A Deepness in the Sky (Zones of Thought, #2) by Vernor Vinge

Dec 18, 2008 Matt rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, literature

In the 'The Sixth Sense', the character Malcolm tries to tell a story. Unfortunately, it's a bad story, which Cole immediately picks up on, and comments, "You have to add some twists and stuff."

I tend to think that the essence of a well-crafted story is the unexpected. A good story has unexpected tragedies, unexpected joys, and unexpected crowning moments of awesome. Yet, there are a surprisingly few good writers that are also good story tellers. In fact, when it comes right down to it, I think...more In the 'The Sixth Sense', the character Malcolm tries to tell a story. Unfortunately, it's a bad story, which Cole immediately picks up on, and comments, "You have to add some twists and stuff."

I tend to think that the essence of a well-crafted story is the unexpected. A good story has unexpected tragedies, unexpected joys, and unexpected crowning moments of awesome. Yet, there are a surprisingly few good writers that are also good story tellers. In fact, when it comes right down to it, I think I'd rather read a good story teller's work than a good writer's work. If you must do without something, do without beautiful prose and artsy metaphors and just tell a rip-roaring good yarn which people will sit around campfires and recount for as long as humans live under the stars. If you must dispense with something, dispense with meter and perfect Ciceronian structure and eloquence and tell a story even a caveman could appreciate. Forsake all else, but never ever dispense with having an entertaining story.

In the elite group of authors of speculative fiction that truly understand the power of story and are masters of it, we must include such names as J.K. Rawlings, Lois McMaster Bujold, and the incomparable Vernor Vinge.

'A Deepness in the Sky' is one of the novels that I wish was taught in every high school in America, as an example of great, compelling, and entertaining fiction that isn't caught up in the moment, isn't pretentious or self-serving or self-important, isn't relying on shock value that should have been tired since the days of Baudelaire, or lauded solely because of the insight white people think they get from it, or praised because of its supposed 'historical relevance'. This is the sort of novel that I'd want to teach from - that demands to be reread, that's perceptive, that's timeless, that's subtle, that looks both forward and back, and which above all has a story which brings "the twists and stuff".

'A Deepness in the Sky' is just about too good to be read just once. So much more of the story opens up when you get to the end of it and understand all the different things that have been going on all along right underneath your nose that unless you have eidetic memory you are practically obligated to make a return voyage to the On/Off star. There is too much to love here to touch on it all.

I cannot think of a villain in science-fiction that is more thoroughly hate-worthy than Tomas Nau. Though he chews up the scenery as a smiling one-dimensional comic book villain, his sociopathic philosophy is thoroughly rationalized that he never seems the least bit unreal. On the contrary, he is so very believable that rather than finding that reality causes us to question the narrative, the narrative causes us to question reality in chilling and uncomfortable ways. Could it be that there are a lot of Tomas Nau's in the world? What separates the Robert Mugabe's of this world from Tomas Nau, save that Nau's depredations will never leave the written page and Mugabes kills and destroys out in the unreal real world? Even worse, could it be that this rational calculation is rooted deeply in all of humanity, in our 'selfish genes' or our sinful condition?

While the earnestly deadly culture war is playing out above, down on the planet we are introduced to the arachnid-like 'Spiders', which have to rank amongst the greatest alien species in all of science fiction. The 'Spiders' are undergoing a scientific revolution with all the revolutionary cultural changes that come with it. I've had a great affection for creepy-crawlies since childhood - to the extent of once keeping a black widow spider as a pet - but even distancing myself from my own bias as best as I can, I personally think that the 'Spiders' are more lovable than Spielberg’s pet-like goofy E.T. and yet at the same time alien to extent that is rarely approached in sci-fi. I find myself yearning for the chapters about the 'Spiders' so that I can follow the adventures of Sherkaner Underhill, about which much could be said, but the less said the better, lest I spoil some of the story.

What a wonderful cast of characters! I could go on and on, but the point is you care what happens to these people - human or spider. You feel for them. You celebrate with them. You worry for them. And, as the story progresses, the character's seemingly separate stories become more and more tightly wound, before ending up in a perfect storm of thread tying up that would be worthy of a Victor Hugo novel.

If there is anything I could say against the novel, it is that Thomas Nau doesn't endure nearly a painful enough death. I'd be much happier if it lingered, and failing that am happy to reread the passage several times in a row just to get the necessary enjoyment from the scene. 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. One of the central protagonists is a 'Programmer-At-Arms', and there is quite a bit in the novel about programming, systems design and 'software archeology' (a discipline I expect to come into being sooner or later) that probably will bore the non-nerd. The campfire retelling of the story would probably necessarily feature a lot less nerdy stuff, though I think we'll have to wait until Hollywood writers and producers finally evolve at least Neanderthal intelligence before they could suitably adapt a work like this.

But I'm a nerd, so it's all good as far as I'm concerned.
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Dec 31, 2011 Connie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: with-reviews

4.5 stars.

First--This is one of the best books I have read in a very long time, and, despite the fact that it doesn't quite earn a 5 star rating from me (more on that later), I would highly recommend the book to anyone who's remotely interested in science fiction. It's a testament to the book that I managed to finish it while in the midst of an extraordinarily busy semester.

Vinge really hits the balance of "science" and "fiction" almost perfectly--and, even though the book weighs in at a hefty...more

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Sep 07, 2010 Timothy K. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi-fantasy, books-i-own, hugo-winners

I was looking for an appropriate entrance into the domain of the great Vernor Vinge for some time. Being an avid fan of the space opera sub genre of science fiction, and of science fiction in general, and seeing as Vinge is known to excel in both, I acquiesced.

Should I begin with light reading, a snapshot instead of an album? Say some of his earlier work like Marooned in Real Time? No fuck it I'll take the door stop. I have to admit that after the three weeks it took me to turn all 780 pages(odd...more I was looking for an appropriate entrance into the domain of the great Vernor Vinge for some time. Being an avid fan of the space opera sub genre of science fiction, and of science fiction in general, and seeing as Vinge is known to excel in both, I acquiesced.

