Darwinia: A Novel of a Very Different Twentieth Century Paperback – September 4, 2007

I enjoyed Wilson's " Spin " and " Blind Lake " sufficiently to buy "Darwinia" without diving into any reviews, and I was not disappointed.Told with a fine ear for dialogue, "Darwinia: A Novel of a Very Different Twentieth Century", starts off with the feel of a solid science based novel, but subtly segues into something altogether darker and mysterious.So we get an alternative universe story, but one that lies somewhere close to our own, such that events for our timeline (WWI for example) fold over as ghosts in the Darwinia universe. Our very reluctant hero, Guilford Law, becomes embroiled in events way beyond the mortal ken as his lust for exploration pulls him out of reach of his wife and child, and ultimately it seems, Humanity itself, even as his reluctance to embrace his destiny builds up an emotional dissonance within him.Some reviewers have noted that the novel is 'spoiled' around the halfway point when Wilson lets us readers share the secret of Darwinia, but keeps it from the characters.I did not feel that myself, and Wilson is hardly the first author to convey information to the reader that the protagonists do not have. In this case, knowing the secret did not spoil the narrative flow; if anything, I was anticipating how it would be resolved even more so.Interestingly, even though I read "Darwinia" a decade after it was written, the physics still stack up, which was reassuring. It says a lot about this being a character driven story, rather than purely science driven, for that to occur. And if including a multiverse makes this speculative fiction, Wilson goes way beyond that in his explanation (and motivation) for Law's journey through - and beyond - life.The establishment chapters of this book are steampunk-ish, with a nascent Western industrial technology platform completely undermined by the sudden replacement of Europe by Darwinia. The second part of the book still spills over into what most would term the supernatural, which through the addition of the multiverse is perhaps better described as supra-natural.Ultimately, the plot was not totally convincing to me, but Wilson gets four stars for creating and sustaining a credible assortment of characters - and continents - that made the book compelling to the end.

It pains me to write a negative review on a Robert Charles Wilson book, as he is one of my favorite SF writers. Especially so when considering SF writers alive & publishing today. But this one really doesn't meet his usual standard (though to be fair it was written before his best-known works). My specific thoughts are as follows.A) It isn't really science fiction. There is a SF veneer laid over it, but this is mostly a work of horror. I read horror so that is OK - but I think this book is a little timid at embracing the horror story at its core. It could also be read as epic fantasy, the whole battle-of-good-and-evil blah blah. I don't usually find that type of story very interesting. Good & evil are a lot more nuanced than typically seen in this sort of novel.B) Like all horror it works best when the monsters are left in the shadows or just hinted at, we're left guessing "is that real? did that just happen?". That means that the first part of the book works a lot better than the later parts of the book.C) I think this book works best as an adventure story, which applies to about the first third of the book. I was loving it at that point. But once that initial adventure sequence was over, it went downhill very fast for me.D) The galactic entity business (the SF veneer put on the book) is IMO just silly. Doesn't work for me.E) The part of RCW's work that I like the best is that he takes very ordinary, well-fleshed out people and puts them into extremely trippy situations. Well in this book we have the trippy situations, to be sure - but the compelling characters are missing. Some of the secondary characters are stick figures and there is too little character development for the main characters. I just don't "get" them in any sense at all. There are nods here and there to not being fully human - and I'll buy that, they don't seem fully human to me.I'm not sorry that I read the book but if I had to recommend a RCW book to somebody (and I do, and frequently!) I'd put this one at the bottom of the list.

If that means nothing to you, let me explain. Van Vogt was part of the Golden Age of Science Fiction, a term that tends to refer to the 1940's and 1950's which was essentially a period in which modern SF as we know it was born. Writers who emerged then include the greats such as Asimov, Heinlein, and Sturgeon. And A E Van Vogt. Van Vogt was known for his mind-boggling concepts and galaxy-spanning stories and this is where Wilson resembles him. Except that Wilson writes very well, has characters who act like believable human beings, and his stories make sense.Start to read Darwinia and you think: aha! this is a parallel world novel. When actually it's nothing so simple and what it's actually about is one of those mind-boggling concepts which, unlike old VV, makes sense and really does boggle the mind. This is the third novel of Wilson's I've read and I have three more on a table next to me. While they do vary in degrees of satisfaction, I've enjoyed every one and eagerly anticipate the next book of his I'm going to read.Mr Wilson, you're terrific.

