Take a photo of a barcode or cover
atnow 's review for:
A Fire Upon The Deep
by Vernor Vinge
This was a frustrating tonally inconsistent book for me. I was looking to get enveloped into a new universe and sink plenty of time into the entire franchise but was left disappointed. The central conceit of the series is amazing, the further away from the core of the galaxy the more evolved and technologically advanced civilizations become before hitting a point of singularity.
The confluence of higher evolutionary super beings interacting with up and coming civilizations, resurrecting and partially inhabiting centuries old humans, sentient plant life on unknown sentience giving pods, it’s all compelling stuff.
And then half the action takes place on a low tech world where the population is essentially telepathic dogs. Which, again is cool. I love the idea of a society that can only operate in small groups that need to operate relatively distantly from other groups in order to function. My main problem is that this low tech world is experienced from the prospective of two young children.
There is a bit of whiplash of reading an epic space battle, and then kids teaching dogs how to build rudimentary tech with what amounts to a LeapFrog learning tablet. That whiplash continues when two characters engage in sexual activity at the end of a chapter, to be followed by the machinations of an evil character manipulating an 8 year old. (I’ve purposefully been general in my description, as well as mixing events so there are no specific spoilers here)
I’m glad I read this book, but I found myself eagerly reading the more high sci fi chapters, and slowly getting through the children chapters. Though, it does pick up considerably in the final quarter of the book when the plot lines inevitably converge.
Overall, I’m glad to have read it, and my final score and review is probably a victim of the hype I built around it, but the tonal inconsistency and my rather blade attitude towards the children characters makes this a solid 3/5.
The confluence of higher evolutionary super beings interacting with up and coming civilizations, resurrecting and partially inhabiting centuries old humans, sentient plant life on unknown sentience giving pods, it’s all compelling stuff.
And then half the action takes place on a low tech world where the population is essentially telepathic dogs. Which, again is cool. I love the idea of a society that can only operate in small groups that need to operate relatively distantly from other groups in order to function. My main problem is that this low tech world is experienced from the prospective of two young children.
There is a bit of whiplash of reading an epic space battle, and then kids teaching dogs how to build rudimentary tech with what amounts to a LeapFrog learning tablet. That whiplash continues when two characters engage in sexual activity at the end of a chapter, to be followed by the machinations of an evil character manipulating an 8 year old. (I’ve purposefully been general in my description, as well as mixing events so there are no specific spoilers here)
I’m glad I read this book, but I found myself eagerly reading the more high sci fi chapters, and slowly getting through the children chapters. Though, it does pick up considerably in the final quarter of the book when the plot lines inevitably converge.
Overall, I’m glad to have read it, and my final score and review is probably a victim of the hype I built around it, but the tonal inconsistency and my rather blade attitude towards the children characters makes this a solid 3/5.