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

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When the Qeng Ho and the Emergents arrive, the Spiders are dormant, frozen in their deepnesses, but when the star flares to life, they are poised to enter a modern technological age in the next generation. Din punct de vedere al complexității Universului și al introducerii de noi concepte, Adâncurile cerului nu m-a șocat, limitându-se la planetele cunoscute de către oameni, a căror tehnologie nu permite călătoria cu viteze superluminice.

Pham Nuwen, the founder of the Qeng Ho trading culture, is living aboard the fleet under the pseudonym Pham Trinli, posing as an inept and bumbling fleet elder. This is a ‘hard’ space opera, with speed of light limit on communication/travel, quite unusual for the genre.That was probably the most original and interesting idea of A Fire Upon the Deep, so I was surprised Vinge didn’t want to explore it further.

I can't help but feel that the book would have been better if it couldn't have trimmed off 100 or 200 pages of this information throughout the book, and in its place spend more time at the end. If we don't find fancy physics or technology to cast off the shackles of the light-speed barrier, we're looking at a very distorted, relativistic existence indeed. Later in the book, we get a description of the spiders from a human perspective and that is very different. Vinge's gift for characterization is again evident here though, with lovable aliens, eccentrics and a mustache twirling Machiavellian archvillain (OK, no mustache!The conspirators subvert the Emergents' systems and put their plans in action, but so do a small group of Spiders who have become aware of the humans and have been working in secret for years to subvert their Focused as well. A second novel in which Vinge, coming with a much more compelling writing than before, showing a greater ease – and experience – in his plot- and character-development, and making his narration even more realistic and powerful, creates a long yet absorbing story of conflicting cultures, technological advancements, unexpected and brutal plot twists, and mind-stretching ideas. While the payoff in the end fell just a little short to me, the book is very well written, the premise is brilliant, and Vinge is a master of atmosphere.

Because if there's one constant across the depths of space and time, it's that nothing lasts forever. The bad guys of the human characters are terrible and evil but evil in an intricate way which makes it seem plausible and therefore even more terrible.Second by second, the Qeng Ho counted from the instant that a human had first set foot on Old Earth's moon. 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. Vinge's characters speculate that the Spiders descend from minor life forms living amongst an ancient star-faring civilization, and that the anti-gravity material and other strange artifacts have connections with that civilization.

Underhill's family is at the centre of the same kind of social and political turmoil we've seen so often in human society, particularly in this past century. Qeng Ho ανάμεσα στους Emergents, παρατηρώντας τις συζητήσεις των ανθρώπων του με τους οικοδεσπότες τους και θαυμάζοντας τον νεοκατασκευασμένο οικότοπό τους, o Ezr θα χαλαρώσει στην καρέκλα του, ακούγοντας για οτιδήποτε που θα μπορούσε να του δώσει μια ιδέα για την στάση τους. The "Focus" is one of the most chilling forms of slavery I've seen in fiction--one where with your mind enslaved, your body follows. 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. Relația dintre cele două grupuri este marcată de egoism și interese ascunse, ajungându-se inevitabil la trădări, crime și mușamalizări.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". It involves the most memorable and vibrant of the human characters, Pham Nuwen and his time among the trading fleet, the Qeng Ho. This "Counter Lurk" was devised by Spider uber-genius Sherkaner Underhill, but it seemed cinematic and implausible to me. Only one concrete connection links A Deepness in the Sky with A Fire Upon the Deep: the character of Pham Nuwen, the "Programmer-at-Arms", who appears in both books.