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

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To say anything more would venture into spoiler territory, but I will leave it at: the setting makes for some extraordinarily complicated relationships and motives, and leaves the reader with a very foreboding atmosphere. After that there was still slow parts, but it made the story seem realistic and not forced, and the story built up towards the end climax beautifully. We were briefly introduced to the Qeng Ho in Fire as the 'reconstructed' human there was Pham Nuwen who hailed (and in fact helped found) the Qeng Ho, an interstellar trading 'family' existing across human colonized space. How weather, climate, it´s possible manipulations, and the individual physiology and thereby necessities could influence culture, technology, and ideologies of nonhuman species, for instance, alien ones that combine different features and bugs of known species, is used as a plot element too and it has as endless possible combinations, just as the question of how body and mind might influence perception and social structure.

A reception held by the Emergents doubles as a vector to infect the Qeng Ho with a timed "mindrot" virus.

Nevertheless, like other good science fiction authors, he still develops the society in an organic, natural manner. Vinge also likes to do this thing where, not only is there dramatic irony because you know something the main characters don't, but he takes you inside the head of the villain. Many Qeng Ho become Focused against their will, and the Emergents retain the rest of the population under mass surveillance, with only a portion of the crew not in suspended animation. At the time of the Waning Sun, Sherkaner Underhill, a postgraduate student at Kingschool in Princeton, having abandoned everything behind to take his first trip to Lands Command and sell them on his schemes in of hope becoming an engineering officer, has been revelling his driving with his newly-acquired automobile. A prequel which, although only has a loose connection to A Fire Upon the Deep, focusing all the action to the Slow Zone, where worlds remain in ignorance of the rest of the galaxy, plunges deep into Pham Nuwem’s and the Qeng Ho’s past, bringing to light their origins, the rise and fall of planetary civilisations, as well as the discovery of Spiderkind, and revealing through a large cast of characters and multiple points of view a Human Space full of optimistic dreams and flawed ideals, crafting masterfully an unmatched epic with real, human repercussions.

The premise is definitely fantastic, and I'm not sure I've ever read a book with such a wonderful set-up. The outermost zone, the "Transcend", contains most of the galactic halo and is populated by incomprehensibly vast and powerful posthuman entities. The spider's world is remarkably like that of Earth, with several states and even a cold war between the two largest. 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". However, his understanding of Pham's ambitions for Focus technology leads to a confrontation between them over the future use of Focus by the Qeng Ho.What distinguishes the Emergents is that they have taken a ‘mindrot’ virus that plunged them into a Dark Age, and controlled it so that they can direct the mental activities of people and make them Focused, concentrating on just a single task with obsessive attention. This is a book that I imagine would be great all the way through on the second read because there would be no need to figure out the meaning of the setting of the book and the numerous characters' motivations.

Supuși ciclicității Stelei Fluctuante, viața lor se împarte între sutele de ani de hibernare în Întuneric și cele trei decenii de lumină, departe de a suspecta intrigile ce se țes deasupra lor.

The Spider characters—mostly Underhill's brood, although Hrunkner Unnerby is a lovable old curmudgeon as well—are quite entertaining.

Time-measurement details provide an interesting concept in the book: the Qeng Ho measure time primarily in terms of seconds, since the notion of days, months, and years has no usefulness between various star-systems. Instead, they are used as specialized living tools to further the aim of the controllers, or pod leaders, and are treated as disposable equipment.The last two hundred pages could have easily stretched to be double that, and I think that I would have felt more satisfied with the conclusion had it had a little more detail to it. He is a product of Emergent society and its values, was raised from birth to be a ruthless and cunning Podmaster. Campbell Memorial Award, [3] the 2000 Prometheus Award [4] and the 2004 Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis for Best Foreign Fiction; [5] as well, it was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel, [6] the 2000 Arthur C. I reread this just after finishing A Fire Upon the Deep and lets say I was more than a little disappointed, especially since A Fire. The lightest of wear at limited points on unclipped jacket; faint crease on hardcover's spine beneath.