The Children of the Sky (Zones of Thought series Book 3)

A better hard SciFi story than most currently being published. However, for a story with so much promise, in the end it falls short of what we've come to expect from Vernor Vinge. I won't rehash the mostly valid critique from other comments. I hope Vinge will return to this series with the kind of pacing and character development which will keep us turning his pages long after the initial awe and wonder of hard science and universe building.

Taken as a stand-alone (and ignoring the need for background), this might have been a good enough read. But after this book's most marvelous predecessor, Children of the Sky was a substantial letdown. I'm sad, rather than mad, and hope perhaps the best is yet to come.

I read the start of this book across multiple library checkouts. Finally i broke down and bought a paperback copy of the thing. Then a friend of mine broke his hip and i loaned it to him to read while he recuperated. But, he misunderstood and gave it away. Finally, i bought it as an ebook and, through various interruptions, I've continued to read it a few more years, until i finished it tonight. That's how dedicated I've been to this book ) I'm sorry it ended before the threat of the Blight was resolved, and I will miss reading it, and its precursors. Goodbye, Pham and Ravna, Johanna, Jefri, and Woodcarver.

A marvelous melding of humans and aliens.
Wonderfully intricately detailed and realistic.
Not the grand epic Galactic scale of the original, but a fantastic thought-provoking adventure, in a far future, far distant world, in the strange and intriguing universe of the "Zones of Thought".
Downside: I really was disappointed that we didn't find out more about the "Blight" and the wider Galactic happenings that were a part of the original.
But, Vinge's creation of the Tines pack-mind, and now the Choir-mind, is among the best envisioned alien biologies and cultures in Sci-Fi history.
As usual with Vinge, he left me wanting much, much more.
I sure hope we get it.
And, the "Blight" is still only 30 light-years out...

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 aliens & their interactions with the human Children; then there are those who are fascinated by Vinge's universe with its Slow Zones, Deep, the Beyond, and the Blight; and finally those who enjoy action.
I am of the first persuasion, and, fortunately for me, this aspect is where the book shines. Even more than A Fire Upon the Deep, Children of the Sky makes the reader aware of the implications of being a Tine, with their special kind of pack mind. What would it be like if I were composed of a half dozen different sentient beings and could acquire a new member if I lost one or wanted to augment my personality in some way? What would courtship involve? How affected would I be if one of me died? The book also explores the relationship between the Tines and the Children, both at the societal level and the personal level, especially the special connection of Best Friends between an individual human and a particular Tine pack. It also continues the story of a group of humans trying to establish a permanent society on a new planet despite having lost access to much of their normal technology & all of their contact with the rest of their race. A reader who is looking for this kind of SF will be enthralled immediately and find a great beginning and a satisfying conclusion. Vinge's characters, both human and Tine, are very appealing. I enjoy getting to know them, rejoice at their good fortunes, and gasp when something bad occurs to them. I am FURIOUS when he kills one of them off!
Readers who like a lot of action will think the book starts slow but has a great middle, as competing factions of Tines and competing factions of humans all fight each other & no one is quite sure who is on which side.
Readers who want to know more about the Blight are just going to have to wait for the next book, which obviously is in the cards and which I certainly hope will follow The Children of the Sky much more quickly than The Children of the Sky followed A Deepness in the Sky!
So caveat lector! This is an excellent SF read, and I believe most SF readers will enjoy it, IF you do not approach it with the wrong preconceived notion. It's a sure Hugo/Nebula contender.

Many reviewers seem disappointed by Vinge's departure from hard-sf in this sequel novel to "A Fire Upon the Deep". I loved "Fire" and still think of it as one of my all-time favorite science fiction novels. "Children of the Sky" is not the same style of book at all, and other readers are accurate to say that there isn't much technology in this book. However, in another sense, technology is at the heart of much of what happens in this story, as both the surviving humans and the tines struggle to re-invent technologies lost to the children with the blight, and never imagined by the tines until the humans arrived. Good science fiction doesn't need technology or hard science to belong in this genre. There are many examples of science fiction that are based on ideas about non-human cultures, and how they might be different from our own. Vinge's "Children of the Sky" story focuses primarily on these aspects of science fiction, along with the social, political, and emotional effect of dropping 150 children into a world that has never imagined that other cultures might exist among the stars.

