shiny_i (2/26): Spin by Robert Charles Wilson

In the time it takes me to read one book, I swear ewee reads, like, 10 million or so. Kinda like the temporal distortion produced by the Spin membrane that encircles the Earth, except it’s happening at the Belly Pleasure Palace (inside joke, sorry).

In any case, I thoroughly enjoyed Spin. It’s one of those rare (or semi-rare) books that combines excellent writing, some hard science ideas, and good character development. His writing was often lyrical and moving, like this paragraph:

She wanted St. Dog to be himself and whole, not the sum of his terrifying parts, not a fleeting evolutionary epiphenomenon in the life of a dying star. There was little enough love and affection in her life and each instance of it had to be accounted and stored up in heaven, hoarded against the winter of the universe (p. 180 in the Tor paperback, for all you fellow geeks who wanna read it again).

His main protagonist, Tyler, is rather likeable with his apparent humility and good-naturedness while being heroic in his actions. With Diane, I got frustrated at times with how passive and undecisive she seemed and wished she could’ve been written just as heroically as Tyler. Her brother, Jason, was more interesting for his genius and ability to put the pieces together about the Hypotheticals. The story gained a lot of speed after Wun came into the picture, which made the last half of the book just fly by. Lastly, I liked how Wilson alternated chapters between past and present times, which merged pretty smoothly at the end of the book.

One criticism I have is that I got a little lost during the last 50 pages of the book when important information about the Hypotheticals and their mission was provided. I have a vague sense of there being some loopholes that aren’t totally explained, but maybe the second book Axis will shed some light. Axis came out in paperback in Sept. 2007, and the two books are a part of a planned trilogy.

FYI, I highly recommend Greg Egan, an Australian writer, for his excellent skills in combining hard sci fi with great character development. Permutation City is one of my favorite books ever. His website is gregegan.customer.netspace.net.au.

Yae, now I get to read everybody else's review of Spin!