The Children of the Sky

If your favorite part of Vernor Vinge's Hugo-winning "A Fire Upon the Deep" was the relations between two human children and the dog-like hive minds called Tines on the medieval planet on which they became stranded, then you will love "The Children of the Sky".If you liked AFUtD for the peeks into the connected, multi-civilization melange of super tech species and near godlike transcended Powers, and the desperate flight of the rescue ship "Out of Band II" from the voracious Blight that was shut [...]

There's a scene in A Beautiful Mind where Nash is visited by a friend and former colleague after coming home from the mental hospital. Nash shows his friend his latest work, which is just childish scribbling, from a man who had previously done work worthy of a Nobel Prize. The friend gives him patronizing encouragement but it's clear that he's horrified at what has happened.That's how I felt upon getting into The Children of the Sky. Vinge has produced two of the best books I've ever had the pri [...]

ALMOST a 5. I have seen some fairly critical reviews of The Children of the Sky, but it seems that in general they do not criticize the book for what it is but rather because it is not what they wanted it to be. Vinge fans have been waiting for this book eagerly, because the other two books in the series were so good. My impression, though, is that there seem to be (at least) 3 kinds of readers involved, and we were anticipating 3 different books. First, there are the people interested in the al [...]

First off, I was a huge fan of Vinge's other books, A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky. They were awesome examples of hard science fiction, rife with interesting and innovative ideas and characters. Sadly Children of the Sky does not come close to its predessesors.To me it felt like the story suffered from Secondbookitis. It seems pretty clear that there is going to be a sequel, but this book just didn't know what to do in the interim. It was interesting to see how the humans were bo [...]

This was a bit of a roller coaster for me, in that I expected huge undertakings and huge payoffs, but what I got never delivered more than an upheaval of Tines society and the progression toward a technological revolution in the Slow Zone, but after I got over this rather large disappointment, I was pleased to run with all the packs in a fascinating, complex, and plot-driven wonder of a really good character novel.I should have reread A Fire Upon The Deep first, but it wasn't absolutely necessar [...]

When you're following up one of the best science fiction books of the late 20th Century (A Fire Upon the Deep), expectations will be high. And unfortunately, they're dashed here. There are parts of this book that are fantastic, but there are a few sections that are glacially paced. A bigger problem is the characters: One of the heroic leads from the first book comes across as a myopic idiot at times in this one, and having just re-read AFUTD prior to starting this, that was hard to swallow.Also [...]

Not quite as good as the first two, but still really enjoyable. The first two just have this great scope to them - they take place on more than just a single planet and with multiple groups of characters - while this one is smaller, confined to a single planet and a fairly straightforward story. Like I said, though, still really good. I really enjoyed this series and Vernor Vinge's writing. Looking forward to reading more by him.

Well, it's the sequel I've been waiting for - for almost 20 years. TWENTY-YEARS! Why, oh why, would a man who takes 20 years to write a sequel, clearly write something that does not wrap up the story? Yep, this is a trilogy, at the very least, and he puts these things out so slow, he's all but blackmailing the world to come up with some life extension technique that will allow him to continue writing for many more decades. Either that or we never find out how it ends.That's why I'm a bit pissed, [...]

I see several similarities between this book and Orson Scott Card's Speaker for the Dead, his sequel to Ender's Game.Both are sequels to exciting, mega-hit sci-fi novels involving space travel, action-packed battles, changes of locale, and more.Both sequels are confined to one particular planet, confined to the politics and relations between humans and one particular alien race.Both sequels, while somewhat well-written, are slow and mundane compared to the first novels they follow.

I can't say I waited twenty years for this like Vinge's long-time fans, since I only read A Fire Upon the Deep last year, but damn it was good to read another Vinge space opera. His Zones of Thought books now rival David Brin's Uplift series for my favorite SF. Vinge writes awesome, galaxy-spanning tales that manage to preserve some level of believability given a populated galaxy with super-advanced FTL technology, and he's particularly good with aliens, as he has proven with A Deepness in the S [...]

