false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1217218691m/226004.jpg 226004 12 This hefty novel returns to the universe of Vernor Vinge's 1993 Hugo winner <I>A Fire Upon the Deep</I>--but 30,000 years earlier. The story has the same sense of epic vastness despite happening mostly in one isolated solar system. Here there's a world of intelligent spider creatures who traditionally hibernate through the "Deepest Darkness" of their strange variable sun's long "off" periods, when even the atmosphere freezes. Now, science offers them an alternative... Meanwhile, attracted by spider radio transmissions, two human starfleets come exploring--merchants hoping for customers and tyrants who want slaves. Their inevitable clash leaves both fleets crippled, with the power in the wrong hands, which leads to a long wait in space until the spiders develop exploitable technology. Over the years Vinge builds palpable tension through multiple storylines and characters. In the sky, hopes of rebellion against tyranny continue despite soothing lies, brutal repression, and a mental bondage that can convert people into literal tools. Down below, the engagingly sympathetic spiders have their own problems. In flashback, we see the grandiose ideals and ultimate betrayal of the merchant culture's founder, now among the human contingent and pretending to be a senile buffoon while plotting, plotting... Major revelations, ironies, and payoffs follow. A powerful story in the grandest SF tradition. <I>--David Langford, Amazon.co.uk</I> 1270006 book 1999 A Deepness in the Sky total:1130|5:555|4:427|3:119|2:21|1:8| 1130 4890 1577 86 226004 0812536355 9780812536355 1027 72 4.33 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1217218691m/226004.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/226004.A_Deepness_in_the_Sky 5 8 false Mon Jun 02 19:34:04 -0700 2008 Thu Dec 18 13:42:47 -0800 2008 3
I tend to think that the essence of a well-crafted story is the unexpected. A good...more...]]> 226004 0812536355 9780812536355 1027 72 4.33 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1217218691m/226004.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/226004.A_Deepness_in_the_Sky 4 1 false Fri Aug 15 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Aug 12 21:32:03 -0700 2008 Wed Aug 27 10:36:06 -0700 2008
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,...more...]]> 226004 0812536355 9780812536355 1027 72 4.33 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1217218691m/226004.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/226004.A_Deepness_in_the_Sky 3 1 false Sun Nov 09 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Sep 19 17:04:49 -0700 2008 Sat Dec 27 18:54:27 -0800 2008
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...more...]]> 226004 0812536355 9780812536355 1027 72 4.33 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1217218691m/226004.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/226004.A_Deepness_in_the_Sky 3 0 false Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 01 05:07:18 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 01 05:17:56 -0800 2008 more...]]> 226004 0812536355 9780812536355 1027 72 4.33 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1217218691m/226004.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/226004.A_Deepness_in_the_Sky 4 0 false Thu Jul 30 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 30 21:40:40 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 30 21:46:52 -0700 2009 more...]]> 226004 0812536355 9780812536355 1027 72 4.33 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1217218691m/226004.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/226004.A_Deepness_in_the_Sky 5 0 false Thu Mar 05 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Mar 05 14:43:10 -0800 2009 Wed Mar 11 08:06:17 -0700 2009
A Deepness in the sky was a fascinating book which was almost perfect except a few things. First it was hard to follow the 'who is who' in main story, especially in the beginning. We are not supplied back stories for many charters so they are a little flat. Also sin...more...]]> 1001558 0312856830 9780312856830 34 4 4.33 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1180125543m/1001558.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1001558.A_Deepness_in_the_Sky 4 1 false Thu Mar 19 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Jan 30 09:16:10 -0800 2009 Thu Mar 19 07:11:06 -0700 2009 A Fire Upon the Deep. It would have been a good introduction.

Good character development, good action. Well-developed history. Alien cultures and aliens strange enough to require a bit of imagination.

