Loved itI did go back to this and reread it and it holds up. It holds up better than this does, but these are two incredibly important books to me.
Review 1 of 10
A Fire upon the Deep (1992)
Others: Mostly positive Thousands of years in the future, humanity is no longer alone in a universe where a mind's potential is determined by its location in space, from superintelligent entities in the Transcend, to the limited minds of the Unthinking Depths, where only simple creatures, and technology, can function. Nobody knows what strange force partitioned space into these "regions of thought," but when the warring Straumli realm use an ancient Transcendent artifact as a weapon, they unwittingly unleash an awesome power that destroys thousands of worlds and enslaves all natural and artificial intelligence. Fleeing this galactic threat, Ravna crash lands on a strange world with a ship-hold full of cryogenically frozen children, the only survivors from a destroyed space-lab. They are taken captive by the Tines, an alien race with a harsh medieval culture, and used as pawns in a ruthless power struggle.
- ISBN:
- 9780765329820
- Length:
- 613 pages
Genres: science fiction
Lists: …
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A Deepness in the Sky (Zones of Thought)
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1999 · 606 pages · 12 reviews
Others: Mostly positiveFrom inside cover Tor First Edition March 1999: Thirty thousand years before the events of A Fire upon the Deep, Pham Nuwen is living in anonymity among the Qeng Ho interstellar trading fleet. In high orbit above the planet Arachna, they wait for the awakening of its dormant population, the Spiders, who have burrowed deep into the planet, awaiting the relighting of the On/Off star their planet orbits. For when light returns, Arachna will at long last explode into a Golden Age of technology and commerce. But the slumbering Spiders' vulnerability has attracted another lurking presence -- the Emergents, a band of traders whose plans for Arachna are more sinister than anything the Qeng Ho could envision. Reluctant to share their spoils with the Qeng Ho, the Emergents unleash an attack unlike any seen in the Qeng Ho's millennia-long history of exploration, reducing their fleet to serfdom... and then to something worse. Reaching into memories so old and painful he can barely recall them, Pham gathers the other "survivors" about him and makes a final attempt to be worthy of a reputation as ancient and storied as the history of the Qeng Ho itself. But time is running out, for soon the Emergents' assault will strip Arachna bare. As Pham's underground resistance cell struggles against its torturers in space, a wondrously gifted clan of Spiders on the planet below fights another battle - to advance their technology quickly enough to defeat their terrestrial foes, and to somehow overcome the invisible enemy lurking above.
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Loved it
Loved itThe alien world building is pretty much exceptional. Particularly the Tines, I thought, who were the pack-based dogs that we spoke of.
Review 1 of 5
Loved itYeah, I read that. You loved it? Yeah, I loved it.
Loved itI just thought this book had so much to offer all you have to do is get through it
Loved itthis book just has some really cool ideas it's one where you are not spoonfed what is happening there are no info dumps instead you really have to take your time pay attention to the book and understand what the author is trying to convey
Not a fanI tried to read this before I successfully got through A Deepness in the Sky and A Fire Upon the Deep. Those two are longer books and I didn't really enjoy the style of them.