Had been meaning to buy this since publication but left it so long had to get 2nd-hand copy! The 'blurb' states that, "In 1912 [..] Europe & all its inhabitants disappear, replaced by [..] Darwinia: a strange land in which evolution has followed a different path", & the main character's expedition there becomes, "a mission of discovery which uncovers extraordinary revelations about the whole nature of the universe." Sounds good, huh? Well, it's interesting & engaging up to a point but drifts into (to my mind) vague & unexplained mysticism, with 'good sprits versus bad spirits' theme combined with a 'new' take on (sort of) resurrection. No 'extraordinary revelations', especially considering, as I've said, everything seems left unexplained. I like my sci-fi & fantasy to retain some degree of 'internal logic': time travel & 'real' magic are both impossible but I'll happily read stories involving these if they manage this crucial internal logic/ credibility. Try works by the likes of John Wyndham, Isaac Asimov, Harry Harrison, Susan Cooper & Phillip Pullman.

Would have gone for a five star review but it all felt a bit rushed at the end. Unanswered questions which I won't go into detail about due to spoiler issues. Did enjoy the idea behind the story and find myself wondering if Robert Charles Wilson had the outline for a sequel sitting in a drawer at his home?If you enjoyed the Spin trilogy then I recommend checking this novel out.Ray Smillie

DARWINIA ist ein erstmals Ende der 90er erschienener Roman von Robert Charles Wilson. Besagter Autor dürfte den meisten SF-Fans durch seine populäre „Spin“-Trilogie bekannt sein.Die Ausgangslage von DARWINIA ist sehr spannend: im Jahre 1912 „verschwindet“ quasi über Nacht der europäische Kontinent, zusammen mit Teilen von Afrika und Asien – wo diese Landmasse einst war ist nun, bei nahezu identischer Küstenlinie, alles von einem nahezu undurchdringlichen Urwald überwuchert… und selbstverständlich gibt es dafür nicht die geringste Erklärung. Einige Jahre später schließt sich der Protagonist Guilford Law einer amerikanischen Expedition an, welche zu diesem Kontinent aufbricht.Soweit – so gut. DARWINIA ist ohne Frage gut geschrieben und kann (wie bei Robert Charles Wilson üblich) mit vielen faszinierenden Ideen aufwarten – und dieser Roman entwickelt sich völlig (!) anders, als man es von obiger Ausgangslage erwarten sollte.Leider ist dies auch so ein bisschen das Problem von DARWINIA: im Prinzip hat man nach der Lektüre das Gefühl, mindestens zwei grundverschiedene Romane zu lesen, welche irgendwie zu einem einzigen Buch mutierten. Wer also eine Art Steampunk-Lost-World Geschichte erwartet ist komplett auf dem falschen Dampfer, DARWINIA geht circa in der Mitte ziemlich plötzlich eine komplett andere Richtung… und dieser Wechsel der Gangart und der Thematik ist wie ich finde hier nicht sonderlich gut gelungen.Im Gegenteil: ich glaube, dass Wilson hier Ideen für zwei sehr verschiedene Geschichten zu einer zusammenfasste, was dem Endresultat unterm Strich einfach nicht gut tut. Beide Geschichten sind gut und hochinteressant, aber es ist ebenso wie Apfelkuchen und Currywurst zu mischen… beides einwandfrei, in der direkten Kombination eher „unrund“.Insgesamt komme ich auf 3 Sterne – ein gutes Buch, aber hier wurden zu viele Ideen miteinander verwurstet, was dem Endresultat ziemlich abträglich ist.

Vor dem Kauf denkt man, was für ein spannendes Buch, da der Autor Robert Charles Wilson ein bekannter SF Autor ist und andere Bücher geschrieben hat, die wirklich gut sind., siehe die Spin Reihe.DIESES Buch ist damit nicht zu vergleichen.Wir waren so enttäuscht, wir haben es weggeworfen.Das Szenario ist interessant, aber es wird viel zu wenig daraus gemacht.Die Spannung im Buch steigert sich langsam und in dem Moment, wo man denkt, alles wird aufgelöst, endet es in mystizistischem Mist. Wie die Verwandlung von Kafka.Es werden lauter durchgeknallte Ideen eingebaut, die der Geschichte nicht weiterhelfen und das ganze Buch unglaubwürdig machen.Aus unserer Sicht ist dieses Buch nicht zu empfehlen.