After reading three books by Vernor Vinge, I can say, what I like about them - anw what not: I like the world building, especially the alien cultures, that are not merely some derivates from human cultures, but thought from the alien physiognonomy. I was fascinated by the spiders in A Deepness in the Sky with their hibernation cycle, ans am even more so by the pack minds of the Tines in this novel. And also the other species occuring here, mainly the Scrode Riders are quite fascinating. Also the concept with the Zones of Thought is very intriguing. What I don't like about Vinge's novels are his characters. Especially the humans are not really likable: either they are too naive, or they are in opposite too distrustful, too arrogant and too mercantilistic. Only the one or the other of the alien characters can get my sympathy - in this book mainly Peregrine. What I liked in this book especially was the story. For space operas I prefer the trope One Ship against the Galaxy - and this is met here very good. And also the story line on Tine's World is interesting. And the showdown was white-knuckled. One last flaw: Vinge did not know, when to stop. The Epilogues were far too long.

What makes this book special are the detailed alien cultures. They feel very real and unique and I loved exploring them. Another strenght are the characters, especially the juxtaposition between the siblings Johanna and Jefri and how they react to their new situation. While I think the prose is both nice and accessible and in theory should be engaging, I had my problems really connecting with the story. I also didn't care much about Ravna's POV although there were some interesting cultural tidbits in there, too. I really enjoyed and appreciate this novel, we for some reason just didn't click.