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Loading... Spin (original 2005; edition 2005)by Robert Charles Wilson
Work InformationSpin by Robert Charles Wilson (2005)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. My second attempt at this book, and I realize why I DNF it previously - the first 100 pages are some interesting SF ideas mired in the tedious lives of people who are roles rather than characters. The Genius is there to explain (because all the interesting stuff happens off-stage); the Girl is there as love interest (how very 1950s); and the POV is there to be explained at, and to moon tepidly about the Girl. Having said that, it certainly does improve once the science-fiction comes to the fore and ends up being a worthwhile read (though the characters never do develop). This book has everything that should result in deserving my highest praise. It has alien megastructures, a planetary existential crisis, biotech, terraforming, vast timeframes (billions of years), post humanism, and Von Neumann machines. However, it also felt more soap opera than space opera to me with unrequited love, alcoholism, religious fanaticism, twins, workaholism, social unrest, incurable illness, secret forbidden love & corresponding mysterious love letters, and of course, daddy issues. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it didn’t deserve its Best Novel Hugo, it’s an impressive saga with continuous conflict and drama throughout the story. It’s honestly a personal preference that I prefer philosophical over psychological and wonder over drama. There is a lot packed into this book and it invests heavily in character development. In fact, one of my issues, is that we spend more time on father-son issues and the protagonist’s pining than we do on the grandiose ideas of space megastructures that creates temporal distortion. I also didn’t really connect with any of the characters – which again is my personal reaction rather than a structural issues with the book – I typically like extensive character development. On the positive side, there are some extremely cool ideas with epic implications in this book. It has a fantastic opening (the stars go out!) that catches your attention and holds it for most of the book. It’s sweeping and apocalyptic yet finds a way to stay with a single set of characters (while many books of this scale do not). It also feels like a complete book with a full story-arc, while leaving plenty of unanswered questions for the following two books in the series (I bought all three up front). An apocalyptic saga packed full of intriguing science ideas, but in my opinion, overwhelmed with the melodramatic interactions of tragic characters. no reviews | add a review
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Fiction.
Science Fiction.
HTML: From the author of Axis and Vortex, the first Hugo Award-winning novel in the environmental apocalyptic Spin Trilogy... No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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Just a great story, interesting plot, well developed characters and cool opening premise. Just :-)
It's more novel and less sci-fi than you might expect, but don't let that discourage you. Read it, it deserved the Hugo, and deserves to be read more than once. ( )