Spin by Robert Charles Wilson - February 2012

[[deleted user]]

I read this initially a year or so ago and I really enjoyed it. Its a great book and I like the idea of an alien culture walling earth away while time outside speeds by. Its a great concept.

And I love for all the incredibly advanced science that this is mostly a human novel and not one that relies on the tech to tell the story.

.

[Nina]

I started Spin a couple of days ago to coincide with the group's discussion. I read Wilson's 'Blind Lake' and loved his style; his completely engrossing world, layered with incredible imagination stemming from advanced science (there, quantum computing), but completely grounded in a world like ours; and above all, the access into the minds of his pensive characters -- in Spin, it's Tyler, at least so far. Though I'm only 10% into Spin, the reasons I love Blind Lake are there and I'm really enjoying it.

[Donna]

I finished it a few days ago and really enjoyed it. I was fascinated by the idea of this huge thing affecting the earth and no one having any understanding of it. How helpless and hopeless it would make people feel. I would definitely have been one who would have just wanted to know why.

I was a little disappointed in the ending. (view spoiler)[I got the idea that the membranes protect earth and other worlds from destroying themselves but then I couldn't quite see how creating a new world for the same flawed people was an advancement of any kind. (hide spoiler)]

[[deleted user]]

I'm using this read as an excuse to read the next book, Axis. I'm curious about the reasons behind the way the book ended but I just never got around to picking up the sequel to find out why ....

[Donna]

I am looking forward to hearing what you think of the sequel. I looked at it but couldn't decide.

[[deleted user]]

I read it a few years ago when the original Kindle was still new. While I agree there is a strong human focus, the science is great too. I especially liked seeing the humans on Mars becoming a new species.

I also read the other two books in the Spin Trilogy. The second is vastly different from the first and suffers a lot by being under the shadow of a better book. I enjoyed the third more than the second, but it fell short of the first.

[Charles]

I thought it might be interesting to record my initial thoughts, having just started this today (probably 5% at most), then seeing how they compare to my thoughts as I complete it, (or get further into it).

Firstly, the bit about the stars and moon disappearing is definitely attention-getting and has me wanting to find out why. The writing seems good, though some of the similes seem a bit forced (as to why, I'm not exactly sure). Lastly, I find myself wondering if the bulk of the story will be centered around the three children featured in the beginning, or if it will jump ahead and mainly focus on adult characters. I guess I'm pretty much burned out these days on YA novels and coming-of-age stories, and thus am hoping that will not be a main theme to this one.

[[deleted user]]

I'm 70% through the sequel and I agree it's completely different from the first book - but it's still a humancentric novel - and while I think I like the first one better, this one is pretty good.

[Celeste]

I enjoyed Spin enough to make me buy and read the next one in the series. Couldn't follow all of the science, but the story didn't require it. The premise was original enough to keep my interest.

[Carey]

So I am about 47% done with Spin and it is holding me in suspense. So how does the drug change them? Where are they going? Mars?

[Nina]

I'm 70% into it, and though the exposition gets thick around the 50-70% range, Spin is quite absorbing. Wilson drops clues and oblique hints throughout the Spin like a Tetris game; the pieces slowly fall into place. I love how the science of the Spin ties so strongly into these characters' lives and who they are (like why Diane hated the Spin in such a personal way, Tyler's relationship with this family, etc).

A few quotes I loved so far:
"He was one gentle, forgiving look away from the coronary ward."

"Simon's grandfather was Augustus Townsend, the Georgia pipe cleaner king." Then, "Actually, it was a gift-and-notions fortune."

"You had to cling to something or slide into oblivion."

[Nina]

I finished Spin last night, and though there were a couple of parts where a front-end loader came in with multiple pages of exposition, I thought it wrapped up nicely. The science was fascinating and his character work rivals any in literary fiction.

[Louis]

Just finished Spin and thought it was fantastic. Can’t wait to continue the series. This was my first experience reading Wilson (don’t know how I overlooked him) and I really enjoyed his work. Just a few nagging questions I was left with at the end and I hope will be answered in the next installments is whether or not Mars has their own Archways and the types of words they connect to. Also, and they may have answered this but is the temporal distortion still in effect after the Archways were installed? In addition, it would see that the Hypotheticals would be able to manipulate the amount of the temporal distortion within spin planets, conceivably allowing some planets to experience time relatively faster or slower than others. Wilson’s world has a lot of fun ideas to play around with. Hope the next books are as good.

[Carey]

I finished the book and the ending was abrupt. The Kindle version that I had the first Chapter of the next book as well. It did not leave off where Spin ended but it was interesting and made me want to but the next book.

I really liked the evolution idea in Spin and how Mars evolved faster than Earth and in a different way.

[Charles]

Finally finished this (I am so far behind on my reading). Here's my review:

This was a mixed bag for me: definitely worth reading but not likely one I'll re-read.

The main plot was interesting and creative and held my attention, but the melodramatic sub-plots and characters left me feeling at times as if it were a Hollywood script, where a handful of people in one country (the US, of course) are seemingly the focal point of a global phenomenon affecting everyone on Earth.

Wilson's writing was at times inspired, but at other times left me flat, too often drawing attention to himself and pulling me out of the moment. On the large scale, the flashback technique switching between the final plot line and the back story (the latter being the majority of the book) felt a bit contrived -- a sort of false sense of suspense. On the small scale, many of his similes seemed forced, as if he felt that after every so many words it was time for another one. On the other hand, there were more than a few metaphors that were strikingly effective -- so again, a mixed bag.

All in all, a decent book that I guess I'd say is on the soft side of "hard" science fiction, having a fair amount of character-driven content, though I found those characters a bit too contrived for my tastes.

[Robin]

Whew, this book is just not ending for me! I don't like any of the people so far (I'm just past the midpoint); they're either narcissists or putzes, and in the case of Diane, both. I do like the writing style, though, as it is both correct and flowing. I like a little more science in my science fiction, so the terraforming discussions have been fun, and the evolved martian human credible except for the being born all white thing. And of course having a single lifetime of humans able to observe and manipulate the evolution of a planetary ecology is just plain pretty darn cool. I like the book pretty much (more the way I like vanilla pudding than the way I like chocolate brownies with ice cream), and I will neither avoid the sequel nor particularly seek it out.

[[deleted user]]

Derrick, you didn't care for his writing style? Was there something specific that put you off the book?