FWIW I found A Deepness in the Sky to be much better than his other books (I read Deepness first). Vinge’s talent for prose got better over time and it’s one of the more imaginative scifi books I’ve read. It can be consumed completely independently and after that one character’s big reveal in Deepness, they just weren’t as interesting in A Fire Upon the Deep. I really wish we had gotten a sequel to Deepeness.

Luckily I quickly discovered that the Children of Time series filled my need for more spider scifi.