't really put my finger on it, and will update the review if I ever figure it out. Show Less