Wilson, Robert Charles: Spin
Spin (2005)
Written by: Robert Charles Wilson
Genre: Science Fiction
Pages: 454 (Mass Market)
Why I Read It: May I be honest? I was only passively interested in this book back in 2006, due to its Hugo nomination and subsequent win, but I was never SO interested that I picked up the book. I can't tell you why either, other than the fact I don't always trust the Hugos to tell me what's great in the genre (hard to trust them, when there's so many women authors they overlook), but a friend of mine sent me a stack of SF books she'd finished back in 2007, and Spin was in that stack. I was like, "Sure, I'll read it … one of these days…." and it's sit in the TBR pile ever since. In truth, the only reason it was rescued was because it was nominated for my May Book Club Challenge, and lost in the tie-breaker round. Which meant I could read it when I wanted, and since some of my readers were just drooling over the book, I decided it was high-time to give this Hugo winner a shot.
The premise: ganked from BN.com: As ten-year-old Tyler Dupree sits with his friends Jason and Diane Lawton in the back yard of their Big House near Washington, DC, the stars go out. The "sun" that rises the next day is but an image: a barrier now encloses the Earth, generated by huge artifacts hovering over the poles. Weirder yet, time passes one hundred million times more swiftly outside the barrier, so that the sun itself may last only another 40 subjective years. Tyler becomes a doctor; Diane, with whom Tyler is never quite able to develop a satisfactory relationship, marries apocalyptic cultist Simon Townsend; Jason, a brilliant scientist, founds the Perihelion Center in Florida to research the effects of the Spin, as it becomes known. Later, Jason develops an incurable form of multiple sclerosis and asks Tyler, now his personal physician, to conceal the illness from the public and his staff. The staggering time differential turns out to have certain advantages: the terraforming of Mars, for instance, takes only a subjective year or two, and a handful of intrepid colonists rapidly develop an advanced civilization-before another barrier appears around Mars. A visitor from Mars, Wun Ngo Wen, brings advanced knowledge and medical techniques-they may save Jason's life-together with a plan to seed the distant, iceball-filled Kuiper Belt with slow-growing, living machines capable of investigating the activities of the so-called Hypotheticals. Others, however, suspect Wun has a hidden agenda. A far-fetched yet fascinating time-odyssey that pushes the envelope in every direction.
Spoilers, yay or nay?: This is actually an odd book to spoil, but to be safe, I'm going to say YES, there will be spoilers. They're not the kind of spoilers than truly ruin a book, but if you want to go in with a clean slate, you won't be happy with the bulk of this review. Scroll on down to "My Rating" to stay safe. The rest of you, onward!
I'll be honest. I kind of dreaded this book. I was never truly convinced that I'd like it, but I had a free copy, and it was a Hugo Award winner, and I might as well TRY and like it, right?
What I ended up with was an incredibly compelling story that was thoroughly engaging. At times I did find it difficult to put down, and would sneak a passage in here and there even though I shouldn't.
Why was that? I wasn't expecting such a character-centric story. In the hands of a lesser writer, this book would've had 20 or more points-of-view, from major to minor characters, all examining the problem of the Spin. Instead, we get the single POV of Tyler Dupree, who tells his tale through a frame story: in his present, he's getting ready to undergo a treatment that could cause memory loss, and he wants to write down everything he can remember while he's still capable. In the past, we meet Tyler and his two childhood besties: Jason and Diane Lawton, and we meet them the night the stars go out. Literally.
What grabbed me first was the relationship between these three characters. Tyler's best friends with Jason, and he's in love with Diane (even though as a child, he's not totally sure that's what's going on). Watching these characters in this relationship, seeing how they push and pull against each other, how they support each other, is what sucked me into the story and kept me the there. Everything else: the Spin and how it affected the future of everyone on Earth was just icing on the cake, and let me say, it was quite yummy icing at that, because this is such a clever way of showing the reader how Earth is going to end when the Sun finally dies, but without having to jump a ba-jillion years into the future (and science and technology) to do it. Instead, we get pretty much our current time and technology, advanced just a wee in bit in some regards, and we go from there. This is just fabulous, and it made an "End of the World" type story immensely compelling.