I think the book has a wonderful ending. No, it does not resolve the entire storyline, or even tell us what will happen next with the blight. I hope that means that there will be another "Zones of Thought" novel to follow. In the meantime, the ending of this book does a lovely job of resolving the conflicts that take place within the story, while leaving the door open to more action in the next book. I loved this story and had a hard time putting it down. I will definitely recommend it to friends who love good science fiction.

Vernor Vinge is a long-time favorite of mine, and maybe that's the problem -- storytellers who keep telling stories after they've passed canonical retirement age often wind up telling the same story over and over, in more and more detail. That happened even to Heinlein and Clarke. Vernor Vinge seems to have peaked with "A Fire upon the Deep," which was a hard act to follow. This sequel doesn't come close to it.

"A Fire upon the Deep" was a saga, a quest full of shifting scenes, different situations and wonderful new characters. "Children," which will make little sense if you haven't read "A Fire," trots out the old actors and a few retreads. One of the very best characters of "A Fire" turns up in a cameo that embarrassed me -- it was like watching an elderly actress blow her lines onstage. I blushed for V.V.

The action happens on Tines' World, and some people are packs, but the same story could be set in medieval Europe or China, mutatis mutandis. It's a melodrama full of politics, sneaky villains, reluctant heroes, espionage, betrayal, fights; there's even some improbable romance. I re-blush.

V.V.'s stories were never notable for their plots or prose or character development; they've always depended on what Alfred Hitchcock called a "MacGuffin." The word's nicely defined in Wikipedia. A MacGuffin is something that drives the plot and motivates the characters. Alas, "Children" has no MacGuffin; it's a tale of intrigue that goes on too long, with no climax or conclusion. It's full of plots, but has no plot of its own. The issue that seems paramount at the outset, the MacGuffin of "A Fire," is forgotten and left unresolved at the end, as though the author had a Tines' World trilogy in mind. Let's hope not.

I consider Fire Upon the Deep & Deepness of the Sky to be among the greatest sci fi books ever written. So it was disappointing for me to see how inferior this book was. It is simply not in the same league.

Positives:
Hard Sci Fi: The world is interesting as always, and Vinge expands on the Tines by giving a variation of their species. That was well done. He further expands on the technology, its limitations in the Slow Zone and all the impossible technology the "Children" (survivors of the crash) miss so much. Also interesting. His creation of the alien Tines is thorough and mostly well done, although I felt their civilization bears far too much similarity to our own considering how very different they are from us. Still, I enjoyed them.

Plot: Plot was actually both positive and negative. Sometimes, the plot would race forward and you would hang on the edge of your seat. But other times - most times - it was a chore to read; all in all, very haphazard and amateurish. Many parts dragged, or were highly repetitive. It felt like a case of a lazy or indulgent editor. With top editing, Vinge would have been told to re-write much of it and scrap other parts. Many sections were utterly unnecessary - the same thing would be said later, or the conflict presented was repeated later - and this was especially frustrating given that IT DOESN'T HAVE AN ENDING!

Negatives:
The main negative was what I just said: No ending. I mean exactly what I say, not "no ending for some major points" I mean "no ending." It just ends in the middle of the major conflicts. Really this is just inexcusable, particularly since so much of the book could have been removed with zero difference in plot or conflict. I really, really, really resent books that end without resolution. It is supremely self-indulgent of the author - sorry, guys, I was just too lazy to finish this! - and it is dishonest to present the thing as a discrete book.

Rainbows End ALSO lacked an ending - no resolution of ANY of the main plot questions - and we still haven't seen a sequel. So it's especially annoying given that this is the SECOND book Vinge disappoints.

Characterizations: His villains are preposterous. They are just Evil in a silly, cartoonish bad guy way. As in, 'Bwa ha ha, I vill take over ze planet!' One of the humans is supposed to be some political genius simply because his parents were -- this was another very silly thing Vinge kept insisting that if your parents are x, you are x. He did this with every Child character. For instance, another child's parents were the equivalent of janitors, with practical hands on skills, so therefore, ipso facto, his son was exactly the same. I don't know where Vinge learned genetics, but he needs to go back to school for this one. Anyway, the character that was supposed to be this political genius plotted on a cartoonish level so that you could see his machinations a mile away. Actually, in some ways he exhibited the same foolish hubris the Straumli folks were supposed to have, but rather than pursue that angle, Vinge just kept asserting - via other characters - that he was a genius and also 'evil.'

