A Fire Upon The Deep, Vernor Vinge
A Fire Upon The Deep, Vernor Vinge
7 Rating(s)
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A Fire Upon The Deep

Author: Vernor Vinge

Narrator: Peter Larkin

Unabridged: 21 hr 38 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/18/2010

Categories: Fiction, Science Fiction


Synopsis

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.

A Fire Upon The Deep, which began the Zones of Thought series, is the winner of the 1993 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

About Vernor Vinge

Vernor Vinge has won five Hugo Awards, two of them for novels in the Zones of Thought series, A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky. Known for his rigorous hard-science approach to science fiction, he became an iconic figure among cybernetic scientists with the publication in 1981 of his novella “True Names,” which is considered a seminal, visionary work of Internet fiction. His many novels also include Marooned in Realtime, Rainbows End and The Peace War.

About Peter Larkin

Peter Larkin has lent his voice to over a dozen audiobooks, including works by Michael Savage and Neil Gaiman. He has won AudioFile Earphones awards for many of his narrations, including Life Among Giants by Bill Roorbach and Tomatoland by Barry Estabrook. Larkin has worked as a DJ, as a host of both a radio and a television show, and as a producer of many industrial films for many of the country's top companies, corporations, and governmental agencies.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Mario the lone bookwolf on September 13, 2020

Entering the Zones of Thought, some of the best worldbuilding physics metaphysics fusion, alternative universe functioning explanation space opera escalation. After reading the 2 books of this series, please keep thinking and theorizing about the possible implications of what it would mean if the mec......more

Goodreads review by David on April 14, 2008

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 f......more

Goodreads review by Apatt on January 23, 2019

A Fire Upon The Deep is Vernor Vinge’s magnum opus, a classic of the genre, one of the greats and deservedly most popular sci-fi novels ever. Google “The Best Sci-Fi Books of All Time” and you will find this book included in many of these lists, sharing shelf space with Dune, Ender’s Game and the......more

Goodreads review by Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽ on September 13, 2017

Epic science fiction at its best, this space opera novel shared the 1993 Hugo Award with Doomsday Book. This is incredibly imaginative, with a great, complex story and detailed, believable world-building, and some of the best alien species ever imagined. It's a long, sprawling story and the technolo......more

Goodreads review by mark on October 21, 2013

children on the run. alien dogs that think as a group. power in numbers! powerful book. good dogs. although some bad dogs too. I guess fanatical is a bad personality trait, even for dogs. different flavors: adventure, medieval fantasy, comedy, hard science fiction, even horror. big ideas. thoughtful,......more


Quotes

“Fleeing a menace of galactic proportions, a spaceship crashes on an unfamiliar world, leaving the survivors--a pair of children--to the not-so-tender mercies of a medieval, lupine race. Responding to the crippled ship's distress signal, a rescue mission races against time to retrieve the children and recover the weapon they need to prevent the universe from being changed forever. Against a background depicting a space-time continuum stratified into 'zones of thought,' the author has created a rarity--a unique blend of hard science, high drama, and superb storytelling.” —Library Journal

“A tale that burns with the brazen energy of the best space operas of the golden age. Vinge has created a galaxy for the readers of the '90s to believe in...immense, ancient, athrum with data webs, dotted with wonders.” —John Clute, Interzone

“Vernor Vinge's best novel yet.” —Greg Bear, author of Moving Mars

“Vast, riveting, far-future saga.... The overall concept astonishes; the aliens are developed with memorable skill and insight, the plot twists and turns with unputdownable tension. A masterpiece of universe building.” —Kirkus Reviews

“The first grand SF I've read in ages...Vinge is one of the best visionary writers of SF today.” —David Brin, author of Earth

“Fiercely original...Compelling ideas in the book include problems and advantages of group mind, galactic communications turbidity, and the prospect of civilizations aspiring to godhood.” —Stewart Brand, founder of the Whole Earth Catalog


Awards

  • Hugo Award - Winner
  • Nebula Awards - Nominee
  • John W. Campbell Memorial Award - Third Place
  • NYPL Books for the Teen Age