[geeks] Good computer fiction books

[Phil Stracchino]

On 11/12/12 15:54, Andrew Jones wrote:
> On 11/05/12 18:22, Phil Stracchino wrote:
>> On 11/05/12 18:03, Brian Dunbar wrote:
>>> On Mon, Nov 5, 2012 at 4:50 PM, Jonathan Patschke<jp at celestrion.net>  wrote:
>>>
>>> Vinge's 'Deepness in the Sky' isn't computer-centric, but computers
>>> are such a part _of_ any space-faring culture they're as necessary to
>>> survival as water and air.
> 
> Vinge's other great work in the same universe, 'A Fire Upon The Deep,' 
> has almost no spacefaring in it... but hangs the bulk of the expository 
> material on multi-species, poorly-translated Shiny Future Usenet.

IMHO 'A Deepness in the Sky' is only technically and by publisher
designation set in the same universe as 'A Fire upon the Deep'.  The two
books have absolutely nothing in common except that they both contain
both human and nonhuman characters, and while Deepness is claimed to be
a prequel to Fire, at an official 20,000 years' separation and with not
a single plot point or location in common that's a pretty meaningless
claim.  I'm guessing it's something the publisher told Vinge to say to
tie the three books together for marketing purposes.

Now, 'Children of the Sky' *is* in the same universe as 'A Fire upon the
Deep', set ten years later.



-- 
  Phil Stracchino, CDK#2     DoD#299792458     ICBM: 43.5607, -71.355
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