Spin, by Robert Charles Wilson
Spin is another classic Wilson, classic in the sense that it follows the same general theme as other of his works I've read. You take a mind-boggingly strange event, and then follow the lives of a few individuals as they live with the effects of the event, and possibly gain an understanding of it.
In Spin, the event is the disappearance of the stars. We see this happen through the eyes of Tyler Dupree, as he visits his friends, Jason and Diane Lawton. Over the course of the story, we see how Jason is driven by the event, which becomes known as the Spin, to understand what happened and why. Diane heads in the other direction, trying to escape from the consequences of the Spin. And Tyler sits in the middle, experiencing it all with a vague sort of numbness.
The Spin event itself puts humanity in a unique position. Time on the Earth has slowed, to a point where three years pass in the rest of the universe for every second on Earth. Humanity must deal with the fact that the Sun continues to evolve, and rather than having billions of years to deal with the Earth becoming uninhabitable, now they have fifty years or so.
Of course, the Earth doesn't die as the Sun expands, but Jason's attempts to understand the Spin result in some interesting uses of the time differential between the Earth and the rest of the universe. Jason, now head of a government agency designed to help understand the Spin, successfully terraforms Mars. What takes thousands or millions of years on Mars is over in a year or two on Earth. Human colonists are then sent, and years later a thriving civilization arises on Mars.
Only to be enclosed itself in another Spin bubble.
At the end, we discover who created the Spin, and it's stranger than you might imagine. The why of the Spin is one area where I thought the book broke down a bit. Wilson seemed to be leading to a specific reason for the Spin being used on Earth and other technologically advanced planets, yet diverted from that reason at the last minute in favor of leaving the mystery of why intact.
I'd have preferred less of a feel-good ending, but one in which the reasons behind the Spin were revealed. All in all, though, I can't complain. Spin was a thoroughly enjoyable read.
In Spin, the event is the disappearance of the stars. We see this happen through the eyes of Tyler Dupree, as he visits his friends, Jason and Diane Lawton. Over the course of the story, we see how Jason is driven by the event, which becomes known as the Spin, to understand what happened and why. Diane heads in the other direction, trying to escape from the consequences of the Spin. And Tyler sits in the middle, experiencing it all with a vague sort of numbness.
The Spin event itself puts humanity in a unique position. Time on the Earth has slowed, to a point where three years pass in the rest of the universe for every second on Earth. Humanity must deal with the fact that the Sun continues to evolve, and rather than having billions of years to deal with the Earth becoming uninhabitable, now they have fifty years or so.
Of course, the Earth doesn't die as the Sun expands, but Jason's attempts to understand the Spin result in some interesting uses of the time differential between the Earth and the rest of the universe. Jason, now head of a government agency designed to help understand the Spin, successfully terraforms Mars. What takes thousands or millions of years on Mars is over in a year or two on Earth. Human colonists are then sent, and years later a thriving civilization arises on Mars.
Only to be enclosed itself in another Spin bubble.
At the end, we discover who created the Spin, and it's stranger than you might imagine. The why of the Spin is one area where I thought the book broke down a bit. Wilson seemed to be leading to a specific reason for the Spin being used on Earth and other technologically advanced planets, yet diverted from that reason at the last minute in favor of leaving the mystery of why intact.
I'd have preferred less of a feel-good ending, but one in which the reasons behind the Spin were revealed. All in all, though, I can't complain. Spin was a thoroughly enjoyable read.
posted by Jay | 12:39 PM
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