It took me a while to warm up to this book. I hate it when well-meaning characters are betrayed by people who want power, but who claim to be acting "for the greater good." That made the first third of the book unpleasant to me even though I realized what was happening with the humans on Tines World grew naturally out of their situation (the now-adult children, remembering their lives in the highly advanced Straumli Realm, resent being trapped in a medieval world). But then that pattern keeps re [...]

I was one of the numerous people who was looking forward to this book yet like so many others I found that, while it's enjoyable, it falls far short of the mark of its predecessors. A sequel to A Fire Upon the Deep, it's far more thematically similar to A Deepness in the Sky. There are two big drawbacks to this book. One is the glacial pace (I easily skimmed at least a hundred pages in the middle of the novel with no loss). Antagonists who are so obviously evil that they should've been dispatche [...]

A study in the dangers of high expectations.I so, so wanted to love this book. Vernor Vinge is a great author, and the other books in the Zones of Thought series serve as shining examples of the very best that science fiction has to offer. But while Children of the Sky is by no means a bad book, it is thoroughly average. The characters lacked life, the dialog was awkward, the plot twists alternated between being incredibly obvious and incredibly contrived, and on the whole it lacked the sense of [...]

Two credits. I had been anxiously awaiting the release of The Children of the Sky and totally planned on getting the audiobook because the ebook was too expensive. Then, it turned out that the audiobook was two credits on Audible. I hesitated for about one day. Then, I saw that it was narrated by my favorite narrator, Oliver Wyman and I caved. Wyman is absolutely wonderful and giving each character a unique voice and I have yet to hear a male narrator who does a better job at voicing women and c [...]

I read the 1st book for the aliens and I skipped the 2nd book because I hated Pham: there is no reason for me to read an entire book about him. I read this book because it continues the story of the Tines I enjoyed it even tho V.V. insists on continuing to kill my favorite characters. And I enjoyed it even tho the bigger picture story (about the Blight) has not been advanced here at all (except they may be 10 of the 30 light years closer.) (view spoiler)[There is probably zero chance of recovery [...]

It's a disappointing sequel to the excellent A Fire Upon the Deep. Set entirely on Tines world, the surviving characters from A Fire Upon the Deep have some adventures against power-hungry villains. Annoyingly, it doesn't tell a complete story - the big showdown with The Blight is trailed repeatedly, but won't happen until some later book. If an author repeatedly says "ooh there's a big interesting bad guy coming", said bad guy really should make an appearance. The wolf-pack Tines remain an inte [...]

From B&N:"After nearly twenty years, Vernor Vinge has produced an enthralling sequel to his memorable bestselling novel A Fire Upon the Deep.In Children of the Sky, ten years have passed on Tines World, where Ravna Bergnsdot and a number of human Children ended up after a disaster that nearly obliterated humankind throughout the galaxy. Ravna and the pack animals for which the planet is named have survived a war, and Ravna has saved more than one hundred Children who were in cold-sleep aboar [...]

The best thing about this novel are the Tine, a fascinating alien species, telepathic and with an individual existing as groups of individuals with a sense of immortality. Vinge explores the possibilities of such group minds quite well. Humans provide a foil which helps us understand the nature of the Tine. He does an adequate job, but throughout my read I kept wishing CJ Cherryh had written the work. She is The Master of alien/human interactions. My main problem with the book was the plot or st [...]

Not as immediately immersive as A Fire Upon the Deep, somewhat disappointing after part-readin A Deepness In The Sky recently, I'd have to described this as a curate's egg. The world building, given we've been here before, is wonderfully well handled, as is the integration of the High Lab humans into the Tinish Society.The tines are the most realised aspect of the book - Woodcarver is, thankfully, largely absent from this book, as is (sadly) Pilgrim. The replacement cast, among them Amdi and oth [...]

I've got mixed feelings about this book. I respect and admire what Vernor Vinge is doing with the aliens, but I have no love for this novel. It is long and some parts are, for me, really boring. Its prequel, A Fire Upon Deep, is much better but still has some of the same problems. Despite this, I will read the sequel of The Children of the Sky without hesitation (hoping the wait will not be as long), because the story in this middle book has great potential.

