Julia Thompson" wrote:
> Deborah Harrell wrote:
> >
<snip> Joan D. Vinge's 'Psiteen' (?sp?) series looked at a
> > future world in a gritty, cool way (think this was
> > aimed at a younger readership, though).
>
> Haven't read any of those. I've read a couple of her other novels, and
> enjoyed them.
Her "TheSnow Queen" (1981 Hugo) and "The Summer Queen" novels are great;
though both are long, the investment in time is well spent.
> But for a Vinge, give me Vernor. :) I finished _Across Realtime_ last
> weekend, and boy, that was a really good read. I recommended it to Dan,
> as well -- I think he'd really like it.
A few years back, when I made it a life quest to read and collect all the
major award winners, I picked up Venor Vinge's "A Fire Upon the Deep". That
book nearly turned me off reading anything by him. At the time I could
imagine how it won the 1993 Hugo (actually it tied with Connie Willis'
"Doomsday Book" (a very, very good read)). Of course a few years later his
"A Deepness in the Sky" was nominated for the 2000 Hugo, so I read to read
it. I started it grudgingly but to my surprise, it is excellent. It did
win the 2000 Hugo. So at that point, Mr. Vinge was a toss up. I then read
the two novels in "Across Realtime" ("The Peace War" and "Marooned in
Realtime") and the pendulum has swung clearly INTO Mr. Vinge's camp;
excellent reads. I will have to re-read "A Fire Upon the Deep".
I must qualify my initial dislike of "A Fire Upon the Deep" with this: the
wolf packs that became more or less intelligent dependent upon the number of
wolves in the pack and their proximity to each other is very, very
interesting. It was the rest of the book that had me wondering what the
heck was going on.
BTW, Mr. Vinge has come up with two brilliant and frightening concepts,
being "Bobbled" and being "Focused."
George A
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