A Deepness in the Sky
Ratings77
Average rating4.2
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.
I enjoyed it a lot although I think it might have used a bit of a trimming down but I could be wrong.
I honestly have no idea how to even rate this. Objectively, it's a very solid book. Vinge's prose is kind of dry and his habit of throwing a bunch of hints at you before really telling you what's going on is alternately effective and obnoxious.
I found the first few hundred pages terribly hard to read, though. It's not a pleasant story, and Vinge doesn't pull any punches. If you're like me and triggered by deception, manipulation, and oh, rape with bonus memory-erasure... buyer beware. Vinge also likes to do this thing where, not only is there dramatic irony because you know something the main characters don't, but he takes you inside the head of the villain. I hate this. Dramatic irony is hard enough for me, but something about seeing the innermost thoughts of the bad guy makes me feel complicit.
If you can make it through those bits, it gets a little better as the story progresses. I thought the ending, after all that had happened, was a little too pat. And I didn't really believe that, after all they had been through and suffered, Tomas Nau died and everyone was just magically OK again. It seemed to me that more of them should have been like Trixia and Anne, especially Qiwi. For all that the story and world were complex and interesting, Vinge seems to have been unable -- or unwilling -- to contend with actual emotional complexity.
In retrospect, I'm furious with Vinge for his treatment of women, and I think it's one reason I found this book so triggery. There are strong female characters (Qiwi, Trixia, Anne) at the outset of the story, but their agency is completely taken away. They're mind-controlled, subjugated mentally and sexually. Meanwhile, the men are merely physically enslaved. They get to stay themselves and plot the overthrow of the Emergents, they get to be brave and clever and bide their time and ultimately save the world. The women are reduced to pawns, used to keep the men in line (even among the Emergents, e.g. the pilot's girlfriend), the devices of Focus and mindscrubbing used to keep them from being able to contribute anything meaningful to the story. Even the strong female VILLAIN turns out to just be a strong female heroine whose mind has been subjugated by Focus.Even (or especially) poor Qiwi, who ultimately only got hers at the end by a combination of luck and Ezr Vinh's urging. She had such potential, but ultimately we never get any real insight into her character, and in the end it seems as soon as she finds the right guy to take care of her, all her problems are solved. It rang so false for me that she wouldn't be more deeply affected by losing years of her life as Nau's plaything. That, more than anything else, is what made me think "this could only have been written by a man".
So: points for world-building and the Spider culture. Bonus point for FLYING KITTENS. Demerits for sexism and not really understanding how emotions work. Points for pretty epic scale. Demerits for the "and then everything worked out and it was all fine" ending. That comes out to, oh I dunno, let's say two stars.
