Darwinia - Robert Charles Wilson

surprises

This is a much better, and better organised, book than other reviews suggest. It may look, at the start, as if it's a Victorian pastiche fantasy involving the sudden replacement of an entire continent with new fauna/flora, suggesting a novel explanation for fossil evidence of earlier seemingly alien systems (not necessarily a theistic explanation). The real explanation, signalled early on, is a lot spookier and provoking. It wouldn't be fair to say what it is - but maybe a glance at http://www.simulation-argument.com/ would help (or worry) once you've read the book! The author doesn't 'lose his way', and his characterization adds interest to what is already a good myth.

Half-finished enterprise.

I'm not sure where or how to start.... there are so many different concepts crammed into this book, almost all of them under-developed and half-finished.
I thought that the first bit about Darwinia's appearance was going to be an expansion of "Mysterium", but the alter-ego /ghost /doppelganger threw me a bit, then the god-mind playing games was a bit too much for me to take - even re-reading some chapters several times, I confess I'm still at a loss to grasp the point.

I was expecting something much better from the writer who gave us the beautiful "Harvest".
Sorry Mr. Wilson - not my cup of tea, or rather, the tea was OK, the unfinished leaves spoiled it. ***

Selling it short

... It describe a world (incredibly well) that wasn't real - but wasnt that the shock! bravo to the author - a change in reality! but i would like to know what happens outside the realms of the novel - a sequel perhaps?

An excellent book cut off in its prime.

A fascinating premise to this book applied a little heavy handedly. The metaphysical side of the book should have been broken in more gently and the use at the end of "60 years later" in a book mostly set in the 1920s strikes me as an author who's lost his way during the writing and wants to tie things up.

That negativity aside it was quite a good read.

A great idea, squandered among homages

The fantastic premise of this novel - fantastic in both senses - is what keeps you reading. It also helps you to forgive the shallowness of the characters, and the squeezing of so many sci-fi homages into one little book - which starts off a little like John Wyndham, turns into a gung-ho exploration story a la Jules Verne, and suddenly leaps into Olaf Stapledon-style metaspace, with strong undertones of Philip K Dick. And at times he does write a little like the late Fanny Cradock. By the end of the thing, you're up a gum tree down a creek without a paddle, and you've lost your favourite hat. But I can't deny I found it entertaining enough to comment on.