A Fire Upon The Deep (Zones of Thought)
by Vernor Vinge
List Price:
Our Price: $5.06
You Save: $3.93 (44%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Vernor VingeEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1993-02-15
ISBN: 0812515285
Number of pages: 624
Publisher: Tor Science Fiction
Book Reviews of A Fire Upon The Deep (Zones of Thought)
Book Review: A science fiction work of novel concepts and grand proportions, if somewhat clunky writing and characterization
Summary: 3 Stars
Vernor Vinge's 1991 novel A FIRE UPON THE DEEP is certainly a work of great proportions. Vinge takes us from the wider view of a universe filled with sentient life who fly starships and debate on galactic message boards to the political intrigues of a pre-spaceflight world inhabited by dog-like creatures.
Vinge's unique twist on space opera is his concept of "zones of thought". In the universe of A FIRE UPON THE DEEP, the Milky Way was "partitioned" at some point into four zones: the Unthinking Depths, where neither machine nor intelligence is possible; the Slow Zone, where Earth is located and travel is exceedingly slow; the Beyond, where nanotech works wonders and faster-than-light travel is possible; and the Transcend, a region where space-faring races eventually migrate to and become godlike, almost immediately cutting off their links to the rest of the galaxy for some unknown paradise. This idea of regions of space limiting thinking possibilities isn't new. Poul Anderson's 1954 novel BRAIN WAVE had the human race becoming five times more intelligent when the Earth moves out of a region of space. Nonetheless, Vinge elaborates on this setup with a level of detail that hadn't been seen before.
Most of A FIRE UPON THE DEEP is set in the Beyond. A human colony has crossed into the Transcend to do an archaeological dig on a planet there, but awoke a great evil. This turns out to be a malevolent form of nanotechnology that enslaves whole civilizations in a hive mind, but is spoken of in nearly magical terms by the sentient races of the galaxy. As the Beyond falls to this thread it calls the Blight, it is discovered that a human ship managed to break away from the archaeological dig with an antidote against the evil, only to be stranded on a backwater world. A team races to reach the planet and activate the countermeasure, while two children who survived the landing are caught up in the politics and warfare of the dog-like creatures who inhabit that world.
The alien races in A FIRE UPON THE DEEP are generally interesting. The dog-like species called the Tines consist of group minds created by the union of three or four individuals, unintelligent on their own but conscious in tandem, communicating their thoughts around with ultrasound. A major role in the plot is played by a race of sentient plants, originally sessile inhabitants of beaches with no short-term memory who are given an electronic apparatus to move about and think more clearly. Still, Vinge doesn't portray alien psychology too well, since the Tines seem stock human characters, with qualities such as humour, and even a predisposition to James Bond villain monologues.
Breaks in the novel's action come with postings from the galactic discussion network, based on Usenet as it existed in the late 1980s and early 1990s. These are often very funny, as Vinge depicts well the sort of informative debate mixed with puerile arguments that characterized this Internet community, which is sadly now almost defunct. Another nod to nerd culture is the use of encryption, but it's striking that Vinge wrote the novel before PGP was written and embraced by nerds.
While A FIRE UPON THE DEEP is good science fiction in the novel concepts it prevents, I think it fails as literature. When one looks to the best work of authors like Wolfe, there's no excuse for a book that has interesting ideas but unpoetic prose like this. Also, the pacing is strange, with so much space unnecessarily spent on development that Vinge had to rush through the climax. Nonetheless, if you are a fan of science fiction, A FIRE UPON THE DEEP is worth reading as a thought-provoking set of novel concepts.
Summary of A Fire Upon The Deep (Zones of Thought)
A Fire Upon the Deep is the big, breakout book that fulfills the promise of Vinge's career to date: a gripping tale of galactic war told on a cosmic scale.
Thousands of years hence, many races inhabit 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 the threat, a family of scientists, including two children, are taken captive by the Tines, an alien race with a harsh medieval culture, and used as pawns in a ruthless power struggle. A rescue mission, not entirely composed of humans, must rescue the children-and a secret that may save the rest of interstellar civilization.
