prog | (no subject)

I have started reading Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep after several friends blogged about it in unison. I think I was supposed to read A Deepening in the Sky first; the cover copy didn't make it clear which came first, but I find myself struggling a little bit to understand the setting (specifically the business about the laterally sliced galactic "speed-limit" zones). I love puzzling these things out, of course, but the mystery isn't presented in the same way as a more obviously intentional context-puzzle, the introduction of a plot-centric alien species. They're non-humanoid in a very interesting way, and this is revealed bit by bit in their introductory chapters, most of which take place from the POV of one of these critters -- starting long before we know exactly what it is (other than an intelligent person on an alien world).

It feels nice to slip into SF again. It's been a long time, after all that Robin Hobb fantasy, interleaved with Stephenson. (WRT Hobb: I don't foresee myself reading the ninth book in That Series, because I really don't like where things appear to be headed -- back into the situation that the Liveship series ended with, which I really didn't like. I will sum it up thus: the dragons seem to be total asshats who deserve annihilation (as the alternative, for humans, would appear to be life in subjugation), and am not under the impression that the author agrees with me. I would have been happy if the whole issue with the dragons was just left alone, but alas.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Fire was written first, though the story in Deepness happens first. Damn good, the both of them.

A Fire Upon the Deep was written first but is later chronologically than A Deepness in the Sky. According to

bitty (who just gave me A Deepness in the Sky), there's really not much connection between the two books. From the little information she gave me, though, I think there is a small but definite reason to read A Fire Upon the Deep first, and i'd be happy to discuss it with you once you've finished.

Concur on reading Fire first.

My general rule of thumb (and this has worked for pretty much every author I can think of) is that reading things in publication order works best (ideally, you want to read them in the order in which they were written, but you can't always know that)... regardless of what the internal chronology might be.

As for Vinge specifically, A Deepness in the Sky, even though it's a prequel, contains at least one spoiler for A Fire Upon the Deep that I can think of offhand, so you really do want to read the latter first.