Should I begin with light reading, a snapshot instead of an album? Say some of his earlier work like Marooned in Real Time? No fuck it I'll take the door stop. I have to admit that after the three weeks it took me to turn all 780 pages(odd work schedule lately, otherwise a more ephemeral reading time would have been expected), I am not disappointed.

I won't waste time with an outlining of the plot, since there are countless others that have came before me that have done a fine job of that already.

I will only say that this book was entertaining. And isn't that all you look for in a good novel? Even if a book feels banal, worthless, and a waste of my time, I will still finish what I have started, but the time does seem to go by much faster when I am reading something that suits my palate.

I will say that it is obvious that Vinge can't make heads or tales of how to write female characters. Always vulnerable, naive little girls, voracious nymphomaniacs, or incorrigible taskmasters cracking the whip. Also the lack of an authentic emotional response by anyone after the death of a young member of the Spider race after a run in with a band of religiously motivated kidnappers, left me somewhat cold and questioning of Vinges ability to highlight even simple parts of the human condition. Or Spider condition, or whatever.

These missteps can be overlooked however. The books strengths overwhelm the flaws strewn sporadically across its length.

I recommend it to all comers. And look forward to taking up A Fire Upon the Deep in the not too distant future. That is if I can find a copy because it does seem as if it may have went out of print recently.

Au revoir.

On a secondary note, I will just say that I enjoyed the use of 18th or 19th century seaman nomenclature by Pham Nuwen from time to time. I only wish that it would be possible to one day go a-faring my self. If only to have been born two or three centuries later than I happened to have been.(less)

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Aug 27, 2008 Nat rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: any scifi fan, really. Vinge does good work

It took me a little while to really get in to this one, but around maybe halfway or so, things picked up and I really enjoyed it.

A large part of the book goes back and forth between the Spiders' and the humans' storylines. I thought it was particularly interesting how for the most part, I found the Spiders' story to be even more human and identifiable than that of the humans. The Spiders had names like "Victory" and "Underhill" which, while slightly odd, were at least familiar as words. The huma...more

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Dec 27, 2008 Angela rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi

One of the more original sci fi books I've read. Chronologically it happens before "A Fire Upon the Deep," but Vinge actually wrote that book first.

This is the story of two types of human races and their encounter with a non-human race on the verge of their own information age. One of the races is led by a few cruel, sinister, manipulative people bent on acheiving their own ends by any means necessary; the other race must fight not only for their own survival but for that of the non-human race t...more

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Oct 20, 2012 Ubik 2.0 rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Il racconto ha il principale difetto di dipanarsi per oltre 500 pagine seguendo le gesta di almeno una trentina di personaggi principali che interagiscono in un clima forzatamente epico ma alla lunga alquanto noioso. Come spesso accade in questi casi si assiste ad una curiosa convivenza di descrizioni tecnologico-astronomiche di particolare complessit�� (fuori dal pianeta di Arachna spesso non si capisce dove si stia svolgendo l��azione: Diamante 1, Hammerfest, il ��Provvisorio�� ed altre son...more Il racconto ha il principale difetto di dipanarsi per oltre 500 pagine seguendo le gesta di almeno una trentina di personaggi principali che interagiscono in un clima forzatamente epico ma alla lunga alquanto noioso. Come spesso accade in questi casi si assiste ad una curiosa convivenza di descrizioni tecnologico-astronomiche di particolare complessit�� (fuori dal pianeta di Arachna spesso non si capisce dove si stia svolgendo l��azione: Diamante 1, Hammerfest, il ��Provvisorio�� ed altre sono localizzazioni difficili da immaginare��) con una logica delle azioni che riprende i pi�� triti clichet dell��epica fantasy (amori, tradimenti, gesta eroiche, voltafaccia) con una demarcazione fra buoni e cattivi da favola per bambini.

Le caratteristiche migliori del romanzo sono per di pi�� sfacciatamente copiate da altre opere: il particolare ciclo stellare che determina le stagioni e le ere con alternanza di climi estremi riprende l��ambientazione ben pi�� originale e artisticamente sviluppata del famoso ciclo di Helliconia del grande Brian Aldiss. L��antropomorfizzazione di razze aliene proviene pari pari da un altro e molto pi�� riuscito libro di Vinge, Universo Incostante, del quale peraltro questo romanzo costituisce un Prequel.

In conclusione una grossa fatica per arrivare alla fine del libro, perdendosi una buona met�� dei personaggi (chi sono, cosa fanno, a cosa tendono) solo per arrivare alla parola fine. Il fatto che bene o male ci si arrivi impedisce di dare un giudizio completamente negativo: la voglia di mandare a quel paese Emergenti, Qeng Ho, ragni e Vernor Vinge dopo le prime centinaia di pagine sfiora la mente del lettore ma finisce col non prevalere. Misteriose le motivazioni che hanno spinto i fans americani a conferirgli il premio Hugo, a meno che non sia da intendersi come un brutto sintomo dello stato di salute dell��attuale SF, se non c��era nulla di meglio sulla piazza!(less)

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Dec 01, 2008 Jennifer rated it 3 of 5 stars

I had a little trouble getting into this book the first time, put it down and tried again a few months later. The main problem, initially, was that I couldn't figure out how the two main story lines were related...and got frustated with the switching. The second time through, it became obvious that the "Sherkaner Underhill" character and his people were the spider aliens that the two human cultures were travelling to make contact with, though you really can't tell, from the narrative, that they...more

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Jun 14, 2013 David Bonesteel rated it 3 of 5 stars

There is much to like about this book, the story of delegations from two seperate human cultures, one based on trade and the other on slavery, whose conflict leaves them marooned near the planet of the Spiders. In order to justify their trip and make their return home possible, they must wait for the alien culture below to attain a certain level of technology. There are interesting speculations about the nature of interstellar and planetary societies and imaginative extrapolations on technology....more

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Feb 07, 2013 Michael Battaglia rated it 5 of 5 stars

Some people have bad days. Others have bad years. These people learn what it's like to have bad decades. And to make matters worse, it turns out the spiders are smarter than they are. Hence is life in Vinge's universe. What fun!

