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4.29 AVERAGE
4.29 AVERAGE
This was a really fun book to read, and more importantly, it opened my mind to quite a few new ideas and possibilities. This story is, for the most part, a very realistic view of humanity thousands of years in the future. I like that Vinge didn't shy away from the problems of time dilation when traveling at high velocities. Rather, it was a central element to the setting and plot. In Vinge's book, humans travel aboard ramjet fusion (I believe) starships that can top out at 0.3 c. Of course, this means that time flows much more slowly for the people on the ship than for those who are at rest. Instead of ignoring this, Vinge uses it in very creative ways. The crew are kept in cold storage during the long journeys (decades, centuries, or even millenia), with a few being up and active at all times in a system of rotating shifts.
Vinge also doesn't ignore the limitations of communications that are bound by the speed of light. You'll see no "galactic empires" in this book, but you will see one man's dream of one and why it can't work.
Vinge's aliens were fairly believable. Unfortunately, he followed the trope of basing the aliens on an earth life-form (in this case spiders). Must we all do this? However, beyond that, the aliens were well-developed. They have a very interesting visual system. Although I feel the aliens were humanized a bit too much, which is a real problem in science fiction, there is at least a tenuous explanation for this in the story--the human translators.
The plot is interesting and engaging, with some interesting twists here and there. It takes a while for the story to get going, but the writing is clean enough you don't get bored. My one complaint is the character I found the most annoying in the book became one of the "heroes". This bothered me because during the whole book she was the quintessential tool, but yet somehow still "saves the day" and earns the respect of her peers. Oh well.
Unfortunately, this book is sadly lacking in any kind of descriptions whatsoever. You seldom if ever get any descriptions of the characters, ships, technology, etc. As a writer, I understand that too much description bogs down the pacing, but no description at all is laziness in my mind. It makes me wonder if the author even knows what things look like himself. I've begun reading A Fire in the Deep, which is set in the same universe. Only there did I learn that one of the main characters in the other book has red hair. Ultimately, I was able to get past the lack of description, but it does keep me from recommending this author as highly as I would otherwise. Personally, I think he could have taken out some of the irrelevant math he has in the book and replace it with good descriptions without changing his word count or pacing at all. That said, though, you'll love this book as long as you have a really good imagination and don't mind having to fill in a LOT of gaps in the information you're given.
The book has decent pacing, although it does get kind of slow from time to time. I think it would have been better without the alien PoV's, which helped to make them seem far too human.
Vinge also doesn't ignore the limitations of communications that are bound by the speed of light. You'll see no "galactic empires" in this book, but you will see one man's dream of one and why it can't work.
Vinge's aliens were fairly believable. Unfortunately, he followed the trope of basing the aliens on an earth life-form (in this case spiders). Must we all do this? However, beyond that, the aliens were well-developed. They have a very interesting visual system. Although I feel the aliens were humanized a bit too much, which is a real problem in science fiction, there is at least a tenuous explanation for this in the story--the human translators.
The plot is interesting and engaging, with some interesting twists here and there. It takes a while for the story to get going, but the writing is clean enough you don't get bored. My one complaint is the character I found the most annoying in the book became one of the "heroes". This bothered me because during the whole book she was the quintessential tool, but yet somehow still "saves the day" and earns the respect of her peers. Oh well.
Unfortunately, this book is sadly lacking in any kind of descriptions whatsoever. You seldom if ever get any descriptions of the characters, ships, technology, etc. As a writer, I understand that too much description bogs down the pacing, but no description at all is laziness in my mind. It makes me wonder if the author even knows what things look like himself. I've begun reading A Fire in the Deep, which is set in the same universe. Only there did I learn that one of the main characters in the other book has red hair. Ultimately, I was able to get past the lack of description, but it does keep me from recommending this author as highly as I would otherwise. Personally, I think he could have taken out some of the irrelevant math he has in the book and replace it with good descriptions without changing his word count or pacing at all. That said, though, you'll love this book as long as you have a really good imagination and don't mind having to fill in a LOT of gaps in the information you're given.
The book has decent pacing, although it does get kind of slow from time to time. I think it would have been better without the alien PoV's, which helped to make them seem far too human.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
slow-paced
Vinge is a good hard SF author. Good plot good SF technology. I loved the job he did building the world of the spiders.
adventurous
dark
hopeful
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
4.5 stars. A Fire Upon the Deep was my favorite read of 2025, so I decided to approach the next book in the series in a similar way: I read nothing about it ahead of time. Howww are these books so good??? Although I will admit this one did not have quite the magic for me as A Fire Upon the Deep (and included a few trope-y plot points I'm not a huge fan of), it was still overall another fantastic read. The last 25% in particular truly was can't-put-it-down reading for me. I also appreciated the slow burn of everything leading up to it - sooo much tension!
I will wait a while before picking up the third book (and am already heartbroken that there can be no more in the series)
I will wait a while before picking up the third book (and am already heartbroken that there can be no more in the series)
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
It was too slow paced. I was bored.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I have absolutely no idea why it's just taken me three and a half weeks to read this 541 page book, but apparently it has. Make no mistake, it's a good book, and I genuinely enjoyed it, but it has so much happening in it that you really need to take your time over it. Maybe not quite up to the standards of the previous book, but still engaging, and still worth a read.
I think this may rank for me as one of the best space opera style SF books I have ever read, at least in terms of how much fun I had reading it. The last ones I remember thinking were even nearly as good were 'A Player of Games', by Ian Banks, and 'Revelation Space', by Alister Reynolds.
There are great aliens and tremendous mysteries. The book imparts a sense of the immense scale of the cosmos in both time and space, and leaves you joyful with how much wonder can be packed into less than 1000 light years cubed.
The book features a far flung trading conglomerate who see the span of millennia by going into cryo during their century long jaunts on ramscoop starships traveling at 0.3c, and coming out on watch for a few years at a time; the history and culture of sympathetic spider aliens interpreted into a 1940s world war 2 story line created by linguists enslaved by an engineered neural virus; ancient barbarian princes that look like Conan and can good great tricks with blobs of wine floating at very low g; winged kittens (no winged kittens are harmed during this novel); and is just the periphery of the coolness.
I really like space opera style SF where travel is limited to speeds slower than the speed of light. Its weirder and harder than hyperspace/warp-drive/wormholes/etc.. Not that there is anything wrong with faster than light travel, its just that I am more interested in time dilation and cosmic time spans.
There are great aliens and tremendous mysteries. The book imparts a sense of the immense scale of the cosmos in both time and space, and leaves you joyful with how much wonder can be packed into less than 1000 light years cubed.
The book features a far flung trading conglomerate who see the span of millennia by going into cryo during their century long jaunts on ramscoop starships traveling at 0.3c, and coming out on watch for a few years at a time; the history and culture of sympathetic spider aliens interpreted into a 1940s world war 2 story line created by linguists enslaved by an engineered neural virus; ancient barbarian princes that look like Conan and can good great tricks with blobs of wine floating at very low g; winged kittens (no winged kittens are harmed during this novel); and is just the periphery of the coolness.
I really like space opera style SF where travel is limited to speeds slower than the speed of light. Its weirder and harder than hyperspace/warp-drive/wormholes/etc.. Not that there is anything wrong with faster than light travel, its just that I am more interested in time dilation and cosmic time spans.