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After witnessing the onset of an astronomical event that has caused the sun to go black and the stars and moon to disappear, Tyler, Jason, and Diane learn that the darkness has been caused by a time-altering, alien-created artificial barrier and that the sun will be extinguished in less than forty years.Tags
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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 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 show more 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
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 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 show more 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
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 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 show more 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
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 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 show more 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
4.5/5
A better version of the writing style that I found with Alistair Reynolds in The Prefect and a much better version what I think Neal Stephenson was trying to do with Seveneves. As much of a love story as it is a story of mysterious first contact, Spin follows a pair of fraternal twins and their mutual childhood friend through the tumultuous times that follow a permeable membrane encapsulating the Earth, while outside in space, time accelerates to breakneck speeds. These aren't ordinary children though: the twins are the progeny of an industrious and domineering capitalist whose technology is benefited by the 'spin', and who coldly builds his son into the heir of his advantageous position. The story itself though is told as a show more pseudo-memoir of Tyler, the best friend to both Jason, the heir-apparent, and his sister Diane, who Tyler has been in love with since he can remember.
Spin has three main focal points. The first and perhaps least explored is the effects that the 'spin' has on society, culture, religion, and government. We see first hand the waves of emotions that humanity goes through as they come to accept the new normal. We see the science denial, the apathy, the anxious brooding thoughts of despair under the skin of a moldering social code. We see what happens when people are faced with their own impending mortality. We see how all of this effects the structure that we all live under. Now, is this examination the sole focus of the book, no. But it damn sure is more realistic than a book like Seveneves, and still allows for optimism and hope at the end of it all without turning a blind eye to the hard facts psychology in the face of an upending status quo. Wilson does a good job of manufacturing speculation on what might transpire here. The world behind the story does not fade into the background, it's right there on the surface.
Second is the exploration of the hard-ish science that revolves around humanities attempts to understand the spin, and potentially prevent what they see as a potential extension level event as the sun begins to grow through the billions of years of time outside the membrane. The execution of the main concept was brilliant to me. I loved the idea of seeding Mars with life and in just a short time seeing the results. I loved the bio engineered node system (a von neumann machine) and how that ties in with the ending and the 'hypotheticals'. I especially loved the idea of another phase of human life brought about by injecting DNA editing technology, how that could be a platform for more acute changes in psychology physical ability, and what that would do to our conception of what it means to be human. The ending takes these concepts to a broader, galaxy/universe level stage. I enjoy a book that drip feeds me details on that level, and finishes with a flourish of new ideas that leaves you dreaming about the future like Spin does.
Finally, where I think the meat of the book lies, is in the characters. I applaud Wilson's choice to stick with the same three characters throughout the story. Doing so allows him to slowly build them out through their actions and choices. It allows him the luxury of drawing on characterization that he wrote hundreds of pages to ago to show growth and progression through time. These characters are heartbreaking and resilient all unto themselves. The love between Diane and Tyler is palpable, but doesn't feel trite or distracting, it simply is. There are a few standout side characters, headlined by the twins' mother, Caroline, an alcoholic who is sporadically involved in her children lives but is every bit a textured person, who we see but a window into. I thought it was a cute bit of characterization that the Tyler is drawn as a sometimes detached and empty person to justify how the prose is written. It makes sense considering that he's brought up in the 'spin generation' which is brought up a lot, and because of his background as a medical doctor. Tyler, more than anyone else, is able to separate himself from the tumultuous world he lives in, which juxtaposes him with Diane, who seeks meaning an enlightenment, and Jason, who values knowledge above all else. As the twins lose themselves in the pursue fulfillment, Tyler remains the steadfast friend who watches from the sidelines and picks them up when they fall.
The prose itself isn't something to write home about I suppose. It's not creative, especially beautiful, or stylistic, but it serves its purpose well; an economic vehicle with which Wilson can express his plot and characters. It is, however, especially readable prose that can appeal to a lot of people, a similarity that I draw to Reynolds. What I find especially impressive about Spin is Wilson's ability to marry a lot of harder-science material with deeper characterization that I've found in most genre literature. He also doesn't get bogged down in technical jargon when he explains things, and spaces section of exposition and world-building with character focused drama.
