Now with a new introduction for the Tor Essentials line, A Fire Upon the Deep is sure to bring a new generation of SF fans to Vinge’s award-winning works. A Hugo Award-winning Novel! “Vinge is one of the best visionary writers of SF today.”-David Brin Thousands of years in the future, humanity is no longer alone in a universe where a mind’s potential is determined by its location in space, … 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 this galactic threat, Ravna crash lands on a strange world with a ship-hold full of cryogenically frozen children, the only survivors from a destroyed space-lab. They are taken captive by the Tines, an alien race with a harsh medieval culture, and used as pawns in a ruthless power struggle.
Tor books by Vernor Vinge
Zones of Thought Series
A Fire Upon The Deep
A Deepness In The Sky
The Children of The Sky
Realtime/Bobble Series
The Peace War
Marooned in Realtime
Other Novels
The Witling
Tatja Grimm’s World
Rainbows End
Collections
Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge
True Names
At the Publisher’s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
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One of my top ten all time favorite sci-fi books. Incredible world-building, mind-expanding ideas and good action. I enthusiastically recommend this book! (Also check out A Deepness in the Sky)
The author of two old favorites, “The Peace War” and “Marooned in Realtime” returns with an unnecessarily obtuse novel about an out-of-control computer. I could not finish this book, which has been widely lauded as a masterpiece. Well, maybe. But I think the author spends way too much time not telling the reader vital facts and doing his best not …
If you want to cry for a talking plant who is one of the great tragic heroes of science fiction, read this book. It also has the most skillful portrayals of superintelligent AI ever written. The viewpoint character is a young, female, pretty librarian from someplace very like Norway, and much of the book is the story of her true love of a …
An astounding good science fiction novel. Amazingly inventive. One of the greatest science fiction novels ever written.
A mind bending story of Artificial/Alien Intelligence beyond human capacity and an alien race race that’s original, complex, and makes for a fascinating read.
This was a slow read for me but well worth it! Don’t expect to read it in a weekend.
This is what science fiction adventure should be!
I truly love this series for its inventiveness, scientific plausibility, and imaginative adventures. Unlike many other hard scifi tales, this novel does not get bogged down in explaining the technology (usually via some professor-type character). Nor is it a silly adventure with magical science. …
Everything VInge writes is entertaining and thought-provoking, and this is no exception.
What can I say, I just like Vinge.
A sci-fi classic.
Will read anything by this author (even his grocery shopping list!)
I love Vinge’s complex world-building—it takes me out of my everyday life and into a different universe, and few things are more fun than being completely engrossed like that in a book. Also, the tines are my favorite alien species EVER, and the skroderiders are easily on my top-10 list.
I’ve read this book several times over the years, and I …
An amazingly talented writer, this space-opera series reads a little bit to me like a meditation on Gulliver’s travels. I don’t know if you’ll see the same thing, but either way do yourself a favor and read this thought-provoking series.