A review by rbixby
A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge

3.0

I like this one. I had a weird love/hate relationship with it, though. I really got sucked into reading it when I was reading it, but if I stopped reading, I really had to force myself to start up again. As a consequence, this one took a bit longer to read than others of similar style and theme. I really don't have a reason why this is, and it should not be construed as a knock against the book or the author, but a co-worker who started reading it after I told him about this novel also expressed a similar feeling. I tell you this because it seemed odd, and such oddities should be shared precisely because they are odd.

Anyway, there is a lot of genius in this one. At first the Zones of Thought seemed a bit too contrived, but that lasted only a short time into the novel.

Spoiler

I especially enjoyed the consequences of the Slowness on high tech during the space battle at the end of part two.

I think his concept of the Net of a Million Lies and how messages are relayed is one of the best elements tying the story together.

Don't listen to me. Read the book, already.