Blind Lake

The writing and characters in Blind Lake set this story in the top of its genre. Again Wilson has a truly unique concept - quarantine (for unknown reasons) at a research community observing alien life on a distant planet. The story has many angles - cosmic justice, technological mysteries and limitations, personal dramas, and scientific ethics. Tensions rise during the months-long siege at Blind Lake which ends abruptly after much suspense. I think the best parts of this story lie more in the middle of the tale than in its conclusion. Not that the outcome is disappointing (in fact it's quite unpredictable) but it doesn't seem to be the focus. Since many science fiction stories take the opposite approach, this one's a pleasant switch.

I was a little suspicious of this book, after having read a little of it, because:1. There were cliffhangers at the end of each chapter. It was a little annoying being teased like this. I don't generally like this style.2. The ideas in the beginning were really, really good, but then there was little development of them in the middle part of the book. I was worried it would be the typical thing that happens with SCI FI, good start of an idea that falls apart at the end.For #1, I guess I got used to it. It certainly made me read it faster. For #2, the intellectual payoff was very good. I was trying to guess what it was (that's the nature of the building suspense), but I wasn't even close... and it was not a contrived ending.

Need I say more? Wilson is consistently one of the finest writers in OR OUT of the science-fiction genre, and this book, like several of his previous novels, has been named a "New York Times Notable Book of the Year."The premise is fascinating, and developed in surprising directions: new quantum-computing technologies allow the imaging of day-to-day life on alien worlds. A pair of US government labs -- Crossbank and Blind Lake -- are devoted to watching the action unfold on two separate extrasolar planets. But suddenly Blind Lake is locked down: no one can get in or out, and no communication with the rest of our world is possible. Why are the all-too-human researchers there being quarantined? And what happend at Crossbank to warrant this?Beautiful, often poetic prose; finely nuanced characters; science right at the cutting edge; and great metaphysical/philosophical ruminations. What more could one ask? Let's hope this one snares Wilson his well-deserved Hugo and Nebula Awards.

Blind Lake is a military installation set up to observe an alien on a faraway planet through a telescope controlled by a quantum-computer AI. Three journalists, each with their own history, come to Blind Lake to write a magazine piece. Soon after they enter, and without any explanation, the entire complex is quarantined and all contact with the outside world is totally cut off, heightening tensions amongst all in the complex the longer the isolation drags on.The alien followed by the complex provides the background for the interaction between these three journalists, Marguerite Hauser - a researcher studying the alien's behavior, her psychotic ex-husband who is left in charge of the administration of the complex and their daughter Tess - a loner who is constantly questioned by Mirror Girl, the name she gives to her reflection that keeps on asking her difficult questions.Some great and original SF, while at the same time giving life to the characters and not losing tempo with the stoyyline. Highly recommended!

For my money, Robert Charles Wilson has written some of the most thought-out science fiction in the market today. He is exceedingly good at taking a central idea, drawing you in, and then pulling the lens back to a much wider perspective that shows things being completely different than you'd expected - but that somehow manage to be logically consistent and equally as fascinating. Even with that high standard, "Blind Lake" not only lives up to that ideal, but is possibly his best work to date.The book deals with many themes that are familiar to readers of his other books. Not just wildly different perspectives of a given story or concept, but also the ideas of divorce, gender, loss, being cut off from the outside world, and knowing that something just isn't right, but not knowing how to fix it. These are all mixed together masterfully in a story of a mid-to-late 21st Century research complex of scientists whose complex is suddenly completely quarantined from the outside world for reasons that undoubtedly involve them, but seem to be completely unapparent. While slowly ratcheting up the tension level throughout the story, he creates an amazing page-turning tension that had me up until 3:30 am working my way through it.Beyond that, though, the story also deals with how we would try to understand aliens on their own terms if we could view them without having contact with them. What types of classifications would we use? What types of stories would we tell ourselves - or not allow ourselves to tell ourselves - about these beings? As an anthropology student, I find these questions every bit as fascinating from an anthropological perspective as from a scientific perspective. In fact, I'd even recommend this book to anthropologists as a study in how to perceive a people you share virtually no common link with.Beyond all of that, though, this book is a great read. If you've liked Wilson's other books, I can't imagine this one disappointing, and if you haven't, this is as good a place to start as any of his other books. They're all stand-alone anyway. I very much hope to see this book nominated for the Hugo Award in 2004...