A Fire Upon the Deep

An interesting read, but fails to fully expand on it's ideas.

The opening of the book was difficult to follow. Usually I enjoy a story that respects its readers intelligence, a book that isn't afraid to have the reader be temporarily confused as they slowly take in the details of the universe. However, A Fire Upon the Deep pushes this too far. We are introduced to multiple different characters of different species, in different locations of the universe. All the while, a universe level cataclysm is brewing - involving a complicated tiered universe that must be understood to fully appreciate the intensity of the conflict. This all happens in basically the opening chapters of the book. It's simultaneously very interesting and very frustrating because of how quickly we are forced to accept all this information.

Further aggravating this frustration is that, as the book continues past the opening it has seemingly run out of ideas. Vernor seems to have spent all his ideas creating the universe and saved nothing to keep readers interested as the book progresses. What we are left with is a mostly shallow, and quite frankly boring “race against time” that reads like a police chase taking place on an escalator, in which both parties are unable to move their feet. There are few compelling characters and very little story development. The book just meanders slowly towards it's inevitable conclusion at a painstakingly slow pace.

Among the interesting ideas that Vernor fails to satisfyingly elaborate on is the Tines - a race of dog like creatures who must combine into groups of multiple individuals to form single entity. I found it an very compelling idea, but the book fails to satisfyingly explore the idea. Aside from a few core differences, the Tines form a civilization essentially the same as humankind. They develop castles, bows and arrows, and boats all in basically the exact same form as humans have. Perhaps Vernor is exploring the idea that all invention must converge on a few core concepts - if so that belief was not adequately explored. And so the compelling idea of a multi-minded race become essentially packs of intelligent dogs imitating humans. It's frustrating and ultimately gets worse in the book that follows A Fire Upon the Deep.

If you crave Sci-fi in all it's forms, by all means give the book a shot. There are enough interesting ideas to make the book readable.

If you crave storytelling, interesting characters and philosophical ideas explored in interesting ways - stay away.