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A review by petaq
A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge
adventurous
challenging
reflective
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
4.0
It really impressed me how tense it got! The "zones" in particular played very nicely with the plot, and were a source of tension I genuinely wasn't expecting. Vinge wove and paced the plot well, a big achievement given the enormous scale of the book. But Vinge doesn't neglect the small scale events, either
I loved the time spent with the Tines :) It took some convincing (large mammals aren't really what I think of when it comes to hive minds) but he fleshed them out nicely. Not just in terms of biology, but also in regards to culture, sociology, architecturally, etc. Unrelated but I was almost expecting them to become computers, or computational units. They didn't. Still good. Also Made me wonder a little bit about human and dog relationships which I doubt was his intent (unless??)
I wish I had something smart to say about how alien and strange the transcended tech/The Blight was in the book, something something how we understand the technology we use something something ask me again in 10 years if I read this book again. And while I appreciate that it wasn't elaborated much in this book, I'd love to know if there was a basis for the zones affecting physical laws (incl computational power) because Vinge was a certified nerd (math prof).
The depiction of virtual social networks was fun. The post at the very end was super funny to me. His writing style and dialogue felt a little clunky sometimes but not in a way that was juvenile or off-putting.
Unrelated but has anyone come up with a bit on how dudes (perhaps especially nerdy dudes?) love creating male pilots as characters. Like what's with that.
btw the tree creatures rule
(As I post this: rip dude people online say you were cool in person too including former students)
I loved the time spent with the Tines :) It took some convincing (large mammals aren't really what I think of when it comes to hive minds) but he fleshed them out nicely. Not just in terms of biology, but also in regards to culture, sociology, architecturally, etc. Unrelated but I was almost expecting them to become computers, or computational units. They didn't. Still good. Also Made me wonder a little bit about human and dog relationships which I doubt was his intent (unless??)
I wish I had something smart to say about how alien and strange the transcended tech/The Blight was in the book, something something how we understand the technology we use something something ask me again in 10 years if I read this book again. And while I appreciate that it wasn't elaborated much in this book, I'd love to know if there was a basis for the zones affecting physical laws (incl computational power) because Vinge was a certified nerd (math prof).
The depiction of virtual social networks was fun. The post at the very end was super funny to me. His writing style and dialogue felt a little clunky sometimes but not in a way that was juvenile or off-putting.
Unrelated but has anyone come up with a bit on how dudes (perhaps especially nerdy dudes?) love creating male pilots as characters. Like what's with that.
btw the tree creatures rule
(As I post this: rip dude people online say you were cool in person too including former students)