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Fire upon the Deep
  
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Fire upon the Deep (Turtleback)

by Vernor Vinge (Author) "The coldsleep itself was dreamless ..." (more)
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (166 customer reviews)

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Product Description

From Amazon.com

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 --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.



From 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.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews

166 Reviews
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3 star:
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2 star:
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4.2 out of 5 stars (166 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Good ideas, exceedingly poor execution, Jan 11 2004
By Daniel Roy "triseult" (Shanghai, China) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: A Fire upon the Deep (Hardcover)
I tried very hard to like A Fire Upon the Deep. The reviews for it are stellar, and it did won a Hugo. Also, I am a huge fan of SF, so I felt this book would be a sure-fire hit with me. Not so.

As other reviewers pointed out, this book has some great ideas. Pack sentience is very nice, and the idea of zones is intriguing. Unfortunately, all these are wrapped in very shoddy writing. To tell the truth, the writing was barely above fan sci-fi in some places.

The characterization is also, most unfortunately, pretty bad. The Tine race is filled with potential, but the Tine characters are nothing more than stereotypes : the wanderer, the wise queen, the evil lord, the evil adviser, the betrayer. Human characters are predictable to the point of being boring, and their motivations serve the plot more than any sort of coherence. As a whole, the race is strangely 'Western european', despite their uniqueness. Also, as interesting as they were, I don't think they deserved that much of a treatment.

One major source of disappointment for me, also, was the way the Galactic net was portrayed. I'm aware the novel was written in 1993, but Vinge's depiction lacks any kind of vision whatsoever. It's silly to see the whole Galaxy chattering on newsgroups and sending each other emails. Not once did it try to be something else than the 1993's Internet surimposed on a galactic scale, and it was more a gimmick than anything else.

On a whole, the story has ambitions of grandeur, but fails at articulating it. The events are always portrayed vaguely and don't have resonance. In one scene, a character learns billions have died when her homeworld was devastated, yet this event only serves as a setup for the personal drama of the characters! Most of the story happens either among 5-6 individuals on the Tine world, or within the closed confines of the ship, and neither progress at a pace that would be satisfying.

There are some great ideas in this book, but they're buried under a nonsensical plot that fails to impress. Because of this, it has neither the scope nor the emotional impact of, say, Frank Herbert's Dune or Peter Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy.

Finishing the book was a difficult endeavour, and I will NOT pick up the prequel. Phan Newen is far from being interesting enough a character to make me pick it up.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Pretty Good SciFi, Nov 24 2003
By Tim Groves (Stockton, Ca) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: A Fire Upon The Deep (Mass Market Paperback)
The overly enthusiastic hype for this book almost spoiled my enjoyment of it. It is not great, but great science fiction (i.e.- Hyperion by Dan Simmons) is very hard to come by these days. A Fire Upon the Deep is good, with enough thought provoking, creative aliens, new concepts in astrophysics and stimulating plot twists and dialogue to carry you into a few late night reading sessions. Several glaring inconsistencies in the behavior of the main characters mar, but do not destroy the credibility of the plot. Some fundamental questions remain painfully unanswered. But, overall a fine read. Space opera lives.
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4.0 out of 5 stars Plenty of Imagination, Jul 7 2004
By Fx3 (California, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Fire Upon The Deep (Mass Market Paperback)
This novel is full of striking and original ideas. The pack minds, the transcend, the galaxy wide news net, etc. provide a very entertaining background for a story that remains exciting throughout the entire book. "A Fire Upon The Deep" is a fine example of "light" science fiction that is well worth a read. However, bear in mind that the book is certainly not a masterpiece. Do not expect much depth in the characters, or a carefully crafted story that fully exploits the setup. If you do, this book will be a disappointment.
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 		 Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Better than most
This book was well written, with interesting plot lines and characters. It blends computer sci, internet, space wars, feudal society, and aliens together in a fast moving, well... Read more
Published on Feb 10 2004 by danason2

4.0 out of 5 stars Far out!
It's a good read, much better than his "A Deepness in the Sky". It takes a while to get into the characters, especially the "Tines", but the concept of a... Read more
Published on Oct 21 2003 by D. C Smith

4.0 out of 5 stars Pretty Good Book
I don't remember why I picked up this book in my library...but I did...and it was certainly worth it. The characters are well drawn... Read more
Published on Oct 10 2003 by themarsman

5.0 out of 5 stars Really Liked this one
This was a great book. The writing was clear, which I found surprising considering the size of the novel. Read more
Published on Sep 22 2003 by C.W.

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating inventions of aliens and future technology
Vernor Vinge created a fascinating universe, then filled it with a top-notch story. This novel was a Hugo Award winner, and it's hard to disagree with the selection committee's... Read more
Published on Jul 30 2003 by Craig MACKINNON

4.0 out of 5 stars Not what I hoped, but pretty good pulp SF
Vinge is probably best-known today for his early exploration into the idea of a technological "singularity". Read more
Published on Jul 17 2003 by Jack Boyce

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Best
The first 6 chapters were confusing to me. The author jumps into the story without setup, and you are left wandering what the heck he's talking about. Read more
Published on Jun 16 2003 by barbre

2.0 out of 5 stars Not that exciting
This book had interesting potential, but it failed early on. The character development was laborious and in the end, I really didn't care too much about anyone. Read more
Published on Mar 27 2003 by G. Flynn

2.0 out of 5 stars Clearing up some misconceptions
I felt I should clear up a couple of misconceptions people seem to have, that I believe are true, regardless of whether one thinks the book is good or not. Read more
Published on Mar 19 2003 by William T. Renk Jr.

5.0 out of 5 stars Deserved its Hugo
An absolutely amazing book. It took me a while to absorb enough of the context of this universe to realize what was happening, but then it all came together in this flash of... Read more
Published on Feb 20 2003 by Bryan Croft

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