Before I actually start talking about the book, I'm going to take this moment to state that I actually mostly liked this book. I enjoyed it more than Cosmonaut Keep. But it's by no means a favorite, and I don't feel inspired to read the rest of the books in this particular arc. I guess I 70% liked it. Not that it gets a score of 70%, but I 70% liked it. I put this preface here because most of what follows will be complaints.
Pace and contrivances. These are the two biggest issues with this book.
The first; contrivances. I realize that any thing that is not a factual retelling of a real event will be totally contrived, not in a negative connotation, but in a literal connotation whereby I mean to create a desired outcome through a scheme or planning. So, I was talking to my wife about why I didn't like Harry Potter, and ultimately it comes down to the number of contrivances. A staggering amount. In order for Z to happen, A through Y must happen, and to top it off, we discover C through H, M through R, and T through W through horrible exposition. As I said before, I realize that any kind of story is at base level, contrived, but with the best books, there's a particular balance where the contrivances feel natural. And these Deepness in the Sky and Harry Potter are not that.
In fact, reading Deepness at times felt like I was back in art school, and that one kid wouldn't shut up about his undercover super spy hoagie wizard anthropomorphic fairy kitten dog samurai epic. I kind of just go, “oh. Uh huh. Uh huh. Yeah. I see. Uh huh. Uh huh.” That is: I don't feel engaged. Everything feels so planned and plotted that it doesn't really feel like there's any room for me to speculate or even just simply be curious. Or, to use another metaphor, it would be like listening someone say something like, “The radio is indeed a marvel and a mystery!” and then listen to them then follow up that statement with an excruciating explanation of how the stereo really works. And anticipating that explanation. I can't wonder because I know it's about to be sapped from me.
And then pacing. I'm not entirely certain what to say on this, other than it wasn't quick. Even the parts I found interesting (the history of Pham Nuwen) got stale and old after 20 pages of listening to Pham argue the practicalities of an empire. I get it: he wants an empire. Next chapter please. And the spiders! I hope they actually live in slow motion, because otherwise there's no real reason for their chapters to just seem like endless chasms across which I must bravely leap.
And let me discuss the spiders really quick. I understand that there is a number of us who actually enjoyed those chapters, even if those numbers may only number in the “couple” or the “few,” but honestly, they were completely unnecessary. All the information you learn in the spider chapters, you completely relearn in all the space chapters. Literally. I think not only was my time wasted by reading those particular chapters, but space was wasted. I would often skip entire spider chapters, and I never once felt like I needed to go back and reread what I skipped because I was still told everything.
Their civilization in general wasn't really spider like either. It felt like his intentions were confused: try to humanize something completely inhuman. Which is probably a worthwhile goal in literature, but when you pretty much just write this equation: spider X human + 1950/human = 1950 spiders, you've not exactly gone through many pains to make the alien civilization seem all that alien. Or human. It was an operation that, to me, failed on both fronts. And the names were stupid too. But that's really moot.
Back to the pacing: it's been my experience that as something moves closer to the end, it's pace quickens. Your interest is piqued, more things are happening, a multiplier effect happens. In this book, I definitely felt the first two, but for some reason, it still felt like it did when I knew barely anything about the characters or the events. It kind of felt like how they keep prolonging Battlestar Galactica by putting a year long commercial break smack dab in the middle of season 4.
2 comments:
Point taken, I agree mostly with the contrived.
But moving on, now that we actually KNOW what space opera is based on what we came up in class, I think that it is to be expected; clichés (can I even make that plural?) are going to be everywhere, you just KNOW Vinge sat down and planned all of this out just like Rowling did.
So, if you take that out, if you assume the contrived plot, what is your opinion on the book now? I'm curious.
I have to say, I still think it's too damn long, but maybe that is just personal preference.
Apt comparison on the Battlestar front, sir. The book does seem at time to keep you at arms length from the "Qengmergants" and buries your face in the Spiders. Also, I assure you that the undercover super spy hoagie wizard anthropomorphic fairy kitten dog samurai epic would sell in todays market. You should have given up on schooling and become their "manager".
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