Axis (Spin)

An excellent sequel to Spin, by Robert Charles Wilson! After acquiring and reading a copy of Spin, I was anxious to read the sequel. This book did NOT disappoint! Nonstop action, suspense, and a totally coherent story made this book a very enjoyable read. I love Mr Wilson's writing style, especially the simplicity of his sci fi terminology that doesn't lose you while reading the story. You will immediately begin rooting for the heroine in the story, as well as revisiting a favorite character from Spin. I've already purchased Blind Lake and am looking forward to reading it. PLEASE add this author to your list of favorites!

As some of the other reviewers noted, this is the middle book in a trilogy. This book builds on the ideas and themes that Wilson first introduced in Spin. As such, you absolutely need to read Spin to understand what is happening in this book. The point of Axis, in my opinion, is to elaborate on the hypotheticals (read Spin if you don't understand what they are). He also sets up some ideas near the end of the book that will almost certainly be explored in the final book of his trilogy. While this book does drag a bit in the middle of the book, it serves its purpose well. If you liked Spin, I would recommend this book. But do not expect closure at the end of the novel. Hopefully we will have that whenever Wilson closes this saga.

I couldn't wait to read Axis. Wilson is one of my favorite writers, and a sequel to Spin would surely be awesome. It's hard to live up to expectations like that, though, and now that I'm done, I'm trying not to feel disappointed. On its own, Axis is a fine book, one of the few decent sci-fi novels this year. The problem is, I've come away from every other Wilson book going, "Wow, that was amazing!" With Axis, although I enjoyed it, I just wasn't blown away like I expected to be. Wilson is an accomplished storyteller. He specializes in taking big, crazy "What-If" scenarios, making them plausible, and viewing them through the lives of credible human characters. What if Europe were suddenly replaced by a wilderness? What if gigantic war memorials began appearing from the future? In Spin, the Earth is enclosed in a barrier by an unknown alien power, nicknamed the Hypotheticals. After a few years inside the barrier, Earth emerges four billion years into the future, with a transdimensional gateway in the Indian Ocean that leads to a new, inhabitable planet, Equatoria. Axis takes place thirty years later on the new frontier world. The story follows Lise, an intelligent, 30's-ish woman who is looking for clues to her father's disappearance 15 years earlier. Her search leads her into the shadowy world of the Fourths, humans who have illegally taken a Martian longevity treatment. The ultimate goal of the group is to establish contact with the Hypotheticals, through Isaac, a boy with special abilities. On the run from the authorities, Lise and her companions end up learning more about the Hypotheticals than they bargained for. As with any Wilson novel, the writing is superb and the characters well-drawn. The ideas are interesting, and there's action and intrigue and romance. The story starts slowly, but builds to a ferocious climax. It's all good... yet it still seems smaller than his previous books somehow. It's like a kid in class who always gets 100%, and this time he got a 92%. It's still good work, and it's still better than almost all the other kids, but it's not quite the triumph you're used to. It's hard for a sequel to be as creative as its predecessor, and perhaps it's unfair to expect it to be. But there you go. The verdict? I enjoyed Axis, and I recommend it. But if you're new to Wilson, start with Darwinia or Spin.

The Hypotheticals, self-replicating machines and perhaps so much more put Earth in stasis for four billion year and when it emerged, an arch was built that connects Earth to the New World that can only be reached by boat. Humans have colonized the New World many who have prices on their head. Fourths who has been taking anti-aging medicines created from the srains of Mechanicals lives on the New World in comparative freedom compared to the earth where it is outlawed. Lisa Adams has come from Earth to the New World to find out what happened to her father after he disappeared. She teams up with Turk Findlay who has connection to the Fourths and he takes her to the location where he dropped Sulean Moi off. They find a splinter group of Fourths who performed unethical surgery putting part of a mechanical into the embryo that eventually become Isaac. They hope to make contact with the Mechanicals but what happens creates more questions than answers. If any book deserves a sequel, this one does. It would be great to know what the mechanicals are; if they are sentient; if they are powerful enough to change the course of a species destiny. This exciting scientific fiction thriller demonstrates just how great a story teller Robert Charles Wilson is. Readers will thoroughly enjoy the entertaining storyline which will be read in one sitting. Harriet Klausner

I don't know if Axis is meant to be the middle book of a trilogy, but it certainly feels like it. It falls in the same trap as many other "middle stories", attempting to build upon the ideas and themes of the first novel, with stunning revelations of its own, but unable to fully flesh out its own purpose without bringing the entire arc to conclusion. This may be up for debate, but I do believe reading Axis requires one to have read Spin. While the most of the primary players in Axis make their debut here, the story truly builds on the events of Spin. And let's just say the Hypotheticals (the galaxy-spanning artificial intelligence that set the Spin in motion) "remember" the events of the first novel. This is not a great Robert Charles Wilson book...which is kinda like saying "this is a slow Ferarri". Wilson has been in a class of his own since "A Bridge of Years", writing character-driven sci-fi for geeks with a passing knowledge of cosmology and physics. To me, Axis reads a bit like Bios. Its short and to the point, hurtling along like a freight train toward a brick wall. Things feel like they won't end well. Characters get short-shrifted in service of the inscrutable plot. But like most "middle stories" (I hate to say this, but I think "The Matrix Reloaded" is a good example), I think Wilson is building toward something huge. Spin was great because he expertly juggled big ideas, big science and great characters and the end of the book felt like closure. Things are much more open-ended in Axis.