Review: A Fire Upon the Deep

A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge

Somehow, I ended up with two copies of A Fire Upon the Deep. I entered one of Tor’s many giveaways promoting The Children of the Sky and won; the prize package included the incredibly fancy new trade paperback edition of A Fire Upon the Deep, presumably to get potential readers up to speed. However, I had found a copy of it in a local used bookstore a few weeks prior, after being unable to find A Fire Upon the Deep in either of my library systems. (This appears to have been a fluke; I encountered a copy shelving.) In any case, I’ll probably give away the extra copy, because this is a novel I want you guys to read.

Review: The Children of the Sky

The Children of the Sky by Vernor Vinge

This is going to be interesting. You see, I won a prize pack from Tor.com that included A Fire Upon the Deep (a copy of which I already had) and The Children of the Sky. Naturally, I read them in order, but The Children of the Sky was an ARC, and I always try and put up reviews for ARCs the day before they’re released. So, yes, I’ve read A Fire Upon the Deep, but that review will go up at the beginning of November. Naturally, as this is a review for the sequel, there will be spoilers for A Fire Upon the Deep below. Alright, now that that’s out of the way, let’s get to the actual review.

Booking Through Thursday: Queue

What are you reading now?

Would you recommend it?

And what’s next?

At the moment I’m reading my first piece of Dragon*Con swag, John Lenahan’s Shadowmagic, which I would not recommend—there’s zero set-up and it desperately tries to be funny without ever hitting the mark. Next up is Amy Kathleen Ryan’s Glow, which will be released next Tuesday, so I need my review up by Monday, even though it’s Book Blogger Appreciation Week next week. (Blindsides me every year. I should probably put it on my calendar.) It’s young adult science fiction, so I don’t foresee any problems with that. After that, probably Lavinia or Mélusine to cleanse the palette before A Fire Upon the Deep, then Blood Rights, then The Children of the Sky… my queue is so orderly at the moment, but I’m working with some advance reviews at the moment. Usually, it’s a lot more free and easy.