Book Review: Spin

Spin, by Robert Charles Wilson.
The problem with Spin is that the concept is greatly intriguing but that the story is lousy. The climax happens right at the beginning and everything after that is downhill. Whereas we hope that the story is heading somewhere interesting and exciting, it turns out the whole story is anti-climax.

Spin is based on the concept of someone or something placing a barrier around the entire planet Earth that causes time on Earth to pass much, much more slowly than time in the rest of the Universe. The story is told through the prism of Tyler Dupree, a doctor who is (sometimes) peripherally involved with a project trying to solve the riddle of purpose of the barrier. Jason Lawton is Tyler's childhood friend. Jason is actually running the project, but we only occasionally interact directly with Jason. All we learn about the project, we learn through Jason telling Tyler, and this is does not make for a captivating way to inform the reader. Jason's sister Diane is also an important character, but she is not involved in any way with the central mystery and is used solely as a way to demonstrate a different manner in which people react to the barrier's existence.

Unfortunately for what turns out to be a character driven work, the characters are not that interesting. They seem to be holding the story back and away from the good stuff, that dealing more with the core concept.

Also, the details of the Spin are not entirely believable. People on Earth are able to monitor changes to Mars even though time passes much, much more quickly on Mars than on Earth. Mars should just be a blur in the distance based on its speed relative to the Earth observer. In fact, people on Earth should just see a blank glow, no stars, no planets, because relatively the view of the sun should completely dominate the sky.

The concept is better than the execution. The author is very good with concept. I have also read Julian Comstock, from the same author, and it suffers from similar problems. Julian Comstock is set in a future Earth that has reverted back to an 18th century type existence after some future calamity. Again, the concept sounds intriguing, and the world is well conceived, but the story and characters go nowhere.

I may be addicted to those original concepts, though. In fact, even though I'm lukewarm on the two books of Wilson's I have completed, I've seen another that interests me, The Chronoliths, because it sounds so interesting. I want to read it just to find out what it is all about. And I'll probably be disappointed. Someday I'll learn.