Set years and years before "A Fire Upon the Deep" (and with nary a nod toward that novel's "Zones of Thought"), this one features two sets of human civilizations in slower than light ships venturing across the galaxy toward a planet that has a non-human intelligent civili...more Some people have bad days. Others have bad years. These people learn what it's like to have bad decades. And to make matters worse, it turns out the spiders are smarter than they are. Hence is life in Vinge's universe. What fun!

Set years and years before "A Fire Upon the Deep" (and with nary a nod toward that novel's "Zones of Thought"), this one features two sets of human civilizations in slower than light ships venturing across the galaxy toward a planet that has a non-human intelligent civilization, unfortunately hamstrung by the fact their star decides to turn off for a chunk of a cycle, forcing the many-legged inhabitants to undergo a form of hibernation to survive. However, they are figuring out ways around it and everyone is salivating at the prospect of making first contact and reaping the multitude of benefits, most of which are concerned with making people rich. The two groups, the Qeng Ho (the nicely bohemian and free trader types) and the Emergents (the mean Bad totalitarian types) arrive at almost the same time, but a meet and greet proposed by the Emergents winds up being the cover for a rather unpleasant ambush. A bunch of ships are wrecked in the process, basically stranding what's left of everyone else but to make matters worse this is the point where the Emergents decide to unveil their creepiest trick: by mastering a virus that once almost killed them called "mindrot" they are able to force people into Focus, where they become enslaved and horribly obsessed with a single task. It makes them terribly efficient, in the same way that your refrigerator is. Now the remnants have to wait the years out, rotating everyone but a small sliver into suspended animation for years at a time, as the aliens down below are starting to figure out how to make technology awesome and maybe give the humans a way out of this mess. And make someone rich.

Thus the plot chugs along, alternating between the Qeng Ho choking under the Emergent boot (or being Focused and not caring), the Emergent leaders bwah-ha-haing over everything or the rather charming Spiders, who are discovering ways around the fact that their sun decides to take a nap for good chunks of time. In the mix of it comes Pham Nuwen, who is in disguise on the Qeng Ho crew as Pham Trinli and rather desperate that no one figure out that he's a) thousands of years old relatively speaking, b) famous and c) rather interested in taking over the fleet himself. So he pretends to be a bumbling old man while plotting to overthrow everyone. Meanwhile the spiders have babies and they are cute.

For all the unstoppable Space Opera sophistication that characterized "A Fire Upon the Deep", this one comes across as almost endearingly old school. Vinge's eye for future technologies and the implications of them are in his usual good form, the details surrounding the concepts of Focus and localizers could probably power novels on their own and his look at the differing aspect of ship culture in deep space manifests itself in subtle way (the idea that they would mark time purely in seconds, because day and night and days are meaningless in space). The Emergents make fairly nasty villains and watching the Qeng Ho attempt to come up with some kind of counterplan while literally everything on the ship is watching them all the time (down to body language) makes for some interesting tensions as alliances are both carefully plotted and induced on the fly, while meticulously orchestrated plans are tossed to the wind and improvised in an instant. Meanwhile the Spiders have their own separate problems as their resident scattered genius keeps coming up with ways to outwit the planet and change the culture of a society in the process. It proceeds along itself nicely, with the alien and people plots seemingly not on track to come together at all except in rather explosive fashion, while along the way we're given various intersections of personalities and a slow merging of the human cultures due to necessity, even as the Emergents can't stop being all bwah-ha-ha.

Which is probably the biggest criticism one can make about the book. From a fantastically sciencey Space Opera level, the book is nicely epic while still retaining something resembling a human scale, thrusting humans to the edge of the unknown, colliding with alien cultures while bickering amongst themselves and nearly ruining everything in the process. The stakes are high and the rewards range from staying alive to having the tools required to perhaps take over the galaxy. However, the human scale remains somewhat lacking, which is not a unique problem to these types of stories. While he does his best to intermingle shades of grey, there is never any doubt at any moment who you're supposed to be rooting for. The Qeng Ho are good-hearted and full of Heinleinian freedom (and any working with the Emergents are coerced or misguided) while the Emergents are often hissibly evil in their motivations, proud of their enslaving ability and their naked lust for power, personified in two of their leaders who perform nearly every task on the "bad boys" checklist. This means that most of the characters come across as unavoidably flat and while the book is long enough to give changes of heart some heft and setup, often it lacks the impact that it should have (Pham Nuwen has a shift in motivation that changes the entire tone of the backhalf of the novel based on a single speech that isn't that amazing). Later two characters are literally told to fall in love, after the book has spent a good amount of time beating it into us. Subtlety is not always at play here.

The aliens are another thing entirely, coming across as disconcerting at first, almost too much so. They passages are so human-like in outlook and feeling that you almost immediately wonder if Vinge is slipping, or something else is up. As it turns out, it winds up being more of the latter, but in the process we get a rather interesting contrast to the big science mind control slave adventures going on in the sky, as the Spiders grow old and have kids and transform the entire planet. It all leads into a plot twist that still seems to come out of nowhere, even as I was keeping an eye out for it, coloring everything we learned about the Spiders. Yet even with that revelation they never come across as truly alien in the way we've come to expect later, mostly acting like people with extra hands and eyes. Having seen what authors like CJ Cherryh could do with making humanoid aliens seem honestly alien (and managing the reverse trick of making people seem like aliens as well), it strikes me as both the easy way out and a throwback to how aliens used to be in SF. Which, again, makes for some fairly traditional SF adventure reading but "A Fire Upon the Deep" pushed so many boundaries in its grandness that I was surprised to see Vinge retreating to something so safe, no matter how skillfully executed it might be.

And it is. I won't say that a seven hundred page novel is a page turner but it does manage to keep hold of a certain level of suspense along its length and just when you think its starting to go on auto-pilot we cut back to a Pham Nuwen flashback or another exciting Spider adventure and it provides a nice refresher before we dive back into the plans for revolution. Evoking the past just as much (or more) than the future, Vinge doesn't exactly scale the heights of that last masterpiece but manages to prove he can play in the same sandbox without repeating himself and even if the innovations aren't as cutting or the science as startling, the ride manages to be entertaining all the same. (less)

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Feb 05, 2013 Dave rated it 3 of 5 stars

If you only read one, make it A Fire Upon the Deep.

