Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

This was a great sci-fi book with a dystopian landscape and a unique plot device, a sort of permeable shroud covering the earth that hides the night sky. The hard sci-fi is really well-done and plausible. I had just finished Darwin's Radio before this one and now realize how similar these two books are: something really bad happens and we follow scientists and their friends in a quest to determine the cause while the government takes the dumbass ostrich head-in-a-hole position and the populace just plain freaks out. In Bear's book, we were more focused on evolution and nanoscience whereas in Wilson's we are focused on Spin and time dilation. Oh, did I forget to mention that another side-effect of the Spin was that time on earth passes MUCH more slowly than in the rest of the universe? I think the ratio was 1 sec on earth was 3 1/2 years outside the Spin. So, you end up with the problems that Haldeman deals with in The Forever War and Marooned in Realtime and get some clever solutions. Wilson spends time talking about some of the apocalyptic cults that form out of evangelical xtian movements in a manner which I found both realistic and terrifying. The idea of creating a red heifer to accelerate the end times was also exploited in The Yiddish Policemen's Union. Also, there was a bit of a throwback in the Wun Ngo Wen character to Heinlein's classic Stranger in a Strange Land.
Overall, the narrative works really well tying up loose ends and gathering steam. I felt that there was a real ending here and had to remind myself that Wilson wrote two sequels to this book. Not really sure what to expect in those.