Thousands of years hence, many races inhabit 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 the threat, a family of scientists, including two children, are taken captive by the Tines, an alien race with a harsh medieval culture, and used as pawns in a ruthless power struggle. A rescue mission, not entirely composed of humans, must rescue the children-and a secret that may save the rest of interstellar civilization.
A Fire Upon The Deep is the winner of the 1993 Hugo Award for Best Novel.
In this Hugo-winning 1991 SF novel, Vernor Vinge gives us a wild new cosmology, a galaxy-spanning "Net of a Million Lies," some finely imagined aliens, and much nail-biting suspense.
Faster-than-light travel remains impossible near Earth, deep in the galaxy's Slow Zone--but physical laws relax in the surrounding Beyond. Outside that again is the Transcend, full of unguessable, godlike "Powers." When human meddling wakes an old Power, the Blight, this spreads like a wildfire mind virus that turns whole civilizations into its unthinking tools. And the half-mythical Countermeasure, if it exists, is lost with two human children on primitive Tines World.
Serious complications follow. One paranoid alien alliance blames humanity for the Blight and launches a genocidal strike. Pham Nuwen, the man who knows about Countermeasure, escapes this ruin in the spacecraft Out of Band--heading for more violence and treachery, with 500 warships soon in hot pursuit. On his destination world, the fascinating Tines are intelligent only in combination: named "individuals" are small packs of the doglike aliens. Primitive doesn't mean stupid, and opposed Tine leaders wheedle the young castaways for information about guns and radios. Low-tech war looms, with elaborately nested betrayals and schemes to seize Out of Band if it ever arrives. The tension becomes extreme... while half the Beyond debates the issues on galactic Usenet.
Vinge's climax is suitably mindboggling. This epic combines the flash and dazzle of old-style space opera with modern, polished thoughtfulness. Pham Nuwen also appears in the nifty prequel set 30,000 years earlier, A Deepness in the Sky. Both recommended. --David Langford, Amazon.co.uk
Literature & Fiction Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Literature & Fiction Books
Little Womenby Louisa May Alcott
Scribner; Published: 1986-06-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.49
Price in other shops:
The Killing Groundby JACK HIGGINS
HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS LTD; Published: 2007; Hardcover; Book
Saving Fish from Drowningby Amy Tan
4th Estate; Published: 2005; Paperback; Book
Life Expectancyby Dean Koontz
Harpercollins Pb; Published: 2005-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.00
Constant Princessby Philippa Gregory
Touchstone/Simon & Schuster; Published: 2005; Hardcover; Book
Wolf of the Plains (Conqueror, Book 1)by Conn Iggulden
Harper; Published: 2007; Paperback; Book
Saharaby Clive Cussler
Harper Collins Pb; Published: 2005-03-21; Paperback; Book
Perelandra (Cosmic Trilogy)by C. S. Lewis
Voyager; Published: 2005-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.67
Price in other shops:
The Lord Of The Rings: Part 2 The Two Towersby J. R. R. Tolkien
Harper Collins Publishers; Published: 2001; Paperback; Book
Red Marsby Kim Stanley Robinson
Trafalgar Square; Published: 2001-06; Paperback; Book
Similar Books and other products
The Fall of Hyperionby Dan Simmons
Spectra; Published: 1991-03-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.15
Price in other shops:
The Windup Girlby Paolo Bacigalupi
Night Shade Books; Published: 2010-04-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.48
Price in other shops:
Neuromancerby William Gibson
Ace; Published: 1984-07-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.79
Price in other shops:
Marooned in Realtime (Peace War)by Vernor Vinge
Tor Books; Published: 2004-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.08
Price in other shops:
The Mote in God's Eyeby Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle
Pocket Books; Published: 1991-03-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.35
Price in other shops:
Hyperionby Dan Simmons
Spectra; Published: 1990-03-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.70
Price in other shops:
Spinby Robert Charles Wilson
Tor Science Fiction; Published: 2006-02-07; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.58
Price in other shops:
The Forever Warby Joe Haldeman
St. Martin's Griffin; Published: 2009-02-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.06
Price in other shops:
The Children of the Sky (Zones of Thought)by Vernor Vinge
Tor Books; Published: 2011-10-11; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.98
Price in other shops:
A Deepness in the Skyby Vernor Vinge
Tor Books; Published: 2000-01-15; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.71
Price in other shops: