A Deepness in the Sky: Vernor Vinge (S.F. MASTERWORKS)

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Taken together with this prequel, its title always reminds me of "Smoke on the Water" ("Fire in the sky! If you haven't come across them before, do take a look at her "What Makes This Book So Great", https://www. John Clute lauded it as "the most extended example of dramatic irony ever published," in that not only do none of the characters ever learn the truth about the universe, neither does anyone who has not read Fire; he did, however, criticize "the odd dozen-page segments given over to hard-SF geekishness about orbits and computers and stuff".

Indeed, as we learn from flashbacks and Pham's heavy ruminations, he has done things of which he is not proud. Vinge never falls into the all-too-common trap of becoming lost in his own world of gobly-gook highly theoretical science (While I recognize that many genre fans live for that stuff, I get very tired of science fiction books that essentially become a platform for the author to share his (really, it's usually his) ideas on futuristic technology). He likes to be in control, to use people, like Qiwi Lisolet, and has no compunctions about lying or coercing when necessary. More seriously, the only thing that makes me limit my recommendation it is that it is a nerd's novel filled with nerdy references to 'Cavorite' and a surprising amount of hard science for such a far future setting.But unfortunately, just like the previous book, I found their societies somehow lacking in alienness or menace. Nevertheless, like other good science fiction authors, he still develops the society in an organic, natural manner. By the end, that all makes sense, but it makes the reader suspicious, you're trying to put your finger on what's out of kilter - it makes the book a bit of a puzzle - and in that mindset you're not engaging with the characters, you're not investing emotionally. Speaking of protagonists, I like this Pham Nuwen much better than his clone in A Fire Upon the Deep. Instead, they are used as specialized living tools to further the aim of the controllers, or pod leaders, and are treated as disposable equipment.

He is best known for his Hugo Award-winning novels A Fire Upon The Deep (1992), A Deepness in the Sky (1999) and Rainbows End (2006), his Hugo Award-winning novellas Fast Times at Fairmont High (2002) and The Cookie Monster (2004), as well as for his 1993 essay "The Coming Technological Singularity", in which he argues that exponential growth in technology will reach a point beyond which we cannot even speculate about the consequences. The final third of the book picks up the pace of events, as the two human factions start meddling heavily in the Spider’s technological development for their own reasons, and the Spiders themselves struggle with differing political ideas and social conflict. Also great that one doesn´t know how many species died out in the time it takes to read this amazing work, because nobody cares about counting ecocides, especially in what is left of the tropic rainforests.We are introduced to an incongruous group of characters named Sherkaner Underhill, Victory Smith, Hrunkner Unnerby, Honored Pedure.