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A Fire Upon the Deep (Zones of Thought #1)

4.12 of 5 stars 4.12 · rating details · 15,726 ratings · 803 reviews

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, whe...more

Mass Market Paperback, 613 pages

Published February 15th 1993 by Tor Science Fiction (first published 1992)

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Oct 27, 2011 Joel rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Brian Halberg

Recommended to Joel by: Jo Walton

Shelves: 2011, sci-fi-fantasy

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From: Joeleoj
[A known Goodreads reviewer of Midwesten US origin. Extensive priors before this review began. Appears aligned with the Hipster Coalition but has denied close ties. Program recommendation: Imagine this post being read in a tone of self-satisfied ironic detachment]
Subject: Books to talk about with my wife...more

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Apr 18, 2013 Jon added it

Recommended to Jon by: SciFi & Fantasy Book Club Jan 2009 Space Opera Theme Selection

Shelves: science-fiction, fiction, space-opera, award-winners, hugo-winner, nebula-nominee, read-in-my-40s, liked-it

3 stars

Due to the acquisition of GoodReads by Amazon on March 28, 2013 and my existing and continuing boycott of all things Amazon, the review I wrote after reading this book now resides, safe and secure, at my blog. You can read it by following this link: http://bit.ly/102qVHD

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Jan 11, 2009 Jamie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

This is an impressive work of hard science fiction. I admire the author's creation and the writing is decent if not riveting.

I enjoyed the story of the Tines, aliens with pack minds, and I came to like the concept of the "zones of thought", where different levels of technology are possible in different areas of the galaxy.

But I found myself indifferent to the rest of the characters. The enemy they called the Blight seemed ominous only in the prologue - for the rest of the book it was kept at suc...more

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Dec 11, 2011 Shelly rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

Vernor Vinge has become one of my favorite science fiction authors with this amazing novel. Filled with big, huge ideas and amazing technology. Plus the aliens are awesome. The alien Tines were so original and amazingly described that I was in heaven reading about them. I loved this from beginning to end. Make sure you read this slowly or you might miss a handful of neat ideas.

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Jan 13, 2009 Brad rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Brad by: SciFi & Fantasy Book Club Jan 2009 Space Opera

Shelves: sci-fi, to-read-again

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Dec 28, 2008 Lightreads rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, science-fiction

This is the galaxy in the unimaginably distant future, populated with millions of species. The shape of civilizations is dictated by the shape of the galaxy: close in at the core is the “slowness,” the place where only sublight travel is possible. Farther out is the “beyond,” where FTL drives function and cross-system communication passes on great data pipelines, and very advanced technology can begin to be truly sentient. And above that is the “transcend,” where automation goes beyond sentience...more This is the galaxy in the unimaginably distant future, populated with millions of species. The shape of civilizations is dictated by the shape of the galaxy: close in at the core is the “slowness,” the place where only sublight travel is possible. Farther out is the “beyond,” where FTL drives function and cross-system communication passes on great data pipelines, and very advanced technology can begin to be truly sentient. And above that is the “transcend,” where automation goes beyond sentience into transcendence, where the great powers operate. A human expedition is exploring an ancient archive abandoned in the transcend, where they awaken a very old, very nasty power defeated billions of years ago. We begin with the destruction of the expedition, the few survivors fleeing down the galaxy to the very edge of the slowness with something that just might be able to save everyone. The malevolent power is hot on their trail, as is a rag-tag band of its other surviving victims – humans and aliens and the man who was possessed by a defeated opposing power. The book plays with ideas of sentience, of communication, of information systems. The awakened power begins to absorb civilizations by the hundreds above, and far below the survivors are caught up in the political struggles of primitive, doglike, group-minded aliens.

My reactions to this book went something like this:

Pp 1-200: Wow, that’s fabulous world building. And great ideas. But it is so very much a hard SF novel, and I don’t entirely care about these people.

Pp 200-400: Take it back, the character work has gotten a lot better. And ooh, that was neat.

