Author: Vinge, Victor
Title: A Fire Upon the Deep
Year: 1993
Publisher: Tor
ISBN: 0-812-51528-5
Furry Content: wolfmorphs
Rating: 3 « (out of 4) paws

A sweeping, multi-species, interstellar saga. That is how I must
describe this book. It's got everything. Lots of sci-fi jargon, some
really unique aliens (sentient trees that ride around on tractors,
anyone?), political intrigue, spaceships, FTL travel, bows and arrows,
castles, a few good chase scenes, a malignant evil that threatens to
consume the galaxy, and the interstellar version of Usenet (yes, even in
the future there are spammers, flames, idiots, and off-topic posts on
the Net). 

Oh yeah, and the furrys! The furrys are the best part. They are the
Times, a species of wolf-like creatures that have a pseudo-medieval
civilization. What did I find so fascinating? The Tines have a pack
mentality. Each individual "person" is actually a pack of three or more
members who communicate in ultrasound "thought sounds" to other members
of their pack. If a person gets too far apart from himself (too spread
out over an area), he literally can't hear himself think, and
intelligence breaks down. If one person gets too close to another
person, their thought sounds interfere with each other and it becomes
impossible to concentrate. And so on.

This book is great just for the description of Time society and how they
live day to day. But it's got a plot, too! A pretty good one. This book
reads a little slow at times (especially during the non-Tine parts;) but
I think any furry fan would enjoy it.