Rating: 
Summary: A Good Follow-Up
Review: I had pretty much finished "A Fire Upon the Deep" and since I liked it I decided to give its prequel "A Deepness in the Sky" a try. I was not disappointed.Anyone who read Fire Upon the Deep knows that a direct sequel was pretty tough (with all of the main characters being either stranded or killed by the end), but a prequel provided quite a bit of insight into Pham Nuwen, one of "Fire"'s central characters. Much like Fire Upon the Deep, this book is long, but it isn't tedious. There are quite a few characters which are followed for roughly 40 years, but the people are not so spread out and disconnected that the author or reader gets lost of confused about who and where people are. The beginning is slow going, but eventually I was drawn into the web of intrigue being spun by Vinge. To put it succinctly, if you liked Fire Upon the Deep, you'll like this book too. The fundamental flaw, though, with both of Vinge's books (moreso this latest work) is that he assumes that all cultures inevitably develop the same way. No matter how alien the race is they will all develop radio, computers, nuclear weapons, etc. In essence, all alien races will become like humans, as we see in this book with the "Spiders". When we first meet the Spiders they are already much like humans with cars and radio, but in time they become even more human with their own Arms/Space Race, computer networks, nuclear weapons, even a form of television. I can understand that a lot of this was to accomodate the story, but honestly I think that any alien race will be just that, alien, and won't necessarily follow the same path of development that we have on Earth. That is the biggest drawback to this story, but it is easily ignored. The end of "Deepness" leaves more than enough room open for another prequel, where we can learn all about the last years of Pham Nuwen's life before he is inevitably killed until being resurrected many, many years later. Overall, Deepness in the Sky is intimidating in size, but the deeper you delve into the book, the more you will enjoy it.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent!
Review: Fascinating story in an extremely plausible yet fantastic universe. Vinge's treatment of the spiders was fantastic - not personified, rather well thought out and fully developed. Some have called the book long and slow - I found it well paced and it left me longing for more! Well resolved, mind you, I just found myself missing the characters and story. This book motivated me to purchase A Fire Upon the Deep (which I am currently reading) and Across Realtime (which shoud arrive next week.
Rating:
Summary: Please write more novels Mr. Vinge
Review: Once again Vernor creates a masterful novel. Fire Upon the Deep had great far reaching ideas and wonderfully made characters. Deepness in the Sky continues with that tradition. The most intriguing ideas in this book are the "spider" aliens and the planet they reside on which goes dark for 12 years. Vernor Vinge is a great writer, I only wish it did not take him so long to write new novels. I am sure many of us eagerly look forward to what he may come up with next!!
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting characters and story but....
Review: I've spent many involved hours happily immersed in Vernor Vinges wonderful tales, but I was disappointed in "A Deepness In The Sky". The characters were unusual and interesting, but seemed only half there. Just enough history was given to bring them to life, but they all remained sadly flat. There was great but unrealized potential in all of them. Similarly, I found the story interesting and seething with potential, but found it, too, sadly flat. This is a long and interesting journey, but there are many better tales by Vinge and others that would be time and imagination better spent.
Rating:
Summary: Refuge for Thought
Review: This prequel to A Fire Upon the Deep continues Vernor Vinge's exploration of alien cultures; but it can be read entirely independently of the sequel. He plays with intriguing concepts like the nature of free will and morality, while delivering a swashbuckling space opera.
Rating:
Summary: Enthralling read.
Review: This book is supposed to be a prequil to the Hugo-winning "Fire Upon the Deep", but it eclipses that book by a longshot. I found Deepness in the Sky to contain more true sci-fi elements than "Fire". Vinge's story telling is much improved in Deepness. The characters and technology are better than "Fire." This novel is a great read.
Rating: 
Summary: Too deep---way too long!
Review: OK, I suppose this must be a great book, if all of the awards it has received are on the money. Problem is, I thought is was boring as heck. It moves at a snail's pace, and the characters are not all that interesting. The first two hundred pages held my interest, but then the plot became transparent. Even with the switching around from world to ship to world, everything just bogged down. I had to go into skim and scan mode to get by the next few hundred pages and then fast scan and burn to turn got me through the rest of it. NOT recommended unless you are into a long long slow moving read.
Rating:
Summary: Download Now!
Review: A+, no-brainer, guaranteed, first-rate Hugo quality. Similiar two interelated stories/plot as last Something in Sky V. Vinge novcl, but better. Anything more is a spoiler.
Rating:
Summary: Hugo winner for a reason.
Review: Took a chance on this because it's a Hugo winner. (I had never read Vinge.) With "Deepness," he creates a plausible, cruel space environment, populated with enigmatic, scheming characters. There's nice speculative science/physics in the book. The story is compelling, and the character grudges/motivations are convincing. A few key shocks and surprises keep this 750+ pager fresh througout. Nice plot turns and character development as well as a couple "light-bulb" moments, regarding humanity. But mostly a decent action space-epic. ...
Rating:
Summary: Better than Fire upon the Deep
Review: I recently finished this book and found it to be outstanding. It was even better than Fire Upon the Deep. It many ways it is a similiar book and tells a similiar story, but it is just better. It has heros, villians, and lots of people in between. Some aspects of Fire just confused me (all the stuff about the high beyond, low beyond, etc). This book really doesn't have much that is confusing at all. If you like large, well developed stories, this is for you.
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