> Behalf Of Joshua Bell
> ...
>
> Marooned in Realtime (Vernor Vinge)
>
>
> I picked this up as Vinge books tend to be (a) good and (b) out
> of print. It
> turned out to be a sequel to a book - The Peace War - which I haven't yet
> read. As I read MiR I kept thinking of how it could easily have
> been written
> by David Brin in terms of style and pacing - but that it wouldn't
> have been
> a sequel in that case. Like many of Brin's books, you're quickly dropped
> into the action and information about previous events is dropped
> occasionally but is generally irrelevant to the story.
>
Marooned in Realtime has very, very little to do with "The Peace War" In
Brinspeak, it is as much a sequel of Peace War as "The Uplift War" is a
sequel to "Startide Rising". That is, you can read both books concurrently,
spot a couple of crossover points - mainly the technology, perhaps a
character and not much more - enjoy two pretty good stories and be able to
read them in whatever order you please.
Personally, I enjoyed Peace War more than Realtime. Part of that feeling,
though could be like the initial disappointment of reading Brightness Reef
expecting a direct continuation of Startide, when it didn't happen. I'd
give:
* Peace War, 4 Joshes out of 5
* Realtime, 3 or 3.5 Joshes
* Fire upon the Deep, 5 Joshes
* Deepness in the Sky, 4.9 recurring Joshes
Brett
PS: Have we now got a Brinnell measuring standard - The Josh? ;-)
