Denver Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Club

SPIN
by
ROBERT CHARLES WILSON
Spin paperback cover Spin (2005)
2006 Hugo Award Winner

Tor books paperback (left)
cover art by Drive Communications, New York
452 pages

Tor hadcover (right)
368 pages

 		Spin hardback cover
From the back cover of the paperback:
       "THE TIME IS THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW, and three adolescents -- Diane and Jason Lawton, and their best friend, Tyler Dupree -- are out stargazing.  Thus they witness the erection of a planet-spanning shield around the globe, blocking out the universe.  Spin chronicles the next 30-odd years in the lives of the trio, during which 300 billion years will pass outside the shield, thanks to an engineered time discontinuity.  Jason, a genius, will invest his celibate life in unraveling cosmological mysteries.  Tyler will become a doctor and act as our narrator and as Jason's confidante, while nursing his unrequited love for Diane, who in turn plunges into religious fanaticism.  Along the way human-descended Martians will appear, bringing a drug that can elevate humans to the Fourth State, 'an adulthood beyond adulthood.'  But will even this miracle be enough to save Earth?.... -- The Washington Post

Read for group discussion on August 9, 2006
RATINGS:
How we each rated this book
Dan - Amy 7 stack of books 10   Wow! Don't miss it
8-9  Highly recommended
7    Recommended
5-6  Mild recommendation
3-4  Take your chances
1-2  Below average; skip it
0    Get out the flamethrower!
U    Unfinishable or unreadable
-    Skipped or no rating given
Cheri 9 Barb -
Aaron - Cynthia 7
Jackie - Ron 9
Christine - Deb -
Mike - Stephanie 7
Patty - Shannon -
Our book group has also read the following books by Robert Charles Wilson:
-- Blind Lake  in October 2004
Bibliography:
Robert Charles Wilson (1953-     ) is a Canadian writer of primarily science fiction. He was born in the US but moved to Canada at age nine.

Awards
1994 Philip K. Dick award for novel Mysterium
1996 Aurora Award for Best Short-Form Work in English for "The Perseids"
1999 Aurora Award for Best Long-Form Work in English for Darwinia
2002 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for novel The Chronoliths
2006 Hugo Award for Best Novel Spin

Novels
Robert Charles Wilson's debut novel, A Hidden Place (1986) is emotional tale set during the great depression in the American Midwest featuring an alternate faery world.

Memory Wire (1987) is a lost world, futuristic, cyberpunk thriller.

Gypsies (1989) is an alternate worlds adventure with parallel existences.

The Divide (1990) is about a genetically enhanced man with a split personality.

A Bridge of Years (1991) features time travel, battling realities, and introspection.

The Harvest (1992) is about the humans who turn down aliens' offer of immortality.

Mysterium (1994) is dystopian nightmare, a clash of cultures, when part of Michigan is transported to an alternate America.

In Darwinia (1998), a Hugo Award nominee, Europe is transformed overnight in 1912 into an untamed jungle.

Bios (1999) is a far-future hard SF book about exploring a dangerous planet.

The Chronoliths (2001), a Hugo Award nominee, is about the impact of mysterious monoliths suddenly appearing from the future.

In Blind Lake (2003) quantum computers allow us to observe life on a distant planet.

Spin (2006) concerns a shield around the Earth from a huge time discontinuity.  Axis (2007) is a sequel to Spin.

Story Collections
The Perseids and Other Stories (2000).

 Links:
Our book club's page for Blind Lake by Robert Charles Wilson
Aaron's book review of Bios by Robert Charles Wilson on Fantastic Reviews
Robert Charles Wilson - Home
Robert Charles Wilson - Wikipedia
Locus Online: Robert Charles Wilson interview excerpts
NESFA: Spin -- Robert Charles Wilson
january magazine: Review | Spin by Robert Charles Wilson
The SF Site Featured Review: Spin
scifi dimensions: Spin by Robert Charles Wilson

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 This page was last updated December 04, 2008