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Genre: Science fiction Main characters: Tyler Dupree, Diane and Jason Lawdon Time and place: sometime in the future, somewhere in the States (well, mostly) Summary: The night seemed just like any night for Tyler and his friends Diane and Jason. And then the stars disappeared. Years later, after people managed to make sense of the event, Jason is working at a top science facility, created for the very purpose of studying the new phenomena. In a nutshell what the sum of his knowledge is this: the reason why the stars are no longer showing is that there is some sort of layer (which they called the Spin membrane) covering the Earth. Its peculiarity? Time inside it runs 100 million times slower than on the outside. Meaning that there are only a few decades left for life on Earth until the Sun will expand so much it will destroy itself. While mankind seems doomed, Jason’s foundation comes with an interesting idea: they should try to terraform Mars, making it inhabitable enough for the human race to survive. |
My favorite character was Jason, hands down. Partially because he was very smart, but also because when he showed up and explained, theories started taking shape and things connected and made sense. Although, come to think about it, Jason was every inch the scientist (mad genius even, up to a point), as he had no other life but his work — a thing that made him less multidimensional than the rest of the cast. Next in line comes Taylor, representing the average person in less than average circumstances. He is an okay guy, a good friend and a good doctor, and I did like him, although I was a bit less interested in his fate than in Jase’s. As for Diane, I don’t think she was that good a character after all. Not only I had only fleeting interest for her (all due to Taylor’s caring for her fate), but I also found her a tad too implausible to be real. Just think about it: she is Jase’s sister and people say about her that she is very much like him, plus in the final chapters she deals with the underground world by herself; and yet she spends more than half of her life adhering to some strange religious cult? I can understand her need of reassurance, of making sense of what was happening around her — but it didn’t make her worthy of a brother like Jason, nor very interesting in my eyes.
I have found very interesting the new technologies the author “invented”. Such as the Spin itself, the so called membrane that protected the planet. The Fourth Age of the Martian people, a sort of extra life that was obtained with pain and effort but that also made the “bearer” more empathic, more in touch with others (and that could also theoretically be upgraded). The growing network of particles (if one could call them so) that fed on ice and dust and grew to became a sentient macro-organism. All these were new ideas to me and I found them very interesting as such.
I also liked the fact that the author has chosen to deal with the human side of people being aware of their imminent doom. While their reactions were different, most people did end up acting in extreme ways. Some became fervent believers in God’s second coming (with tens of variations of the theme). Others turned to life outside law, becoming murderers and thieves, knowing there could be no punishment for them since the world was about to end. Even the main characters react to the threat in their own ways: Jase by becoming intensely thirsty for knowledge, for discovering the reason behind it all (risking his life in the process), Diane by marrying a guy with strong faith (in a desperate hope to share his views on the world, as they made sense to him in a way hers did not) and Tyler by becoming aloof, by losing touch with a part of himself (to the frustration of some of the women in his life) — practically the only powerful feeling he shows throughout the book being his attachment to his former playmates. I cannot help wondering, were I to choose, were I in the situation, what would be the path that I would myself take.
A quote I liked:
“There’s a phrase Pastor Bob Kobel liked to use back at Jordan Tabernacle. ‘His heart cried out to God.’ If it describes anyone, it describes Simon. But you have to parse the sentence. ‘His heart cried out’–I think that’s all of us, it’s universal. You, Simon, me, Jason. Even Carol. Even E.D. When people come to understand how big the universe is and how short a human life is, their hearts cry out. Sometimes it’s a shout of joy: I think that’s what it was for Jason; I think that’s what I didn’t understand about him. He had the gift of awe. But for most of us it’s a cry of terror. The terror of extinction, the terror of meaninglessness. Our hearts cry out. Maybe to God, or maybe just to break the silence.”
What I liked most: The originality of the idea of having time run with different speeds for Earth and say Mars and the incredible changes that arose from it (such as, for example, when the terraforming of Mars was in progress and Tyler was thinking how by the end of his day some generations have already lived and died on the other planet; a very impressive thing once one truly thinks about it).
What I liked least: The hint at lesbian romance. It was vague and barely mentioned and yet I couldn’t help feeling it really had no point to be there. It was like the author considered adding an extra spice to the book (only for me it was like adding cinnamon to soup).
Recommend it to? Anyone interested in science fiction (or not, I’m actually not a fan of the genre and yet I considered it to be pretty good).
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