War

The plot is completely unrelated to its predecessor, ‘A fire upon the deep’. However, the themes of the book are similar about first contact between different cultures and accelerated technological development. Things I liked: Interesting setting in the on/off system. A plot revolving around the start of the information age, set from the perspective of decades and from afar. Things I’m not sure I liked: Extreme anthropormorphization of the spiders. I get that this makes it easier for the readers, and I enjoy that it’s explained in the books via translation, but you could have replaced the characters with humans and not noticed the difference. ...

This book hijacked my brain, I ended up reading it through in two sessions. Tiamat’s Wrath rewards you for being a fan. It brings up so much from the previous books, in a way is satisfying if you know it but not annoying if you’ve forgotten. I really enjoyed Teresa and Elvi’s POV plot arcs, and there are just enough twists for whole read to keep you going. The author thanks GRR Martin in the prologue, and the influences seem to become more clear as the series progresses. Tiamat’s wrath felt more political than post books in the series past, by focusing on Laconian palace politics rather than the factional three-way conflicts of previous books. ...

Redwall mixed with Foundation. Apparently the original title for the book was ‘Among the Tines’ but the editor rejected it. For being a space opera, a surprising amount of the book takes place in an essentially medieval narrative. Vinge does a great job of mixing the more cosmological elements with a relatively compact story involving pack-minds, competing fiefdoms, and scared children. I liked this far better than Rainbow’s Edge and can see why it won awards.

Entertaining. Very similar to Red Rising, with the lower class chip-on-his-shoulder male protagonist and royal princess classmate. Enough to convince me to read the sequel, not enough to make me want to read the series.

I should have waited and read the other reviews first.

Started out slow, but by about 3/4 of the way through I couldn’t put it down. Definitely conveys many opinions about the authors politics, but not so bad that it got in the way of a decent story. Sort of a sci-fi retelling of the American revolution, maps in my mind next to the Hamilton biography.

Fit together nicely. Different perspectives, enjoyable fantasy.

Very much a direct continuation of the first book, didn’t expand the world as much as I expected, but also didn’t feel like the first half of a story which was nice.

Satisfying conclusion, pulled some of the same tricks as the original on a grander scale, but ended the series on a good note. Worth reading this series to the finish.

The conceit got repetitive. It’s pretty rare that I get 90% through a book and am not motivated to finish.