The Spin on the book The Spin by Robert Charles Wilson

I am about two thirds through the science fiction novel called ‘The Spin’ by Robert Charles Wilson.  It has been a good book with a plot that slowly unravels like a woven piece of material.  The plot literally feels spun together and unfolds as if the reader is spiraling forward and backwards.

The novel brings out a number of theories that have often been mentioned in past stories but rarely developed like they are in this particular novel.  Topics like teraforming have been covered by many classic science fiction writers in short stories and novellas but never put together as well as Wilson does in this effort.  He covers topics of religion, the rapture, time, time travel, interplanetary travel, drug use, sex, politics and power and the impact of all of these items on society at large on earth.

Faced with the potential end of the world, the people of the countries of earth rally together, break apart and try again.  There is confusion mixed with business as normal and society does not entirely break down.  Some people take serious and drastic actions, but many more continue on with their daily lives studying in school, going to work, taking drugs and diet pills and phasing in and out of belief systems as they look for the universal question of "why are we here?" with a time clock counting down to doomsday pending the answer.