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Spin

(Tom Doherty Associates Book)

By Robert Charles Wilson

(60)

| Mass Market Paperback | 9780765348258

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Book Description

One night in October when he was ten years old, Tyler Dupree stood in his back yard and watched the stars go out. They all flared into brilliance at once, then disappeared, replaced by a flat, empty black barrier. He and his best friends, Jason and Diane Lawton, had seen what became known as the BigContinue

One night in October when he was ten years old, Tyler Dupree stood in his back yard and watched the stars go out. They all flared into brilliance at once, then disappeared, replaced by a flat, empty black barrier. He and his best friends, Jason and Diane Lawton, had seen what became known as the Big Blackout. It would shape their lives. The effect is worldwide. The sun is now a featureless disk--a heat source, rather than an astronomical object. The moon is gone, but tides remain. Not only have the world's artificial satellites fallen out of orbit, their recovered remains are pitted and aged, as though they'd been in space far longer than their known lifespans. As Tyler, Jason, and Diane grow up, a space probe reveals a bizarre truth: The barrier is artificial, generated by huge alien artifacts. Time is passing faster outside the barrier than inside--more than a hundred million years per year on Earth. At this rate, the death throes of the sun are only about forty years in our future. Jason, now a promising young scientist, devotes his life to working against this slow-moving apocalypse. Diane throws herself into hedonism, marrying a sinister cult leader who's forged a new religion out of the fears of the masses.Earth sends terraforming machines to Mars to let the onrush of time do its work, turning the planet green. Next they send humans...and immediately get back an emissary with thousands of years of stories to tell about the settling of Mars. Then Earth's probes reveal that an identical barrier has appeared around Mars. Jason, desperate, seeds near space with self-replicating machines that will scatter copies of themselves outward from the sun--and report back on what they find. Life on Earth is about to get much, much stranger.

Critics

  • Spin

    "Overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out." The concluding sentence to Sir Arthur C. Clarke's short story "The Nine Billion Names of God" is surely one of the most memorable in science fiction, capturing the quiet, inevitable feel of an i ... (read full critics)

    bookotron published on Mon, 13 Sep 2010

  • Spin

    Review-a-Day Saturday, January 20th, 2007 Voice your opinion about this review by posting a comment on the Powells.com blog Spin by Robert Charles Wilson Lights Out A review by David Hannon Spin, a novel from often underappreciated science-fiction wr ... (read full critics)

    powells published on Mon, 6 Sep 2010

5 Reviews

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  • 1 person find this helpful

    most of it are good. I like the way how author tells the story. However, the ending is really weak and a bit disappointing...

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    red said on Jan 25, 2009 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

  • 1 person find this helpful

    Man from the Mars

    "Originally from Mars somehow got down to Earth"...this is my self-description on aNobii. (What a coincidence! )

    A story talking about almost the same thing, well of course not exactly.

    I don't want to release any more details about this fascinating story here otherwise it may distroy ... (continue)

    "Originally from Mars somehow got down to Earth"...this is my self-description on aNobii. (What a coincidence! )

    A story talking about almost the same thing, well of course not exactly.

    I don't want to release any more details about this fascinating story here otherwise it may distroy your mood.

    I think this is a science fiction very close to reality.

    Highly recommended!

    Is this helpful?

    Jet2 said on Aug 19, 2008 | 3 feedbacks

  • 1 person find this helpful

    *** This comment contains spoilers! ***

       A science fiction flavored with a main-stream literature atmosphere, this novel concentrates on humans and relationships. It has won a Hugo Award for Best Novel and an endorsement from Stephen King. Besides, there were no Hollywood-type heroes could save people from the doom and that made ... (continue)

       A science fiction flavored with a main-stream literature atmosphere, this novel concentrates on humans and relationships. It has won a Hugo Award for Best Novel and an endorsement from Stephen King. Besides, there were no Hollywood-type heroes could save people from the doom and that made it even more non-fictionally realistic and attractive.

       The process of human beings extinction lasted for 30 years, spanning one generation. When people underwent this kind of doom, they grabbed religions and science, badly needing a faith to keep their lives going on, even though they knew they would die in near future due to the solar expansion. Jason Lawton, who put himself into the research and study of Spin, tried to save the Earth by terraforming Mars to develop a so-called remote technology. After his plan resulted in Mars also being Spined, Jason in turn changed his mind to find out the reason, and he did; he eventually traded his life for the truth. Diane Lawton, who in turn plunged into religious fanaticism, though she’s not really convinced by the faith she tried to have. Tyler Dupree, who was the story narrator, became a doctor after Spin and the doom was definitely made known. Doctor, which was a contradictory job in the theme where future and health were nothing to people. Spin chronicles the next 30-odd years in the lives of the trio, during whose life (time) 300 billion years would pass outside the shield.

       There are a lot of ironic narrations about governments, nations, and humanities. As in the real world, governments always classified everything, every piece of information and technology. Thus, conspiracies and cynicism always spreading among people; they always could not accept anything unusual and odd human being. The crimes was on the rise when people lost the hope of the future; still, the power and welfare remained charming to people though everything were doomed to be eliminated. They had nothing to lose, so they destroyed everything they do not like and robbed everything they want, for the sake of satisfying their human-nature.

       “Don’t be upset. The world is full of surprises. We’re all born strangers to ourselves and each other, and we’re seldom formally introduced.”

       The one-way love of Tyler for Diane is narrated a lot in this novel, which tends to arouse sympathy among readers. For example, “I still found myself conducting imaginary conversations with her, usually late at night, offering asides to the starless sky.”

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    shine said on Apr 18, 2008 | Add your feedback

  • Abosolutely fantastic. Believable science, interesting ideas, and a great story.

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    Jon said on Jul 1, 2008 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

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