Pp 400-600: Okay what? That was cheating. Also annoying.

I chronicle this because the last reaction shouldn’t necessarily overpower the first two – this really is a fantastic hard SF novel in concept and execution. A big fucking idea book, and I do love those. But I never quite tipped over the edge from reading and enjoying into ravening need to continue. I think, partly, it’s that the book plays with the omniscient point of view as it cycles between the expedition survivors (two young children), their wood-be rescuers, and a cast of primitive aliens on the world they came to. And I have an increasingly allergic reaction to this particular style where the reader knows who the bad guys are but the heroes don’t. The style also allowed an ending which was reaching to say something profound about individual destiny and vast, multi-civilization communication/automation/group sentience. Instead, it felt lazy and unsatisfying, full of really disturbing implications that were barely even blinked at.

I neither recommend nor anti-rec this book because there are people out there who will love bits of it so much that nothing else will matter. I just wasn’t one of them.

(less)

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Apr 14, 2008 David Hughes rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone who's ever thought they could possibly stomach science fiction

Shelves: scifi, fiction

I want to make it clear that I don't lightly write rave reviews. Please read the following sentence twice:

This is an absolutely fantastic book.

On the outskirts of the Galaxy, far from the physical constraints of the Galactic core, faster-than-light travel is possible, and Transcended intelligences flourish to a complexity that dwarfs human comprehension. Scavenging for buried knowledge on a dead world, a party of humans awakes an ancient evil: an archive containing an entity so powerful and so m...more I want to make it clear that I don't lightly write rave reviews. Please read the following sentence twice:

This is an absolutely fantastic book.

On the outskirts of the Galaxy, far from the physical constraints of the Galactic core, faster-than-light travel is possible, and Transcended intelligences flourish to a complexity that dwarfs human comprehension. Scavenging for buried knowledge on a dead world, a party of humans awakes an ancient evil: an archive containing an entity so powerful and so malign that it begins to sweep across the galaxy, overwhelming even the godlike Powers of the Transcend.

Some of the humans escape towards the galactic plane, bearing a little-understood cargo that represents the galaxy's only possible weapon against the Blight. They crash-land on an alien world, leaving only two survivors, both of them children -- who are promptly snatched by opposing alien factions. But the aliens' low-tech society is promptly and drastically destabilised by the humans' technology, leaving the children struggling for survival while a rescue mission tears across the galaxy towards them, harried and pursued by everything the Blight can throw on their trail.

This book has everything. Wild adventure, colossal scale, soaring imagination, searing insight, deep characterisation, brilliant plotting, profound suspense, complex and cunningly-realised aliens -- and, most of all, an astonishing richness of that special quality of science fiction, which is the speculative investigation of other worlds, other intelligences, whole other ways of being.

It's not perfect. If you're a hard sci-fi buff like me, then it seems convenient not only that the alien biosphere will support human life, but that the aliens themselves are mentally compatible with humans. And for a Transcended being whose intelligence is to humans as humans are to microbes, the Blight seems remarkably... well, human in its motivations. But, frankly, Vinge is forgiven these devices to make his plot work. For a book this good, I could forgive just about anything.(less)

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Nov 19, 2007 Jlawrence rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: any science-fiction fan

The first third of this book is some of the best science-fiction I have ever read: good writing, fast pace, some breathtaking action, excellent balance between narrative and explanation, and some really, REALLY cool ideas thoroughly thought-out and implemented. Several times my brain practically crackled and I said, "wow" out loud when certain ideas Vinge had been hinting at "clicked" and became clear. Vinge is also pretty skilled at keeping the vast hard-sci-fi-space-opera scope of the book fas...more

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Aug 25, 2007 Todd rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: sci-fi lovers

Shelves: sci-fi

This is one of the weirdest books I've ever read. It was amazingly creative and clever, and is easily one of the best sci-fi books I've ever laid hands on. The only problem is that it is written in such an extreme third-person viewpoint that people not experienced with sci-fi material will have trouble understanding what is going on; as such, I can only recommend it to experienced sci-fi readers.