It does dip in intensity and interest towards the middle. My interest in the plot sagged as it sagged without a clear direction forward. This was salved by an ending that was not only a rejuvenation and a satisfying completion to many narrative threads, but also done with a grace that I wasn't expecting. Apparently this is also the first in the a series of books, but it hardly needs it, which should be a ringing endorsement by itself. show less
A better version of the writing style that I found with Alistair Reynolds in The Prefect and a much better version what I think Neal Stephenson was trying to do with Seveneves. As much of a love story as it is a story of mysterious first contact, Spin follows a pair of fraternal twins and their mutual childhood friend through the tumultuous times that follow a permeable membrane encapsulating the Earth, while outside in space, time accelerates to breakneck speeds. These aren't ordinary children though: the twins are the progeny of an industrious and domineering capitalist whose technology is benefited by the 'spin', and who coldly builds his son into the heir of his advantageous position. The story itself though is told as a show more pseudo-memoir of Tyler, the best friend to both Jason, the heir-apparent, and his sister Diane, who Tyler has been in love with since he can remember.
Spin has three main focal points. The first and perhaps least explored is the effects that the 'spin' has on society, culture, religion, and government. We see first hand the waves of emotions that humanity goes through as they come to accept the new normal. We see the science denial, the apathy, the anxious brooding thoughts of despair under the skin of a moldering social code. We see what happens when people are faced with their own impending mortality. We see how all of this effects the structure that we all live under. Now, is this examination the sole focus of the book, no. But it damn sure is more realistic than a book like Seveneves, and still allows for optimism and hope at the end of it all without turning a blind eye to the hard facts psychology in the face of an upending status quo. Wilson does a good job of manufacturing speculation on what might transpire here. The world behind the story does not fade into the background, it's right there on the surface.
Second is the exploration of the hard-ish science that revolves around humanities attempts to understand the spin, and potentially prevent what they see as a potential extension level event as the sun begins to grow through the billions of years of time outside the membrane. The execution of the main concept was brilliant to me. I loved the idea of seeding Mars with life and in just a short time seeing the results. I loved the bio engineered node system (a von neumann machine) and how that ties in with the ending and the 'hypotheticals'. I especially loved the idea of another phase of human life brought about by injecting DNA editing technology, how that could be a platform for more acute changes in psychology physical ability, and what that would do to our conception of what it means to be human. The ending takes these concepts to a broader, galaxy/universe level stage. I enjoy a book that drip feeds me details on that level, and finishes with a flourish of new ideas that leaves you dreaming about the future like Spin does.
Finally, where I think the meat of the book lies, is in the characters. I applaud Wilson's choice to stick with the same three characters throughout the story. Doing so allows him to slowly build them out through their actions and choices. It allows him the luxury of drawing on characterization that he wrote hundreds of pages to ago to show growth and progression through time. These characters are heartbreaking and resilient all unto themselves. The love between Diane and Tyler is palpable, but doesn't feel trite or distracting, it simply is. There are a few standout side characters, headlined by the twins' mother, Caroline, an alcoholic who is sporadically involved in her children lives but is every bit a textured person, who we see but a window into. I thought it was a cute bit of characterization that the Tyler is drawn as a sometimes detached and empty person to justify how the prose is written. It makes sense considering that he's brought up in the 'spin generation' which is brought up a lot, and because of his background as a medical doctor. Tyler, more than anyone else, is able to separate himself from the tumultuous world he lives in, which juxtaposes him with Diane, who seeks meaning an enlightenment, and Jason, who values knowledge above all else. As the twins lose themselves in the pursue fulfillment, Tyler remains the steadfast friend who watches from the sidelines and picks them up when they fall.