Such a rich cast that it n...more...]]> 226004 0812536355 9780812536355 1027 72 4.33 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1217218691m/226004.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/226004.A_Deepness_in_the_Sky 0 0 false Tue Sep 15 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 09 12:43:49 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 15 09:36:14 -0700 2009 more...]]> 226004 0812536355 9780812536355 1027 72 4.33 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1217218691m/226004.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/226004.A_Deepness_in_the_Sky 4 0 false Sat Apr 04 02:32:55 -0700 2009 Sat Apr 04 02:38:41 -0700 2009
There's one bit I really like near the beginning, where the characters show up in a new interesting star system and there's an unknown ship there. So they meet...more...]]> 226004 0812536355 9780812536355 1027 72 4.33 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1217218691m/226004.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/226004.A_Deepness_in_the_Sky 3 0 false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Fri Nov 21 17:24:38 -0800 2008 Fri Nov 21 17:55:09 -0800 2008
The point of view of the spiders is kinda lame at times. While the luddite spiders were kind of an interesting dynamic, I didn't really love reading about them quite that much. I also go...more...]]> 226004 0812536355 9780812536355 1027 72 4.33 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1217218691m/226004.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/226004.A_Deepness_in_the_Sky 4 0 false Sat Jun 06 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 08 18:28:55 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 06 06:57:32 -0700 2009 more...]]> 226004 0812536355 9780812536355 1027 72 4.33 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1217218691m/226004.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/226004.A_Deepness_in_the_Sky 4 0 false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Mar 02 09:43:56 -0800 2009 Mon Mar 02 09:53:29 -0800 2009
With all Sci-Fi, you must grant the author some degree of fantasy and improbability.

But that aside, I really enjoyed the sociological consequences of technology this book explored. Among them:

The impact of millenia of computer programmin...more...]]> 226004 0812536355 9780812536355 1027 72 4.33 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1217218691m/226004.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/226004.A_Deepness_in_the_Sky 4 0 false Tue Aug 11 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jan 13 23:14:19 -0800 2009 Wed Aug 12 00:10:31 -0700 2009
To a very small extent, this is a prequel to Vinge's A Fire Upon The Deep — it is set much earlier in the same universe, and feature...more...]]> 459739 2221090292 9782221090299 1 1 4.33 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174947022m/459739.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/459739.Au_tr_fonds_du_ciel 5 0 false Mon Mar 10 00:00:00 -0800 2003 Thu Jul 03 04:59:03 -0700 2008 Thu Oct 02 02:26:18 -0700 2008 Au tréfonds du ciel raconte les expéditions rivales, puis conjointes, de deux civilisations spatiales vers une étrange étoile, dont le soleil s’allume et se réteind tout les deux cents ans exactement. Bien sûr, il y aura la guerre, la désolation et la mort, mais il y aura aussi la découver...more...]]> 226004 0812536355 9780812536355 1027 72 4.33 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1217218691m/226004.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/226004.A_Deepness_in_the_Sky 5 0 false Wed Mar 19 16:49:18 -0700 2008 Thu Mar 20 17:42:26 -0700 2008 more...]]> 226004 0812536355 9780812536355 1027 72 4.33 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1217218691m/226004.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/226004.A_Deepness_in_the_Sky 4 0 false Thu May 28 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 01 13:34:05 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 01 13:36:30 -0700 2009 more...]]> 226004 0812536355 9780812536355 1027 72 4.33 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1217218691m/226004.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/226004.A_Deepness_in_the_Sky 2 0 false Wed Jun 24 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu May 21 18:52:48 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 24 12:17:59 -0700 2009
There are some problems. While the Focused characters is the use of mental modificatio...more...]]> 5956993 14 5 4.33 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1228009032m/5956993.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5956993.A_Deepness_in_the_Sky 5 0 false Tue Mar 31 19:56:50 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 31 19:59:47 -0700 2009 more...]]> 226004 0812536355 9780812536355 1027 72 4.33 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1217218691m/226004.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/226004.A_Deepness_in_the_Sky 4 0 false Fri Jul 10 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 16 07:59:37 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 14 12:21:51 -0700 2009 more...]]> 226004 0812536355 9780812536355 1027 72 4.33 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1217218691m/226004.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/226004.A_Deepness_in_the_Sky 5 0 false Mon Dec 01 22:07:53 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 01 22:09:48 -0800 2008 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=226004