Sci-Fi classic book review: Spin

Author: Robert Charles Wilson

Wilson was born in the United States in California, but grew up near Toronto, Ontario. Apart from another short period in the early 1970s spent in Whittier, California, he has lived most of his life in Canada, and in 2007 he became a Canadian citizen. He resided for a while in Nanaimo, British Columbia, and briefly in Vancouver. Currently he lives with his wife Sharry in Concord, Ontario, just north of Toronto. He has two sons, Paul and Devon.

Author Stephen King has called Wilson "probably the finest science-fiction author now writing".

Pedigree / Awards

2006 - Hugo Winner

2006 - Campbell Nominated

2006 - Locus SF Nominated

Spin has also won the French Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire, the Japanese Seiun Award, the Israeli Geffen Prize, and the German Kurd Lasswitz Prize.

Dust Jacket Summary

One night in October when he was ten years old, Tyler Dupree stood in his back yard 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 outside the 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.

What I liked

This is my second reading of Spin and it remains one of my all-time favorite novels. Spin works on two very important levels, the characters and the plot. Robert Charles Wilson is able to balance the two so no one aspect totally overwhelms the other.

I like to equate Spin as being a high concept Sci-Fi novel. Basically, Mr. Wilson throws out an outrageous idea, a membrane that covers the Earth and slows down time, and then explores the ramifications of this development. What makes Spin great is that Mr. Wilson then pushes beyond the original concept and moves into fascinating new plot lines. Too many novels just rest one the original idea and never move beyond.

The story is told through the lives of 3 characters, Tyler Dupree, Jason and Diane Lawton. While Tyler is the main protagonist, the Lawton’s are the yin and yang of the consequences caused by the Spin. Mr. Wilson does an amazing work keeping the human element in the foreground instead of allowing the Sci-Fi elements to overwhelm the story.

What I didn’t like

One very small thing, I never really liked the title of the book. For a modern classic it should have more of a majestic name. Also the cover art should be more attractive.

The story stops abruptly and the reader is left with the feeling of wanting more. But then again that is a sign of a good novel.

Last word

A modern Sci-Fi classic that is able to handle both the plot and characters equally and is a story that is never afraid to push the envelope into new captivating areas.

                                                            My Rating