From archive Fri Aug 21 13:23:20 MDT 1992 Subject: Review: Tatja Grimm's World From: holloway@drivax.UUCP (Bruce Holloway) Organization: Digitalis Research, Inc. Date: 29 Jul 87 20:07:50 GMT TATJA GRIMM'S WORLD [***+] Vernor Vinge When the publishers of the seven hundred year old fantasy, mythology, and contrivance fiction (CF) magazine "Fantasie" take on a mysterious, seven foot, red haired barbarian to play the part of the star of their leading pulp serial, "Hrada", they thought they were getting a bit player who they'd have to baby through her part. But when she saves the senior editors of the floating publishing house from death in the flame pits of the Termite People by inspired acting, they realize they have a genius on their hands. Not that that's the only clue she gave them. In the second part of this three story collection (previously published seperately in science fiction magazines), Tatja Grimm rises from the newly created position of science editor to Queen of the most powerful nation in the world, and in the third, she finds her destiny... or at least meets it halfway. The first story introduces us to a world where metal is scarce, superstition and odd religions abound, and science is just starting to make a foothold. "Fantasie", the most widely distributed magazine in the world, is an ambassador to these varied people, and by publishing cutting edge scientific theories loosely covered by Contrivance Fiction, helps spur a Scientific Revolution. The other two stories focus on Tatja, a super genius who is not above manipulating anyone in her quest to find another as intelligent as she - in the stars. This book is best when it's focusing on the supporting characters - Tatja is nicely drawn as the omniscient genius, but she's too absorbed by monomania to be interesting as a person. The climax is predictable and slow in coming, but getting there is so much fun that I recommend this book. -- Bruce Holloway - Terminal Netnews Addict {seismo,sun}!amdahl!drivax!holloway ALBATROSS, ATARI*TROS @ Plink ALBATROSS @ Delphi >>> HI, KARL! <<< From rec.arts.sf.written Fri Aug 21 12:54:09 1992 Path: herkules.sssab.se!isy!liuida!sunic!mcsun!uunet!olivea!decwrl!csus.edu!netcom.com!dani From: dani@netcom.com (Dani Zweig) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: Vinge on A Fire Upon the Deep Message-ID: <7z#n!sq.dani@netcom.com> Date: 20 Aug 92 18:48:08 GMT Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Lines: 68 I sat in on a talk in which Vernor Vinge gave some background on his book "A Fire Upon the Deep", and explained some material that hadn't been clear to me from reading the book itself. Central to this background, as it was to the background of his earlier book, "Marooned in Realtime", is the notion of the Singularity. Vinge believes that the exponential advance of technology will continue in the future, until the point at which superhuman intelligence (AI or computer- enchanced human) can be realized. At this point, which shouldn't be that far in our future, human society becomes as impossible for us to understand as our society is for a goldfish to understand. Vinge believes science fiction which ignores the potential of such a Singularity to be dishonest. The problem is that accepting it severely limits the potential for writing science fiction. So he deliberately set out to create a milieu in which interesting stories (the current book and possibly future ones) could be placed. The galaxy, as he has constructed it, has several concentric zones. Closest to the core are the Unthinking Depths, in which human-level intelligence is impossible. Then comes the Slow Zone. We live near the outer edge of the Slow Zone. Intelligence in this zone is limited to the human level: Super-intelligent computers or beings cannot function here, and neither can faster-than-light travel. (To avoid multiplying hypotheses unnecessarily, he posits that the *mechanics* of ftl travel may be possible, but that they are useless without impossibly intensive computational support.) After the Slow Zone comes the Beyond, where ftl travel is possible, but the achievement of the last increments of super-intelligence are not, and finally the Transcend, where no limitations are imposed. The inhabitants of the Transcend, species that have merged into a single race-mind, for instance, are incomprehensible to those who live in the lower zones, and generally indifferent to them. Nobody knows what causes the zones. (One of the more amusing aspects of "A Fire Upon the Deep" is the anarchic galaxy-wide computer communications network whose tone will be familiar to anyone on this network. Its traffic naturally includes endless and fruitless debate and speculation on the origin of the zones.) There is speculation that they are artifacts, possibly possessed of an intelligence of their own. (Would any simple mechanism prevent *any* approach to super-intelligence from succeeding?) There is speculation that they exist to protect developing species from the casual interference of the Transcendent Powers, which cannot function or exist in the lower reaches. I'd gotten the impression from the book that beings at the bottom of the Slow Zone had lower intelligence than those at the top, but this was incorrect. The effects of the zones are uniform, except for the transistion