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Mar 27, 2012 Darciana rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: high tech/medieval space opera fans

Shelves: sci-fi, series, owned, reviewed, space-opera

It took me a long time to really get into this book, about 200 pages, but once I got there, I enjoyed it tremendously.

Vernor Vinge is a mathematician and computer scientist - and it shows. There's quite a bit of techno babble going on, much of it influenced by the Usenet concept of the 1980s and early 1990s, something I'm not familiar with at all (I got my first modem in 1999). Barely anything is actually explained, but you get the puzzle pieces bit by bit until a more cohesive picture of this...more

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Sep 29, 2011 Apatt rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, top-20, sf-top-20

This book comes highly recommended by Redditors and several "best of sf" lists. However, seeing that Vinge is a scientist I did not expect much from this book, some cool, believable sf concepts at the most. The book did not start well for me with silly names like "Wickwrackrum" popping up and a confusing first chapter. However, once I begin to follow the book (about 30 pages in) Vinge really surprised me with his talented authorship. He has the ability to create characters worth caring about and...more

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Nov 08, 2011 Brian rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed, in-full

Maybe I'll come off as bi-polar when I start this five star review (my first of 2011) with an extensive list of why the book I'm applauding is utter garbage. But what the hell, I'm game if you are. Let's do it.

Why "A Fire Upon the Deep" is Utter Garbage
1. Mr. Vinge's characters are only so-so, and the humans are the worst of the lot. Every once in a blue moon a character will shine, which makes it so hard to bear their poor treatment at other critical points. Vernor struggles, as most sci-fi aut...more

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Oct 22, 2008 Christopher rated it 3 of 5 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 D...more 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. (less)

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Oct 06, 2008 Rope rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Any and all sci-fi fans

Brief synopsis: Humans exploring at the edge of the galaxy accidentally awaken an ancient malevolent entity hell bent on conquering the galaxy. An interesting cast of characters is inadvertently caught up in the race to stop it.

I really enjoyed the well thought out, original and interesting ideas coupled with equally well developed aliens. I never thought I could empathize with a character that pretty much amounts to a small palm tree on wheels ... but the Skroderider Blueshell was one of my fav...more

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Dec 15, 2008 Netanella rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: alien-encounters, science-fiction, space-saga

I had a hard time getting into this book, the first 30 pages or so - the writing from the point of view of the aliens was difficult to get a feel for, until I realized it was a pack mind - the Tines were packs of dog-like creatures sharing an intelligence - that things started to get rolling. The characters in the book are believeable and loveable - especially Amdijefri, the human child-Tines puppy pack, and the Skroderiders, weird potted plants on jet skis. This book was well worth it, and I'm...more

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Jan 30, 2009 Ron rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Ron by: Jon Moss

Shelves: science-fiction

I like it. I really did. I'll have to think about it for a day or two. perhaps I'll adjust the rating upward.

Good spread and imagination. Loved the "Net of a Million Lies" line. That's so true.

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Aug 15, 2008 Dave Fay rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book deserves all of the praise it has been given. It's a very imaginative story with creative ideas about what humanity and the galaxy could be like in the far future. It raises familiar sci-fi motifs: what alien life might be like, implications of super-light travel and communication, AIs as more intelligent and dangerous than humans, disparity of technology between races. However, each of these seems clever and original in this book, the most interesting idea being Vinge's pack-mind spec...more

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Jan 17, 2009 Terran rated it 2 of 5 stars

I seem to be one of the few geeks who was dramatically underwhelmed by this book. I guess that this is classic "hard SF", in the sense of being all ideas and not so much on the characterization. And maybe I've just passed the time in my life when that really excites me. But overall, it just didn't grab me.

