Vortex

The third book in a series. Not as good as the first, but way better than the second book. All in all, kept me entertained.

In Houston, a few decades after the end of the Spin, a vagrant is brought to a psychiatric facility for evaluation. An odd conspiracy swirls around him. He has been writing--channeling--the story of a man flung forward to the far future, when a floating community returns to a ravaged Earth in

Show More

search of union with the Hypotheticals. The two stories continue in parallel, gradually intertwining.

We finally find out who the Hypotheticals are and what they want with humanity. But the human story, particularly the "21st century" one, is far more interesting.

Show Less

Very solid ending to a very solid trilogy. This book explores very different aspects from the last two while still dealing with the Hypotheticals and continuing the story of Turk. If you liked the first book, you will definitely like this one. The book resorts back to the first person viewpoint,

Show More

bouncing between two narratives, a style that really helped make the first one enjoyable.

Show Less

This book is the final work in a trilogy which was begun by mysterious aliens - labelled as the Hypotheticals, because they remained unseen - transporting the Earth via an enclosing 'time bubble' into the far future, when the Sun is swelling and dying. Technology pretty much halts in the upheaval

Show More

and Earth is left in chaos.

A colony on Mars, however, benefited as time flowed slower there and technology advanced again. A Martian arrived on Earth bringing the knowledge of human immortality but was mysteriously killed. Mars is then shut off in its own 'time bubble' but knowledge of the immortality treatment gets out...Later, a giant Archway appeared in the Indian Ocean and offered access to a sequence of empty planets similar to Earth, and these are slowly explored and exploited for their resources, or used as hiding places by various groups.

There are two narratives in this latest, and final, installment. One is a story set on Earth and involves a psychiatrist, Sandra Cole, being given responsibility for a homeless boy, Orin Mather, by an unusually caring and interested policemen, Bose. The odd thing about Orin is that he writes a journal, about the adventures of two characters called Turk Findley and Allison Pearl.

This is the other narrative strand. Turk Findley, a pilot with secrets, who appears earlier in this trilogy, awakens during a battle taking place at the Archway to Earth. A giant flying habitat has been attacked and brought down. Turk meets a woman from the habitat, which she calls Vox. She has two personalities, a Vox and a human one, 'Allison Pearl', and the latter gradually takes control. Vox is repaired and they go aboard but the people of Vox are cultists, all wired together to share feelings, of which the most powerful is to meet the Hypotheticals. Vox's treatment of those not sharing this goal is ruthless and Turk and Allison learn to dissemble as they secretly plan to escape. Both narratives converge. Turk's motivations are revealed through a pivotal early experience. His actions on Vox precipitate the final crisis, after another earlier character is encountered who serves as a narrator of the conclusion.

I found this final volume to be a let down. Nothing much is moved forward in our knowledge of things since the first novel. While the human stories are well told (as ever with this author) the three novels could have been compressed into a single volume. The main point of this last last novel seems to be a rather tired warning about global warming, as the Earth that that the Vox journey through is dead through over-use of oil etc imported to Earth from planets connected via the Gateway. Compressing things would have sharpened the impact of the story.

Show Less

This series starts well, but gets more and more disappointing as it progresses.

My Review: 7 - Good Read

It feels like forever since I read and fell in love with Spin. The sequel, Axis, didn't pack the same punch in terms of sense of wonder, but there was no doubt I'd read the third and final installment of this trilogy, Vortex. It's not as good as Spin, I'll be honest, but

Show More

it's a lot better than Axis, and the last part of the book packs a wonderful punch in terms of sense of wonder that I had a hard time putting it down once I got into those final pages. Vortex kept me guessing: while I have forgotten most of Axis, it kept my memory refreshed, but trying to put together what happened there with what's happening in Vortex was a fascinating exercise and a lot of fun. The story felt more accessible, because by now, I understand the world-building pretty well, despite what I've forgotten, because I've had two books introducing and reinforcing it. Putting the pieces together while reading two narratives: near-future Earth and the far-far future (I won't give you a setting, so no spoilers) was a smooth read, despite getting three to four alternating POVs over the course of the book. We learn so much more about the Hypotheticals, and by time I finished, I found myself wanting to re-read the trilogy back-to-back-to-back. Vortex is definitely worth reading: there's plenty to consider, to chew on, and to wonder about. I'm glad I finally got around to it.

Show Less

I didn't enjoy this conclusion to the Spin series at all. This one alternates between about 40 years after the events of Spin and 10000 years after Axis. To me it sounded preachy on climate change at the detriment of the story. But regardless, I think this is the weakest of all three novels.

Show More

Perhaps necessary to feel some resolution to the entirety of the series, but taking it as itself, I just didn't enjoy it that much.

Show Less

Remember to plow through Axis first, but this is supposed to be better.

I'd call this a very satisfying finish to the Spin-Axis-Vortex trilogy I read this year. Spin was amazing, Axis good, and Vortex delivers what for me was a very good read with an ending that ties things up and I can live with. I could see early on where some of this third book was going, but not

Show More

how, and the story maintained some mystery and excitement with several interesting characters. There is a very character driven novel and the story is told chapter to chapter with a different viewpoint of the main characters. Part of the story is set in the future just after Spin/Axis and part 10,000 years in the future. I really became engaged with the lives of several of the characters and cared what would happen to them. I can recommend this series to those who want a good science fiction tale full of highly speculative science, but focused on characters.

Show Less

The third, and best, in the Spin trilogy. "Spin" was a good yarn; "Axis" was somewhat weaker, as is frequently the case in mid-trilogy entries; "Vortex" is a compelling and complicated story that goes back and forth in time and satisfyingly wraps up all the threads of the Spin story and characters.

Show More

Altogether, the trilogy is a very enjoyable sci-fi experience. I'd say more about the plot, but even a little would give away too much of the first two books. But this is definitely an author I'm going to read more from. Just really good story-telling.

Show Less

The third book of the Spin trilogy is a kind of a time-loop story. On the surface it`s an action packed page turner but in the middle of it there are some serious thoughts about
consequences, about human mind and collective decisions.

This third volume in the Spin Trilogy features Turk Findlay of the second volume. The story takes place over two widely separated time lines. In one of the narratives, it is 10,000 years in the future after the events in Axis, the second volume. Turk, who had been transported by the Hypotheticals,

Show More

is returned to Earth/Equatoria. He is picked up by the Vox, a civilization living on a group of wandering islands who believe that those who are returned from the Hypotheticals are deities or messiahs of a sort. The Vox are maneuvering their islands to a place they think the Hypotheticals are waiting for them. On meeting up with the Hypotheticals, they expect to experience something akin to the Rapture. Turk is not too sure the Hypotheticals are benevolent, however.

In the alternating storyline, set in a time somewhat contemporaneous with the time Turk was taken up by the Hypotheticals. Orrin Mather, a young vagrant is taken into custody by the authorities in a future dystopian Houston. Orrin keeps dreaming the story of a man named Turk, and he keeps writing the story down. We read Turk's story, as Orrin dreams it and writes it down.

I liked this novel the least of the three in the trilogy. I ended up not reading it that closely, just reading to get through it and see what happened and how it all ended.

Show Less