Most other characters are the same level of shallowness, particularly the humans. (I was reminded of Asimov, whose robots often seemed to have greater depth than his humans. Here, the Tines were more complex than the humans. Back to the preposterous 'genetics,' Vinge makes this big deal that the Children's parents were supposed 'geniuses' so therefore the children are 'geniuses' too. This was cloying and not believable. Yes, if your parents are very intelligent, you stand a higher change of being smart too-but not a guarantee by any means. If you have a large enough sample, you should find a range of intelligence in the "Children" even if we accept the parents were all supposed geniuses. But even that assertion was just annoying. Who CARES if the parents or "Children" are all 'geniuses"? How does this forward the plot in ANY way? According to the previous book, they let loose the Blight due to Hubris. This has very little to do with "genius" and indeed the 'genius' part makes it less interesting as it is not universal (and anyway, their whole society funded their Lab so the hubris was in their civilization.)

Ravna was also really annoying to me. After Ravna does a series of stupid, passive things, another character tells her she's not a 'fool' but rather a pure heart. Um, where did this Ravna come from? She certainly wasn't like this in Fire. I felt like Vinge wanted her to act in such a way that would further the plot he wanted to write, so he changed her character. In other words, characters (also Jeff & Amdi) arose from plot necessity rather than the other way around as a pro should write.

I'd recommend the book but with the caveats that a) it has no ending b) large parts are very slow and weak c) some characters are really silly. You will need accept that this is not up to Vinge's usually brilliant standards. You can still extract an mildly interesting read, with some very good parts, and a few great parts.

I wish Vinge would get a better, more honest and brutal editor, someone who is willing to tell him the truth rather than merely flattering him. He has the potential to be an absolutely brilliant sci fi writer. It's painful to see his gifts so squandered.

I've enjoyed several of Vernor Vinge's other titles, but I couldn't finish this. I was not interested in the characters or their dull adventures. The fact that the time-frame kept leaping forward by a decade or so did not help to engage my interest.

Although I haven't been able to find confirmation of a coming third book in the Blight series, this volume sure feels like and has many of the weaknesses of a middle volume in a trilogy. Not bad but not as good as "A Fire Upon the Deep". I also thing some of the characters lack sufficient real motivation.

Vinge has done great work. This book is an outlier. Bloated and uninteresting story and although there are a few references to the Blighter fleet right at the beginning, the whole narrative is stuck in the venal power politics of the inhabitants of Tines World. Much less inclined to buy the next book even though it appears likely the Blight story is likely to return in that next installment of this once so entertaining series.

At least until other readers verify that it's worth it.

Not as good as Vinge's previous writings, but most of them were really good, including several award winners. It doesn't have the original ideas of his previous books on the "zones" universe, but it was still a good read--better than most SF these days.

It lacked the grandness of his other books (that's what drew me to him). From space fairing civilizations (his prior books) to bows and arrows (The children of the sky). If I knew that the book would start and end like that(bows and arrows). I would not have bought it, never have I rated a book before, but I was so disappointed, my feelings had to be vented. If I wanted a civil war book or fantasy, I would of bought one from another author. It says that The children of the sky is the sequel to The fire upon the deep,it is not.It went from science fiction(The fire upon the deep) to fantasy(children of the sky)

I wonder whether Vinge even wrote this -- I know publishers sometimes hire people to continue series, under the name of the original author. I've read all his books, and this one is completely lacking in the creativity that is his hallmark. It's as if someone took the world he created in the earlier book and made up a not-very-interesting conflict among some not-very-interesting characters. The book ends with a clear set-up for the next book to address what we might have expected in this one: will the Blight return? And/or will the characters regain contact with the larger universe from which the humans came? Skip this one and cross your fingers that the next one will be vintage Vinge and not a weak imitation.

I've been slogging through this book waiting and hoping for it to get better. My analysis so far is that he felt like he needed a lot of exposition, which he expressed via a lot of non-action (trying to pretend that the "action" justified the exposition). But it was getting more and more painful and making me afraid this was going to be one of those books that I put the work to get through and discovered it was a waste of time. After reading the reviews, I realize I was right and now it can be only a waste of money. Would that I had waited rather than getting excited and buying it right as it came out.

At least I can just throw it off the Kindle and I'm not responsible for the physical mass of the thing.

My recommendation: Read all of the reviews, note that most are negative, believe them, and do not buy the book. You will not miss anything. Such a good writer in the past, but I will not buy another book by this author again until after seeing a number of reviews.

