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A review by jonathanpalfrey
A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge
3.0
This is a very 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 and found it compulsively readable, 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://images.gr-assets.com/books/1182468901s/1280979.jpg|1269997] and [b:Marooned in Realtime|1280978|Marooned in Realtime|Vernor Vinge|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1332038306s/1280978.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'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 and found it compulsively readable, 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://images.gr-assets.com/books/1182468901s/1280979.jpg|1269997] and [b:Marooned in Realtime|1280978|Marooned in Realtime|Vernor Vinge|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1332038306s/1280978.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.