A Deepness in the Sky

The book starts off far more interestingly than it's predecessor - however it takes a steep dive into monotony. The story develops at a painstaking pace and when interesting things do happen, they feel inconsequential - almost as if it was written in serial form.

Most egregious of all is the race the book centers around - a species of aliens in the form of giant spiders. The Spiders are so incredibly similar to human beings that it is hard not to start imagining them as bipedal humans. They drive automobiles (I'm not sure Vernor even bothered explaining how a spider controls a car) and build skyscrapers. Their culture is formed almost identical to ours, differing nation states, armies with generals and engineers, nuclear families with a mom and dad and kids. It's all so incredibly familiar that it's frustrating.

I made it halfway through the book before throwing in the towel and writing this review. Vernor created an interesting universe in A Fire Upon the Deep but he consistently fails to expand on his ideas or to write compelling... anything.

This is an engrossing and cleverly constructed book, a great achievement really, and yet I have mixed feelings about it, because much of it is rather creepy and unpleasant. There is payoff at the end, but not really enough to make up for the rest of it.It's a first-contact story, between humans and spider-like intelligent aliens on a remote planet, who are actually referred to in the book as the Spiders. The odd thing is that the Spiders seem more familiar and comfortable to read about in some ways than the humans, because the humans have future technology and society, while the Spiders are more 20th-century.Much of what is creepy and unpleasant in the book is in the human parts of the story: there are two distinct groups of humans involved, one group exploiting the other. The Spiders come over as normal and often likeable people, mentally, although their physical appearance (when described) is rather jarring.I respect the book, but I don't genuinely like it enough to give it a high rating. I found it a rather strange exercise; I don't think I'd want to write a book like this, even if I could.My favourite Vinge novels remain [b:The Peace War 1280979 The Peace War Vernor Vinge https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1182468901l/1280979.SY75.jpg 1269997] and [b:Marooned in Realtime 1280978 Marooned in Realtime Vernor Vinge https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1332038306l/1280978.SY75.jpg 448211], which are both impressive, and actually more plausible than his Zones of Thought novels. They rely on an implausible invention (the bobble), but implausible inventions have occurred in the past and can be expected to occur in the future. The Zones of Thought are more than a mere invention: they're an implausible feature of the universe.Curiously, although this book is a part of the Zones of Thought future history, the Zones don't feature in it: it takes place entirely in the Slow Zone, and the characters never become aware of any other Zone. Although they discover a remnant of ancient technology that may have originated outside the Slow Zone.

It took me around 2/3 of the book to get involved in this story, where, once things settle down at the start, nothing much happens, other than fairly minor political maneuvering. Fortunately the final third picks up the pace and is more involving, but, boy, was it hard watching the page percentage creep up before getting to that point.

If you liked Fire Upon the Deep, this loosely connected prequel is probably worth reading, however I certainly wouldn't recommend jumping straight into the series here.