Publisher: Vernor, great book! But I have an idea. Instead of writing just one book that's as great as the two previous books, why don't we get with the times and make this into two books? This way your readers will get twice as much of what they love! Oh, and did I mention twice the book sales?
Vinge: But, Pub, this is really my masterpiece, I'd hate to blow it up into two books. What would I write about? I would lose my credibility.
Publisher: Twice the sales.
Vinge:Well, maybe I could expand the first three or four chapters into a whole book...

Folks, if you loved the first two (and who didn't), you're going to read this through, hate it, and then read the next one, which HAD BETTER be the full conclusion.

AT 25% through, I said to myself, "He's kidding me right?"
At 50% through, I said to myself, "Looks like Pham not coming to save the day"
at 75% through, I said to myself, "Son of a gun, he's setting up for the next book"
at 100% though, I was relieved and had really just scanned tha last 5% to make sure nothing good happens. Like the rest of the book, nothing did.

I certainly don't agree with the negative reviews. I found this novel a delightful continuation of the series.

I am curious why some reviewers think this book "suddenly" ends. I found the ending quite tidy, wih the way paved for the next story about the confrontation with the blight and the deniers.

This book reads like fanfic. At one point, the day is saved because it turns out one of the protagonists is really good at juggling all of a sudden. JUGGLING.

The characters' personalities have nothing to do with their personalities from Fire on the Deep. And people who behave extremely stupidly are constantly referred to as super-geniuses.

It's almost as bad as Twilight. TWILIGHT!

I very much enjoyed Children of the Sky, but others have made some bitter criticisms. I don't agree with all of those. It seems obvious that Vinge is working on another novel in which the loose ends will be wrapped up. So I wasn't bothered about the abrupt ending, but other things left me more dissatisfied than I was with the earlier two books in this series. Here's a problem that I believe nobody's mentioned. We are given the same map as the one in A Fire in the Deep--but it has no relevance to this novel, and misleadingly promises that CotS will somehow bring us back to the galaxy. Instead, this book concentrated on Tinesworld. Likewise, some readers complained that David Brin's STARTIDE RISING was "better" than the next book, THE UPLIFT WAR, because the first was a space opera, the second dealt with crises on one planet only. Or some prefer Star Trek's TOS and TNG, chasing around through the galaxy, whereas DS9 concentrated on Bajor and Cardassia. All of them are excellent science fiction and should be judged on their own merits. However, I think this book would have been more honest had it left out that irrelevant map and furnished a map of Tinesworld, or at least the geography that appeared in this novel, since the travels were sometimes hard for me to visualize.

When he dealt with their psychology and a brilliant analysis of the positives and negatives of group minds with limited and confusing telepathy, Vinge's writing was superb and gripping. The Choir reminded me of the evolved humans and their endless Dance at the end of Clarke's CHILDHOOD'S END--and, reading Vinge's descriptions of the tropical Choir I saw certain aspects of the Dance for the first time although I'd read C.E. back in 1953 when I was 16 and have reread it at least twenty times.

But the northern Tines and their civilization remain elusive to me. I kept wondering how, without other help, doggie-like beings built those big castles? Vinge needs to explain that in much greater detail, and I hope he will in the coming sequel, since the most puzzling aspect about them, marring this book, is the most basic question of all. How did critters without hands, using little more than jaws, achieve any kind of technology beyond the most primitive? It's the same limiting lack of manipulating organs that has, perhaps, kept handless but highly intelligent animals like elephants, dolphins, whales and several species of birds from achieving a technological civilization. That limitation indicates that when we humans finally commit mass suicide, our real successors will be either apes or octopi, both intelligent and dexterous. (Let us pray that here on Earth the current world-destroyers do not kill off both.)

Some of the Tines, psychologically, are well characterized--especially Amdi, who is as appealing as he is alien. Of all of them, I found him the least "imitation-human", the most plausibly alien, yet I could understand his friendship with Jefri, who was as alien to Amdi as Amdi was to Jefri. However, making Jefri a sucker for the Denier implausibilities, racism and imperialism didn't ring true, unless he's not very bright. The others, who had been in cold sleep, had a rude awakening into a world alien and shockingly difficult. Of course they would have resented Ravna's longevity and craved it, and, with her distancing herself after they grew up, and a little nudging by someone who was jealous for power, they could have become paranoid about her motives. We see their kind of misinformation and denial every day in our own Deniers who doubt the overwhelming evidence for global climate change, evolution, the need for vaccination and numerous other probable hypotheses that should be rationally accepted by intelligent people--but who, due to emotional fear and clever propaganda, sometimes lose their reason and embrace falsehood. That was very good writing on Vinge's part! Making the Denier leader, Nevil, into a self-deluding propagandist and a gradually-devolving tyrant, not a born sociopath, is truer to the kind of slimy talk-show shills who have taken over our world and are wrecking it because of greed for power.