The notion of the zones of thought was interesting, albeit a real stretch to me. The tines were a kind-of interesting construction, though mass minds have been done before. And, for whatever re...more

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Nov 22, 2008 Marc rated it 4 of 5 stars

I liked this book very much. It is a proper space opera, but I think it is better than most of the ones I have read. The universe reminds me most perhaps of the one laid out by Ian M Banks in Consider Phlebas and the sequels. It is the story of a "blight" which is an intelligent organism that a group of humans accidentally release from an "archive" (sort of a mine of ancient data) The blight then spreads rapidly and takes over big chunks of the universe. A small group escapes the blight, carryin...more

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Mar 04, 2013 Martyn Lovell rated it 3 of 5 stars

Vernor Vinge's Fire Upon the Deep is an attempt to meld hard sci-fi with Galactic scope with a much more personal, local story about life on a world where small groups of dog-like creatures work together to form multi-part intelligences.

The best part of the book is the dog-group story. This is a fascinating topic, and well-explored. About half of the novel takes place in this milieu, and a good amount of development and exploration takes place. Really an enjoyable thread.

The galactic part is mor...more

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Jan 26, 2013 Jeffery Looper rated it 4 of 5 stars

How to explain? How to describe? Even the omniscient viewpoint quails.

It's indeed very hard to describe and explain the design and scale of "A Fire Upon the Deep" other than stating that it's a very ambitious book.

The main storyline takes place in a year, displaying different parts of a galaxy and different "zones" divided by forces of mysterious and presumably ancestral origins. Basically it's a rescue mission to a remote world in the relatively backward bottom of the "Beyond" where somehow tec...more

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Jan 22, 2013 Nick rated it 4 of 5 stars

I liked this book. I would definately recomend it.

Pros: I liked the characters, Pham in particular.

I loved the alien cultures. They were written well, I wanted to learn more about all of them. The Skroderiders were really cool.

The plot was surprisingly tight, considering the length of the book. I think Sci-Fi authors in general whould read this book as a reference on how to write a long, but still interesting book. The beginning was a little slow, but the second half of the book was well worth...more

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Jan 15, 2013 Shimon rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, sf

If you're going to read only a few science fiction books, this should be one of them. Vernor Vinge uses this novel to propose a truly staggering number of ideas which answer any number of conundrums - the Fermi Paradox, why AIs haven't taken over the cosmos, etc. He does this in the context of a stunningly well-rendered galaxy with a fast-paced plot and fascinating characters. You can't get much better than this.

In "A Fire Upon the Deep", Vinge explores a galaxy split into 'zones of thought', wh...more If you're going to read only a few science fiction books, this should be one of them. Vernor Vinge uses this novel to propose a truly staggering number of ideas which answer any number of conundrums - the Fermi Paradox, why AIs haven't taken over the cosmos, etc. He does this in the context of a stunningly well-rendered galaxy with a fast-paced plot and fascinating characters. You can't get much better than this.

In "A Fire Upon the Deep", Vinge explores a galaxy split into 'zones of thought', where the outer edges of the galaxy are controlled by recently transcended AIs/civilizations, who cannot function closer to the galactic core. In the outer third of the galaxy, high technology civilizations rise and fall, including a smattering of human colonies. The center third of the galaxy houses worlds where intelligent thought is possible, but faster-than-light travel and high level automation is not. Vinge's story spans these three regions as a new, predatory AI is reborn at the edge of the galaxy using unwitting human accomplices. What follows is a galactic race to stop the AI from taking over a large swath of the galaxy and enslaving countless civilizations. Much of this is narrated by galactic 'discussion boards' not unlike usenet or forums today, and Vinge clearly uses it to poke fun at the absurdities that happen in such discussions.

In parallel, a small ship containing the children of the humans who woke this malevolent AI lands on a technologically primitive planet on the edge of FTL-capable space. When it lands, it provokes a clash between warring native groups on the planet, who themselves are a remarkable invention of Vinge, being a 'pack mind' of several dog-like creatures network by sound. Matters eventually come to a head, both on the planet, and in the surrounding galaxy, and the book concludes in a satisfying and remarkable way.

