Jan 302006
I just finished reading Robert Charles Wilson’s Blind Lake. Wilson has a talent for weaving together hard science and character development, two elements that aren’t often found together in science fiction novels. I first encountered Wilson through another of his novels, The Chronoliths, which I enjoyed immensely. Blind Lake is set in a astronomical research station located in a future Minnesota (!); a station uses an extremely fragile technology to observe distant worlds. The story begins with an unexplained lockdown at the station and subsequent events.
Wilson explores several themes through the course of his book: the mysteries of quantum mechanics, the potential for our own technology to grow so complex that it exceeds our capacity to understand it, the risks of filtering scientific observation through one’s own cultural filters, the definition of sentience. But the book is also about fully-drawn human characters struggling to overcome their basic natures–and sometimes failing. Wilson’s skill at crafting believable characters reminds of another of my favorite sf writers: Nancy Kress. I look forward to checking out other stuff he’s written.
