Axis [Broché]

Starred Review. In this outstanding sequel to Wilson's Hugo-winning Spin (2005), we are taken to the mysterious planet Equatoria, a world apparently engineered for humanity by the inscrutable machine intelligences known as the Hypotheticals. Turk Findley, a man with a criminal past, runs an aeronautical charter service on the newly settled planet. Lise Adams, who hires Turk, is a would-be journalist searching for her vanished father, a scientist obsessed with the Hypotheticals and their illegal life extension technology. Meanwhile, young Isaac, genetically manipulated by rogue scientists so that he may become a conduit between humanity and the AIs, is coming of age, and something enormous and unknown is assembling itself far underground. The various science and thriller plot elements are successful, but this is first and foremost a novel of character. Turk and Lise, who might well be played by Bogart and Bacall, are powerfully drawn protagonists, and their strong presence in the novel makes the wonders provided all the more satisfying. Those unfamiliar with Spin may flounder a bit, but Wilson's fans will be ecstatic. (Sept.)
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Following old leads to her father's associates from his time at the university, Lise Adams is searching for the secret of his disappearance. She ends up trekking across the desert with Turk, who runs a tourist plane and whom she met in the midst of her divorce, and Diane, who, like many of her father's associates, is a Fourth, whose lifespan has been artificially extended. Fourths are illegal on Earth and have a complex series of cultural checks placed on them on Mars. But some of the people Lise is after are further out on the fringe than most Fourths. The desert is seeded with an ashfall containing the remnants of hypothetical machines, bizarre structures that grow overnight and mostly disintegrate quickly. Lise finds some answers to her questions with a community of Fourths who've gone nearly too far, replicating a disastrous experiment Diane's brother first attempted, and that was repeated on Mars. This absolutely worthy, abundantly marvelous sequel to Spin (2005) conjures humanity after an event so strange it's almost unimaginable. Schroeder, Regina --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

Menacée par un Soleil qui se transformera bientôt en nova, la Terre vit ses dernières années. Pour la plupart, les hommes ont franchi l'arc des Hypothétiques et se sont installés sur le Nouveau Monde, Equatoria ; notamment dans sa capitale, Port Magellan. C'est à partir de cette agglomération tentaculaire, hétérogène telle l'humanité, que Lise Adams cherche son père, un scientifique qui a disparu depuis bien longtemps et avait peut-être découvert quelque chose sur l'énigme que représentent les Hypothétiques. Alors que Lise tient enfin une piste sérieuse, grâce à son ancien amant Turk Findleyk, d'étranges cendres se mettent à tomber sur le Nouveau Monde. Et si celui-ci, tout comme la Terre, était condamné à brève échéance ? Avec Axis, Robert Charles Wilson continue l'immense aventure cosmique et humaine des Spin et prouve une fois de plus l'ampleur de son talent.

Né en Californie, récemment naturalisé canadien, Robert Charles Wilson a reçu le prix Hugo 2006 et le Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire 2008 pour Spin. Ses romans, qui évoquent la science-fiction classique de Theodore Sturgeon et Clifford D Simak sont tous teintés d'un profond humanisme mais aussi d'une douce mélancolie.