I cannot emphasize enough how inventive Vinge is, and how enjoyable this book is to read. I have re-read this book many times and highly recommend it as the best fiction on a potential singularity.(less)

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Dec 23, 2012 Michael rated it 5 of 5 stars

Timeline meets Dune meets Starship Troopers meets Forever War meets Neuromancer. This is Goodreads.com first recommendation for me, and appropriately, it chooses the long-known but finally-read Fire Upon the Deep, the so-called Bible of IT/CS, that extrapolates Technological Singularity to its next logical step (multiple singularities, happening everywhere), combines it with a pseudo-medieval Timeline-esque swords/sorcery (?) mashup, and then adds in some allegory about Great Power politics duri...more

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Dec 19, 2012 Grey rated it 3 of 5 stars

I'll put it right up in front: this book has two of the more original ideas I have seen in Sci-Fi the last twenty years.

One is an alien species (and community) in which each individual/identity is made up of a few physically separate entities. In other words, a PACK of five dogs is one person, while each separate dog is akin to a limb. (There's no coincidenece that I used dogs in the example. The alien species resembles Earth canines). The other good idea is how the galaxy works in term of zone...more

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Nov 17, 2012 L. rated it 4 of 5 stars

If you enjoy "hard science fiction" (ie., Arthur C. Clarke, Stephen Baxter, Greg Bear, Isaac Asimov, etc.) then you will probably walk away from "Fire" feeling somewhat cheated.
However, if you enjoy pseudo science-fantasy (ie., John Varley, Ursula K. LeGuin, Frank Herbert, Anne McCaffrey, etc.) then you will probably rave about "Fire".

Granted, the science didn't have to be explained (or even make sense) to enjoy this story. Vinge's description and interplay of transcendent artificial intelligenc...more

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Oct 24, 2012 Dave rated it 3 of 5 stars

There are lots of interesting ideas and the story is intriguing. It explores group minds, FTL travel, races transcending beyond their biological selves, medieval war, and inter-species synergy. It just isn't a favorite.

Basic plot: hapless humans seek to exploit the power of an ancient "archive," but it isn't what it appears to be. A sentient life form - the Blight - billions of years old was stored within and begins to take over computers and minds in the Beyond. An entire section of the galaxy...more There are lots of interesting ideas and the story is intriguing. It explores group minds, FTL travel, races transcending beyond their biological selves, medieval war, and inter-species synergy. It just isn't a favorite.

Basic plot: hapless humans seek to exploit the power of an ancient "archive," but it isn't what it appears to be. A sentient life form - the Blight - billions of years old was stored within and begins to take over computers and minds in the Beyond. An entire section of the galaxy is being taken over.

But the humans saved part of the archive that they knew could help counteract it. They crash landed on a medieval world in the Bottom of the Beyond near the Slow Zone. The Countermeasure is saved, but the local inhabitants are hostile and kill the adults. These "Tines" are pack minds. It takes at least 4 dog-like singletons to make up a functional person. Two children survive but are taken by different Tine rulers who seek to profit from their knowledge and technology.

When other humans come to use the Countermeasure against the Blight, they step into clever, brutal Tine schemes and have to save the children in order to reach their goal.

Setting: Earth is an old legend. After humans moved to the stars, many settled Nyjora, where somehow technology was lost and people returned to medieval times before again advancing out to other systems. Now, humans are a tiny civilization amongst millions in our region of the galaxy.

That galaxy has been divided into "Zones" - the Unthinking Depths at the galaxy's core where very little advanced technology and computation will work and advanced races avoid, the Slow Zone where Earth is, the Beyond in which technologies like antigravity and "ultradrive" faster than light travel are possible, and the Transcend, where almost magical levels of existence and technology are possible. Races themselves may transcend, becoming more than their biological selves and becoming god-like Powers in the Transcend. No one knows the origins of the zones, but some speculate that powers beyond the Powers in the Transcend created them, possibly to protect themselves in the galactic core.

