Yes, There Are Still Good Sci-Fi Books, But...

I've said multiple times that Fire Upon the Deep by Verer Venji is really the book that kind of broke my skull open and in poured my nerdy fixation with science fiction lit.

I did find it frustrating in a few of its elements, but mostly I just found it kind of unexciting and uninteresting and not particularly special. The thing about the book that I think is really worthy of praise is in the very beginnings treatment of the rudimentary spider intelligence is really well done and really interesting.

I read it in one sitting and it's like 250, 300 pages long. It's like one of my favorite pieces of contemporary science fiction.

Overall, I don't think I was excited about it as I had hoped. It's certainly not a bad book, but it's one that I kind of had mixed feelings about. I do recommend it, especially for the first story, which I think is really great.