Customer Reviews

A Fire Upon The Deep

5 star:		(88)
4 star:		(46)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I read this shortly after "A Deepness In The Sky", its 'prequel'. (A note: except for the character of Pham Nuwen there is no connection between the two books; this is neither a praise, nor a critique; simply an information which might be useful if you are looking for any connection between the two.)

The style is very similar: two different and initially completely distinct threads of action, one involving humans and one aliens, come together slowly to a common conclusion.

One thread involves two humans (well, one not-so-human: an 'evolved' Pham Nuwen from Deepness) and a pair of aliens on a desperate quest: an all-powerful evil force is rapidly taking over parts of the galaxy and the only possible solution is aboard a ship crashed on a medieval world at the other end of the known space.

The other thread takes place on the medieval world and involves two children survivors of the crashed ship and the local intelligent race, dog-like creatures who are only able to achieve consciousness in packs.

I found the ideas in this book to be wonderful.

The description of the pack intelligence of the dog race was completely new to me; perhaps it has been used before, but not to my knowledge (there is a short note somewhere on the first pages about a short story by somebody else who used the same idea). The possibilities deriving from this kind of civilizations are many, and the author explores them to the reader's complete satisfaction: partial awareness of one's self, what happens when only part of an individual survives, the nature of the soul, how the memories and personality of each individual play a distinct role. Also, the author explores the frigthful liberty this unique situation gives for the ones who want to create super beings, or packs with special characteristics.

Another idea I enjoyed was the 'Zones of Thought': the galaxy is divided into several concentric regions in which different rules of physics apply. Coming from the center of the galaxy ('The Unthinking Depths') and going outwards to the 'Transcend', FTL travel becomes possible. What functions in one zone doesn't in another. This separation ensures the protection of the under-evolved races, making it possible for them to build their own civilizations and expand outward at their own pace.

The minus of this book comes from the fact that this division is never explained in scientific terms; you just have to accept it as it is. Perhaps the author himself could not think of an explanation :).

Many reviewers have complained about the description of the Net, the communication network which unites all the worlds in the more evolved regions of the galaxy, saying that it was simplistic (being only text-based). Don't forget that this book was written in 1992, when the Internet wasn't what it is now. And the issue is not so important at all to the plot, it is just collateral.

The characters were nicely built; I have to admit that I cared more for the Tines (packs) than for the humans, though (the same as I cared more for the Spiders in A Deepness In The Sky).

The ending was very good and not rushed, even if a little 'forky'. True, no grand epic descriptions there, but in my opinion they were not necessary at that point.

What I would like now is a book that takes place before this one but after Deepness, finishing the quest suggested at the end of Deepnees and perhaps dwelling on the evolution of the human race towards the setting in Fire: how they reacted in discovering the Zone Thoughts and so on.

This was a great science fiction novel. It is a story about a "virus" that infects the galaxy and the quest to retrieve the "antidote". But there is so much more to this epic. There is a deep space setting, and a setting on a primitive world inhabited by packs of sentient, dog like creatures. Vinge expertly plots the story and brings the two worlds together in grand style. It is a long book, but it is well paced and suspenseful most of the way. The characters, both human and alien, are convincing. An amazing trip through the deepest reaches of the galaxy, I consider this one of the top sci-fi novels of the past decade. Like all great science fiction, it stretches your imagination to the limit.

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.

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.

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.

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 tied together work.

Some of the ideas in the nove are extrapolations of today's computer systems and networks, including virus problems, networks, and bandwidth issues. An IT professional like myself will enjoy this stretching of the mental envelope.

The Tines, a race of individuals made up of groups, is an interesting concept. The author takes this idea and makes it believable, and in fact gives personalities to these alien minds.

All in all, this is a better than average hard sci-fi novel. A follow-up to it would be very interesting.

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 group-mind species is quite interesting. I wish the Blight was described in more detail. The ending doesn't quite explain the very beginning where the Blight comes into being in the first place. The Countermeasure part in the end was over pretty quick and I wish it was explained better too. It seems kind of unrealistic what happens with the zone shifts in the end (i.e., no real "scientific" explanation), but then I guess that's the point of Sci-Fi.

What I really like is the far scope of the book, and the mind bending possibilities of the Transcend and the Beyond. I liked the character development, especially of the 'Riders. Overall, I recommend this 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...and the Skroderiders and Tines are great aliens. In fact, the Tines are the reason I gave this book four stars instead of five...I found them extremely engrossing, so engrossing that when Vinge switches to his human characters I didn't seem to enjoy it as much...also, with the human characters Vinge shows his training as a computer scientist...he tends to focus a bit much on computer systems in the "human world". This doesn't mean the "human stuff" isn't good, it really is...Pham Nuwen is a great character, full of depth and well...character (which is probably why Vinge uses him in the prequel, A Deepness in the Sky). Overall, the book is definitely worth reading...and the prequel is even better.

This was a great book. The writing was clear, which I found surprising considering the size of the novel. The pacing was good, it felt like an "epic" in that it slowly built the tension. I was surprised by how well he worked the unique idea of technology zones of the galaxy. I thought it would end up being hokey, but it was actually very well done. I thought about quibbling about the tines race and how I think parts of his creation of the pack mind were unplausible, but after I finished reading the book, I found this only a very minor thing....highly recommended book!

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 choice. The primary leap of faith is the way Vinge sets up his galaxy - he stratifies it (based on density?) into 3 zones: The Slowness, where the speed of light is the fastest possible speed (and where the Earth currently resides); the Beyond, where lightspeed and near-instantaneous communication is possible; and the Transcend, where instantaneous communication (among other things) is possible.

In the Transcend live the Powers, transendental beings of great power, that are severely limited in other zones because of the time-lag in communication, etc. Many corporeal beings from the lower levels try to acheive transcendance, and therefore tinker in that level. Our story starts with a human colony trying to achieve transcendance, but they unwittingly release a Power of great malevolence and extreme strength. This Power destroys the colony and goes on a rampage through the rest of the galaxy, bent on universal dominance.

However.... Two children and their parents have escaped the holocaust with a vital piece of information - a Countermeasure that could damage/destroy the Power. The Power knows it's missing, but not where. When these refugees crash on a pre-industrial world, the race is on between the Power and a small group that have the key to using the Countermeasure.

The story is more complex than a simple outline can describe, and includes a number of extraterrestrial races, planets, and subplots. They are held together by a galaxy-straddling faster-than-light newsnet, much like the newsgroups of current internet technology. Vinge's greatest inventions, though, are the two extraterrestrial races that are featured in the story, the Tines and the Skroderiders. The Tines are a fascinating invention, pack-animals (similar to dogs) that need to live in groups to support their intelligence (single members are only semi-sentient). Vinge fully develops the society of these creatures in a convincing and fascinating way. Likewise, the Skroderiders are sentient plants with high intelligence but low short-term memory capacity, and are an interesting twist on standard alien societies.

Most of the book is built around tension - there is very little action. This is good, because Vinge seems out of his element when writing about battles. The book's climactic battle is a little contrived relative to the freshness of the rest of the story. This is a very minor quibble. A Fire Upon the Deep is a vast undertaking, but so well written that you immediately fit into the universe and get pulled into the story.