But it's not really an "End of the World" kind of story. The characters think it is, especially once they learn how slowly the Earth is spinning in relation to the rest of the universe: they know their Sun is dying, and they think they're gonna die with it the instant Spin is gone. This opens all kinds of subplots and themes: examination of religion and what zealots will do to hold on to their power (even if their power is over nothing but a farming community), what politicians will do in order to stay in power as well as keep their monopoly on certain technologies, as well as what happens to world wars and conflicts when it's suddenly very true and very obvious that SOMEONE is out there, and they're a helluva lot smarter than we are.
Oh, it's a rich story. It's not a fast-paced, action-oriented one by any means, but it's still a rich story. I'm particularly a fan of the terraforming Mars subplot and what becomes of that. Messing with space and time, for the most part, just tickles me, and I was delighted to see how the author integrated his science into the story itself, and even more delighted by what those results meant for the characters.
Because this isn't a story about how to destroy Spin and those that created it, but rather a story to understand what it is, why it is, and what it means for the future of mankind. A lesser author would've made this into a muddling pit of crap, but Wilson handles most everything with quite a deft hand.
That's not to say there aren't flaws: I had trouble understanding 1) why the Hypotheticals put Spin in place when it seemed like Earth would be doomed anyway. We do get an answer to this (protecting the Earth at a crucial point in civilization so they have enough resources to last the next phase); 2) why some parties wanted to take Spin down, after knowing it meant they'd be cooked up by the Sun going through its death throes -- perhaps this is just part of the destructive nature of humanity, that some people want to make their own end rather than wait for one they have no control over; 3) how the Martians were so advanced, considering their ancestors came from Earth;
Some notable quotes:
He stuck out his hand. I took it. He had a firm grip and a honeyed Southern accent, vowels like polished driftwood, consonants polite as calling cards (page 73).
No, we had never conquered death, only engineered reprieves (the pill, the powder, the angioplasty, the Fourth Age) -- enacted our conviction that more life, even a little more life, might yet yield the pleasure or wisdom we wanted or had missed in it. No one goes home from a triple bypass or a longevity treatment expecting to live forever. Even Lazarus left the grave knowing he'd die a second time.
But he came forth. He came forth gratefully. I was grateful (page 234).
I found myself, at times, reminded of both Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake as well as Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles. Wilson even refers to Bradbury a few times, much to my delight, during conversations between Tyler and Wun.
His Mars isn't Mars. But his Ohio makes me think of it (page 259).
I definitely want to continue to at least Axis, because the major question behind the Spin, the why's and the how's, aren't wholly answered and I want to learn more. My mind was thoroughly engaged while questioning why the Hypotheticals might be Spinning (and therefore hiding) planets in their respective solar systems, and my original theory was that perhaps the Hypotheticals were hiding planets from unfriendly, extraterrestrial colonists? I'm pretty sure that's not the case now, but this is the kind of book where it's fun to ask questions. We get some answers here, but not all, not everything, and I'm eager to learn more.
My Rating: Couldn't Put It Down
I honestly am still in awe of how much I ended up enjoying this book. Any book cover blurb or summary online does this book no justice as far as I'm concerned, because I was convinced this wasn't going to work for me, but it did. It's so rare that SF truly evokes a sense of wonder for me that when it does happen, you could knock me over with a feather. I loved the braided story between Tyler's now and his past, and I adored how this book managed to weave in both scientific, religious, and downright moral responsibility for a planet as well as a population without seeming to be overbearing or preachy. The interaction between the trio of Tyler, Jason, and Diane worked for me (in fact, the book gave me some Oryx and Crake vibes at times, but in a good way), and later, I felt a similar glee that I often associate with the reading of Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles. I'm a little sad now that I didn't bite the bullet and break the May tie-breaker, that this book didn't end up winning, because now I'm terrified our official selection will bomb, but for those of you who wanted to read this book, it's well worth your time. I've already got the sequel, Axis, on request at Paperback Swap, and I very much look forward to seeing what else the author has up his sleeve.
Cover Commentary: It's neither awesome nor horrible. It's right in the middle, a kind of okay cover, as it's recognizable and eye-catching enough, but it's not something you'd stop and buy the book just for the cover.
Next up: Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding