This book is quintessential space opera: shallow characters, no subtext, but great action and amazing ideas. There are almost too many cool ideas crammed into this novel for me to discuss, but a major idea that Vinge structures the entire novel around is the existence of Zones in the universe. Basically, the Zone that you live in determines your maximum level of intelligence and technological superiority. In the lowest Zone--a.k.a., the Unthinking Depths, the one closest to the galactic core--sentient beings can't function, even if they come from higher Zones. In the next highest Zone, the Slow Zone, (which, incidentally, is where Earth is located) intelligent beings are plentiful, but faster-than-light travel is impossible. At higher Zones, faster-than-light travel becomes possible and computers become sentient (among other things); and at the highest Zone--the Transcend--minds develop to incomprehensible heights.

Such is the universe of Vinge's book, and what a universe it is! The existence of the Zones is a central part of everybody's life, and a central part of the novel; by the end, I found myself dreading the protagonists' descent into the Slow Zone, and a story about one person's miraculous return from the Unthinking Depths left me shaking my head in wonder.

But another one of Vinge's ideas deserves mention: the Tines, one of the most remarkably depicted aliens in science fiction. Very few people depict comprehensible but truly alien aliens well. Stanislaw Lem's Solaris depicted a truly alien alien, but it was incomprehensible. The only other novel I can think of off the top of my head is Isaac Asimov's The Gods Themselves (which I would probably rate a 6). Please consider the following to be a ***SPOILER ALERT***, since part of the joy of this book is slowly discovering how these creatures think. Basically, the Tines are multi-bodied minds: four or five wolf-like creatures comprise a single being. The bodies communicate through some sort of telepathy, which means, first, that they can't get too far apart, and second, that they can't get too close to other Tines. Of course, Vinge, being a good writer, doesn't tell you this straight out: instead, he merely describes a rather long storyline involving only the Tines, and you slowly understand that the Tines are not just ordinary aliens. ***END SPOILERS***

The Zones and the Tines occupy parallel plots in this novel that converge in an amazing climax. It is a credit to Vinge that both plotlines are equally exciting, unlike in other novels where I find myself skipping over boring chapters to get back to the plot I'm really interested in. And, although the bent of the novel is primarily action, Vinge does occasionally slip in surprisingly moving bits of narrative (for example, when Ravna allies herself temporarily with Commercial Security, with disastrous results).

Sure, the dialogue is sometimes stilted, and the characters are one-dimensional (or less), but I was enthralled throughout the narrative, and the plotline was cohesive (unlike the disjointed if entertaining Consider Phlebas) and came to an immensely satisfying end. Not high literature, but highly, highly recommended.

Copyright © 2001 Steven Wu