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gavinofhaynes 's review for:
A Fire Upon the Deep
by Vernor Vinge
A Fire Upon the Deep was a welcome and much needed read for me. In the well tread style of it's genre, it's a massively sprawling universe of a story that's only told through the minds of a handful of sources scattered among the stars.
Conceptually, I found the science part of the fiction to be viable enough to be interesting, while also outlandish enough to be fun. Technology is only limited by your proximity to the center of the galaxy. Stray too close and risk becoming a backwater like Earth. Stray too far and the technology that mortals only dare to understand threatens to assimilate you. Thankfully, I also found the fiction part of the science to be quite enjoyable. Science fiction authors often make the mistake of only getting the science part to be interesting, which can be a bit of a drag. Characters are well thought out and have thoughts and feelings that feel authentic and, even though some of them are completely alien, the story pulling them all closer together feels very human.
A minor critique for the sake of practice. I always find it funny when the technology present when writing a book are just space aged in order to show progress. For people that weren't technologically savvy in the 80's to 90's, it may seem strange the galaxy basically runs on a bunch of fancy Usenet servers. Obviously it's impossible to predict what the future will hold, but I dearly hope it doesn't involve trolling alien forums.
I found A Fire Upon the Deep to be massively satisfying. The scale is large enough to draw interest and imagination, while the characters are real enough to keep the story rolling. Throwing in a story that is enjoyable only furthered my enjoyment. It's quite clear to me why this is considered a classic in the space opera genre.
Conceptually, I found the science part of the fiction to be viable enough to be interesting, while also outlandish enough to be fun. Technology is only limited by your proximity to the center of the galaxy. Stray too close and risk becoming a backwater like Earth. Stray too far and the technology that mortals only dare to understand threatens to assimilate you. Thankfully, I also found the fiction part of the science to be quite enjoyable. Science fiction authors often make the mistake of only getting the science part to be interesting, which can be a bit of a drag. Characters are well thought out and have thoughts and feelings that feel authentic and, even though some of them are completely alien, the story pulling them all closer together feels very human.
A minor critique for the sake of practice. I always find it funny when the technology present when writing a book are just space aged in order to show progress. For people that weren't technologically savvy in the 80's to 90's, it may seem strange the galaxy basically runs on a bunch of fancy Usenet servers. Obviously it's impossible to predict what the future will hold, but I dearly hope it doesn't involve trolling alien forums.
I found A Fire Upon the Deep to be massively satisfying. The scale is large enough to draw interest and imagination, while the characters are real enough to keep the story rolling. Throwing in a story that is enjoyable only furthered my enjoyment. It's quite clear to me why this is considered a classic in the space opera genre.