Robert Charles Wilson
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Spin
The biggest question in Science Fiction has always been “What if?” Countless Science Fiction stories have been written trying to answer different ‘what ifs’- “What if Martians invaded?”, “What if the Speed of Light was not constant?”, “What if the Nazis had won the second world war?”, “What if it was possible to travel to parallel universes?”, “What if machines became sentient?” and many others. “Spin” is a traditional science fiction novel in the sense that it tries to answer a few “what ifs”, in this case the main question is “What if, one day, all the stars disappeared?”
The main characters, teenagers Tyler Dupree and twins Jason and Diane Lawton were out in a field, stargazing, when all the stars went out. In an instant the sky turned completely blank – no stars, no moon – and it was the same all across the world. The next morning the sun rose, seemingly unaffected, but that night again there were no stars. Governments and scientists around the world scrambled to find out what was going on, eventually uncovering the devastating truth. The moon and stars and the solar system were still out there, in the same place they always were, but probes sent up into space show the entire Earth surrounded by an opaque barrier of unknown origin and composition. The barrier does more than merely block out Earth’s view of the heavens, it also introduced a discontinuity in the flow of time on either side of the barrier. Outside the barrier time proceeds as normal, but inside the barrier Earth’s time is hugely slowed down so that millions of years pass in the outside universe for ever year that passes on Earth. This does not have much immediate effect on Earth due to the barrier providing an illusion of the normal solar cycle, but the scientists quickly realise that within a few short decades from Earth’s perspective the solar system will have evolved to a point where the Sun will be so massive that life on Earth will be impossible. It seems that life on Earth will not survive to reach the 22nd Century.
People react in different ways to these astonishing events, and the lives of the three main characters show three very different ways of dealing with it. Jason Lawton, a genius with the political backing of his influential father, is determined to find out what causes the ‘Spin’ (as the barrier is nicknamed) and devotes his life to finding out how and why it happened, who or what caused it to happen, whether it can be destroyed and whether there is any way to ensure the survival of the human race. His sister Diane, meanwhile, is traumatised by the seemingly doomed future and the worldwide upheaval that follows the Spin, and retreats into religion, joining up with an eccentric religious cult who believe the Spin is the first stage in the prophesised apocalypse. Tyler has a third reaction, trying to live his life as normally as possible, ending up training to be a doctor. However, his involvement with the Lawton family keep him closely in touch with the efforts to investigate the Spin, his friendship with Jason leads him to take up a position as Jason’s personal physician after Jason takes up a senior position in NASA’s attempts to ensure humanity’s survival. He also can’t stop thinking of Diane; a lifelong unrequited love sending him on a quest to save her after her new husband’s attempts to prepare for apocalypse put her life in danger.
The story is told in two timeframes, one following Tyler Dupree’s life as he lives through the turbulent years of the Spin. Alternate chapters follow a second timeframe many years after the start of the Spin as Tyler and Diane are hiding in Indonesia, on the run from the UN security forces because of what they know, and preparing for an illicit voyage to a new world through the massive Arch that spans hundreds of miles of the Indian Ocean. The unconventional structure works quite well, allowing Wilson to gradually reveal information in both timeframes, until by the end of the novel even the more bizarre plot developments all makes surprising sense.
The plotting is audacious but does not require too much suspension of disbelief, since Wilson manages to come up with an outlandish but understandable explanation for the strange events. The best thing about this novel is the ambition of the ideas, as well as the impressive central concept, there are a number of equally ambitious concepts, including subplots about the colonisation of Mars, a revolutionary new longevity treatment, and the explanation of why the Spin occurred. There have been a lot of ‘what if’ novels in the Science Fiction genre, but this is a particularly good example.
A common problem with ambitious science fiction novels is that characterisation or quality of the writing is sometimes not quite up to the same standard as the imagination or science. Fortunately, “Spin” does not suffer too much from these drawbacks. The characterisation is good, Tyler being an interesting protagonist and the novel featuring a number of fascinating characters – particularly the Martian Wun Ngo Wen. Diane Lawton is also an interesting character who has probably the most character development of any character in the novel, although her brother Jason is possibly a bit bland considering his importance to the plot, and some parts of his characterisation such as his celibacy don’t seem particularly convincing. The quality of the writing is also high, the prose is well-written, there are numerous memorable scenes and the huge quantity of exposition necessary in a novel like this is deftly handled, quickly explaining the key points without getting dull or over-detailed. There are even a couple of decent action scenes, although there is not much action in the novel.
The ending is also satisfying, managing to explain most of the key points about the Spin (although still leaving some questions unanswered) and providing a good story arc for the three main characters.
In summary, this is an impressive, ambitious novel, which combines some fascinating ideas with a well-written, fast-paced and compelling story. Spin is one of the best Science Fiction novels of the 21st Century so far.
