This was an interesting book, but it’s really a fantasy story cloaked in a sci fi story. Obviously, even the fantasy aspects contain science fiction, so no one would refute that it’s hard sci fi. I just wasn’t prepared for a medieval “Song of Ice and Fire” political novel. It was good, just not my thing.

I will say, the prose in this novel reads much like a parody of sci fi. Vinge does an excellent job of easing you in, but if you read a random page to someone they would think you were messing with them; with “wrickwrackscar reading Flenser about the Blight”. But it does work and keeps you intrigued.

The resolution fell a little flat for me, but the journey was worth it.