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Title: Blind Lake by Robert Charles Wilson ISBN: 0-7653-0262-4 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: 01 August, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.33 (15 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A New York Times Notable Book of the Year
Comment: Need I say more? Wilson is consistently one of the finest writers in OR OUT of the science-fiction genre, and this book, like several of his previous novels, has been named a "New York Times Notable Book of the Year."
The premise is fascinating, and developed in surprising directions: new quantum-computing technologies allow the imaging of day-to-day life on alien worlds. A pair of US government labs -- Crossbank and Blind Lake -- are devoted to watching the action unfold on two separate extrasolar planets. But suddenly Blind Lake is locked down: no one can get in or out, and no communication with the rest of our world is possible. Why are the all-too-human researchers there being quarantined? And what happend at Crossbank to warrant this?
Beautiful, often poetic prose; finely nuanced characters; science right at the cutting edge; and great metaphysical/philosophical ruminations. What more could one ask? Let's hope this one snares Wilson his well-deserved Hugo and Nebula Awards.
Rating: 4
Summary: Great effort from an improving author
Comment: Robert Charles Wilson keeps getting better with each new novel. I started with Darwinia, which was not bad, then moved to The Chronoliths, which was better. Now comes Blind Lake, his brand new novel, and it's his best so far.
The novel centers around a research installation which uses quantum technology to investigate nearby stars and in particular, a planet which supports sentient life forms. When the installation is quarantined and cut off from the rest of the world, stranding residents and visitors inside for an unknown reason, the characters struggle for understanding in a time of chaos.
The only problem I had with this book was its tendency to be a bit melodramatic. But this story is certainly character-driven, with strong, deep personalities intermixed with fascinating speculative science. The antagonist, the female lead's ex-husband who flips out when he has a bit too much power thrust upon him, seems a little over-the-top until I realized that there are all too many people quite like him: control freaks who are anal-retentive to the point that it's frightening. I found that part of the novel to be all too realistic at points.
I also think Wilson could have gone into much greater detail in dealing with the alien culture in this novel, but that's also sort of the point. All we can do is watch and try to piece together bits and pieces of the infomation that comes through the quantum telescope to form a coherent picture of them. We learn about them, finally, through a sort of chosen representative, and that was certainly interesting enough. If there's ever a sequel to this book, I'd certainly like to learn more about them. But I also think that the best books are somewhat satisfying but also leave you wanting to continue the story. This book accomplishes both very well.
I don't think Wilson has written his best novel yet; that's probably still to come, but he improves with every novel he writes and I look forward to the next one.
Rating: 3
Summary: A surprisingly weak novel from a talented writer
Comment: Robert Charles Wilson has written some of the best mainstream sf of the past ten or fifteen years. His last book before this one had been The Chronoliths, a riveting dystopian novel that married personal and global tragedy, and I had high expectations for Blind Lake. Sadly, he failed to live up to those expectations; while his broad conception of the novel, an sf thriller that also examines imagination and story-telling, was sound, it's undermined by lackluster execution.
The biggest flaw lies with the characters, which are frequently ignored in the cause of Wilson's big ideas; like many sf novels, it sometimes feels as if the characters are just saying the things the author wants them to say, rather than the things they would naturally say. Their personal struggles, rather than being linked with the larger story as in The Chronoliths, feel arbitrary and distracting from the cosmological heart of the novel; moments that should resonate end up irritating instead.
The prose isn't exactly inspiring either. For a veteran sf writer, Wilson has a surprisingly clunky and graceless way of handling exposition, falling into that old trap of the infodump. This is true even at the climax of the novel, where Wilson suddenly decides to humanize the villain in a way that simply doesn't work; I can't imagine how it could have felt more tacked on. Some moments (Subject's story, for one) work like gangbusters, but most don't.
The big themes of the novel are also over-emphasized; the refrain, "It could end at any moment" is repeated ad nauseam, when Wilson could have gotten the same effect in a more graceful way. In fact, what the novel needs in general is a little grace and subtlety, allowing the big picture to emerge from the give and take of natural character interaction; sadly, what could have been a moving and involving tale is instead a routine sf thriller. It's exciting enough, but nothing like what Robert Charles Wilson is capable of.
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Title: Ilium (SIMMONS, DAN) by Dan Simmons, Homer Iliad ISBN: 0380978938 Publisher: Eos Pub. Date: 01 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: Omega by Jack McDevitt ISBN: 0441010466 Publisher: Ace Books Pub. Date: 04 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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Title: Singularity Sky by Charles Stross ISBN: 0441010725 Publisher: Ace Books Pub. Date: 05 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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Title: The Golden Transcendence: Or, the Last of the Masquerade by John C. Wright ISBN: 0765307561 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: 01 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: Broken Angels by Richard K. Morgan ISBN: 0345457714 Publisher: Del Rey Books Pub. Date: 01 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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