Perplexed comments on Specific Fiction Discusion (April 2011) - Less Wrong

6 Post author: Armok_GoB 14 April 2011 12:29PM

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Comment author: Kutta 15 April 2011 07:33:35PM *  2 points [-]

I have the exact opposite view. I liked A Fire Upon the Deep and felt that Deepness had a woefully anthropomorphic and unimaginative alien world, cartoonish cast and a plot that drags on.

Aside from these two I've read Marooned in Realtime and True Names, and both were quite good. Overall I'd label Vinge a decent, albeit clearly second rate writer.

Comment author: Perplexed 15 April 2011 07:49:55PM 3 points [-]

I suppose you are right that the alien world is unrealistically human-like - at least psychologically. The world-building that I particularly admired was the variety of human cultures that were briefly presented - the extra verisimilitude arising from the level of extraneous detail offered. (Did I just hear someone whisper: "Conjunction Fallacy"?)