But both have an impressive amount of interesting sci-fi concepts and alien cultures that make them worth reading.

In A Fire Upon the Deep, Pham Nuwen was an ancient space farer, supposedly found drifting in stasis by a Power. [A Power is an entity spawned by a civilization that transcended to a higher intelligence and state of being]. Pham apparently had to be partially reconstructed from parts of the rest of the crew and the integrity of his m...more If you only read one, make it A Fire Upon the Deep.

But both have an impressive amount of interesting sci-fi concepts and alien cultures that make them worth reading.

In A Fire Upon the Deep, Pham Nuwen was an ancient space farer, supposedly found drifting in stasis by a Power. [A Power is an entity spawned by a civilization that transcended to a higher intelligence and state of being]. Pham apparently had to be partially reconstructed from parts of the rest of the crew and the integrity of his memories was always suspect. No one trusted that the epic adventures he recalled could possibly have taken place or happened to a single individual.

But A Deepness in the Sky goes back in time thousands of years to the time of his people, the Qeng Ho, who traded between the stars. His memories, it seems, were real. Pham was a legend in his own time. The Qeng Ho had a continuity of technology and culture greater than any static civilization, as planets and systems invariably collapsed from bad governance or war. Human development had met its limits - The Failed Dreams of intelligent automation, nanotech, and more proved impossible again and again. Pham, who was born on a fallen world of castles and intrigue, was precocious and more ambitious than the Qeng Ho traders he joined. He wanted an empire but lacked the means.

Meanwhile, a cyclical civilization of spider-like creatures is discovered. After several decades of warmth, their sun reliably shuts off for hundreds of years to return right on cue. They have evolved to hibernate and re-emerge, slowly building upon the work of the generation before. Their star is only one of the great mysteries the humans visit to explore. There may be relics of a far older, far more advanced civilization that seem to defy the Failed Dreams. And there is a genius who accelerates the progress of their species and, unlike the humans, is not burdened with the failures of thousands of years.

Before anyone can learn more the two human expeditions that set out to make contact with the spiders war with each other and one enslaves the other. Pham must hide his true identity as he marshals a rebellion and tries to revive his dream of stable human empire.

This is a long book, and this review doesn't even touch on several important characters and subplots. The "Vichy" government of the conquered Qeng Ho, the endearing family and political intrigues of the spider protagonists, and the pseudo-slavery of the Focus that allows the Emergent humans to achieve their victory and maintain control of the Qeng Ho are all fascinating and make the book speed along. This is the kind of deep book that you can get lost in and hope never ends.(less)

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Feb 02, 2013 Jeffery Looper rated it 3 of 5 stars

It's not that I don't want to love this book...its concepts and themes are interesting enough there are moments that I truly enjoyed (Underhill's first speech about "a deepness in the sky", some Pham/Tomas and some other Phan/Ezr moments). But all in all I am confused by the great amount of characters...naturally we infer from there that a lot of the characters are not developed quite well, and it's true. The book is long (7xx pages -- could be 2/3 times the length a standard novel), but that's...more

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Jan 23, 2013 Ryk Spoor rated it 5 of 5 stars

I'm usually suspicious of sequels to great books; they're usually a disappointment, a let-down from the first burst of awesomeness. I'm doubly suspicious of prequels; we KNOW what happened before, why do I want an expansion when I know how it all ends?

_A Deepness in the Sky_ is the rare, rare exception: a prequel which is, if anything, better than the masterful _A Fire Upon the Deep_ which preceded it in publication and takes place long afterwards.

The "hook" for this book, at least for those who...more

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Dec 22, 2012 L. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Vinge's previous "A Fire Upon the Deep" would be a hard act to follow. As of to prove the point, "A Deepness in the Sky" doesn't reach the soaring heights of its predecessor, and it has only the loosest plot connection to "Fire."
What it has in common with "Fire," however, is scale. Where "A Fire Upon the Deep" strides across a galaxy and countless civilizations, "Deepness" strides across decades of time in which problems posed at the beginning of the book take a generation to resolve themselves...more Vinge's previous "A Fire Upon the Deep" would be a hard act to follow. As of to prove the point, "A Deepness in the Sky" doesn't reach the soaring heights of its predecessor, and it has only the loosest plot connection to "Fire."
What it has in common with "Fire," however, is scale. Where "A Fire Upon the Deep" strides across a galaxy and countless civilizations, "Deepness" strides across decades of time in which problems posed at the beginning of the book take a generation to resolve themselves.

Vinge creates this scale by using science fiction conventions to their best advantage -- to explore themes in ways no other genre can do. How, for example, would it feel for a hostage to plot an escape for fifty years? With suspended animation as a plot device, Vinge can examine captivity and collaboration on an immediate, moment by moment basis, and at the same time drag the tension out for decades. A neat trick, and only a science fiction writer could pull it off.

Interweaving this plot is another generation- spanning tale of a civilization of spiders who pass through the equivalent of our twentieth century. In a reversal of the classic X-Files plot, the humans are the visitors from outer space who visit, monitor, and occasionally interfere in the a civilization on the cusp of the Information Age. Religion, prejudice and politics are examined through the eyes of a race which as at once utterly alien and at the same time chillingly familiar.

Vinge paints his heroes with complex colors, giving them doubts, weaknesses, and blind spots. If he can be failed, it is in making his villains one dimensional. The bad guys in this book are without any redeeming virtues; they are liars, killers, and sexual sadists. There is nothing good to be said for them except, perhaps, they are pretty good at being bad.

Vinge does show that he has the most inventive science fiction mind of his time. The aliens in "A Fire Upon the Deep," who increased in intelligence as they combined into groups of five, was so original that it could serve to define the "sense of wonder." His brilliantly conceived notions abound in "Deepness." There is a kind of mind control which is as monstrous for its plausibility as it is in its execution. Vinge also gives us a planet whose star "turns off" periodically, forcing its ecology (including its intelligent life) to survive centuries of cold so severe that the atmosphere freezes solid.

