Axis

By: Robert Charles Wilson

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

Wildly praised by readers and critics alike, Robert Charles Wilson's Spin won science fiction's highest honor, the Hugo Award for Best Novel.

Now, in Spin's direct sequel, Axis, Wilson takes us to the "world next door"—the planet engineered by the mysterious Hypotheticals to support human life, and connected to Earth by way of the Arch that towers hundreds of miles over the Indian Ocean. Humans are colonizing this new world—and, predictably, fiercely exploiting its resources, chiefly large deposits of oil in the western deserts of the continent of Equatoria.

Lise Adams is a young woman attempting to uncover the mystery of her father's disappearance ten years earlier. Turk Findley is an ex-sailor and sometimes-drifter. They come together when an infall of cometary dust seeds the planet with tiny remnant Hypothetical machines. Soon, this seemingly hospitable world will become very alien indeed--as the nature of time is once again twisted, by entities unknown.

©2007 Robert Charles Wilson (P)2008 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

“The long-anticipated marriage between the hard sf novel and the literary novel, resulting in an offspring possessing the robust ideational vigor of the former with the graceful narrative subtleties of the latter, might finally have occurred in the form of Robert Charles Wilson's Spin.…Wilson does so many fine things, it's hard to know where to begin to praise him.” —The Washington Post

Everything a story should be

Would you consider the audio edition of Axis to be better than the print version?

I did not read the book but listening brings out all the nuances.

What other book might you compare Axis to and why?

Read all the books in the series.

What does Scott Brick bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Attitude

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

no

Any additional comments?

no

Not as good as Spin, but still good writing

What other book might you compare Axis to and why?

The follow up to Spin was pretty good. The story started out great, but didn't quite deliver in the end. Of course Robert Charles Wilson's writing is still pretty darn good.

Have you listened to any of Scott Brick’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I love Scott Brick. If he's reading it I'm much more likely to listen to it.

Riveting, relevant and thought provoking.

An intriguing story of apocalyptic times on earth and the hard choices it presents. A visitor from another planet brings useful wisdom and the possibility of transcendence for some.

A "must read" for Spin fans.

After reading several negative reviews from Audible customers, I almost passed on this sequel to "Spin." I'm glad I didn't, as I truly loved it. As Tyler and Diane Dupree cross the mysterious archway into a new world at the end of "Spin," we are left wondering what happens next. This book delivers the answers to our questions in a highly engaging manner. To those familiar with the "Spin" universe, this book makes perfect sense, and it does a great job of continuing to slowly reveal the extent and true nature of the Hypotheticals. Although it picks up the story many years later and Diane Dupree is the only returning character from the original, the novel nonetheless achieves its own high level of excellence.

Great Concept - No details

I would have loved to wrap up this story. We didn't and neither did the author. I actually can't remember much of it because my mind strayed so often that many words were left stranded.
I love the idea of odd 0ff-worlders taking over. It's a time honored prize-winner. Ultimately, I know the goal is to wrap everything up and usually have the good guys (us humans) win. I miss that in this book.
I loved "SPIN" and hoped for a similar experience. Thanks for writing it, but I feel cheated.

Read Spin (Book 1) this continues from there!

I loved the whole story of book 1; the Spin!

This continues the story but towards the end it almost seemed a little silly.

But it is well worth the continued ride of the original Spin saga.

The narrator does a great job and is comfortable to listen to.

Thankfully they used the same narrator as book 1.

Bad formatting

Excellent story that is interrupted by the poor formatting and audio recording. It is disappointing that audible did such a poor job with this

Not as good as Spin

I liked the book but it’s not as incredible as Spin. Still, it fills in some gaps. I liked enough to read the next one in the series

not as good as the first...

The hypotheticals play more of a role in this book, but the author still leaves a lot of questions. It's a classic filler novel, I'm sure that the author will answer a lot more questions in the final? book.

Not Spin but Not Bad

Axis is better than most science fiction, but was substantially less enjoyable than Spin. The characterization was less deep; the story was less cohesive and less compelling, the writing more pedestrian. Still, Axis is better than average and is aided by residual Spin. I enjoyed the listen, but I was hoping for another Spin.