Wow. Wow. WOW. This book was good!
I could try to explain the plot of the story to you, but that would ruin the first book of the series, Spin, which I sincerely belive is one of the best science fiction novels I’ve ever read. To do that would be a crime against humanity. You have got to read the first book, it is so good!
The main character, Elise, is trying to find out what happened to her father. He disappeared back when she was a little girl, leaving behind his family for no apparent reason. He was a scientist involved in studying the Hypotheticals, a mysterious, unseen alien thing that had dramatically altered the course of history nearly a generation ago, for purposes completely unknown.
Her obsession to find out what happened to her father destroys her first marriage and into a new relationship with Turk, an honest drifter. When a strange, alien ash falls from the sky and secret government agencies chase the two of them for information about a mysterious woman known as Sulean Moi, Turk and Elise find themselves getting wrapped up in a secretive, almost cult-like movement to communicate with the Hypotheticals. The leader is a mad scientist who will let nothing stand in his way–not even respect for basic humanity.
This book was amazing. I read the last fifty pages at 3:00 am, and at the end of every chapter I jumped up and shouted, wide eyed, “what?!” “holy cow!” and “oh my gosh!” The characters were real and genuine, the human drama was believable and engaging, the alien-ness of the universe was both thrilling, humbling, and awe-inspiring, and the tension was deliciously thick, right up to the very last words on the last page. This is a book worth reading (though you really should read Spin first–everything else will make a lot more sense if you do). Robert Charles Wilson is one of my favorite authors.
This book reminded me quite a bit of Arthur C. Clarke–not in terms of character and human drama (Robert Charles Wilson is light years better than Clarke in those areas), but in terms of thematic elements. Clarke’s fiction was always examing transcendence and the ultimate destiny of mankind. His aliens were more gods than men, and he viewed godhood as the destiny of man. Robert Charles Wilson deals with a lot of the same themes and questions. What is the ultimate end of evolution? What does transcendence look and feel like? Is the universe ruled by a mindless process, or a process that has a mind and a purpose?
Robert Charles Wilson’s prose is amazing. He gives just enough detail to make you feel that you’re there in his world, and just enough abstraction to let you work out the rest of the details until you feel that you’ve known his characters for a long, long time. He builds up the tension until you can’t put the book down, and when he releases it you find yourself stepping through a door into another world, full of meaning and significance, full of new wonders and new stories of its own. It’s amazing.
You really owe it to yourself to pick up something by this author. I would strongly suggest starting with Spin, but once you’ve read that book, you’ve got to read this book. It is amazing.
