[Finished 8/2/14] This novel is what all good speculative fiction should be—an intriguing set up with characters you actually care about. The story begins as three young people—Tyler Dupree and Jason and Diana Lawton—are out late stargazing when they witness history. A shield suddenly surrounds the planet—and as a result, the stars go out. The story then follows what happens to these three characters in response to what is known as the “Spin.” One of the things that scientists/astronomers figure out early on is that time is working differently inside the shield than outside; so while only a few months may pass on earth, millions of years are passing on the other side of the shield. This means that the “end of universe” may be coming in a matter of decades.
Jason and Diana are the children of a powerful businessman, who immediately cashes in on the scientific efforts to understand the Spin and develops a global company that rivals NASA. Jason seems to have been groomed to take up a position in this company—a genius who devotes his life to unraveling the mysteries of what has happened. Diana has a different reaction to the Spin—taking up with a religious cult, while, our narrator, Tyler, becomes a doctor.
Over the next thirty years, their lives intersect in intriguing ways as each struggles to come to terms with the end of the world that seems on the horizon. However, what really makes this novel work is the way the story is organized—moving back and forth between past and present and chronicling how society handles (or doesn’t handle) this mysterious phenomena and what it might mean.