Without Spin, Axis is promising but weak

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	• Axis Robert Charles Wilson Tor Books, 2007 - 304 pages average customer review:based on 21 reviews view larger image
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Without Spin, Axis is promising but weak

I've not read Spin, the "first book" in this series. Now I have to admit my bias up front... books are either part of a series or stand-alone, and there was nothing that made me think a reader was required to read Spin before tackling Axis. With that said...

Axis was intriguing. Humans on Earth have been manipulated by the mysterious "Hypotheticals", with the Earth being "cocooned in time" for over a billion years. Humans on Mars have evolved their own way, and they are now different from humans on Earth. The Hypotheticals have left a portal on Earth that takes people to another planet, a place readily colonized. This story occurs there.

Bioengineering techniques developed on Mars, and outlawed on Earth, are showing up. There is talk of a human being developed to act as a communications link with the Hypotheticals. Earth is not happy, since this involved giving these Mars-developed technologies to an unborn child. In the meantime, the mysterious Hypotheticals continue to amaze, this time in the form of a "rain" of ash comprised of tiny pieces of complex machines and life forms.

The point of this book is that search for that child, and the new links with the Hypotheticals.

I guess that the Hypotheticals are much better developed and discussed in Spin, although little is known about "them" (life form? machine?). In Axis, no one discusses, if they are machines. who made the Hypotheticals?

As a stand-alone story, Axis was temporarily exciting, but really slipped at the end. Does the reader understand Hypotheticals better? Do humans have a better link with them? Are Martians repairing their relationship with Earth? Do the Fourths really threaten Earth society?

So... I'm interested in reading Spin. I couldn't recommend Axis without this. But there is enough there that I'd like to know more about those mysterious Hypotheticals.

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exciting scientific fiction thriller

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

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Good, Not Great

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.

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Axis, the Turning

Robert Charles Wilson, after his Hugo winning novel, Spin, could not go back. Taking a break to write Darwinia, he found himself in the grip of the Hyptheticals and Axis is the result.

In 'Axis', Wilson follows the quest of Lise Adams for news of her fathers' disappearance. Living in the other world, through the arch, Lise and her new friend Turk Findley embark on a search for Fourths in the forbidden zones. Officially, Fourths are a threat to mankind, and the DGS watchdogs the new world according to UN regulations. Unknown to Lise, her ex Brian Gately has been feeding information on her movements and inquiries into her activies with Turk. Thrown together by a desperate need for survival during a deadly ash storm, they bond and head off to Kubelicks Grave for more information on Fourths.

The world according to DGS. Fourths are bad, and a danger to society. According to Turk, and his 'friends', Fourths are a benefit to society, and have researched the Hypotheticals and their relationship to earth. Dr Dvali, once Lise Adams' fathers friend, is on Lises' quest. Enter Diane, Sulean Moi, Mrs Rebka, Isasc, and the whole community of Kubeliks Grave.

Lise Adams' whole life of assumptions about Fourths is turned about on its' head as the DGS comes after Lise, Turk and the community flee with Isaac across the desert, beyond the oil zone. What happens changes the world and the role of Fourths in society.

Wilson ties in the single focused Dr Dvali and his quest for communication with the Hypotheticals. Others see the aliens as non-entities, while Dvali seeks the spiritual. Science or god? Wilson writes a semi-philosophical thriller with environmental sensibilities that does not read like science fiction, but rather alternate fiction. Fans of either will enjoy this book, and the steady pacing that has won him an international reputation.

Don't expect Asimov. Expect Robert Charles Wilson at his narrative peak.

Tim Lasiuta

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4, 5

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