Hugo: Spin (2006)
Spin by Robert Charles Wilson
Read December 20, 2010 - December 27, 2010
Premise: Three childhood friends must cope with the sudden extinguishing of the night sky and the resultant time-gap between Earth time (very slow) and Universe-time (super-fast), as they grow up and each cope with the crisis in their own ways.
Verdict: I really loved this novel. The narrator is Tyler, a rather poor boy whose best friends are the twins Jason and Diane who live in the house where his mother is the housekeeper. Tyler becomes a doctor, Jason a genius at everything (but mostly an expert on the Spin, what the time differential star-extinguishing phenomenon comes to be known as), and Diane seeks solace in religion. I have to say, I generally hate when people put religion in science fiction. It's usually there for one of only two things: to preach at me, or to degrade and humiliate the people who believe in religions. This book manages to show religion--even extremist crazy religion--from an atheistic point of view but also allows it the dignity and respect that millenia-old religious traditions and the poor people who adhere to them deserve. Kudos on that. Also it's got overbearing and/or absent parents, mysterious hard-sci phenomenon, Martians, copious sci-fi references (I had fun with those), and largely unrequited painful pining love affairs. Plus it addresses overpopulation issues which is my favorite modern crisis and the root of all other modern crises. So. Yeah. I loved this book and I had a lot of fun reading it.
Fast, interesting, and engaging. You lose nothing by giving this book a chance.
Read December 20, 2010 - December 27, 2010
Premise: Three childhood friends must cope with the sudden extinguishing of the night sky and the resultant time-gap between Earth time (very slow) and Universe-time (super-fast), as they grow up and each cope with the crisis in their own ways.
Verdict: I really loved this novel. The narrator is Tyler, a rather poor boy whose best friends are the twins Jason and Diane who live in the house where his mother is the housekeeper. Tyler becomes a doctor, Jason a genius at everything (but mostly an expert on the Spin, what the time differential star-extinguishing phenomenon comes to be known as), and Diane seeks solace in religion. I have to say, I generally hate when people put religion in science fiction. It's usually there for one of only two things: to preach at me, or to degrade and humiliate the people who believe in religions. This book manages to show religion--even extremist crazy religion--from an atheistic point of view but also allows it the dignity and respect that millenia-old religious traditions and the poor people who adhere to them deserve. Kudos on that. Also it's got overbearing and/or absent parents, mysterious hard-sci phenomenon, Martians, copious sci-fi references (I had fun with those), and largely unrequited painful pining love affairs. Plus it addresses overpopulation issues which is my favorite modern crisis and the root of all other modern crises. So. Yeah. I loved this book and I had a lot of fun reading it.
Fast, interesting, and engaging. You lose nothing by giving this book a chance.