Name: The Children of the Sky
ISBN: 9780812579925

Vernor Vinge

Ten years after a disaster that nearly obliterated humankind throughout the galaxy, Ravna Bergnsdot must try to prevent power-seeking humans and intelligent pack animals called Tines from dragging the fledgling civilization on Tines World into chaos.

The Children of the Sky

Ten years after the events of the Hugo Award-winning best-seller A Fire Upon the Deep, Ravna Bergnsdot must try to prevent power-seeking humans and intelligent pack animals called Tines from dragging the fledgling civilization on Tines World into chaos. 75,000 first printing.

Gavin

Vinge is without peer at two things:

* Producing childlike rage at unfairness, stringing out one piece of treachery for 400 pages and keeping the heat going. Even where it is obvious that a betrayal will take place, he still manages to make me tense and outraged over it.
* Emphasising how important software is to the future. A revolt occurs partially because of the elites resenting the loss of their fancy interfaces, refusing to dirty their hands with low-level programming.

The book feels very incomplete, even setting aside the cliffhanger; we see Timor's burgeoning hacking skills, but are shown none of their fruit. We see (view spoiler)[Geri (hide spoiler)] tortured but not why, or why (view spoiler)[Tycoon (hide spoiler)] was fine with it. (view spoiler)[We see Nevil's despotism take root but don't see any of his comeuppance. (hide spoiler)] Some of this might show up in the much delayed sequel idk.

Cindy Lieberman

This third installment follows two quite different novels, actually following the first book some ten years later. It focuses on the politics and factions that emerge from the packs and the reanimated children. There was very little new information about the Tines and no hard science to speak of. That's the slow zone for you. If you are interested in a long and often slow-moving book about humans and Tines, this may be for you.