The Children of the Sky by Vernor Vinge

Hello, Stranger.

Let's talk about Vernor Vinge's Children of the Sky.

The Short of It

Plot: Enemies old and new threaten the fragile stability of the alliance between humans on tines.

Page Count: 444

Award: Sequel to A Fire Upon the Deep

Worth a read: No.
Primary Driver: (Plot, World, or Character)
Bechdel Test: Pass
Technobabble: Moderate
Review: Disappointing. Almost exclusively focused on underdeveloped interpersonal relationships between characters. Works within an established world and adds only negligible new details. Dull story beats and poorly executed limited omnipotence regularly eject the reader from the story. This is not a tale that needed to be told.

The Short of It

Spoiler Free!

On its own, or in a different series, perhaps this book would be easier to stomach. As it stands, however, it is a frustrating and disappointing slog, a smudge on the legacy of an otherwise fantastic series. A Fire Upon the Deep is a compelling read and provides a great framework for the exceptional A Deepness in the Sky. And then Children of the Sky pitches all of those lessons and improvements out the window. We are left with a shallow, bland story full of underdeveloped characters performing obvious betrayals. 

Any engagement with this story requires us to be far more invested in these characters than any reasonable reader would be. Those characters who have returned from A Fire Upon the Deep are hollowed out for easier writing - and to make space for a slew of almost interchangeable others. Effectively all dialogue sounds the same, whoever is delivering it, and the content is shaped only by which "camp" that character belongs to. How did Vinge take the story in this trilogy with the greatest focus on humans and make them seem totally inhuman? 

If you read the previous books and thought, "The plot here is too complex and interesting," then this is the one for you.

There is some part of me that wants to keep going after this one - but it feels pointless. I just did not care about anyone or anything that happened in this book. And belaboring the point does not change that simple takeaway.

Needless to say: this ain't it.

The Long of It

Spoilers Ahead!

Through most of A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky it felt as if Vinge believed his readers to be intelligent. One of the many failures of The Children of the Sky are its condescending, spoon-feeding narrative choices. Any character that "dies" out of sight is not dead, we know that. And yet we're supposed to be shocked an awed each time they return. The first big betrayal, Nevil backstabbing Ravna, is telegraphed through almost every scene that leads up to it. When it finally happens, it's a relief. 

Yet we're supposed to be shocked! and hurt! and offended! by the most obvious of all twists. This is the tone that continues throughout: we're meant to be bushwhacked by either a good character turning bad or a bad character turning good, after six chapters that hint at it with the all the nuance and subtlety of a ten hour loop of dial up internet.

One of the only actual surprises comes in the form of the cuttlefish - another intelligent species, which ends up being Rider larvae, the young of a species important in A Fire Upon the Deep. This was a twist that was actually unexpected - but also has no impact on anything. It's like learning that a mountain is a long-dead volcano and not crustal thickening. It's a fact! But... not a lot more than that.

What a frustrating, muddled end to the trilogy.

Take a deep breath, Stranger. There are worse things than disappointing texts.

And don't forget to read a book!