From Publishers Weekly
Set in San Diego, Calif., this hard SF novel from Hugo-winner Vinge (A Deepness in the Sky) offers dazzling computer technology but lacks dramatic tension. Circa 2025, people use high-tech contact lenses to interface with computers in their clothes. "Silent messaging" is so automatic that it feels like telepathy. Robert Gu, a talented Chinese-American poet, has missed much of this revolution due to Alzheimer's, but now the wonders of modern medicine have rehabilitated his mind. Installed in remedial classes at the local high school, he tries to adjust to this brave new world, but soon finds himself enmeshed in a somewhat quixotic plot by elderly former University of California–San Diego faculty members to protest the destruction of the university library, now rendered superfluous by the ubiquitous online databanks. Unbeknownst to Robert, he's also a pawn in a dark international conspiracy to perfect a deadly biological weapon. The true nature of the superweapon is never made entirely clear, and too much of the book feels like a textbook introduction to Vinge's near-future world.

I wish I'd just read the first third or so of this book. That would have been enough to absorb the interesting future-tech bits of computer science and projections of cool ways the internet could evolve without having to slog through the fairly boring plot and unlikeable, flat characters. I'm surprised that this is an award-winning book by a much acclaimed author because it struck me as very poorly executed clever ideas.

The book spends an inordinate amount of time tracing the travails of a recovered from Alzheimer's former poet to adapt to the new technology. In excruciating detail. About his contact lenses. And his remedial high school classes and class project. Blah.

Then there's an almost incomprehensible sequence about competing "belief circles" between some group interested in a Terry Pratchett universe (a reference that might have made more sense if I had read whatever Pratchett book it referenced, but was lost on me) and a Jerzy Hacek universe (which, as far as I can tell is made up for this book).

Even the ultimate "saving the world from the baddies" part of the plot managed to bore me.

So, not recommended. Maybe this author's other prize winning books are amazing, but I probably won't be seeking them out right away.

I'm sending this to a Ballyswapper who has it on her wishlist. May she enjoy it more than I did.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Sent to someone for the Ballyswappers exchange. I hope you like it more than I did.

Arrived today - thanks!

This was left on the table at my house at the end of today's BC-in-DC gathering, our first in-person gathering since February 2020. I'm setting it aside to release.

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