sarahrigg 's review for:

A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge

5.0

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I agreed with what one critic said: that he could have rested on his laurels after creating a world where the inhabitants have sort of "pack minds" - the creatures don't have full sentience unless they get together in packs of 4-6 individuals. But he didn't- he went on to create several other races and a fully-realized strange future world where people in the "slow zone" have very primitive technology, the Beyond have faster-than-light travel, and the "Transcend" has races who have passed beyond high technology into near-godhood. Sometimes sci-fi authors are good at world building but not at character development or vice versa, but Vinge did both really well. I loved this book so much.

My husband and I pick a few books each year to read out loud to one another, and we picked this for one of our books in 2015 and I enjoyed it as a re-read as much as when I first read it.