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.

This one has been on my “to read” shelf for a long time. I read Vinge's A Fire Upon The Deep decades ago and was planning to re-read it, but based on my “research” this book, though written after AFUtD is actually a chronological prequel, so I decided to start with this one.

Wow. Very very good book. Enjoyable characters. Intricate relationships and twists throughout the book.

This book concerns 2 separate groups of characters: Humans who have come to an unusual planet which orbits a variable start that is “lit” for 30ish years and then is dim for 200ish years. Humans in 2 separate groups arrive within months of each other just prior to the “re-lighting.” The other major group is the “spiders” who are the sentient species from the planet the humans have come to investigate.

Through the novel the narrative switches between the humans and the spiders. There is a ton of intrigue among both groups and I found myself really engaged with several of the characters from both sides.

I really found this one to be enjoyable, and you can tell why it won the Hugo award in 2000 (Vernor Vinge has won 3 Hugos). Vinge also wrote 2 other books (The Peace War and Marooned in Realtime) that I read back in the early 90's and enjoyed tremendously... to the degree that I wish he had continued with the characters and themes. Needless to say, I'm recommending all of his stuff at this point and will be following up with A Fire Upon the Deep in the not too distant future.