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The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge

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Re: The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge

#61

Post by fl7305 »

relwin wrote: post #44
fl7305 wrote: post #6

I really like his books. A fun anecdote is that I had him as a college professor in the early 90's before I knew that he was a SciFi author. Among other things, he taught me how to write pre-emptive task switching in 68k assembly language. Fun times!

I liked his test structure: write "I don't know" for minimal credit opposed to wasting his time with a false paragraph. Also, a very prepared prof.

30 years ago, so I don't remember that part. But yeah, overall he was perhaps the best teacher I ever had.

Re: The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge

#62

Post by fl7305 »

ethbr1 wrote: post #23
fl7305 wrote: post #6

I really like his books. A fun anecdote is that I had him as a college professor in the early 90's before I knew that he was a SciFi author. Among other things, he taught me how to write pre-emptive task switching in 68k assembly language. Fun times!

Was he that assembly professor who was way to interesting to be just a professor? Had a similar one.

He was very good both at teaching and being interesting just in general.

Re: The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge

#63

Post by fl7305 »

nacho-daddy wrote: post #17

Is this a successful attempt to game the hackernews algos? The referenced WP page is obviously written by gtp-3, and the comments sound like a troupe of sock puppets in chorus. Yet here we are on the front page. Good job!

What? Are you calling me a sock puppet for mentioning that he was my professor in the 90s?

Re: The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge

#64

Post by gpderetta »

ethbr1 wrote: post #22
saiya-jin wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably just me, but it first book was such a schizophrenic experience. Loved every single bit of space part but couldn't care less about medieval cluster dog minds part, eventually grew bored of it and it felt disturbing. Especially when author thinks some minor medieval squabbles are equally important as the galactic space part, giving it same page count. Suffered till the end, and lost any motivation to continue…

> Especially when author thinks some minor medieval squabbles are equally important as the galactic space part, giving it same page count. That was a major plot design point to me. That pre-spacefaring civilizations have things that are incredibly important to them , but questionably important relative to order-of-magnitudes different power galactic civilizations. One of the reasons I like Banks fiction as well -- in…

Yes, but Banks version of the "extremely minor event in the grand scheme of things but terribly important to those participating in it" (i.e. Consider Phlebas) is much better.

Re: The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge

#65

Post by wiredfool »

vkou wrote: post #18
saiya-jin wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably just me, but it first book was such a schizophrenic experience. Loved every single bit of space part but couldn't care less about medieval cluster dog minds part, eventually grew bored of it and it felt disturbing. Especially when author thinks some minor medieval squabbles are equally important as the galactic space part, giving it same page count. Suffered till the end, and lost any motivation to continue…

The first Hyperion book is excellent, the second is decent, but for anybody not in the know - do yourself a favor and skip the two that follow.

My recollection was 1 and 4 were enjoyable. 2 and 3 were less. Though, it's possible I got them out of order.

The Canterbury Tales in Space framing took me way to long to pick up on.

Re: The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge

#66

Post by wiredfool »

krasin wrote: post #9
codeslasher wrote: post #8

I've only read A Fire Upon The Deep, which I found super interesting in terms of setting, but the storytelling felt a bit clunky to me at the time. I was still intrigued by the author though and I read A Deepness In The Sky and was blown away. Storytelling, setting, everything just clicked. I know there is a third book in the trilogy but it seems a bit back to the roots in terms of setting and I haven't touched just…

A Deepness In The Sky is the best in the trilogy, by far.

It's certainly the one that stuck with me.

Re: The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge

#67

Post by gildandstain »

h2odragon wrote: post #12
DougMerritt wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That hexapodia business seemed like a hint in a murder mystery; some of the connections to the rest of the story were reasonably clear, but I always felt like I was missing some insight there.

http://web.archive.org/web/20150117043800/http://www.angelfi...

And all this time I thought Twirlisp was just caricature of off-base, know-nothing commentors. I guess the lesson is: do read all the comments, and carefully.

Re: The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge

#68

Post by hinkley »

steve1977 wrote: post #53
hinkley wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just read it a couple of years ago, missed the memo that there was a third book. It feels like book 3/4 but he has not finished the story and I worry if he ever will.

AFAIK he’s not of very good health unfortunately and won’t be writing any further books.

I started saying this as a joke a few years ago but maybe Brian Sanderson can step in and finish it...

Re: The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge

#69

Post by ethbr1 »

gpderetta wrote: post #64
ethbr1 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Especially when author thinks some minor medieval squabbles are equally important as the galactic space part, giving it same page count. That was a major plot design point to me. That pre-spacefaring civilizations have things that are incredibly important to them , but questionably important relative to order-of-magnitudes different power galactic civilizations. One of the reasons I like Banks fiction as well -- in…

Yes, but Banks version of the "extremely minor event in the grand scheme of things but terribly important to those participating in it" (i.e. Consider Phlebas) is much better.

Agreed. But Banks was pretty damn clever about solving plot puzzles involving multiple adversarial omnipotent parties.

Re: The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge

#70

Post by saiya-jin »

sideshowb wrote: post #32
saiya-jin wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably just me, but it first book was such a schizophrenic experience. Loved every single bit of space part but couldn't care less about medieval cluster dog minds part, eventually grew bored of it and it felt disturbing. Especially when author thinks some minor medieval squabbles are equally important as the galactic space part, giving it same page count. Suffered till the end, and lost any motivation to continue…

> minor medieval squabbles Are you perchance channelling that space-Usenet poster who was utterly dismissive of the main plot until the very end? ;-) Parent comment should be marked SPOILERS, this one also. Srsly tho, I appreciate your perspective. I found the dog part a little slow at times but still super interesting due to their collective identity which was explored quite a lot. As such it wasn't just a medieval…

I do get it, no idea why everybody now starts explaining the story to me like I misunderstood it :) Its fine that person A likes object X, but person B doesn't, there is no rationalization needed since it won't change the opinion.

I went for that sci-fi book for the space and sci-fi parts, and found the other side not interesting. That's it. I think I generally like sci-fi happening in space or generally futuristic. For medieval I prefer reading fantasy (which I think would help story tremendously if included for folks like me, since there is already another 'magic' in that universe).

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