The editor should be shot! I enjoyed the first book in this series but this one contributed very little to the story line - lots of stuff we did not need to get the points I think the author was trying to get across in way too many words. I like the concept of the series so I will continue to read the series, unless the next book is like this one - then, like the wheel of time series, I will drop it - something I rarely do!

Well that left me hanging! I still want to know what's happened to Pham Nuwen! This went back to the Tines world, which was interesting, but I still like the second volume better :)

cum prima carte din serie a fost, după gustul meu, compusă dintr-o parte space opera de 2/5 și una first contact de 5+/5, faptul că aceasta este 100% doar cu partea de first contact m-a făcut s-o încep cu așteptări foarte mari.Șiiiii. am dat peste 700 de pagini de umplutură, care m-au plictisit considerabil; practic mi-a displăcut să citesc acest volum. Pe deasupra, dacă prima era cumva între public foarte tânăr, tânăr și matur, aceasta este trimisă direct spre țintă adoles [...]

I usually don't give books less that 3 stars, because if it's that bad, then I simply stop reading them.This book gets 2 stars because I was (only vaguely) curious enough to find out how it ends, and boy was that a waste of time.A non-ending; no loose ends tied up, an important character dies offscreen and it turns out that was the climax? So many questions left unanswered (in fact, not addressed), and I just don't care what happens to anyone.

First off, I really liked A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky, even though right now I couldn't tell you much about their plots except that they involved "dog packs" and "spiders," respectively. So I was very excited to see this new book out.I enjoyed it. I found it pretty compelling and I'm impressed at how Vinge is able to weave together so many characters and stories. It does seem like he's definitely set himself up for further stories in this world, what with Nevil's Best Hope col [...]

Представете си две раси, които живеят много дълго във времето, но на порции, често изпадащи в хибернация.Едната на хората - поради естественото на далечните междузвездни полети. Свръхсветлинното пътуване не е открито, лети се само с 0.3 от светлината скорост, лети се векове, н [...]

Darn. Another big book that doesn't tell you IT ISN'T GOING TO WRAP THINGS UP until the next book. OK, it does a decent job of coming to the novel equivalent of a large semi-colon. I wish there was a way to find out whether a book's a standalone without risking big spoilers. There's a lot of five-star in this book, but also quite a bit of three-star. Surprisingly few reviewers have noted how interesting the exploration of the Tines concept is. I smiled every time I read "One of X came closer" or [...]

"Children of the Sky" ist der 3. Band der tvtropes/pmwiki/pmwikip Zones of Thought Serie von Vernor Vinge. Die beiden ersten Teile, amazon/Fire-Upon-Zones A Fire Upon The Deep (1992) und amazon/A-Deepness-Sky- A Deepness in the Sky (1999) sind ja nun schon 20 und 12 Jahre alt, und so beschäftigt sich ein guter Teil der Handlung damit, die Handlung aus A Fire Upon The Deep wieder aufzunehmen, bekannte Charactere neu einzuführen und vor allen Dingen eine neue Situation aufzubauen, nachdem der er [...]

I had the great luck to have read "A Fire Upon the Deep" just a couple years ago, and so didn't have to wait quite as long as some graybeards that were onto this from the very beginning. "A Fire Upon the Deep" was a VERY engaging book from me, and one of the very few that was really a constant, read for hours, page turner. One of the clear differences between AFUtD and it's sequel, "The Children of the Sky" is that the sequel doesn't have the galactic wide "zones of thought" sort of stuff as AFU [...]

This is my first experience with Vernor Vinge and his particular style of science fiction. Just so you know: this book is part of his "Zones of Thought" series, and this is book #3. #1 is A Fire Upon the Deep, followed by A Deepness in the Sky as #2. There is also a free Kindle download for "After the Battle on Starship Hill: Prologue to The Children of the Sky." I probably would have enjoyed this book more if I knew I was starting in the middle of a series but this is what happens when we recei [...]