Axis

#172
Title: Axis
Author: Robert Charles Wilson
Publisher: Tor
Year: 2007
303 pages

The sequel to Spin, Axis is yet another tightly-woven, thought-provoking novel from one of my favorites, Robert Charles Wilson. Wilson's earliest novels were very enjoyable but almost too tightly constructed. In his later works, there is some room for the reader to breathe, and thus, I think, to identify more with the protagonists. Spin described the enveloping of Earth by a mysterious barrier, and made some revelations about its origin and purposes. It is not necessary to have read it to understand Axis, though it might be helpful. Axis includes sufficient exposition about previous events to carry the story, but for the full effect of a theme that pervades Wilson's work, the shift from the numinous and inexplicable to the mundane and ordinary, read both.

Axis includes other echoes of Wilson's previous work, notably returning to the question of life as a recording or replica after death, and some characters' choices about whether or not to accede to this process. Wilson's Jungian themes are also present, and his aliens are, as always, believably alien. Read Axis in conjunction with Sturgeon's More Than Human: They're not the same, but they belong together and should contribute to an interesting discussion.