There is an exciting plot which makes the book hard to put down, some interesting and troubled people to worry about, and enough ideas to remind you why you like science fiction in the first place.
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Oct 20, 2012 Klytia rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Se c'è una cosa che detesto sono gli alieni umanizzati.
In questo romanzo gli alieni sono delle specie di ragni, con occhi multipli e diverse zampe, che si chiamano "Signore" o "Signora", vanno in giro in macchina, vivono belle casette con salottini e biblioteche, hanno radio e televisione, e una chiesa un po' invadente che considera abominazioni i ragnetti nati fuori dai periodi stabiliti.
Il solito Vinge insomma, ci risiamo con un'altra forma di vita aliena, come gli aggruppi, dipinta come se...more Se c'è una cosa che detesto sono gli alieni umanizzati.
In questo romanzo gli alieni sono delle specie di ragni, con occhi multipli e diverse zampe, che si chiamano "Signore" o "Signora", vanno in giro in macchina, vivono belle casette con salottini e biblioteche, hanno radio e televisione, e una chiesa un po' invadente che considera abominazioni i ragnetti nati fuori dai periodi stabiliti.
Il solito Vinge insomma, ci risiamo con un'altra forma di vita aliena, come gli aggruppi, dipinta come se fossero degli esseri umani. In realtà Vinge cerca di spiegare questa estrema umanizzazione con un trucco narrativo che però non mi ha convinta fino in fondo.
Come al solito ho continuato la lettura, sorvolando su questo aspetto, e lasciandomi coinvolgere invece dalle avvincenti vicende e dai personaggi tutto sommato interessanti.
Quando la luce tornerà è un classico romanzo di fantascienza con astronavi in viaggio per scoprire il mistero di una stella che si accende e si spegne ciclicamente, entrare in contatto con razze aliene e possibilmente trovare un modo per commerciare con loro e sfruttare le risorse del loro pianeta, a seconda se si fa parte dei Mercanti Quen Ho oppure degli Emergenti. Vinge è bravo a narrare le vicende parallele degli umani che cercano di sopravvivere nel luogo più remoto dell'universo e della civiltà dei ragni in piena crescita tecnologica.
I personaggi sono un po' a clichè: i "malvagi" sono malvagissimi, i "buoni" un po' storditi e facilmente intortabili. Ovviamente tanto ho detestato la "marmocchia", classica ragazzina presentata come supergenio ma piuttosto infantile, tanto ho apprezzato Pham Trinli, sottovalutato e disprezzato da tutti.
Battaglie nello spazio, tradimenti e sorprese non mancano, insieme ad una bella dose di difetti ed errori che non mancano mai nei romanzi di Vinge, ma non ce l'ha un editor?
Nonostante questo il romanzo mi è piaciuto, il che è strano perchè per molto meno chiudo i romanzi senza arrivare alla fine, Vinge deve avere una bacchetta magica tant'è che ho intenzione di leggere anche Children of the Sky, il seguito di Universo incostante; chissà se finalmente si scoprirà qualcosa di più sulle Potenze e il Trascendente.(less)

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Sep 02, 2012 Keith Vai rated it 3 of 5 stars

A Fire Upon the Deep was a fantastic book. The first Vinge book I had ever read and I could not put it down.

460 pages into this book, I did put it down. And I didnt miss it. After a few weeks, I picked it up again and finished it but this is prequel to Fire was just not in the same league. Sad.

I will say that the villains in this book are truly horrific. At times it was hard to keep reading because it was so upsetting but in the end, the good guys won out. I heard David Brin call Vinge an optimi...more

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Jul 22, 2012 Palmyrah rated it 3 of 5 stars

An interesting variation on a science fiction theme I am especially fond of, the first-contact story. In this case, the monstrous alien invaders are the humans, conspiring to foment nuclear war among a race of unsuspecting intelligent arachnoids. To make things more interesting (and give us some anthropomorphs to cheer for), the humans are also divided up into good guys and bad guys.

Of course, the above variation has already been explored in SF. Frederik Pohl's Jem springs to mind; indeed, Pohl...more An interesting variation on a science fiction theme I am especially fond of, the first-contact story. In this case, the monstrous alien invaders are the humans, conspiring to foment nuclear war among a race of unsuspecting intelligent arachnoids. To make things more interesting (and give us some anthropomorphs to cheer for), the humans are also divided up into good guys and bad guys.

Of course, the above variation has already been explored in SF. Frederik Pohl's Jem springs to mind; indeed, Pohl seems to be a strong influence on Vinge, and I was reminded of the former many times while reading this book. Pohl is, however, by far the better writer.

Vinge, a professor of mathematics by day, doesn't seem to be able to write convincing characters. Out of a cast of dozens, he manages to make us care about just one: an old soldier named Hrunker Unnerby – who happens to be one of the arachnoids. The real humans are all cardboard.

Of course, cardboard characters are pretty much to be expected in hard SF. The virtues of the genre lie elsewhere, and its aficionados (rightly) don't give a toss for the traditional literary ones. But Vinge has problems that go beyond the usual. For one thing, he aims higher. However, he reveals an amateur's clumsiness in deploying his characters, clearly finding it hard to move them around and make them interact convincingly. Nearly all the scenes involving human interaction are cartoonish and unconvincing. This includes scenes featuring the aliens, who are presented to us by the author as human in all respects but the physical.

This, incidentally, is one of many places in the text where the reader's willing suspension of disbelief falters, for the aliens are utterly different from us in terms of their physical structure, sensory perceptions, instinctive tropisms and reproductive behaviour. Even given the excuse that we see them, for most of the book, through the mediating lens of human perception, they shouldn't be quite so like us. Surely these physical differences must make for mental ones as well? But Vernor Vinge appears to be immune to the fascinations of speculative xenopsychology, and we are left with creatures that look like giant spiders but act just like people.

