A Fire Upon the Deep - Vernor Vinge

If this title is anything to go by, then Mr Vinge surely is the master that his reputation says he is. This is the first of his books that I've read, and while it is not a tale that grabs you by the throat and does not let you put it down until the end (600+ pages sees to that one!), once finished, it leaves the reader with feeling that they've been part of a worthwhile experience. In a far-future version of our own galaxy, where the internet's levels of information exchange now span the Milky Way, this tale begins with the birth of an evil, the birth of its nemesis, and of a planetfull of people trying to escape - And that's just the ...  Read the complete review

This is a wonderful story with the most imaginative aliens ever! One cannot put this book down as our 4 heroes race to rescue a boy ,who is marooned on a medieval planet populated with dog like creatures ,who only have human like conciousnesses if they live as packs. The heroes race to rescue this boy and the Galaxy!! It is wonderful how the author brings together this medival word and the greater world of the outer Galaxy! Although this is an excellent novel, there is one draw back. The story is interwoven with messages from the "Net". The problem is this "Net" is just like the Internet as it was when the book was published in 1992. The messages from ...  Read the complete review

Just as a pre-cursor, I don't tell stories in reviews. IMHO the whole point of a review is attitude on why you should read it. This book is probably the best sci-fi book I've ever read, due to it's cultures, their long term plans, the universe within it and the interesting (read as good) style of writing. The ideas that are in this book from the very start to the very end are amazingly big, spanning the time and size of whole galaxies, yet interwoven with warfare, politics and tactics from the "swords and spears" era of battles. The characters are incredibly well written, each race having a distinctive style with some of the ...  Read the complete review