Rating: 
Summary: introduces some interesting ideas.
Review: I liked this book as is clear from the five stars. So instead of spilling out lots of praise I will try to explain what you have to expect if you read this book.First of all it is truly science fiction. (Both lots of fiction lots of science...) I wonder if someone who hasn't some science background or at least science fiction background (like for example my mother) can enjoy such a book. People who do like science fiction and especially the possibility to explore some hypothetical scenarios will probably like this book a lot. The scenario has some real unique ideas (like the zones of thought), fascinating alien races (like the tines and skrode riders) and super powers which war amongst themselves. Some reviewers said that the book was a slow read in some parts. Well I have to admit that I don't remember any slow parts, but I'm a fast reader and so if a "slow part" doesn't stretch over hundreds of pages I don't get bored easily. (Especially not if the scenario is elaborated, since I always like a good scenario.) If you are more into action packed stories this book might bore you - there is some action but not lots of it. The story itself is split up in two main strands: One strand follows, two children which are stranded on a backwater world with some strange aliens (the tines), which are devided in two factions. The other strand follows the character of "Pham Nuwen" (the hero ?) and the global events which happen in the important part of the universe (like the emergence of an "evil" super power - a so called "perversion".) Of course both strands ARE connected ... Last but not least: If you like real complex hypothetical (science fiction/cyberpunk) scenarios you might have a look at "Snowcrash".
Rating:
Summary: Makes it to my "page turner" list.
Review: I like it when a book grabs my attention from the first pages, and this one certainly did. I liked the pace, and dedicated a whole Saturday to reading the last half of the book, so engrossed I was. I liked the characters, specially the lupine race. I don't think I had found the kind of collective mind Vinge uses with them anywhere else. The concept of Powers and Zones is great, even though the Zones may go against the "Elegant Universe" supersimmetry. I had never read anything by Vernor Vinge, but I'm looking forward to read other books by him.
Rating: 
Summary: Everyone else is ga-ga, calls it a classic. I don't see it.
Review: I had had this book suggested so many times. So when I finally got around to reading it, I was set up for disappointment and didn't finish it, not enjoying it at all. So when I came back to it much later and decided to give it another chance, I hoped for a turnaround. Not to be. Vinge is a smart smart guy, and clever. He builds some great threads into this book, which has been aptly described as space opera. I was looking for more of a philosophical bent, I guess. It's not that I wanted the book to be more serious - - I just kept getting the feeling that Vinge's tendencies for fairly traditional SF space-y tropes don't fit my liking. This didn't live up in the face of the likes of Bester or Haldeman (or even Heinlein, yikes), which is where I'd turn if I were you.
Rating:
Summary: The best SF book I have ever read
Review: The book is absolutely wonderful. It contains an amazing number of new (and fully scientifical, not just techno-babble!) ideas that lead to quite interesting and unexpected results. The writing itself is great, fast-paced so that the book keeps you turning pages and forgetting about everything else.
