le book review number one hundred six~ Spin

Title: Spin
Author: Robert Charles Wilson
Series: Spin Saga #1
Paperback
Pages: 452
Year First Published: 2005
Publisher: Tor Science Fiction
Personal Star Rating: 4/5 stars

Description:
The time is the day after tomorrow, and three adolescents - Diane and Jason Lawton, twins, and their best friend, Tyler Dupree - are out stargazing. Thus they witness the erection of a planet-spanning shield around the glob, 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 engineerd time discontinuity. Jason, a genius, will invest his celibate life in unravelling 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?... Here's a book that features speculative conceits as brash and thrilling as those found in any space opera, along with insights into the human condition as rich as those contained within any mainstream mimetic fiction, with both its conceits and insights beautifully embedded in crystalline prose.

Cover Comments:
The cover is interesting, and what you would expect for a science fiction novel. I probably wouldn't have picked it up if it wasn't a required book to read.

Title Thoughts:
Simple, yet very effective.

Review:
I had to read this book for a University English course. I definitely wasn't sure what to expect, but once I started reading it I found it to be very interesting. I liked the characters, and all three are constructed really well. They each have individual personalities which shine through and the changes that are expressed have real scientific evidence. I was impressed by the unique plot of travel through time, and also through reflection of past to present and inevitably the future. I probably would have never picked this up, but it was worth reading. I probably will read the rest of the series, but probably not soon.