Axis
“Spin” wasn’t really a book that was crying out for a sequel, but a sequel was written nevertheless. “Axis” is set several years after the end of “Spin”. Having survived the cataclysmic events of Spin humanity is busy colonising the new world of Equatoria, a distant planet connected to Earth via the Arch, a huge gateway to a distant world placed in the Indian Ocean. The book takes place on Equatoria amongst the human population trying to build a new civilisation on a strange new world and exploiting its plentiful mineral resources. At the start of the story, the two main characters Lise Adams and Turk Findlay are living fairly normal lives on Equatoria. Lise is obsessed with finding out the fate of her father, a scientist who was also obsessed, in his case with discovering more about the nature of the beings behind the Spin and the Arch to the new world. Her father had disappeared without trace when Lise was a child living on Equatoria, despite spending years searching for him she has made little progress but now believes she has found what could be an important lead. Turk is a pilot who flies his small plane on private charters out to the desolate but oil-rich deserts of Equatoria. On one such flight, chartered by Lise trying to track down an old associate of her father’s Turk and Lise had started a brief affair. Lise who was married had ended the affair shortly afterwards, but after she shows up again newly divorced and asking for a favour Turk finds himself helping her again on her quest. They soon discover that their investigations have attracted the attention of a powerful UN agency devoted to regulating genetic manipulation technology. The agency is on the track of a well-hidden cult-like organisation devoted to using genetic engineering to try to answer some of the bigger questions behind the events of the Spin. Breaching many laws in their remote compound in the Equatorian wilderness they have engineered a child, Isaac, who has been specially designed to allow him to communicate with the beings behind the events in Spin. They agency will stop at nothing, even murder, to stop the illegal genetic manipulation so Turk and Lise find themselves on the run, along with a returning character from “Spin”. Meanwhile, the planet of Equatoria is in upheaval, strange things are falling from the sky, objects that look like tiny machines that decay into dust soon after landing. Some of the remote parts of Equatoria are simultaneously struck by huge earthquakes and the boy Isaac starts to become aware that there is something out there in the desert, in the earthquake zone, and it is waiting for him.
“Axis” is arguably not as ambitious as “Spin”, although there are plenty of interesting ideas in it, it does not have quite the same density of thought-provoking concepts and some of the concepts have already been introduced in the first book. It is an intelligent book and one that manages to be consistently entertaining but it fails to be as compelling as “Spin” was. In “Spin” (and “The Chronoliths”) it did feel like the fate of the world and the future of humanity hung in the balance, but although it may be a life-or-death situation for some of the characters in the book the events portrayed do not have such big consequences. Although the plot is less ambitious it is still entertaining and comes to a dramatic and satisfying conclusion. One criticism about the plotting is that Lise and Turk’s story does seem a bit tangential at times to what should be the main plot and their involvement in the main plot is ultimately due to some coincidences.
One of Spin’s strengths is that it managed to combine some good characterisation and writing with the interesting Science Fiction concepts and Axis continues this. There is some good character development which does start to pay off near the end of the novel and the quality of the writing is generally high. Wilson is particularly good at writing the more outlandish scenes involving the mysterious storms descending on Equatoria and the strange events surrounding the climax to the novel.
In summary, this is an entertaining and thought-provoking science fiction story although ultimately not one that really brings anything new to the genre. It lacks ambition compared to Spin but is still worth reading.
The Chronoliths
Wilson’s earlier book, “The Chronoliths”, is another ambitious ‘what if’ novel which examines the impact of an event that has consequences for the whole world. In this case the event is the arrival of the titular ‘Chronoliths’. The main character Scott Warden is living an itinerant existence on a beach in Thailand when he hears of the nearby arrival of the first Chronolith. A few miles inland in the jungle he comes upon an astonishing sight – a giant monument hundreds of feat tall that has spontaneously appeared in rural Thailand. Scientific investigations quickly find some odd things about the monument – it is made of some sort of unknown material impervious to everything they can throw at it, its arrival was accompanied by blasts of ice and radiation, and most worryingly of all it has writing on it, declaring the monument commemorates the surrender of southern Thailand and Malaysia to someone named Kuin. The declaration of victory is dated 2041 – 20 years in the future.
The first Chronolith is mostly a curiosity, the world is fascinated but not too worried and Scott is more concerned about his interrogation by Thai soldiers who find him snooping around the Chronolith and the subsequent collapse of his marriage. The second Chronolith has a much bigger impact – it is larger, it is more detailed, now showing the face of the conqueror Kuin, and its sudden arrival obliterates most of downtown Bangkok, killing thousands. As the years pass more Chronoliths appear, spreading across Asia and leaving chaos in their wake as regional governments collapse amid panic and the increasing power of Kuinist cults who come to believe that Kuin will be a great leader and it is their job to build up an army for him when he appears. Scott returns to America, so far untroubled by any Chronoliths on its soil, and starts to try to rebuild a normal life. However, he cannot escape the mystery of the Chronoliths and eventually ends up working for his old university tutor Sue Chopra, a brilliant physicist whose theories may hold the key to unravelling the truth behind the Chronoliths. Chopra and the people she works for are desperately trying to find a way to stop the Chronoliths and also stop Kuin before his prophesised conquering of the world comes true. Meanwhile, Scott has to deal with his estranged teenage daughter Kaitlin falling in with a youth movement fascinated with Kuin.
Like in Spin, The Chronoliths has a fascinating and audacious central premise. The main plot regarding the Chronoliths is handled very well, comes to a satisfying conclusion and largely makes sense. However, in some areas this book is not quite as successful as Spin, the characterisation is not quite as good with none of the characters being particularly memorable, and Scott isn’t as interesting a protagonist as Tyler Dupree was. Although the main Science Fiction part of the plot was well handled, the individual characters arcs are not done so well, the effect of the events of the novel on Scott’s family comes to a rushed conclusion with the end of the story arc being dealt with in a couple of pages of unsatisfactory exposition. Also, the larger-than-life character of Scott’s criminal friend Hitch Paley seems a bit out-of-place in the novel and not entirely believable.
The quality of the writing is reasonably good in general, although the prose is not as polished as it was in Spin.
In summary, this is another book with a fascinating premise, but although the main plot works well the subplots are ultimately unsatisfying. This is a good book, but not quite a great one.
All content ©2008 William Marnoch.
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