Julian Comstock by Robert Charles Wilson
reviewed by Greg L. Johnson
In the twenty-second century, a resurgent America, having survived the end of the previous two centuries's oil-based
civilization and the economic and environmental turmoil that accompanied it, now controls all of North America, with
the exception of those pesky Dutch in occupied Labrador. It's a land where the inhabitants are proud to call
themselves "Americans," but this is an America where wealthy aristocrats own vast estates worked on by indentured
servants, where the President is in essence a military dictator, and where religious freedom means the right to
worship at the Christian Dominion approved church of your choice. Out of this background comes Julian Comstock...
Spin by Robert Charles Wilson
reviewed by Greg L. Johnson
Since recorded history, human beings have looked to the skies for wonders and inspiration. We have found everything from myths
and legends to confirmation of scientific theories in the observations made of space and what it contains. Imagine the
implications, for both human understanding and human psychology if one night the sky was taken away.
Spin by Robert Charles Wilson
reviewed by Sherwood Smith
One summer night the stars abruptly blink out.
Three young people are lying on the grass behind the splendid house belonging to the parents of the twins, Jason and Diane
Lawton. With them is Tyler Dupree, a year younger, son of the housekeeper to the Lawtons. They react, like the rest of the
country, with a variety of emotions, and everyone wonders if the sun will come up.
Bios by Robert Charles Wilson
reviewed by Donna McMahon
In the 22nd century mankind has discovered a method of interstellar transit that is allowing
us -- albeit slowly and expensively -- to explore the galaxy.
One planet of great interest is the lush, beautiful world Isis, with a rich, complex ecosystem that
looks deceptively similar to ours, but it is utterly deadly to Earth-evolved DNA.
The Chronoliths by Robert Charles Wilson
reviewed by Nick Gevers
In the year of ultimate terrorism, this is a novel about ultimate terrorism;
and its logic is inexorable, terrifying. It involves demolition and
monuments. The demolition is predictable enough, targeting major cities and
centres of economic activity. But there are two crucial differences: first,
whatever buildings are destroyed, whatever Towers, twin or otherwise, are
toppled, they are replaced with gigantic formal monuments to the power of
the destroyer; and second, it is not the hot breath of mediaeval
fundamentalism that blows across Wilson's world, but rather an icy wind from
the future...
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The Perseids and Other Stories by Robert Charles Wilson
reviewed by Nick Gevers
These 9 stories are all located, or at least rooted, in Toronto. All feature intrusions into the quotidian world by
strange forces, strange beings, strange understandings, the malevolence of which is sometimes a matter of opinion.
This is Lovecraft territory, of course: a spookily evoked venue is haunted by agencies that watch us, covet us, grasp us,
and (possibly) love us; and in a spirit of fatalism, curiosity, or bravado, we (through our literary representatives)
respond to their otherworldly beckonings. Sometimes our surrender is complete, sometimes it shifts to defiance; but the
sense always accrues that we inhabit a flimsy film of ordinariness atop an immense chthonic gulf of weirdness.
Bios by Robert Charles Wilson
reviewed by Nick Gevers
The author contrives an eggshell future, fragile, fussy, anally retentive, an ideal candidate
for ruthless shattering. After the plagues of the 21st century and their attendant socio-economic chaos,
Earth has descended into a sort of bureaucratic feudalism, by which great amorphous Machiavellian Trusts
lord it over the peasant multitudes. The administrative mandarins operate a repressive and secretive regime.
Some, though, have escaped this noose, inhabiting commodious colonies in the far ranges of the Sun's Kuiper Belt.
The human race, thus petrified and divided, is vulnerable when it ventures into the interstellar unknown.
Bios by Robert Charles Wilson
reviewed by Rich Horton
Zoe's arrival at Isis Orbital Station coincides with the first of a series
of on-planet catastrophes. It seems that the native organisms are getting
better and better at breaching the various security barriers humans have
placed about their research stations. And since a single breath of Isis' air
will kill a human horribly, this is very disturbing.
Darwinia by Robert Charles Wilson
reviewed by Neil Walsh
Sometimes in an alternate history novel the author merely explores the question of "What if?"
Here, the author explores not only "What if?" but also "How come?" and "What now?" We
see an alternate history as well as the causes and ramifications of it.
Here we get to see how and why history jumped its rails.
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