Vernor Vinge
1993
Awards: Hugo
Nominations: Nebula
Rating: ★ ★ - - -
As
advertised on the cover, this certainly is grand-scope,
universe-covering sci-fi. It is generally well crafted and many of the
ideas are cool. But I found that I lost interest in most of the story
lines.
Vinge divides the galaxy into concentric regions, from the
core to the periphery: the Unthinking Depths, the Slow Zone, and the
Beyond. The regions’ names reflect the level of technology that will
work in them; as you go out from the core, you are able to use
progressively higher and higher levels of technology. (Faster-than-light
propulsion won’t work in the Unthinking Depths, for example.)
Outside
of the galaxy is a region called the Transcend which is the home of
entities that are so unbelievably powerful that humans can’t even
comprehend their abilities. A group of humans living at the farthest
edge of the galaxy accidentally wakes up an evil entity in the
Transcend, and the entity starts to take over the galaxy, turning more
and more worlds to its thrall as it makes its way inwards.
One
group of humans is able to escape with a space-bending tool that can
stop the evil entity. Unfortunately, they end up crash-landing on a
planet in the Slow Zone and all the adults are killed by the planet's
medieval dog-like indigenous residents so it is up to the human children
to save the galaxy.
I
found the adult humans in this story generally annoying. The kids were
okay and I liked the dog-creatures a lot. Each dog-creature is actually a
“pack” made up of anywhere from four to six individual living
“elements.” By themselves, the elements can’t think well and tend to run
around randomly, but when several are combined into a pack, they can
form a single highly intelligent being. The book picks up when it is
focused on the dog world but it definitely slows down when it switches
to the human story lines (which, unfortunately, take up most of the
book).
This review originally appeared on Cheeze Blog.
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