[dleary]

“A Deepness in the Sky”, by Vernor Vinge. Excellent book, with a concept very close to this as an element.

You don’t need to read “A Fire Upon the Deep” first… the stories are more or less unrelated except for setting. (There is one character who is sort of in both, but going into detail about what that means would spoil it too much).

Both are excellent and worth the time. Skip the other Vinge books until you are sure you want to read everything he wrote, they are “merely” 8/10 instead of 10/10.

Vinge was a CS professor who really made sure everything “fit” together in his works. Although “A Fire Upon the Deep”, started in the late 80s and published in 1992, posits that civilizations much more advanced and capable than ours would be communicating primarily through something like Usenet, which feels a little quaint.

NB that Vinge was the one who popularized the concept of “the technological Singularity”. His books have interesting authors notes where he talks about coming up with ways to write about a far future when he believes that the Singularity is right on track for 2050-2100.

[throwup238]

FWIW I found A Deepness in the Sky to be much better than his other books (I read Deepness first). Vinge’s talent for prose got better over time and it’s one of the more imaginative scifi books I’ve read. It can be consumed completely independently and after that one character’s big reveal in Deepness, they just weren’t as interesting in A Fire Upon the Deep. I really wish we had gotten a sequel to Deepeness.

Luckily I quickly discovered that the Children of Time series filled my need for more spider scifi.

[Aeolun]

I don’t think Children of Time really matches Deepness in terms of quality, though I guess it’s a distinction between 9/10 and 10/10 :)

[bitwize]

A Deepness in the Sky conceptualized "weaponized autism" before that phrase became a thing and I love it.

[brazzy]

> Although “A Fire Upon the Deep”, started in the late 80s and published in 1992, posits that civilizations much more advanced and capable than ours would be communicating primarily through something like Usenet, which feels a little quaint.

It's sometimes enormously funny when you were around to witness Usenet. Especially when you realize there's one guy who all along knows something about the story's most essential reveal - but writes like a deranged conspiracy theorist, so nobody really talks to him.