B.W.'s Book Report: Spin
First things first: The other morning, upon finishing Spin, I leaped online and pronounced that Robert Charles Wilson's beautiful novel was the one I would choose as this year's Hugo winner. Upon further review, and pal Wally Conger's brief but effective dissent, I think the honors should indeed go to Old Man's War by John Scalzi, which delivers a powerful message about the foolishness of war and the eternal power of love while providing a page-turning thriller of an adventure to boot.
But that, in the end, is the foolishness of these award things. Spin is also a monumental achievement, delivering a powerful message about how we deal with life while providing a page-turning thriller to boot. The awards process is nice because, by nominating these five novels, the Hugo people drew attention to works that some readers (like me) probably would never have picked up. But how do you choose "the" best novel from such a disparate pile? In the end it's a majority-rules process, a small or large group essentially voting for their favorites. The truth is that Scalzi and Wilson both wrote novels that blew me away and that I would recommend to anyone who thinks my opinion is worth a couple of cents.
On to Spin: It is the day after tomorrow, and three young people - brother-sister twins and their slightly younger friend who narrates our tale - happen to be out on the lawn when the stars blink out. The Earth has been surrounded by some sort of cocoon, all artificial satellites have fallen to the ground, and the sun has apparently been replaced by an artificial heat/light source that acts just like the sun but without its little quirks like sunspots and solar flares.
Before long we discover that the cocoon is some sort of time warp, and while everything seems normal on our planet, on the outside years and centuries are passing so fast that, somewhere around 50 of "our" years from now - when it's billions of years later on the outside - the sun will flare up and die. This apparently is the last generation on Earth.
Wilson gives us a compelling story around this scenario and the next few decades in the lives of our three main characters. Why is this mysterious phenomenon - dubbed the "spin" - happening, and who is doing it to us? How can it be stopped - or can it be stopped - or should it be stopped? And how do different people react to the impending End of the World? As you can tell by my first reaction upon completing the novel, it's an extremely satisfying read.
So, to wrap up my Hugo project: The statue goes to Old Man's War, by a nose over Spin. Accelerando by Charles Stross is a fascinating read that engaged my mind but not my emotions the way Scalzi and Wilson did. Learning the World by Ken MacLeod gets an "incomplete" because I just wasn't grabbed and the pages wouldn't turn for me on the first attempt. And A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin is a victim of my prejudices: I just didn't feel "up" to leaping into the fourth 750-page book in a fantasy series when the point of the exercise is to find the best science-fiction novel of the year.
But that, in the end, is the foolishness of these award things. Spin is also a monumental achievement, delivering a powerful message about how we deal with life while providing a page-turning thriller to boot. The awards process is nice because, by nominating these five novels, the Hugo people drew attention to works that some readers (like me) probably would never have picked up. But how do you choose "the" best novel from such a disparate pile? In the end it's a majority-rules process, a small or large group essentially voting for their favorites. The truth is that Scalzi and Wilson both wrote novels that blew me away and that I would recommend to anyone who thinks my opinion is worth a couple of cents.
On to Spin: It is the day after tomorrow, and three young people - brother-sister twins and their slightly younger friend who narrates our tale - happen to be out on the lawn when the stars blink out. The Earth has been surrounded by some sort of cocoon, all artificial satellites have fallen to the ground, and the sun has apparently been replaced by an artificial heat/light source that acts just like the sun but without its little quirks like sunspots and solar flares.
Before long we discover that the cocoon is some sort of time warp, and while everything seems normal on our planet, on the outside years and centuries are passing so fast that, somewhere around 50 of "our" years from now - when it's billions of years later on the outside - the sun will flare up and die. This apparently is the last generation on Earth.
Wilson gives us a compelling story around this scenario and the next few decades in the lives of our three main characters. Why is this mysterious phenomenon - dubbed the "spin" - happening, and who is doing it to us? How can it be stopped - or can it be stopped - or should it be stopped? And how do different people react to the impending End of the World? As you can tell by my first reaction upon completing the novel, it's an extremely satisfying read.
So, to wrap up my Hugo project: The statue goes to Old Man's War, by a nose over Spin. Accelerando by Charles Stross is a fascinating read that engaged my mind but not my emotions the way Scalzi and Wilson did. Learning the World by Ken MacLeod gets an "incomplete" because I just wasn't grabbed and the pages wouldn't turn for me on the first attempt. And A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin is a victim of my prejudices: I just didn't feel "up" to leaping into the fourth 750-page book in a fantasy series when the point of the exercise is to find the best science-fiction novel of the year.
Labels: book report
posted by B.W. Richardson at
11:55 AM
1 Comments:
It's been interesting, reading your responses to the Hugo finalists. I've done a similar thing for the July Salon, focusing on this year's Prometheus Award finalists—there's some overlap, in terms of both author and title, between them and the Hugos. And you've got me wanting to read Spin!
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