Other aspects of the plot also beggar belief. The regularly interrupted social evolution of the arachnoids nevertheless proceeds incredibly fast – they go from early experiments with internal-combustion engines to intercontinental ballistic missiles within a single generation. The turning of the human Ezr Vinh, a critical plot element, is based on an impossible chain of extrapolations from an obscure hint dropped by another character. A starship explicitly not designed for operating within a planetary atmosphere, last seen falling at one hundred metres per second, wreathed in flames and starting to break up, somehow manages to land without killing its crew. Civilizations rise and fall within the timeframe of a mere thousand years, yet humans undertake trading voyages between the stars that last for centuries. The whole thing is confused and rather nonsensical.

The author is so uninvolved with his characters that he casually dumps the two most sympathetic ones for good in a scene that takes place offstage. Indeed, many vital scenes are pushed offstage. Among them is the action climax of the novel, the aforementioned starship crash. Perhaps it's just as well; the only big action scene in the book, which takes place inside the chief bad guy's artificial water-garden, is a clumsy, sodden mess. The chief villain's comeuppance is also unsatisfyingly quick and merciful, while that of his sadistic lieutenant takes place – again, and frustratingly – offstage. This is a scene we are dying to see through his eyes, but he's long gone by the time we hear what's happened to him. Equally incompetent are the handling of an early, mandatory scene in which the bad guys are revealed to be sadistic perverts, and various other scenes of violence, cruelty or complex action – frankly, the author is too squeamish to write them properly, and he shouldn't even have tried.

So, with all these complaints, why am I giving this book three stars? Well, it kept me reading. Some of the technical ideas were interesting, though nothing was actually new or even very freshly rendered. And first-contact stories are my favourite kind of hard SF story.

Yes, there were times when I grew bored with the endless backstory expositions, the cartoon characters, the long, long gaps between important scenes – Vinge captures the tedium of deep-space exile only too well – but for all that, I kept reading. Of course, I'm a genre slut – I always have round heels for SF – so for me it was a three-star book despite its decidedly two-star qualities.

I shall now go and re-read one of Iain M. Banks's Culture novels to remind myself that hard SF doesn't always have to be lousy literature.(less)

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Jul 10, 2012 John rated it 4 of 5 stars

If you want plot points, look elsewhere.

In brief, I enjoyed this book a great deal. Three distinct cultures, conspiracies, revenge, and surprises; all set against a wonderful space opera baqckgroupd.

In depth:
Vernor Vinge has a talent for making alien races that are very different from humans and yet keeping them relatable. That said, the Spiders of A Deepness in the Sky never seem quite as alien as the Tines in A Fire Upon the Deep. Up until the end of the book, they seem more like humans tha...more If you want plot points, look elsewhere.

In brief, I enjoyed this book a great deal. Three distinct cultures, conspiracies, revenge, and surprises; all set against a wonderful space opera baqckgroupd.

In depth:
Vernor Vinge has a talent for making alien races that are very different from humans and yet keeping them relatable. That said, the Spiders of A Deepness in the Sky never seem quite as alien as the Tines in A Fire Upon the Deep. Up until the end of the book, they seem more like humans than aliens. Only at the end does their otherness really seem to hit home. I credit this to a stylistic choice on the part of the author. For most of the book, their species name and gesture descriptions give clues and hints at their appearance. Only at the end of the book do we really get a complete physical description of the Spiders.

This illustrates something that is both a strength and weakness in the book. Ostensibly, the book is written from three basic viewpoints; Queng Ho, Emergent, and Spider. This makes the end of the book seem rushed. Things happen very quickly and some of these things were only faintly hinted at. That's because they were only visible from one viwepoint and it isn't the one the book actually follows.

This is a prequel to A Fire Upon the Deep, and one of the characters appears in both books. Despite the appearance of multiple viewpoints, everything is filtered through this one character and his culture. The devotion to Free Markets, the depiction of the Spiders, cultural development, and character backstory; these are all things that we only see through the Queng Ho lens.

This doesn't really become clear until the end when we realize how much that lens restricted what we saw. It made me admire the technical aspects of the book more and eliminated most of my story gripes. I still wish the book had fleshed out the ending a little more. An extra 20-50 pages would have left me happier at the end of the book. It felt like there was a whirlwind of activity and a very abrupt stop.

(less)

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Nov 06, 2011 Adam rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: sf

Since I’ve been cultivating a gestalt knowledge of the science fiction canon for nearly two decades, I was able to notice nods and reflections of past works. The book owes an obvious and huge debt to James Blish’s Cities in Flight, but there are also Tolkien references, Hal Clement’s Mission of Gravity nods and more.

The most surprising aspect of the book was its not-so-nuanced championing of free market capitalism. I’m used to science fiction that puts forth some sort of commentary on contempora...more

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Sep 22, 2011 Titus Fortner rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi, hugo

An amazing book by my favorite author. It is no surprise that this book won the Hugo (as did his subsequent two books). This is actually a re-read of the book in preparation for the next edition of his "Zones of Thought" series which will be released in a few weeks (_Children of the Sky_). My first read of this book was about ten years ago while I was out at sea. I remembered really liking it, but only vague snippets of the storyline.

First of all, for being somewhat "hard science fiction," this...more An amazing book by my favorite author. It is no surprise that this book won the Hugo (as did his subsequent two books). This is actually a re-read of the book in preparation for the next edition of his "Zones of Thought" series which will be released in a few weeks (_Children of the Sky_). My first read of this book was about ten years ago while I was out at sea. I remembered really liking it, but only vague snippets of the storyline.

First of all, for being somewhat "hard science fiction," this book is wonderfully engaging. The characters are multi-dimensional and interesting, the plot moves fairly quickly, the themes are presented without being heavy handed. I enjoy Vinge's depiction of aliens - different enough to be interesting and well thought out interactions within the attributes described. At the same time, they are similar enough to be understandable and relatable.

There were a couple plot elements that seemed a little poorly developed, but the gist was more than sufficient to explain the developments.

