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Threats and Other Promises
by Vernor Vinge

What could be better than a bunch of stories by the author of 'Marooned in Realtime'? I'm not usually successful with story collections, but I took a chance and finished them all. One of my favorites involved a communications device which communicated instantly with any point in the universe, with just two caveats: it took about 5 percent of the power of the nearest star, and it only operated at about six bits per minute. Ha ha ha!

Vinge is amusing and imaginative, and usually sets out to follow to their logical conclusions the worlds he invents. 'Original Sin,' a story about an extremely fast-paced short-lived cannibalistic race, was frightening, gruesome, and yet also thought-provoking. I sure hope we don't run into anything like them anytime soon.

'The Blabber' was the precursor to 'A Fire upon The Deep', Vinge's full-length novel about the intergalactic internet, which I enjoyed, and it made me think I might pick up a copy of its prequel, A Deepness in the Sky, which is supposed to be a little better.

In the meantime hobble telekinetically over to amazon.com and read some other reviews of Threats and Other Promises by Vernor Vinge

reviewed September 6, 2001