Most Helpful Customer Reviews
48 of 51 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An adequate, well-written sequel to a superb novel., September 20, 2007
This review is from: Axis (Hardcover)
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.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good, Not Great, September 23, 2007
This review is from: Axis (Hardcover)
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.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Spinning on its AXIS Robert Charles Wilson's sequel may be smaller in scale but it's still a fascinating well written novel, January 30, 2008
This review is from: Axis (Hardcover)
A solid sequel that suffers from middle-child syndrome (not getting enough respect or praise), AXIS is a much more intimate, smaller scaled novel when compared to the superb Hugo Award winning SPIN.
WARNING: SOME SPOILERS AHEAD:
Author Robert Charles Wilson deals with the post-SPIN world and where the arch that the Hypotheticals erected on Earth leads to combining two different narrative threads that ultimately converge. The first involves Lise Adams who is searching the new world for clues to the disappearence of her father a supporter of the Fourths who had a fascination with both their culture as well as the Hypotheticals themselves. Lise enlists a former lover Turk to help her find the last person who may have seen her father.
Intertwined with that story we also learn about Issac a boy specifically bred to communicate with the Hypotheticals by an off-shoot of the Fourths led by a former collegue of Lise's father. All of this is topped off with the threat of ash falling from the sky that appears to be the remains of Hypotheticals (biological, mechanical or both...we're not really given a clear answer on this)and the bizarre creatures that sprout out of the soil when they settle on the planet's surface.
AXIS is much more character driven and smaller in scale than SPIN was. Lacking that story's grander story makes it appear that AXIS is somehow a lesser novel but that's not the case at all. We may not make huge strides in finding out who the Hypotheticals are, what they want and what their interest is in humanity but we are given some answers even if many of them aren't quite as conclusive as we'd like. It appears that Wilson is setting the stage for a third more comprehensive novel with AXIS.
No doubt there will be those who will be disappointed by AXIS (I'm not one of them)and I'll probably earn negative votes for my opinion of the novel (although that's not what the voting here is for--it's to help those who haven't READ the novel make an informed decision as to whether or not it will be of interest to them NOT if someone who has read it agrees or disagrees with that opinion)but I found the novel interesting and a very good read that made up for the smaller scale in richer, detailed character development. AXIS may not provide the big answers to the questions raised in SPIN but it does make for an entertaining and enjoyable adventure.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192250339_.gif){kind=small}
