Robert Charles Wilson (1) (1953–)

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 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 show more 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. show less

To this date, I have never not enjoyed a novel by Robert Charles Wilson. This one included.

Adventure, science-based theorizing turned into (in this case horrific) reality. This is an alternate history Earth. One where, in the late 1800s when humanity first began exploring radio, we found an atmospheric layer (near the outer extreme of the atmosphere) which propagates radio-waves, thus facilitating global communications. Some technologies move faster than in our reality, some slower. By show more default, all transmissions are routed through this layer.

But eventually, in the early 21st century, a varied group of scientists began to realize that this Propagative Layer was sentient. And it was manipulating the communications (video, audio, textual) being sent through it, editing a word or inflection here, a fractional-second of video there, for the purpose of altering human behaviour. As a result we have a century of "relative peace", what amounts to a global nanny state, which we are unaware of.

But some research is shunted aside, dismissed, unfunded. Some people find themselves out of jobs. Then, one day, a group of these in-the-know scientists are murdered in one day, around the globe. And even worse, the attackers are human simulacra, guided by the Propagative Layer. Human in all identifiable respects, expect that if mortally wounded, they bleed green as well as red.

That's when a small group of survivors go into hiding. And plan. Because a way to defeat this alien invasion must be found, WILL be found... eventually.

Of course, this book is that eventuality. And, of course, things are not what they seem. Horrifying not what they seem.

I'm impressed that I still enjoyed the entire experience, even though I simply could not buy into the book's central conceit about the aliens. Normally, this would have prevented me from even finishing another author's book. Bravo, again, Mr. Wilson. show less

This is an outstanding book. And difficult to review without spoilers, but totally worth the effort. It's best to be surprised right along with the main characters.

Through our viewpoint character, Tyler Dupree, we get to experience a world-changing what-if scenario. Through his friendships with Diane and Jason Lawton, the other two main characters in the story, we also get to see how two other, very different people experience that what-if.

The What-If happens when the three are still show more children. Each of them reacts to it differently, in some ways each one represents how lots of people might react to the What-If, or a similar What-If. I found each one's growth and development over the lifetime of the story gave me some fascinating insights into people who might react to things, whether large as a What-If or small as the mundane slings and arrows we all experience.

Mr Wilson's writing is outstanding from beginning to end. It was very, very easy to simply fall into the story. The characters were each and all very real, with great depth. And the plotting was excellent. I'm pretty good at figuring out what's happening - a lifetime of reading mystery stories at work, I think. Mr. Wilson managed to not only surprise me, but make the surprises so smooth I wondered why I didn't figure it out correctly. All the clues were right there.

The story does jump back and forth between two time frames, the "current" time line of what's happening to Tyler, and his retelling of his past. This is a pretty common structure, and usually feels pretty contrived. Mr. Wilson managed to pull it off flawlessly. It made sense that Tyler reviewed and shared his history, and the history of his two closest friends, in as much as he knew it.

In the best sense of the word, Spin is speculative fiction, as well as future history. In it, Mr. Wilson offers a world-spanning What-If, then shows us how humanity might respond. It's a totally believable future, taking into account both the depths to which people can sink, and the greatness to which they aspire. In other words, his characters are people, with all that means. I am very glad to have read it, and look forward to more of his works.

While Spin has a very satisfying ending, it is the first in a trilogy. Frankly, if there hadn't been an excerpt from the second book, Axis at the end of it, I would have thought it was a stand alone novel. But there are enough questions left that Axis should be a good tale. show less

Not much to say that hasn't already been said. Even after reading all the reviews this wonderful read still had me guessing towards the end. I loved how the story resolves, I very much liked the two story threads (the contemporary story interjects the historical one through the use of a journal), and found the characters very compelling. There's an exploration of the human condition that revolves around the motivations of the protagonist that you don't commonly find in SciFi - I think the show more Hugo was well deserved. Finally, the science that underlies the story seemed both very well thought-out and easy for the reader to consume and understand. In some ways the book reminds me of the classic SciFi from the 50's and again in the 70's, where the concepts are huge and there's still a sense of wonder (alas missing from most SciFi these days). However the science doesn't consume - it's rather a back-drop that creates the setting and starting points, allowing the characters to find their own path to conclusion. I liked this book a lot (if you can't tell)! show less