(less)

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Oct 21, 2012 Klytia rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Il prologo è molto intrigante e misterioso, crea una notevole aspettativa.
I primi capitoli però mi hanno fatto temere che diventasse una storia science-fantasy con bambini sperduti su un pianeta animali parlanti.
Quelli appena successivi su Centrale mi hanno invece rincuorata poichè si torna a parlare di bizzarri di alieni, comunicazioni tra gli spazi siderali ed entità misteriose come le Potenze che abitano il Trascendente, la zona più esterna della galassia. Comodo tra l'altro usare un abitan...more

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Sep 30, 2012 Ryk Spoor rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: space-opera, sf

A Fire Upon the Deep is one of the greatest SF novels of the past 30 years. Vernor Vinge's Zones of Thought universe is explored and brought to life here for the second time (the first story in this universe was his short "The Blabber") but with greater depth and vastly greater impact. This is modern space opera with the kind of twist only a computer-science expert like Vinge could come up with, where nanotechnology and computation collide with FTL and things that border the mystical.

A great ev...more
A Fire Upon the Deep is one of the greatest SF novels of the past 30 years. Vernor Vinge's Zones of Thought universe is explored and brought to life here for the second time (the first story in this universe was his short "The Blabber") but with greater depth and vastly greater impact. This is modern space opera with the kind of twist only a computer-science expert like Vinge could come up with, where nanotechnology and computation collide with FTL and things that border the mystical.

A great evil -- a remnant of something thought long dead eons ago -- is revived by an archaeological team, who are of course its first victims. But in the same vault that contained the danger were also clues to its defeat, and a ship carrying those clues barely manages to escape.

When the monstrous threat unleashed begins to endanger the whole Galaxy, the ship Out Of Band II is launched, following the cryptic clues of the godlike being called "Old One", in a race against Lovecraftian horror to find a weapon capable of stopping something that may otherwise destroy everything. On board, Ravna Bergsndot, an ordinary employee of the station called Relay; Blueshell and Greenstalk, two bush-like aliens called Skroderiders; and Pham Nuwen, resurrected human from an ancient and distant culture... who was also the living avatar for "Old One" and the only hope for making use of the weapon they hope to find on a distant, obscure world. Pursuing them -- an armada of thousands of ships under the control of a horror older than Earth's sun. And on that distant world, the only survivors aboard the ship are themselves caught in an alien war which could cause the final weapon to be lost forever.

This book took the classic space opera "sensawunda" and brought it fully into the modern age, stuffing it with brand new ideas and excellent turns on old ones, with references to many other things (not to mention a Galactic version of Usenet!). This is one of the few books that I literally finished, then went back to the first page and started again. Excellent work!(less)

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Jun 28, 2012 Chris Aylott rated it 5 of 5 stars

It's been at least a decade since I read this book -- two since I read it for the first time -- but I picked Fire Upon the Deep up again to remind myself of what happened before starting Children of the Sky.

It's still a fantastic book. Even though one of its major conceits is that the galactic Internet looks a lot like Usenet circa 1992, it's still a fresh and compelling read.

The plot is relatively simple. Humans awaken an ancient and malevolent Power on the edge of the galaxy, and survive the...more

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About Vernor Vinge

Vernor Steffen Vinge is a retired San Diego State University Professor of Mathematics, computer scientist, and science fiction author. He is best known for his Hugo Award-winning novels A Fire Upon The Deep (1992), A Deepness in the Sky (1999) and Rainbows End (2006), his Hugo Award-winning novellas Fast Times at Fairmont High (2002) and The Cookie Monster (2004), as well as for his 1993 essay...more

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Books by Vernor Vinge

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Marooned in Realtime (Across Realtime, #2)

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“I never guessed I could cry so hard my face hurt.” — 7 people liked it

“He claimed that nearby gun thunder cleared the mind - but most everybody else agreed it made you daft.” — 6 people liked it

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A Fire Upon the Deep (Zones of Thought #1)

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