The prose itself isn't something to write home about I suppose. It's not creative, especially beautiful, or stylistic, but it serves its purpose well; an economic vehicle with which Wilson can express his plot and characters. It is, however, especially readable prose that can appeal to a lot of people, a similarity that I draw to Reynolds. What I find especially impressive about Spin is Wilson's ability to marry a lot of harder-science material with deeper characterization that I've found in most genre literature. He also doesn't get bogged down in technical jargon when he explains things, and spaces section of exposition and world-building with character focused drama.
It does dip in intensity and interest towards the middle. My interest in the plot sagged as it sagged without a clear direction forward. This was salved by an ending that was not only a rejuvenation and a satisfying completion to many narrative threads, but also done with a grace that I wasn't expecting. Apparently this is also the first in the a series of books, but it hardly needs it, which should be a ringing endorsement by itself. show less
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 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.
Have you ever wondered what would happen if the heroes of a book, who are going to save the world, were also clinically depressed? Robert Charles Wilson's "Spin". The passive narrator has a series of failed relationships and blames his life on the one-that-got-away, an idealized vaguely incestuous imaginary relationship. Intractable daddy issues. Relationships between all characters molder into dysfunction and the outer world, everyone on earth, and indeed sentient creatures across the galaxy, subtly mirror the internal psychological struggles of the main characters, wherein they are unable to be happy because they must destroy what they care about because they can't have it the way they want. Spin is very well written. Great SF. All of show more the action perceived through a depressive lens means that it is a "literary" book. Recommended. show less
Spin is an expertly crafted science fiction novel presenting provocative technological ideas in a thoughtful and empathetic work of literature.
(spoilers)
Wilson’s novel explores two questions, both thoroughly examined with the help of the “Spin” technology:
1. What is humanity’s place in the universe?
2. What is one’s place amongst others?
The scale of the ideas presented becomes steadily larger as the book progresses and the reader is led carefully up a ladder where only near the top is it clear where it is heading. This derivation from first principles of an end so unfathomably immense introduces a new technological concept every few chapters large enough to warrant its own book. Time dilation, Martians, the Fourth treatment, show more von Neumann probes, up to the final reveal of the endless chain of uncultivated worlds that is momentous if not for its novelty then for its delivery — Wilson ultimately constructs a future more fantastical than technical using building blocks that pass the “hard SF” smell test.
The time dilation of the Spin was for me the most exciting idea presented. The utterly inhuman and oppressive scale of the universe can be a roadblock for SF as a genre, overcome in various works through wormholes, FTL travel, stasis, generational endeavors, time travel, biological or technological immortality… but each of those paths are, to me, well-trodden and useful as an enabling factor in a story centered elsewhere but uncompelling as central technologies. Spin’s dilation achieves the goal of humanizing geological and astrological timescales in a way that pleases my inner critic and lights my imagination on fire.
Spin shines equally brightly as a novel about people. Where there is a clean answer (within its fictional universe) in the final chapters for question #1, no such answer can be found for question #2, save for the droplets of wisdom interspersed throughout the novel. A fictional technology sufficiently answers the question of our place in the universe but even between the covers of an SF novel it is up to each of us as an individual to find our place amongst others. Through stories of religion, apathy, paralysis and perseverance in the face of the apocalypse, Wilson depicts an amplified version of the struggle with our own mortality that each of us endures in the real world.
I started Spin without expectations and finished with the undeniable realization that my all-time top SF novel rankings had been shaken up. Spin wholly deserves its Hugo and is now my go-to recommendation to anybody claiming that SF can’t be both technologically thrilling and literarily and emotionally substantive.
— — —
Aside: I have to wonder if the Martian “fourth” treatment — a DNA-repairing biochemical agent capable of curing incurable diseases, extending lifetimes and expanding consciousness — is an homage to the senescence treatment in Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars trilogy, a series even mentioned by name in Spin. show less
(spoilers)
Wilson’s novel explores two questions, both thoroughly examined with the help of the “Spin” technology:
1. What is humanity’s place in the universe?
2. What is one’s place amongst others?
The scale of the ideas presented becomes steadily larger as the book progresses and the reader is led carefully up a ladder where only near the top is it clear where it is heading. This derivation from first principles of an end so unfathomably immense introduces a new technological concept every few chapters large enough to warrant its own book. Time dilation, Martians, the Fourth treatment, show more von Neumann probes, up to the final reveal of the endless chain of uncultivated worlds that is momentous if not for its novelty then for its delivery — Wilson ultimately constructs a future more fantastical than technical using building blocks that pass the “hard SF” smell test.
