Love Vernor Vinge. Too bad is not as proficient as other world building science fiction authors, but if the pattern is correct, he should drop a new Zones of Thought book pretty soon.

He is probably in my top 5 after Stephenson and Gibson. He can't write aliens at all though. I skipped the alien half of a A Fire Upon the Deep (ok, skimmed) and missed nothing. The other books I tried by him were notably worse than that and a A Deepness in the Sky.

As usual in these posts, recommend authors/books. Forever War is ok for central concept, author is meh. Haven't read anything decent recently.

I can't tell if you're saying you like or dislike A Deepness in the Sky. From my perspective it's among the most thoughtful portrayals of a truly alien species I've encountered (trying hard to be respectful here and not include spoilers for those who have not read it)

> I skipped the alien half of a A Fire Upon the Deep (ok, skimmed) and missed nothing

You mean you still liked the book. Hard to know whether you missed something if you skipped or skimmed it. I read this over 10 years ago but the aliens are what I remember most

s/proficient/prolific/ ?

I've pretty much given up hope.

The part about the telepathic doggies was a downward slide anyway.

Have to disagree, the acoustically linked evolved hivemind concept was pretty mind opening for me.

Can't hold this against him; he wrote the book way before furries were a thing.

We might not have gone by that name, but we’ve been around at least since the ancient Egyptians drew a dog head on someone’s body and called them Anubis.

And the name probably dates to 1980-ish: https://www.flayrah.com/4117/retrospective-illustrated-chron...

My first thought as well. Hope we can visit those spiders one day.