Robert Charles Wilson's Axis (2007) is the sequel to 2005's Spin, (see MadProfessah's review) which was the winner of the 2006 Hugo Award for Best Science Fiction novel, and one of my 2007 Chrismakwanzakkuh presents. It has recently been released in paperback.For some reason it is quite difficult to blog about books soon after one has read them.
I have been meaning to put down my thoughts about this book for quite awhile. Unfortunately, my impressions are not as favorable towards Axis as they were towards Spin.
Necessarily, most of the characters that animated the story in Spin are not present in Axis, but the story does again revolve around the presence of a gigantic physical anomaly which affects the world.
However, in addition to demonstrating how society would react to another cataclysmic event, Wilson has also included a major storyline involving genetic engineering and communication with implacable alien intelligences.
The main problem I had with the book is that the main characters of Lise Adams and Turk Finley are really not compelling enough to sustain a reader's emotional connection, which reduces the overall impact of the novel as a whole despite the brilliance of the central concept.
Hopefully, the next (last?) book in the series, called Vortex will return to the nuanced characters of the first book without losing Wilson's trademark creativity.
GRADE: B.
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