Vernor Vinge

I'm torn about this book.

On the one hand, the ideas presented about the cyberfuture and medical utopia are compelling, truly futuristic, solidly grounded in the present and completely developed. Mr. Vinge has extrapolated a networked near future full of technological miracles and complications. Anyone working or playing in the field of computers, gaming and networks, as I do, can easily start to believe in the inevitability of the vision. The reader loses track of the here and now, living entirely in that other world. Several main characters are full of life and motivation, I found myself yearning to learn what they would do next and why. They often surprised me.

On the other hand, getting there was somewhat laborious. The novelty and virtuality of the invented future, the mystery surrounding several characters and their motivations, and the obscure nature of many fantasies within the fantasy made some scenes difficult to wade through. Even at the end of the book, not everything or everyone is explained. On the one hand, I believe this is intentional. Hats off to Mr. Vinge for not spoon feeding the reader and allowing us to fill in the blanks with our own imaginations. On the other hand, I know there are potential readers that will be left completely at sea.

This is thought-provoking, challenging science fiction at its finest. If you want to know where our technology and entertainment choices are taking us, this might be it.… (mer)

There are books that never go where you expect. And then there are books that never go where you want them to.

This book is both of those at different times.

First off the obvious - it's a sequel to a personal favourite story that's arguably one of the best sci fi novels ever. And no, it's not any where near as awesome. (They never are).

If you haven't read that book, this one probably won't make much sense, or even convey how wonderful the original was.

This book is a very different kind of story - the original draws the backdrop the new one plays in front of.

The contrast between the two is striking.

This book is so much smaller in scope. It encompasses only a small portion of a single planet rather than most of the Milky Way. There are only a handful of characters, not dozens of groups scattered all over, and instead of millions of civilizations of billions of people dropping like flies, tragedy here is very small scale and personal.

The biggest tragedy might be the weak ending trying desperately to segue into another (as yet unwritten) sequel.

Chunks of it are adventure tale, chunks of it naive politics, there's even a hint of romance here and there. But it's all one thing, then the next, changing jarringly from section to section. Just as I'd get into it, I'd have the rug yanked out again.

It has potential, and it's moments, but ends up falling short of what it could have been.

If you loved A Fire Upon The Deep, pick this up as a return visit to Tines World to fill in some local colour.

For me it's mostly a miss I had a hard time judging on its own merits.… (mer)