Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #49212 in Books
• Published on: 2007-07-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 464 pages

Synopsis
After witnessing the onset of an astronomical event that has caused the sun to go black and the stars and moon to disappear, Tyler, Jason, and Diane learn that the darkness has been caused by a time-altering, alien-created artificial barrier and that the sun will be extinguished in less than forty years. Reprint.

Customer Reviews

Not just for Sci -Fi fans
I picked up 'Spin' in an act of desperation; I needed to find something to read late at night and was forced to look through my son's science fiction collection. The cover and the blurb did not inspire confidence, and I expected turgid prose full of technical terms, uninteresting square-jawed heroes and an incomprehensible slow-moving plot.

But... the story was enertaining and intriguing, and fairly rocketed along. You did not need a physics degree to understand what was happening and the necessary explanations were well-integrated into the story. 'Spin' read like a 'proper' novel, not like a fantasy for those who enjoy reading computer manuals.

Sometimes a little dramatic tension was diminished by the constant switching between past and present, and the female character was not fully realised but these are minor criticisms. I read this with great enjoyment, and would happily read another novel by this author.

Creative and original
A very interesting premise, good characterisation and moves along at a good pace - not too slow, nor so fast as to seem occasionally forced. When what's been going on is finally made clear it is perhaps a little too magical for my tastes, but that doesn't detract from the book much.

Not as dizzying as it could be.
Science fiction, particularly the `hard' variety, is often criticised for its lack of character development. Whether fair criticism or not, any writer who aims to address this matter is to be applauded. Wilson devotes a lot of time and energy to this end. Unfortunately it's here that he's at his weakest.

SPIN covers a long stretch of time over which we follow the main characters as they grow from adolescence into adulthood and on into middle-age. Sadly, these characters fail to convince. The interaction between them is contrived; they speak to each other in a language reserved for scientific exposition and melodrama. There's no true depth to these people and hence they fail to arouse empathy or real interest. They're too clichéd and portentous, and come across as little more than cyphers deployed to progress the narrative and drive the story arc. As a result their motivations and emotional ties never really satisfy.

It's the concept behind SPIN that makes it worth reading. Once the mysterious phenomenon appears you need to know more. Here, once again, Wilson succeeds only in part. Maintaining the enigma over such a lengthy arc stretches his prose too thinly. He fills the gaps with a family saga (so many larger-than-life, troubled people!), that is irritating and feels like the padding that it is.

Here we have a superb idea marred by a clumsy but brave attempt to create personal drama on a heroic scale. It would have been more interesting to hear this story told, in half as many words, from an everyman's point of view.