I am a political activist, I loved THE UPLIFT WAR and DS9 remains my all-time favorite on-screen sci-fi, so perhaps I enjoyed the political machinations in this novel more than those who prefer bang-bang adventure stories--which, unless there's good characterization and philosophical depth, have usually bored me since I grew up. I am delighted that some space operas go way beyond the bang-bang into intelligent characterization and interesting science. Brin's, Sheffield's, Benford's Galactic Center, Baxter's, Card's Ender series, the grandddaddy of them all, Stapledon's cosmic future histories, and Vinge's do. So I think that Vinge's politics are pretty well on target, even if his economics (and sometimes his ethics) so far seem simplistic and dubious--but we won't know the outcome of all the details until we read the next novel in this altogether excellent series!

The Children of the Sky by Vernor Vinge

This is the sequel to A Fire Upon the Deep. This book demonstrates the Tines advancement and the perfidy that the human soul is capable of demonstrating.

Ravena Bergsndot and the Mad Bad Johanna are featured prominently in this volume of the series. The "children" become divided over whether the Blight is real or not and this presents Ravena with a number of difficulties.

Prejudice rears it's ugly head and counter pointed by the efforts of Johanna. I like the way that Vinge demonstrates a variety of human emotions and aberrations and ascribes them to a different species. He humanizes the Tines while keeping their unique abilities alive and well.

I thought this book was going to finish a trilogy but alas that is not the case. Alas only because I can not find any evidence that he is working on the sequel to this book which leaves many, many unanswered questions.

Vinge is a respected scientist as well as an author of science fiction. You may want to read an interview with him in Wired Magazine.

I enjoyed the book and frankly I think the pacing in this volume is the best of the three so far. I highly recommend it.

"Children of the Sky" is the direct sequel, after many, many years, to Vernor Vinge's ground-breaking space opera A Fire Upon The Deep (Zones of Thought). The latter book IS a genuine sci-fi classic, jam packed with brilliant ideas and introducing the reader to some truly memorable alien races, most notably the Tines.

The Tines are a race of dog-like beings, actually PACKS of dog-like beings, with a hive intelligence. Any individual Tine is only a little smarter than your average puppy, but get four of them together and they can out-think a human. As concepts for alien intelligences go, Tines are the high-water mark.

"Children of the Sky" is all about the Tines and the humans that crash landed among them in the last novel. And while more information about one of the most interesting alien races ever invented in sci-fi is always welcome, this book is definitely not the densely-packed epic that the previous one was. Thanks to certain events of the last book, pretty much all the action takes place on the Tines' homeworld, where humans are trying to boot-strap the packs up to space-faring technology before the nasty Blight fleet from the previous book shows up. So there's a lot of politics and back stabbing and people growing up, but not a lot actually happens until half way through the book. And even then it feels a lot less epic then the events of the first book in the series.

On its own this is a solid sci-fi book, if a slow starter, but it's a sequel to a truly brilliant novel and as such, it's kind of a let-down.

Those reading this book without having read the first one will likely be very lost. Heck, *I* was lost, and wound up re-reading the first book before starting again. Unfortunately this re-read just highlighted the difference in quality between the two books.

The ending of the book hints that it is just the middle chapter to an epic conclusion still to come. Hope we don't have to wait another ten years for that book.

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 receive books as gifts I suppose.

Anyway -- his writing style is accessible enough. He uses a wide and varied vocabulary that includes everything from vulgar obscenities to obscure adjectives most people have never heard of, and that keeps things interesting. Some other reviewers have criticized the author for his lack of character development, but I don't totally agree with that. Some of the characters were flat and boring, but I found a few of them quite endearing. Maybe it had to do with their dog-like nature, but I got pretty attached to some of them.

My only real criticism here is the pace of the book. It seems like it has way too much detail, some of which is completely nonessential to the plot (or setting, or character development, etc.). This wasn't a "can't put it down" type of book for me. This was a "let's hurry up and get to the action" type of book, in which I skimmed paragraphs that were not terribly important and distilled information down to its essentials to move along. The book is 675 pages (paperback), and probably could have stopped at around 500.

Other than that, I did enjoy the book for the most part, and will certainly be checking out the rest of the series.