Rating: 
Summary: Liked it...For Some Reason
Review: Honestly, I don't know why I liked this book, but I did. For a 600 page book, it moved quickly, and for the most part I liked the characters from the dog-like "Tines" to the living-plant Skroderiders, to you average humans. I guess the reason why I liked this book was because the two books I'd read before it were, while shorter, quite long and quite dull. Read my review of "Destiny's Road" by Larry Niven, and while I think my review was too nasty to be posted, The "Reality Dysfunction" by Peter Hamilton was not good either, in my opinion. Both those books were tediously slow, I hated the characters, and in Hamilton's case he had so many characters he just lost track of them during the story. Vinge, on the other hand, has a manageable number of characters, each with enough personality so that I, as the reader, can like the good guys and dislike the bad guys. The story starts a little slow, but gains speed until the conclusion. Overall, I liked the book, but this whole "Zone" concept kept nagging at me. I can understand why closer to the center of a galaxy, faster-than-light travel might not work, since there are more stars producing gravity, more mass, etc., but why don't computers work as well? I guess I never took enough science classes to understand why technology becomes dumber the closer to the center one gets. It's like, if I put my computer and put it in a submarine and go to the bottom of the ocean it runs at 1/4 the speed and can only play Pong, why would that be the case? Is it just the way computers in the "Beyond" are designed, that the technology they use is disrupted by more mass, gravity, or whatever? I don't know, and the author never explained, which kind of ticked me off since it was so integral to the plot. I can hardly complain too much, though, as a writer I try to avoid scientific technobabble as much as I can because it doesn't interest me much, so I can't really fault Vinge if he's somewhat the same on that front. There are a few other things I didn't like. For instance, the names used to reference characters sometimes changed, like in one sentence Pham Nuwen is referred to as Pham, the next he's "Nuwen", and the next he's "Pham Nuwen". It was the same for some of the other characters, especially the "Tines". Maybe that's not technically wrong, but it was kind of annoying to me. Most of all, I didn't like that Vinge cheats the readers of reading about the final climactic battles. Right after the heroic rescue of a captured human and Tine, the story picks up after the battle, which was a little disappointing to me, but I could see the necessity of it. Overall, this is classic "space opera" (how I loathe that term as both a reader and writer!), but the end has a twist in that it doesn't end all Happily Ever After. It may be long, but it's worth the read, even if I can't fully explain what my fondness for this book was. This one is already a classic in its own right, and if you haven't read it, put it on your list.
Rating:
Summary: Good Stuff
Review: This is a book which is huge in scope, but the details are what make it beautiful. Its set on the sort-of cheesy proposition that how well a computer or electronic device will work changes based on one's position within the galaxy, but the consequences of such and the conclusions it reaches are very well thought-out. Better yet, the details are there, and right, but they're in the background -- the way they should be. What I found most remarkable about this book, though, is Vinge's characterization. Normally one does not read science fiction for great characters, but I thought that the characters here were very well implimented. As Vinge shifts his point of view between characters, you see how each of them see the same situation differently, and how they think differently, and how each's flaws impact their behavior. Once again, however, this isn't blatant and in-your-face (or at least, I didn't think so) but is evident anyway. Overly smiley and happy endings grate on me (I liked ESB the best), but ironically some of the characters in this book I REALLY did NOT want to die. Fitting that I should get my own medicine :) REally, though, this is a good book! :)
Rating:
Summary: The coolest aliens I've met in a long time
Review: I've been telling even my non-sci-fi-loving friends about the aliens in this book. One species was a sort of sentient seaweed with only long-term memory, until they got hooked up to cybernetic carts that give them mobility and also short-term memory, which enables them to interact meaningfully with other species. So now they look like potted plants in wagons. It's actually another alien species, the central one in the book, that I found the most interesting. I can't say much about them without spoiling of the fun of figuring them out, but they twist our understandings of selfhood, procreation, and the uses of radio. I also like Vinge's idea of the Zones of the galaxy--the Unthinking Depths, the Slow Zone, and the Beyond--which allow for different levels of technology and consciousness. I found the second half a little slow and the interstellar email messages kind of hokey and annoying. And I didn't much care for the two central adult humans, but I liked the kids and the non-humans and especially the relationship between one kid and one young non-human. All in all, this is a fun read with some highly creative ideas.
Rating:
Summary: Vinge is beyond the transcend
Review: Great book with some novel concepts presented in a thoroughly enjoyable manner. The concept of the tines and group-think along with an interesting and evolving plot-line made it a short 600 pages indeed. I can see how this book was an award winner - certainly deserving.
Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: I found this to be a really great book. I always enjoy it when an author has a lot to say, wants to develop the characters, and wants an complicated plot and doesn't try to cram the whole thing into 250 pages. This book almost seems too short at its length. That being said, the character development is outstanding, the plot is original and Vinge does a very good job of keeping several stories going at the same time until they intertwine. I would recommend this book to anyone.
Rating:
Summary: If you like the Foundation series...
Review: If you are a fan of the Foundation series or Ringworld, you will love this book. It is great science fiction filled with chases, new worlds, great aliens and some really cool concepts. This is definately "soft" SF, but this is a fun book that reminded me of a smarter "Star Wars" type of universe. Highly recommended.
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