A Fire Upon The Deep
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4.3 • 307 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Now with a new introduction for the Tor Essentials line, A Fire Upon the Deep is sure to bring a new generation of SF fans to Vinge's award-winning works.
A Hugo Award-winning Novel!
“Vinge is one of the best visionary writers of SF today.”-David Brin
Thousands of years in the future, humanity is no longer alone in a universe where a mind's potential is determined by its location in space, from superintelligent entities in the Transcend, to the limited minds of the Unthinking Depths, where only simple creatures, and technology, can function. Nobody knows what strange force partitioned space into these "regions of thought," but when the warring Straumli realm use an ancient Transcendent artifact as a weapon, they unwittingly unleash an awesome power that destroys thousands of worlds and enslaves all natural and artificial intelligence.
Fleeing this galactic threat, Ravna crash lands on a strange world with a ship-hold full of cryogenically frozen children, the only survivors from a destroyed space-lab. They are taken captive by the Tines, an alien race with a harsh medieval culture, and used as pawns in a ruthless power struggle.
Tor books by Vernor Vinge
Zones of Thought Series
A Fire Upon The Deep
A Deepness In The Sky
The Children of The Sky
Realtime/Bobble Series
The Peace War
Marooned in Realtime
Other Novels
The Witling
Tatja Grimm's World
Rainbows End
Collections
Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge
True Names
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
It has been six years since Vinge's last book ( Marooned in Realtime ), but the wait proves worthwhile in this stimulating tale filled with ideas, action and likable, believable characters, both alien and human. Vinge presents a galaxy divided into Zones--regions where different physical constraints allow very different technological and mental possibilities. Earth remains in the ``Slowness'' zone, where nothing can travel faster than light and minds are fairly limited. The action of the book is in the ``Beyond,'' where translight travel and other marvels exist, and humans are one of many intelligent species. One human colony has been experimenting with ancient technology in order to find a path to the ``Transcend,'' where intelligence and power are so great as to seem godlike. Instead they release the Blight, an evil power, from a billion-year captivity. As the Blight begins to spread, a few humans flee with a secret that might destroy it, but they are stranded in a primitive low-tech world barely in the Beyond. While the Blight destroys whole races and star systems, a team of two humans and two aliens races to rescue the others, pursued by the Blight's agents and other enemies. With uninterrupted pacing, suspense without contrivance, and deftly drawn aliens who can be pleasantly comical without becoming cute, Vinge offers heart-pounding, mind-expanding science fiction at its best.
Customer Reviews
A great sci-fi story
Make sure that when you read this, you don't let the fairly murky beginning make you put the book down. The story does a very good job of clearing itself up and explaining everything fairly well by the end. Although it did take me a second read to fully comprehend every little detail (such as the dogs using vibrating protrusions from their head and shoulders to read their packs thoughts, it's not telepathy) it was totally worth taking the journey all over again. Once you've read this, I strongly recommend taking a look at its prequel, A Deepness In the Sky. Another fantastic book that follows the main character's history with the Qeng Ho fleet, millennia before the events of this book.
Great sci-fi
Do yourself a favor and push past the post-intro rough patch. Confusing at first and maybe a bit of a turn off, but worth pushing through. There’s a reason this won a Hugo award! If it helps, here are some of my favorite books (which is really just a list of popular sci-fi): Old Man’s War, Three Body Problem, Pandora’s Star, Seveneves, and the Jack Reacher books (sci-fi whaaa?).
100 Words or Less
I loved the opening chapter … and then came the doglike telepathic symbiotic warriors?
Ugh. I suppose those aliens are as good as any, but from that chapter I knew exactly where this novel was heading. Okay, maybe I didn’t know exactly, but it was enough of a disappointment for me to stop reading.
I just have no patience for the “children among aliens” plot devices.