They are super intelligent, and are one of the most fascinating parts of this novel. The Tines are dog-like creatures that are separated into small packs of 3-6 (generally) individual “dogs” making up a single hive-mind personality.
I am paraphrasing there and not using the correct terms, but using those terms would make me have to describe the whole effing book so that it all makes sense to the reader who hasn’t experienced this novel.Ī small ship with very few humans on board escapes the Blight and crashes on a medieval world inhabited by a race of creatures soon dubbed the Tines.
The main story revolves around a civilization of humans unearthing an entity (the Blight) that spreads throughout the galaxy taking over nearly everything. The odd tone of the prologue vanished (later I came to understand it… still hate it, but understand it), and I was left discovering an enthralling universe filled with odd aliens and a very small cast of humans. The good news is that the next 80 pages were completely fascinating. But I had made promises, and I keep my promises at least 50% of the time. I wanted to put the book down and go read some James Barclay. Honestly I was prepared to be totally let down, but I pressed on so that I could give a newbie’s view on the novel.įirst impression? I read the prologue and absolutely hated it. See what all the fuss is about.” After all, A FIRE UPON THE DEEP is considered one of THE classics in SF.
He had just sent me his review for Vinge’s THE CHILDREN OF THE SKY, and I thought, “Hmm. Likewise my good reviewer, Shawn, was a bit surprised at this glaring hole in my reading background. A week later I had a copy in my PO Box from that same publicist. I happened to mention to a publicist at Tor that I hadn’t read the Vernor Vinge classic, and he freaked out. I’m sure tabloids are going crazy somewhere. That’s why I let my reviewer, Shawn, handle most SF novels that are sent to me.Īnyway, back to my startling revelation. Every now-and-then I find an SF novel that I really enjoy, but it just isn’t my thing. In general, I think most writers of SF are far more interested in showing how intelligent they are rather than telling a good story.
The thing is, and I’ve mentioned this before, I’m not a big SF reader. I had never read A FIRE UPON THE DEEP ( Amazon) until now.
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