Just finished the audiobook. Maybe I'm less picky than most, but I enjoyed this as outing as much as I enjoyed A Fire Upon the Deep. The Tines remain one of the most interesting alien species ever written and the opportunity to further flesh out the characters we met in AFUtD should not be missed. It's true that some of the characters are unrepentantly evil, but this is a staple of Vinge's fiction. He often uses the adjective 'evil' to describe characters, not just their actions. I prefer characters with more realistic motivations, but books that contain objectively evil characters still retain the ability to entertain me.

Several of the reviews have mentioned that the story just ends, leaving all of the main conflicts hanging. It's true that the book is well set up for another sequel, but I didn't feel like there was anything that needed to be resolved that wasn't. All of the main story-lines contained in the book come to a satisfactory close. There's no cliffhanger; the book stands well by itself.

One con, for which I'm not going to remove stars since it has to do with the audiobook narration: I had listened to A Fire Upon the Deep before this novel and I was a little perturbed that the reader for CotS uses significantly different pronunciation for the names of many of the places and characters. A minor quibble, but one that annoyed me throughout.

Just finished "Children", entered with moderate expectations: I knew it wasn't another A Fire Upon The Deep, but I've liked all his other novels -- I'm pretty sure I've read them all.

I liked the book, and thoroughly enjoyed reading it. It's mid-quality Vinge, and definitely not the place to start if you're new to him. A definite must-read for Vinge fans, like me. For those lukewarm re Vinge -- I'm not sure.

There are writing-craft issues here: blurry characters, slow pace, cartoonish villainy.... I wonder if this is a "trunk book," resurrected in his retirement. I don't read SF for literary excellence, but if you do, maybe you should give this one a miss.

There's a good professional review, by Cory Doctorow, that I'll put in a comment (no outside links allowed in reviews here). He likes it, but glosses over the writing-craft problems.

Happy reading--
Peter D. Tillman

I cannot recommend this book as a stand alone novel. My neutral review is based upon my sincere hope that VV plans to write another novel to continue this one in the Zones of Thought series.

I am confused as to whether this novel is meant to be the final one of the Deepness of the Sky, Fire Upon the Deep and the Children of the Sky trilogy or if VV intends at least one more followup novel. IF it is the capstone at the end of the other two, then it will be deeply disappointing to me. As many other reviewers have said, it does not really conclude many loose ends and leaves us far from dealing with the main threat hanging over the Tines world. If one or more novels will follow, it can then be judged by the way it adds depth the our understanding of Tines various social structures, and gives life to the children left in unknown at the end of Fire.

Vernor Vinge invented (as far as I know) the idea of zones of thought. The galaxy has concentric regions where technology and automation becomes easier. In the center of the galaxy are unthinking deeps, and it gets progressively easier as one moves outwards until FTL travel becomes possible and artificial intelligence becomes godlike.

Children of the Sky picks up after some refugees from a malevolent godlike AI have been foil its fleet by moving the slow zone outwards. Thus trapping its ships in normal space and unable to effectively pursue them.

This tale sticks to the planet the refugees share with an indigenous race and is all about the politicking and treachery of trying to set up a high tech civilization for when the evil blight fleet eventually arrive. So it lacks the granduar and star spanning adventure of the first two novels.

The characters also did not seem to fit with their previous behavior. Ravna, an exiled librarian from the outer edges of the galaxy behaves in a naive way. Having fought off the Blight she decides not to use force even her advantages against a scheming opponent. It was very 'don't go into the haunted house, Oh you just have..'

I would not condemn this book, since Vinge writes very well. But I won't be rereading it.

Vinge continues his fantastic characterization of the alien Tines in this sequel. His writing skills seem to have improved drastically since he wrote A Fire Upon The Deep; character interactions seem more realistic, the relationships more complex, and the world more fully developed. Previously two-dimensional personalities acquire welcome depth along the way.

Many reviewers seem to have rated it poorly due to its lack of hard sci-fi elements from the first book. Unlike the galactic scope of the previous installment, the sequel concerns itself only with Tines' World. Even some arguably important (however scientifically questionable) concepts like the "zones of thought" seem de-emphasized here. Perhaps because I was raised on galactic-scale sci-fi with transcendent intelligences, I never considered any of those aspects of A Fire Upon The Deep particularly interesting.

My favorite parts of the first book involved Tines' World. If you loved the Tines too, you'll like this book.

