The first part of the book is a barely changed version of a short story in the collection I read. Which was honestly what drew me in to the story. Tatja is a very smart woman in a world of normally smart people and the viewpoint characters for a couple parts are book publishers who love books which obviously immediately endeared them to me.
However, the book itself is one of the author's first works. Comparatively, it lacks depth and cohesion and if you look closely you can see a lot of ideological ties to his later works. Things that he hadn't quite worked out how he wanted them to go but knew he liked the concept of. In addition, it is hampered by basically being a few stories hammered together in an attempt to make a novel and some of the jumps are a little jarring.
Basically, if you like Vernor Vinge and his work, you should read this. It is pretty short and definitely in his style, but come at it expecting short stories set in the same universe rather than a novel. However, this should definitely not be your introduction to Vernor Vinge, for that I recommend either Deepness in the Sky or Fire upon the Deep (depending on if you believe in reading things in chronological order or the order in which they were published).
Overall, I would give this a 81%.
