hellojoie 's review for:

A Fire Upon The Deep by Vernor Vinge

5.0

adventurous challenging mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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I am legitimately blown away - I don't think I've ever read a book quite like this before. I was well and thoroughly lost for the initial chapters (okay, maybe more than that...) but in a way that was so delightfully a consequence of an author truly wanting the reader to just be thrown into this universe and to experience it. (Had to have a little faith that things would come together and make sense with continued reading, which was the case. The downside is this was not a book I could put down for more than 1-2 days without having to backtrack a chapter to re-orient myself. It also required a fair bit of focus to read which made it a little too mentally taxing to read in long sittings until over halfway through or so.) The characters are multidimensional and interesting, and the world of this book is imaginative in ways that were extraordinarily thoughtful. So many interesting touches related to for example how language and culture might vary in ways that make sense based on the actual world of this story. There were ideas that I think I've really never encountered in other stories. I was also surprised by how modern it felt - I would never have guessed this was written in the early 1990s.

For me, this one was a distillation of the things I most love about science fiction. I'm trying not to be hyperbolic in my post-book afterglow state and I don't think I can firmly say this on only one read-through, but this is up there with my favorite science fiction books I've ever read and in time, may even occupy the top spot in that genre for me.

P.S. Is there anything better than reading a truly exceptional book at the end of the year?!