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| Spin | 
 enlarge | Author: Robert Charles Wilson
Publisher: Tor Science Fiction
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
Buy New: $3.87
You Save: $4.12 (52%)
Buy New/Used from $2.21
Avg. Customer Rating:  (113 reviews)
Sales Rank: 10161
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 464
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 6.6 x 4.2 x 1.7
ISBN: 076534825X
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780765348258
ASIN: 076534825X
Release Date: February 7, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 The Big Idea . . . May 9, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Every once in a while I start reading a book that has a really novel idea, a big idea, so different in scope that I wonder how in the hell the author thought of it. This is one of those books.br /br /The book is Spin by Robert Charles Wilson and the idea is this: one day all the stars and the moon are gone. The earth is enveloped by a membrane that shields it from the rest of the universe, but here's the rub - time has slowed down inside the membrane. Where it appears that time is progressing normally, it's not - sensor readings from probes sent up to the "spin" show that for every second that passes on earth, 3.7 years passes outside. That means that in ten years on our planet, the solar system ages a billion years. The Sun is growing and dying and the people on earth stand to be around for the awful moment when the sun consumes our planet.br /br /And that's just in the first fifty pages or so. br /br /The book moves on with the relationship between Tyler and his childhood friends, brother and sister Jason and Diane. Jason is a central figure in investigating the new reality and Diane is in the religious movement that springs up around this anomaly. Tyler changes as more is discovered and as his own personal life collapses along with civilization. br /br /In the end that's what makes this brilliant idea work as a book. The characters are believable and the story is moving. I recommend this novel highly.br /br / - CV Rick, May 2008
Ringworld for this generation May 4, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Spin appears to be this generation's Ringworld, where the interesting concepts far outweigh any deficiencies in the story or characterizations. br / br /When I read the blurbs about Spin, I shuddered- it seemed like a mix of Vinge's stasis fields with Hogan's gentle giants. But as it was the Hugo winner, I decided to get it. And I was blown away by the audacity of the concepts! I was totally captivated to see what was going to happen next.br /br /As with Ringworld, the writing was a bit off, and as with Ringworld, forgivable in the context of the ideas. Besides the improbable characterizations, the predictability of the telling the story backward, then forward in time, was serviceable but verged on annoying. Not quite as bad as those breathless cliff hanging chapters in the Da Vinci Code, but the device bordered on being distracting. br /br /My recommendation is to set aside some time for a quick delightful read!
Excellent April 19, 2008
Best hard science fiction novel I have read in many, many years. Very novel scientific story line and a good people story.
A Lifetime of Facing the End April 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
How would humanity respond if an apocalypse was coming - but we had a lifetime to prepare? That's the primary question raised by Robert Charles Wilson's "Spin", where a dark, permeable membrane suddenly surrounds the earth one night - at which point the earth is accelerated through time, facing the destruction of the earth at the hands of a dying sun in 40-50 years.br /br /Tyler Dupree manages to be at the middle of this - the childhood friend of Jason Lawton, who becomes an expert on the membrane (named "The Spin") and formulates a grand plan to circumvent it. The novel is primarily about how people deal with impending doom - Jason turns to science, his sister Diane to religion; others become fatalistic, hope blindly, or just muddle through as Tyler does, watching things unfold.br /br /Most of the book is told looking back, which drains tension from some scenes, but provides valuable setup for some later scenes that might be too disconnected otherwise. Diane's turn to religion is never entirely convincing; the reaction of the others as events move to a climax are more plausible. Further events - the cause of the Spin, and changes growing out of Jason's attempts to deal with the Spin - are dealt with well, raising as many questions as they answered, but good questions.br /br /A spare plot thread or two conclude limply, but they're never on center stage; the central dilemma is handled well, and the later details are fascinating enough that you don't dwell on the bad threads for long. Wilson's prose is merely utilitarian, but the ideas stand strongly enough that Spin is a worthwhile read.
 meh March 5, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
As others have pointed out here, the story line is a nice one. Very personal and well written, although the dialog is bit boring. The book wanders for a while, but finally picks up once humans are sent to Mars and begin evolving on their own. The book is a page turner...at no point did I get "tired" of reading it, but ultimately there is no shock and awe at the end of this story. There is an explanation, of course, but it's rather anticlimatic. It left me wanting more. More story about what's on the other side of the arch, and the other connected worlds. Why don't they run into any other intelligent beings? That part is woefully missing. Now that would have made for a juicy ending, having all the intelligent beings are united at the end because of the arch. But no.br /br /Why do authors (good authors!) fill a book with prose, then jam the ending in? The ending is why I read books. I want to know that the time I invest plodding through the story and characters will all be worth it in the end. I read to escape, not to "pass the time". This book was not that great an escape.br /br /Reading Aurthur C. Clark is my all time favorite escape. He KNOWS how to write an ending. Unfortunately, I've read all his books!
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