The time dilation of the Spin was for me the most exciting idea presented. The utterly inhuman and oppressive scale of the universe can be a roadblock for SF as a genre, overcome in various works through wormholes, FTL travel, stasis, generational endeavors, time travel, biological or technological immortality… but each of those paths are, to me, well-trodden and useful as an enabling factor in a story centered elsewhere but uncompelling as central technologies. Spin’s dilation achieves the goal of humanizing geological and astrological timescales in a way that pleases my inner critic and lights my imagination on fire.
Spin shines equally brightly as a novel about people. Where there is a clean answer (within its fictional universe) in the final chapters for question #1, no such answer can be found for question #2, save for the droplets of wisdom interspersed throughout the novel. A fictional technology sufficiently answers the question of our place in the universe but even between the covers of an SF novel it is up to each of us as an individual to find our place amongst others. Through stories of religion, apathy, paralysis and perseverance in the face of the apocalypse, Wilson depicts an amplified version of the struggle with our own mortality that each of us endures in the real world.
I started Spin without expectations and finished with the undeniable realization that my all-time top SF novel rankings had been shaken up. Spin wholly deserves its Hugo and is now my go-to recommendation to anybody claiming that SF can’t be both technologically thrilling and literarily and emotionally substantive.
— — —
Aside: I have to wonder if the Martian “fourth” treatment — a DNA-repairing biochemical agent capable of curing incurable diseases, extending lifetimes and expanding consciousness — is an homage to the senescence treatment in Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars trilogy, a series even mentioned by name in Spin. show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- Spin
- Original title
- Spin
- Original publication date
- 2005-04
- People/Characters
- Jason Lawton; Diane Lawton; Tyler Dupree; E. D. Lawton; Simon Townsend; Molly Seagram (show all 28); Ina; En; Wun Ngo Wen; Carol Lawton; Mrs. Truall; Giselle Palmer; Dr. Koenig; Belinda Dupree; Dr. David Malmstein; Nijon; Preston Lomax; Jala; Bob Kobel; Aaron Sorley; Dan Condon; Teddy McIsaac; Herbert Hakkim; Allen Fulton; Jody Fulton; Colin Hinz; Chuck Bernelli; Sylvia Tucker
- Important places
- Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia; Washington, D.C., USA; Cocoa Beach, Florida, USA; Indonesia; USA; Florida, USA (show all 12); Berkshire Hills, Massachusetts, USA; Massachusetts, USA; Seattle, Washington, USA; Orlando, Florida, USA; San Diego, California, USA; California, USA
- First words
- Everybody falls, and we all land somewhere.
- Quotations*
- Des mots comme des ancres, amarrant des bateaux de mémoire pour ne pas que la tempête les emporte.
Il n'y a pas d'acte sexuel assez édénique pour qu'un étudiant en médecine solitaire ne puisse se branler dessus.
— Où est-ce que tu préférerais passer l'éternité, toi ? Dans un paradis terrestre ou dans un laboratoire stérile ? » La réponse ne me semblait pas aussi évidente qu'elle en avait l'air pour Simon. Je me suis souven... (show all)u de ce qu'avait répondu Mark Twain à une question similaire : « Au paradis pour le climat. En enfer pour la compagnie. »
Un bon boudin vaut presque un ami.
Nous sommes aussi éphémères que des gouttes de pluie. Nous tombons tous, et nous atterrissons tous quelque part. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)"History doesn't start until we land."
- Publisher's editor
- Nielsen Hayden, Teresa
- Original language*
- Anglais canadien
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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