One of the things I love about harder sci-fi is the depiction of what might happen in the future. I love Vinge's somewhat-realistic depiction of how star faring traders might interact with planetary civilizations spanning many light-years. I love the idea that all of these civilizations go through cycles of rising and collapsing and rebuilding.

I find the idea of hud displays and localizers fascinating. It is something that is prevalent in other universes like Rainbows End. Ubiquitous microscopic processors the size of dust that in huge numbers interact with each other to provide all kinds of information.

Vernor Vinge is known for his ideas of there being a singularity. An event where some form of artificial intelligence becomes able to improve itself without human control at a much faster pace than humans can keep up with. The idea is that this will result in an asymptotic singularity, where things change so fundamentally and drastically that we can't even fathom the ramifications and how they will affect our lives until it happens.

Vinge's problem then becomes how to write about the future if he can't describe what happens after what he believes will be an imminent occurrence. In his book _Across Realtime_, he solves this dilemma by describing entropy bubbles of sorts that allowed a subset of mankind to skip forward in time until after the singularity. Zones of Thought books handle the problem by postulating that our position in the galaxy makes a singularity impossible.

As such, the Zones of Thought books refer to the "Age of Failed Dreams," where all the things we read about in sci-fi is realized to be impossible: faster than light travel, quantum computing, consciousness uploading, anti-gravity, nanobots, molecular assemblers.

This is not Vinge's most accessible work, but it is one of his best. Anyone who appreciates good science fiction (especially if you trend toward hard sci-fi) should read this book.(less)

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Jun 01, 2011 Brian Fox rated it 4 of 5 stars

Prequel to "A Fire Upon the Deep," but only tangentially related. Semi-hard science fiction on a smaller scale relative to his other book.

Mild spoilers follow. It's hard to talk about the book without giving just a little bit away. But not too much!

=======================================================================

Three players in this one. Two are bitter foes forced to co-exist and unable to continue the fight after the damage they dealt each other, both fighting for control over the third...more

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Feb 02, 2011 Nathaniel rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi

It's strange how I stumbled upon some sci-fi authors so early (Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke, Card) because it seemed my friends and parents' friends were all reading them (a lot of my recommendations for reading as a kid came from adults rather than from other kids), and yet other authors (Cherryh, Bujold, Vinge) I never even heard of.

That's the reason I'm enjoying going through the Hugo winners methodically - it's like a more unbiased sample of everything there is out there. It's the reason that I...more

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May 29, 2010 Josh rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I loved this book, and Vernor Vinge has officially replaced Greg Bear as my current favorite science fiction writer. The history and operation of the Qeng Ho is very "romantic" and appealing, and I liked the presentation of human space as being full of far-flung colonies that rise and fall from civilization repeatedly over thousands of years... it's really a great sci-fi universe set up, and provides interesting background to A Fire Upon the Deep. It's really interesting how the presentation of...more

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Jul 30, 2009 Jason rated it 4 of 5 stars

I liked this book muchly, although perhaps it was because I've been venturing outside the safe waters of sci-fi into weirder stuff that has to do with feelings and whatnot. Vinge doesn't have the page-turniness of Steven King, but I had a voraciousness for the book and I read it pretty fast. This caused some backup in my current events tracking, but apparently all I missed was some crap about some white professor being arrested by a black cop and "dissing" him so that he got arrested. I don't se...more

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Mar 10, 2013 Fraa rated it 3 of 5 stars

so I have several questions about a Deepness in the Sky. there's plenty of SPOILERS here so STOP reading now if you have not yet read this book. STOP READING UNLESS YOU WANT TO KNOW THE END. STOP NOW.

i finished the book today and enjoyed reading it very much.

but i came away confused at the end. i still do not understand how the spiders were able to communicate with the humans and sabotage their plans. what did i miss?

i re-read all the explanations of videomancy: "...the superstition that if you...more

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May 11, 2012 Robert rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is the only Vinge book I have read so far. What is so amazing about this book is the science involved in the story and how it relates to mankind's first contact with an alien race, and this is truly an alien race living on a planet with extreme temperature swings and dormant cycles and how such a completely different race would exist. It is the best story I have ever read developing something truly alien instead of a very human type alien, emotionally and biologically. And the humans are fr...more

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Jul 21, 2011 Curt Hopkins Hopkins rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, space-opera

Vinge combines world-building, thunderingly weird scientific extrapolation and really lovable characters (when half of those characters are spiders) is an achievement. Loved it.

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May 24, 2012 Andy Love rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction-fantasy

This is one of my favorite books - a near-perfect hard SF novel, with fascinating concepts, interesting aliens, and evil (yet competent) villains.

It takes place in a complicated universe where humanity has traveled among the stars for thousands of years, but only slower than light, and technology though advanced, never produced breakthroughs like immortality, nanotechnology or true artificial intelligence, and no high-tech civilization seems to last more than the better part of a thousand years...more This is one of my favorite books - a near-perfect hard SF novel, with fascinating concepts, interesting aliens, and evil (yet competent) villains.

It takes place in a complicated universe where humanity has traveled among the stars for thousands of years, but only slower than light, and technology though advanced, never produced breakthroughs like immortality, nanotechnology or true artificial intelligence, and no high-tech civilization seems to last more than the better part of a thousand years or so (humanity has become extinct on Earth and the planet has been resettled more than once by the time the book begins). People have grown accustomed to the limitations that apparently exist (the reasons behind these limits are explained in the earlier book A Fire Upon the Deep), and interstellar traders thrive by bringing interesting primitive artifacts to advanced civilizations, and a range of advanced tech to less-advanced planets; the traders even transmit technological information free of charge, so that when they arrive at a redeveloping world, the traders' language and technology standards are likely to be in use. Computer systems contain solutions to all sorts of problems, if you know how to pull them out of the ancient archives - and "software archeologist" is a recognized and respected profession (it turns out the time system used by the traders takes as its zero point, the UNIX start time!). In one lengthy subplot the reader sees how this trading culture was invented, and how it did not reach the end state its inventor desired - and due to time dilation and coldsleep, the inventor is still around to resent this.