I simply do not like Vinge's plot development style, although his writing is ok. Bad things happening to main characters far outweigh the good ones, and there is never a satisfying resolution to anything. When you finish this novel, you will realize that no loose ends are tied up, the good guys are not winning, and that yoru time would have been much better spent doing something else! Same with all 3 Zones of Thought novels.

The Children of the Sky is the long-awaited sequel to the Hugo Award-winning A Fire Upon the Deep, from bestselling author Vernor Vinge. Twenty years later in real time, and ten years later on the Tines World, the great war is over and there are some survivors: Ravna Bergnsdot who crash-landed on the planet with a number of human children, as well as a number Tines allies: the strange wolf-like humanoid pack animals after which the planet is named. More than a hundred human children, who were in cold-sleep aboard the crash-landed vessel, have been saved by Ravna.

But the status quo does not remain, as those hungry for power begin to plan and plot and fight for it, seeking technology to gain the advantage. Ravna will have to do everything she can to keep protecting the children and keep herself alive in this harsh world of alliances and factions warring for control and power.

The Children of the Sky is certainly not the sort of book you want to pick up for its pretty cover and start reading. Reading its prequel, A Fire Upon the Deep, is a must to understand just what is going on; the reader may even want to read the other book in the series, A Deepness in the Sky. Vinge continues with his incredibly complicated world of alliances and populations fighting for control and the reader can become easily lost, if he or she doesn't stay focused and keep up. This book is not for the faint of heart; but for those who are committed, it is a worthy reward.

Originally written on January 24, 2012 ©Alex C. Telander.

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Vernor Vinge has been one of my favorite authors for many years, and A Fire Upon The Deep one of my favorite books. A Fire Upon The Deep had sweeping new ideas, a thrilling plot, interesting characters, and more. Most science fiction books have one great premise or new idea, but A Fire Upon The Deep had several! A real tour de force.

The Children of The Sky lies at the other end of the spectrum. Not a single new idea, and the ones from the earlier books are simply humdrum, background concepts. Sure, they play a central role, but it's a boring role, with grand ideas reduced to humdrum existence.

In fact, this book reminds me more of a soap opera than space opera. Seriously. The dialog and characters are petty, and I didn't care about them. He said/she said/then I said ... who cares?

There were a couple of hints that something actually interesting might happen, but I suppose that will be reserved for future books ... which unfortunately, I will not be reading, unless the reviews say that Vernor is back to his original approach.

A bit slower paced than 'Fire', but unlike 'Fire', the story pretty much happens in one setting, Tines World. Still a very well written book and when the story unfolds, I was not disappointed in the least. I'm sure there's another one to go to round out this arc, and I'm doubly sure it's going to be epic!

As the much anticipated sequel to the exceptional A Fire Upon the Deep, there are ridiculous levels of expectation about this book.

Not surprisingly it doesn't meet them.

It's actually a rather good story. But while it does take place shortly after the events of A Fire Upon The Deep and it does deal with some of the same covers, it's not really a sequel in the normal sense because it is not only stylistically and thematically different, but it doesn't continue the same story.

Yes there are some references to the Blight and the ending seems to set up a further book that might actually address that story, but this one is all about the Tines and how the remaining humans try to integrate with them.

Taken on its own it's a strong story that explores the complexities of Tine society with their complex pack nature. But there's nothing galactic happening here and that's bound to disappoint some fans.

There are a few weak points however. It's an oddly unemotional book. A lot of events are described from a distance and the only romantic entanglement we experience first hand is probably the most restrained I've ever read.

There's also the problem of the central character being a bit... well dim... purely to make the central conspiracy work.

But I think those weaknesses are outweighed by the Tines, the Choir and an interesting analog to China. Not a classic perhaps but easily worth your time.

Children of the Sky carries on from Fire Upon the Deep, focusing on the children from the High Lab and the Blight saved from death on the Tines World. The tines are one of the best alien creations depicted in science fiction. Although at times seemingly anthropomorphic, their inherent alieness comes to the fore often, with an interesting scene "explaining" the anthropomorphism.

The story focus on the struggles resulting from the human/tines interactions and the drive to uplift the tines civilization to a level that can withstand the impending Blight attack within the next few centuries. The intrigue and political perspectives are well done. Unlike some reviewers, I also enjoyed the character development, inclusive of flaws and all.

The puzzling thing to me, is the harsh criticism because it is not like its predecessor, and lacks a space travel element. Yet, the themes and issues are firmly set in science fiction, and technological issues are at the heart of the story. I found the novel highly entertaining, and am a big fan of the tines. If one is looking for a more traditional hard science fiction book, the disappointment is somewhat understandable. The extreme negative reaction exhibited by some reviewers is overly harsh.

