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

Product Description

Vinge is one of those hardworking writers. He is the author of the hard-to-find "True names and other dangers..." which means you can credit him for adding several of the future- or tech-based memes most of us take for granted today.

The ratings for this book waver between 6-10, with a '2' thrown in by some poor fellow. Don't worry about Vernor Vinge's grammatical capabilities -- he writes a mean sentence, and some of the best technical descriptions I've ever read. For a genre which pedestalizes Asimov, who could hardly string 6 words together coherently (guess he was moving too fast), some people are MIGHTY picky!

Also, you won't find the "-oid" syndrome which you get with Bujold, for example, where contemporary items are made to sound science-fictiony just by giving them a new name. You won't read sentences like "He grabbed his key-oids and jumped in his car-oid..."

Vinge's science is deep, and the ramifications of everything from the 'slow zone' to the 'unthinking deeps' to the 'agrav fabric docks' to the hi-tech of the beyond, to the cute extrapolation of an Internet of galactic scope, to the effect of radio upon the Tines (a sophont race), to the matter-of-fact acceptance of racial senescence... all of these things are well thought out and brilliantly presented. You will see many of Vinge's concepts become commonplace in science fiction, and you'll be able to say you saw it here first. :)

Vinge is a scientist/mathmetician, after all, and he seems constitutionally unable to write the soft-science glop which is taking over science fiction. His science fiction is as hard as diamond, and the only bad side effect is that the people you read between the 'good ones' will seem much more inept and unimaginative.

Don't worry about Vinge's characterizations... they're strong and capable (especially those of the skroderiders (plants) and the tines (pack intelligences)). You'll be fascinated by his treatment of alien mentalities... and if you aren't, well, luckily science fiction isn't about characterization anyways.

If you want character, read a novel, which is the genre of the character. If you want science fiction, you could do MUCH worse than come here... you'll be adding a nice thick book to your small stack of 'extremely good' books.


Slow Going, But Worth Reading Anyway   December 9, 2000
 56 out of 70 found this review helpful

This was a very silly book for the professor of my Intro to Sci-Fi class to assign at the end of the semester. Not because of the page-count, as relatively large as that is; not because it's too weighty or complex to understand, either, since it really isn't. However, it *is* a book that moves somewhat slowly--and which will not, frankly speaking, keep you turning pages late into the night out of any fervent desire to see what happens next.

Despite this, I'd still highly recommend it for the reader who doesn't mind possibly being in for a long haul. The concepts introduced in _Fire Upon the Deep_ are fascinating: Zones of Thought, Skroderiders, Powers, Transcendence--and particularly the Known Net, an Internet-like contrivance which links a good part of the galaxy together. Balanced against these science fictional elements is the more fantastic setting of Tines' World, a medieval land inhabited by dog-like creatures who communicate through telepathy and have an intriguing method of genetic engineering. Whether you're a fan of science fiction, fantasy, or just a good tale, there's something here for you. Unfortunately, the rushed and anti-climactic ending does detract from what would otherwise be an excellent story.

Know what to expect before you buy this book: interesting--and fresh!--ideas, wonderfully vivid characters, a bit of humor, a bit of horror, technological exposition, and a good, solid plot. Don't read this if you're out for something quick and light, and be prepared to put it down now and then, maybe even picking something else to read before you finish. This isn't a fast or easy novel to get through... but the virtues of it make it worthwhile to endure this vice.


Even the 5 star reviews have reservations   December 11, 2005
 50 out of 60 found this review helpful

This is tough. "A Fire Upon the Deep" is not for everybody. I read review after review trying to figure out if I should devote the time necessary to read such a tome. Now I understand the mixed yet overall positive reviews here.

This read is not like a "York Peppermint Patty" commercial. I never got the sensation of "driving those huskies across the frozen tundra!" No. This read was more like "slogging through the jungle underbrush with nothing but a machete and a heavy pack." It's like reading Hamlet when you're not that crazy about Shakespeare. (By the way, I LOVE Shakespeare, but that's something that came over time). While reading "Fire" I got the idea that this was a great and important book but perhaps wasn't my type of book.