But all this is mere background - there are two more major plot elements: humanity's first encounter with an alien race - one that is reaching an advanced state for the first time, in a very unusual environment, and a rising human civilization that has invented a new method of slavery, and has a fierce desire to expand. Vinge brings all these elements together in a terrific story which rewards rereading. Highly recommended.(less)

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Sep 12, 2011 Lex rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was a really fun book to read, and more importantly, it opened my mind to quite a few new ideas and possibilities. This story is, for the most part, a very realistic view of humanity thousands of years in the future. I like that Vinge didn't shy away from the problems of time dilation when traveling at high velocities. Rather, it was a central element to the setting and plot. In Vinge's book, humans travel aboard ramjet fusion (I believe) starships that can top out at 0.3 c. Of course, this...more This was a really fun book to read, and more importantly, it opened my mind to quite a few new ideas and possibilities. This story is, for the most part, a very realistic view of humanity thousands of years in the future. I like that Vinge didn't shy away from the problems of time dilation when traveling at high velocities. Rather, it was a central element to the setting and plot. In Vinge's book, humans travel aboard ramjet fusion (I believe) starships that can top out at 0.3 c. Of course, this means that time flows much more slowly for the people on the ship than for those who are at rest. Instead of ignoring this, Vinge uses it in very creative ways. The crew are kept in cold storage during the long journeys (decades, centuries, or even millenia), with a few being up and active at all times in a system of rotating shifts.

Vinge also doesn't ignore the limitations of communications that are bound by the speed of light. You'll see no "galactic empires" in this book, but you will see one man's dream of one and why it can't work.

Vinge's aliens were fairly believable. Unfortunately, he followed the trope of basing the aliens on an earth life-form (in this case spiders). Must we all do this? However, beyond that, the aliens were well-developed. They have a very interesting visual system. Although I feel the aliens were humanized a bit too much, which is a real problem in science fiction, there is at least a tenuous explanation for this in the story--the human translators.

The plot is interesting and engaging, with some interesting twists here and there. It takes a while for the story to get going, but the writing is clean enough you don't get bored. My one complaint is the character I found the most annoying in the book became one of the "heroes". This bothered me because during the whole book she was the quintessential tool, but yet somehow still "saves the day" and earns the respect of her peers. Oh well.

Unfortunately, this book is sadly lacking in any kind of descriptions whatsoever. You seldom if ever get any descriptions of the characters, ships, technology, etc. As a writer, I understand that too much description bogs down the pacing, but no description at all is laziness in my mind. It makes me wonder if the author even knows what things look like himself. I've begun reading A Fire in the Deep, which is set in the same universe. Only there did I learn that one of the main characters in the other book has red hair. Ultimately, I was able to get past the lack of description, but it does keep me from recommending this author as highly as I would otherwise. Personally, I think he could have taken out some of the irrelevant math he has in the book and replace it with good descriptions without changing his word count or pacing at all. That said, though, you'll love this book as long as you have a really good imagination and don't mind having to fill in a LOT of gaps in the information you're given.

The book has decent pacing, although it does get kind of slow from time to time. I think it would have been better without the alien PoV's, which helped to make them seem far too human.(less)

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Jun 07, 2011 Melissa Conway rated it 5 of 5 stars

I have a poor memory. Recently, I was asked the simple question, “What’s your favorite book?” and I said what I’d been saying for years, “Vernor Vinge wrote it. I can’t remember the name—A Darkness in the Deep or A Deepness in the Dark—something like that. It’s awesome; the ending had me jumping around, I was so excited at how clever it was.”

When I realized I couldn’t even remember what had me so excited, I decided to reread it. I’m glad I did.

Plot and title were not the only things I’d forgott...more

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Mar 16, 2012 Mark rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: hugo-award, science-fiction

This is a fantastic story. Books like this are why people read science fiction. Sure, it's got aliens and spaceships and technology that you have to use your imagination to understand, but at the core of it is a series of characters who are undergoing struggles that are truly timeless. I love this stuff.

I probably never will get tired of a well-written story where people are struggling against a ruthless tyrant. This is represented well here by Tomas Nau, the Emergent Podmaster, in control of hi...more This is a fantastic story. Books like this are why people read science fiction. Sure, it's got aliens and spaceships and technology that you have to use your imagination to understand, but at the core of it is a series of characters who are undergoing struggles that are truly timeless. I love this stuff.

I probably never will get tired of a well-written story where people are struggling against a ruthless tyrant. This is represented well here by Tomas Nau, the Emergent Podmaster, in control of his army of enslaved intellectuals, running his totalitarian closed state in this cut-off Lord of the Flies environment. Pham, Ezr and all the rest: everybody is playing his or her own game against this force, and everyone thinks they are making a difference, and maybe they are.

Ah, but the real stars here are the Spiders. They inhabit a planet that orbits a sun that is called the OnOff star, because it's off for 200 years and then on for 35 years. What are the physics behind this? Who really cares? The point is that it happens. This means the Spiders have a unique culture that is based around this, although as we meet them we find they are undergoing some rapid change thanks to the seemingly insane brilliance of one Sherkaner Underhill. The merchants and the totalitarians are stranded alike, and they need the Spider civilization to develop enough to get spare parts to go home.

I felt like the best parts of the book were the Spider parts. Vinge does something really clever with how he writes the Spiders. Their alien-ness is introduced gradually. When you first meet Sherk he could almost be human. He is described as having won a car at a casino thanks to some kind of shady card counting. "How are these guys aliens?" you start to think, but the next time you meet the Spiders they are a little weirder, and weirder still. The emotions all remain human even as it becomes increasingly apparent that the physiology is not.

The book is long, but it's definitely worth it. The plot moves at a slow, steady burn, so it never seems to drag, or at least it didn't to me. We spend some time in characters' heads. We get to know them, and like them, or hate them. This is important for the story because nobody ever quite understands everything that's going on, though they all try to do so. Heavy with dramatic irony, then, where the reader knows a bit more than the characters, sees collisions building but can't do much about it.

(view spoiler)

Loved this from cover to cover. Heartily recommended to anyone who can get over the spaceships and the aliens to enjoy a good story.(less)

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