Why did the stars suddenly go out on an October night?
This is the type of book that you wish someone else is reading at the exact same time as you are so that you can immediately discuss all the "did that just happen?" moments. I really wish my husband had been reading it at the same time as me so that I could ask if he'd ever seen any of the various plot elements put together this way in his vast reading of sci-fi. It's a story about time travel, but it's not. It's a story about an apocalyptic event, but it's not. It's a story about alien contact, but it's not. It's a story about meeting god, but it's not. And that's about all that I can say without giving away entirely too much. It's much better to go in blind.
Long before I finished reading, this had become an instant favorite. It's one of those books you want to recommend to nearly everyone. Robert Charles Wilson writes in a way that is highly accessible to even non sci-fi readers. It took me reading nearly the entire book before I realized he's also the writer of Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America, another book I fully enjoyed this year. Of course, I'm looking forward to reading the sequels to
Spin (the 3rd in the series just came out), but I'm also determined to read everything else he's written. I'm smitten. Truly and absolutely smitten.