It was definitely dark, and before I was halfway through I was desperate for the alien chapters just because all of the humans were just so damned miserable.

It’s almost like the way in which a society is described to you affects how engaged you are in their success… which is entirely the meta-textual point!

I am a little confused. Which of the books are you and GP talking about that is so dark?

They are talking about A Deepness in the Sky. The good guys lose pretty hard and suffer as a result.

Same here. I would have put down and thrown away Deepness if I hadn't read Fire Upon The Deep first and trusted the author. I'm glad I finished it because of the parts about the spiders and Pham Nuwen's past was really interesting. But the "present-day" emergents story line is dark... I did not enjoy reading those parts.