I thought everyone would be thrilled with spending more time with the Tines. I'm really surprised at all these lukewarm reviews. Sure, this particular book is smaller in scope than the previous two books dealing with the same universe, but why is it a problem? Vinge decided to really deal with the implications of human presence among the Tines, and here's a whole book pretty much devoted to the subject. If you love Vinge, and if you love Tines, this is a VERY good thing.

I loved the book, but the reason I'm writing this particular review is the audio version. Oliver Wyman is probably the best reader I've ever encountered. I was blown away, by the book itself, naturally, but also, surprisingly, by the artistry of the reader.

Like many other reviewers, I also had really enjoyed "A Fire Upon the Deep" but it had been quite a long time since I had read it so when I saw "Children of the Sky" in the bookstore, I took the suggestion on the sign on the shelf to reread Fire so I bought Fire and thoroughly enjoyed it AGAIN. So it was with great anticipation that I started "Children" which I was able to get at the library. At the end of each chapter, I found myself thinking, hoping, "Well, maybe it will get better." So much tedious fretting and whining and genius people saying, thinking, doing obviously stupid things. About 25% into the book, I gave up and decided to read the last 10% so I could see what happened with the Blight. I was horrified when I realized it had no ending and nothing happens with the Blight. I am SO glad:

1. I didn't waste my time on the rest of the book.
2. That I paid for "Fire" which was worth it.
3. That I didn't spend money for "Children".

Every author comes to the end of their writing career.
They then resort to having their books ghostwritten, to cash in on their reputation.
This incoherent and disappointing book surely marks the end of Vinge career and the beginning of Vinge as a franchise for ever multiplying incompetently ghostwritten books.
Vinge was best at the grand sweeping idea.
This book is about political micromachinations, a topic that Vinge and his ghostwriter have absolutely no talent for.

Save your money and time, read something that Vinge actually wrote, instead of this ghostwritten pastische

Most of the plot points revolve around the heroine being a complete idiot, or characters suddenly becoming mute and unable to answer questions. Crucial incidents often involve the lead characters misinterpreting what is going on while we never get a full explanation of what did happen. Numerous important characters die off-camera. A character falls in love with another character who holds beliefs that are absolutely evil according to that character's ethos. All in all, don't waste your time.

Once upon a time, Vernor Vinge wrote tight, thrilling, mind-blowing books. The original Fire Upon the Deep, the sort-of sequel A Deepness in the Sky, any of the Realtime books. All of these books, while maybe being located in the same universe, were complete books unto themselves. I'm afraid that the Vernor Vinge author of the past is no more though. Starting with the almost worthless Rainbows End-which ended in a cliffhanger, and now followed by Children of the Sky- which also ends in a cliffhanger (if you could call the meh ending a cliffhanger), Vinge has now followed other once great authors like Orson Scott Card and Arthur C. Clarke down the money-hole. What is it with SF authors these days that they can't seem to write a standalone novel anymore? Does everything have to be a trilogy? Is it the influence of nefarious money-grubbing editors who want to scrape every cent out of their customers? I tell you, this is the fastest way to encourage pirating of books. I bought this new Children of the Sky book new online. The next one, I'll probably wait to get it at the library or just download it. Two bad books in a row and you're out.

So anyway, a review-
It's sad when you're sort of looking forward to the ending of a book because it seems more like a chore than a joy to read. The book never really goes anywhere. The entirety of it seemed to be various Tines and Humans being hustled around to various locations. Nothing really happens. Easily the most interesting parts of AFOTD was the fascinating view of the Beyond and all the alien craziness that goes on there. There are literally about two paragraphs in total about the subject in this book. The Tines are very interesting, but in the end, what we've basically got is a medieval society story. I could go read Pillars of the Earth or something if I wanted to learn about crap like that. I didn't even find the various machinations of the characters to be very interesting. In A Deepness in the Sky, Vinge was a genius in detailing the various plots and counterplots and keeping them all both fascinating and believable. Here, I kept forgetting who was who and what they were doing and not really caring anyway. It's unfortunate because the book could have been really good. As many others have said already- a good editor giving Vinge a kick in the pants and cutting some stuff out would have made a huge difference. It feels like Vinge is just coasting on his reputation. Maybe he needed some quick money to pay off his kid's college tuition or something.