Spin

Resurrecting the Books/Reading portion of this blog. First up on the plate is Spin by Robert Charles Wilson. The merits of this book weren’t in the spell binding – it was an ok read, told in a flashback fashion until the reader (at the end of course) is caught up with current events. What’s noteworthy in this book is the concept for the book, which was a bit fresh. One day in the not so distant future, an envelope surrounds the Earth. It’s quickly learned that the field also has a temporal aspect, slowing time passage on Earth considerably. The rest of the book is basically how that temporal shift is exploited to figure out who did this and why, told by the main character, a doctor, about his childhood friends. Eh. It wasn’t a bad read, but it was a bit of a weak read. I can’t pan it too badly (critics are failed writers after all), because the next book I picked up from ye olde biblotech was Alan Dean Foster’s The Candle of Distant Earth.

I did not realize that this was the third in the series (which I haven’t read), but that hardly changes my opinion. I remember reading Foster’s book when I was younger, and I don’t remember them being this painful. Yes, painful. And droll. Ouch. I’ll probably get zinged for that, but I really had a hard time pushing into it, and actually gave up after only 30 or 40 pages. With some books that might have been too early, but the book wasn’t that big to begin with, so I figured this was enough to base a judgement on.

Next up will be Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds. I’m only half way through, but it’ll have to work hard to disappoint me now 🙂