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Vernor Vinge redux
Sep. 16th, 2007 04:13 pmIn a previous post, after a Vernor Vinge marathon, I described a recurring theme in his work, involving betrayal, deception, and subversion. I've recently read two more of his novels, the early work Tatja Grimm's World and this year's Hugo winner, Rainbow's End, and I can say that the same themes recur in both of those, although to a lesser extent in the earlier novel.
It occurs to me now that one way of looking at Vinge's stories is as suspensers, more specifically stories of espionage. I'm not that familiar with the genre - I've read some of Helen MacInnes' Cold War novels and a couple of early works by Tom Clancy - but the focus on plotting (in the nonliterary sense) seems to be a central element. Is it coincidence that so many figures in Vinge's novels are in government, and specifically in the security services - the military, the police, intelligence? The drawing of... call them civilians... into the struggle, the choices they face, and the sometimes crucial role they play in the denouement is another common plot element. Now, Vinge is less Manichaean than MacInnes or Clancy; the plots in his stories are more complex, and people on both (or all) sides engage in them; and, of course, there is always the strong sfnal element; but I think it would be fair to trace at least part of his literary ancestry to that genre.
It was reading Rainbow's End that led me to this conclusion; this novel is, among other things, quite clearly a suspenser, and good of its type. The setting is on Earth, some twenty years from now, and the Singularity is clearly on its way. With the increase in power available to each individual, there is a serious and rising risk of racial extinction, and several of the characters (including the chief villain) are engaged in efforts to head off that possibility. The "civilians" I alluded to above include several schoolchildren (in their late teens) and a number of older people who have not been able to keep pace with accelerating change. (One of them, at least, has the excuse of being a recovering Alzheimer's patient.)
How does it compare with Vinge's earlier works? Well, I didn't find it as entertaining as A Fire Upon the Deep or A Deepness in the Sky. Granted, I have a taste for space opera, but I think there's more to my reaction than that. One of Vinge's strengths is his ability to evoke sensawunda - of current authors I'm familiar with, only Greg Bear is his superior in that area - and Rainbow's End doesn't quite achieve that. (YGBM is a disturbing threat, but scarcely a new idea; Poul Anderson used it to great effect in the short story "I Tell You, It's True", some thirty years ago.) Beyond that, the story isn't as intricate as in the earlier novels; it's fairly clear, relatively early, what the main players are doing, and Vinge springs no great surprises.
I'm not saying Rainbow's End isn't a good story. It is; Vinge still spins an entertaining yarn, and manages to give a great deal of detail without over-obvious infodumps. (He also mocks himself rather adroitly at one point.) I'm also not saying it didn't deserve the Hugo; I haven't read any of the other nominees, so I'm in no position to comment on that. It's just that... it's a good, satisfying read, but I was expecting more from him.
It occurs to me now that one way of looking at Vinge's stories is as suspensers, more specifically stories of espionage. I'm not that familiar with the genre - I've read some of Helen MacInnes' Cold War novels and a couple of early works by Tom Clancy - but the focus on plotting (in the nonliterary sense) seems to be a central element. Is it coincidence that so many figures in Vinge's novels are in government, and specifically in the security services - the military, the police, intelligence? The drawing of... call them civilians... into the struggle, the choices they face, and the sometimes crucial role they play in the denouement is another common plot element. Now, Vinge is less Manichaean than MacInnes or Clancy; the plots in his stories are more complex, and people on both (or all) sides engage in them; and, of course, there is always the strong sfnal element; but I think it would be fair to trace at least part of his literary ancestry to that genre.
It was reading Rainbow's End that led me to this conclusion; this novel is, among other things, quite clearly a suspenser, and good of its type. The setting is on Earth, some twenty years from now, and the Singularity is clearly on its way. With the increase in power available to each individual, there is a serious and rising risk of racial extinction, and several of the characters (including the chief villain) are engaged in efforts to head off that possibility. The "civilians" I alluded to above include several schoolchildren (in their late teens) and a number of older people who have not been able to keep pace with accelerating change. (One of them, at least, has the excuse of being a recovering Alzheimer's patient.)
How does it compare with Vinge's earlier works? Well, I didn't find it as entertaining as A Fire Upon the Deep or A Deepness in the Sky. Granted, I have a taste for space opera, but I think there's more to my reaction than that. One of Vinge's strengths is his ability to evoke sensawunda - of current authors I'm familiar with, only Greg Bear is his superior in that area - and Rainbow's End doesn't quite achieve that. (YGBM is a disturbing threat, but scarcely a new idea; Poul Anderson used it to great effect in the short story "I Tell You, It's True", some thirty years ago.) Beyond that, the story isn't as intricate as in the earlier novels; it's fairly clear, relatively early, what the main players are doing, and Vinge springs no great surprises.
I'm not saying Rainbow's End isn't a good story. It is; Vinge still spins an entertaining yarn, and manages to give a great deal of detail without over-obvious infodumps. (He also mocks himself rather adroitly at one point.) I'm also not saying it didn't deserve the Hugo; I haven't read any of the other nominees, so I'm in no position to comment on that. It's just that... it's a good, satisfying read, but I was expecting more from him.