Try as I might, I couldn't give a rip about the dog packs. Each pack is a character with sub-character individuals acting as only part of the whole pack. If a pack member dies, the pack will accept a new member into its character. The pack "character" is a little too fluid in this case to effectively sink into a reader's psyche. It is appropriately "alien" to the reader and the gap is never fully bridged from familiar to alien.

The kid characters living with the alien dogs have child-like personalities and so are appropriately 2 dimensional.

The most interesting conflict is between the main female character, Ravna, who is racing to save the children and thwart the evil Power and a resurrected Asian scoundrel, Pham, who has an affair with Ravna and who surreptitiously is acting as a Power's spy. Unfortunately, this conflict is in the back seat of the plot and is revealed in the first half of the book.

You'll like it if you don't mind taking a leisurely, extended stroll with alien dogs that can't readily communicate with humans. If half the fun in your mind is finding out how aliens would effectively communicate with humans then you'll like at least half of this book. The other half is a race to beat a net virus, a Power, that seeks to destroy worlds like a boy pouring gasoline on an ant hill. The overarching plot weaves the two halves together. Sounds great but beware.

So I think I can define what TYPE of reader would like this book.

You might like this book if . . .
-You like cyber sci-fi (William Gibson)
-You like "bio" sci-fi
-You like the "Rama" series by Clarke for its unique aliens and the way they interact with humans
-You like the "Hyperion" series by Dan Simmons for its portrayal of a future internet and advanced Artificial Intelligences
-You like "Dune" for its mental games and intrigue

You might NOT like this book if . . .
-You like fast paced adventure
-You like deep and complex characters
-You like the "Rama" or "Ringworld" series for their advanced technology and grand vistas
-You like the "Hyperion" series for its human driven plot and characterization

Hope this helps.



Good, but not a page-turner.   April 27, 2000
 42 out of 67 found this review helpful

I picked up this book because I saw that it won the Hugo Award in the early '90's. I was also intrigued by the idea of two children who had crashed on a technologically backward world. I am an average-speed reader, and I found that it took me about one and a half months to get through the 600+ pages of this book. While the book is good, it is not terribly exciting, and I found myself wanting to read other books before I finished this one. Here is what I liked: There are some great ideas in this book: the Zones of Thought were interesting and made me think about the possibility of it all. I liked the fact that the author incorporated a galaxy-wide type of Usenet to let the characters post messages for others in the galaxy. I liked the variety of aliens in the story, especially the Skrode Riders, a type of plant based alien. The idea of a virus so terrible that it destroyed worlds and caused others to go to war was very interesting. This is what I didn't like: The book just wasn't a page turner for me! I like to be kept on the edge, coming back for more - instead I found myself not wanting to read about certain characters. I felt that the end of the book was a let down, especially after laboring through all those pages! It was okay I guess, but I thought that it wasn't explained in enough detail, almost like the author was tired of writing. Hence the three star rating. If you like this book I would recommend Ringworld by Larry Niven, it is built on some similar precepts.


Complex hard sci-fi, but still filled with imagination.   June 25, 2000
 35 out of 39 found this review helpful

Vinge introduces you to a new viewpoint of our galaxy, it's future-history and it's stratified physics, through the eyes of those who live in it. Don't expect a lesson, you're learning through exposition. Subsequently, you spend much of the first part (3 part book) discovering how this galaxy "works"; including a usenet-type of communication backbone. [I was amazed that the book was authored in '91, before most of us knew what a newsgroup was... then again the author is a comp sci professor.]

The meat of the book takes place in three locations: 2 of which are on a "medieval" world with an amazing race and the other is in the greater galaxy. There are subtle but distinct parallels between the good/evil battle on this planet and the one waging in the galaxy. Both contain complex and engaging characters and races.

The book becomes harder to put down as the characters in these three locations move together, eventually occupying the same space. Like three volatile chemicals coming together, you know it's going to be big!

A Fire Upon the Deep is a wonderful read for fans of "hard" science fiction. Vinge brings so much into it: the physics, races, and technology of hard sci-fi; the history, conspiracy, and duplicity of a political thriller; the excitement and passion of a great war novel; and even a little romance and weightless space-sex!

I strongly recommend it to fans of Larry Niven and Arthur C. Clarke.