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A review by drsldn
A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge
4.0
This is my 3rd book completed in the 2014 TBR challenge, and although I have yet to work out how to actually take part in the challenge I feel I'm not doing badly.
Except that this wasn't on my initial list and I finally picked it up (for the fourth time since 1994) because in a review of another space opera someone referred to it as a science fiction classic. I realised that after 20 years it may very well be, and perhaps it was time I read the proof-copy!!!
It feels a tad cheeky to be reviewing a classic when many better commentators will have had their say, but here's what I got out of it (because I have to review for the TBR thing)
Its great fun and very absorbing, I discovered. Vinge has very cleverly managed to combine hard science fiction and more medieval settings, met with excellence the challenge of conveying the thought processes of genuinely alien aliens way beyond the furrowed brows and freckles of Star Trek and written a tale with emotional resonance, thrilling plotlines (my eyes were racing the page on at least occasions) and thought provoking explorations of moral and political issues that are with us in the real present. In other words, in a readable, believable tome he has given this reader much of what she hopes for from good science fiction.
Except that this wasn't on my initial list and I finally picked it up (for the fourth time since 1994) because in a review of another space opera someone referred to it as a science fiction classic. I realised that after 20 years it may very well be, and perhaps it was time I read the proof-copy!!!
It feels a tad cheeky to be reviewing a classic when many better commentators will have had their say, but here's what I got out of it (because I have to review for the TBR thing)
Its great fun and very absorbing, I discovered. Vinge has very cleverly managed to combine hard science fiction and more medieval settings, met with excellence the challenge of conveying the thought processes of genuinely alien aliens way beyond the furrowed brows and freckles of Star Trek and written a tale with emotional resonance, thrilling plotlines (my eyes were racing the page on at least occasions) and thought provoking explorations of moral and political issues that are with us in the real present. In other words, in a readable, believable tome he has given this reader much of what she hopes for from good science fiction.