The Children of the Sky (makes me want to stop reading books by people who are still alive)

I had a lot of time to kill while waiting for a bus earlier this week, so I browsed the library. I think it was mid-2010 that I saw on the internet somewhere that Vernor Vinge was writing a sequel to A Fire Upon the Deep. I thought that was just great. To this day, I still haven't read anything else from Vinge aside from the Zones of Thought books (A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky), but I love those books. However, The Children of the Sky never came out and eventually I just assumed that it never would. So it was a pleasant surprise to see the book sitting on the shelf. Apparently it was finally published in October last year.

To be clear, the book is good. It's not great, and it probably seems weak in comparison to the other two, both of which are superb. But at no time did I think that I was reading a bad book. This could still be some sort of solid trilogy with the third book faltering a bit but not compromising the awesomeness. The problem here, if you didn't guess from the title, is that this book is incomplete. Yes, I've been tricked yet again, albeit not so dramatically as with Connie Willis. The book has denouement—barely. A few big threads of the plot do get resolved, but most of them, including all of the ones that were brought back from A Fire Upon the Deep, are left as cliffhangers. There's a subtle distinction here. The previous books left some questions unanswered in a way that made the conclusion more powerful. When A Fire Upon the Deep ended, it was fine that we didn't know exactly what happened to Pham Nuwen and Countermeasure or what would become of the Blight fleet. The major conflicts, the race to activate Countermeasure before the Blight could destroy it and the machinations of Lord Steel, ended decisively. That's how good stories work: it isn't "everything works out for everyone and they all live happily ever after." What's different with this book is that instead of resolving the major conflicts, everything just stops because there aren't any more pages left. It's infuriating.

There might still be a sequel. Maybe more than any book I know of, The Children of the Sky needs a sequel. If that sounds like a compliment because I was tantalized and wanted more, rest assured that I don't mean it that way. A Deepness in the Sky was incredible. And while I would have loved a sequel, the book is great on its own. When I found out that it was a prequel, that just made me want to read the first book. A Fire Upon the Deep was also great, and again, the book stands on its own. The Children of the Sky doesn't stand on its own. It needs A Fire Upon the Deep to set it up, which is fine, but it also needs an ending. Even if Vinge does release some amazing grand finale, this will still be the weakest volume.