zones, which are only a few light-years wide. At one point it becomes important to the plot that a fleet of ships at the edge of the Beyond is losing speed as it flies inward. What is happening here is that as it flies through the transition zone, it is taking longer and longer for the computers to plot each micro-jump, giving a slower effective speed. (There are some obvious problems with this, and he admits that he hasn't bothered to fix them.) What Vernor Vinge has done here is to create a milieu in which he can have his cake and eat it too. The Singularity exists, and the result is a strange and interesting galaxy. But it can't happen here, so it's still possible to tell meaningful stories. A final note: Vinge's earlier short story, "Blabber", takes place in this same milieu, a couple of thousand years later. ----- Dani Zweig dani@netcom.com The inability of snakes to count is actually a refusal, on their part, to appreciate the Cardinal Number system. -- "Actual Facts" From /tmp/sf.4146 Tue Aug 9 02:00:24 1994 Xref: liuida rec.arts.sf.reviews:573 alt.books.reviews:3328 alt.culture.usenet:4012 Path: liuida!sunic!pipex!howland.reston.ans.net!agate!postmodern.com!not-for-mail From: ROBERTS@decus.ca (Rob Slade) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews,alt.books.reviews,alt.culture.usenet Subject: "A Fire Upon the Deep" by Vinge Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: 13 May 1994 07:01:21 GMT Organization: DECUS Canada Communications Lines: 61 Sender: mcb@postmodern.com (Michael C. Berch) Approved: mcb@postmodern.com (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Message-ID: <01HC95QJPBMQ8WXS2Z@ARC.AB.CA> NNTP-Posting-Host: remarque.berkeley.edu Originator: mcb@remarque.berkeley.edu "A Fire Upon the Deep", Vernor Vinge (vinge@saturn.sdsu.edu), 1992, 0-812-51528-5, U$5.99, C$6.99 Tor Books, Tom Doherty Associates, Inc. 175 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10010 Vinge's novel is a well-crafted story which happens to have a very solid insight into aspects of the current Internet and Usenet. The plot line has consistent and well built tension that is maintained right up to the end. The characters are interesting and develop in believable ways during the course of the book. Some of the plot devices, such as "group" minds connected by ultrasound links and "zones" within the galaxy wherein the laws of physics change sufficiently as to allow faster than light travel or disallow rational thought are strictly fantasy. Somehow, though, the more outre concepts are believable, or at least we are willing to suspend disbelief. Less believable, perhaps, is that the galactic net is RFC 822 compliant. (The cover blurb states that this is a classic space opera from the Golden Age of science fiction. In many ways this is true: an exciting and swashbuckling space tale, complete with privateer, but updated, more consistent and constructed.) A part of the major plot is activity on the galactic communications net. This is not central to the story, and could have been replaced by something else, but it is remarkably accurate. There is even mention of the need for antenna arrays, given the great distances involved (and in spite of faster than light communications). OSI fans will be gratified that the presentation layer is represented by a translation field. Even some "net types" are identifiable: "Twirlip of the Mists" is a relative of all newbies and the ubiquitous B1FF-- and is, appropriately, completely irrelevant to the story. Some commentators on the Internet have seen, in this story, reference to a type of "information virus" which infects the thought, and affects the behaviour, of those to whom it is "told". This goes a long way beyond the bounds of the actual text. We know that a certain force is awakened, and that its sphere of influence shows startling growth. We are not, however, told anything at all about the mechanism. Ironically, it is the similarity of the galactic net to Usenet that may be least credible. An unmoderated net will be culturally very similar. There is discussion of the commercial aspects of the net (quite frequently, in fact) but it is likely that the messages in the book are of the type that could be seen "piggybacking" on excess bandwidth from other applications. Enjoyable and recommended. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1994 BKFIRDEP.RVW 940225 %A Vinge, Vernor %T A Fire Upon the Deep %I Tor Books %C New York %D 1992 %G 0-812-51528-5 %O pb, USD5.99, CAD6.99 ====================== DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters Editor and/or reviewer ROBERTS@decus.ca, RSlade@sfu.ca, Rob Slade at 1:153/733 DECUS Symposium '95, Toronto, ON, February 13-17, 1995, contact: rulag@decus.ca From /tmp/sf.4146 Tue Aug 9 02:05:18 1994 Path: liuida!sunic!EU.net!howland.reston.ans.net!agate!postmodern.com!not-for-mail From: aaron@amisk.cs.ualberta.ca (Aaron V. Humphrey) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Prograde Reviews--Vernor Vinge:A Fire Upon The Deep Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: 30 May 1994 21:42:53 GMT Organization: The Anna Amabiaca Fan Club Lines: 50 Sender: mcb@postmodern.com (Michael C. Berch) Approved: mcb@postmodern.com (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Message-ID: <2s9bo9$i8b@scapa.cs.ualberta.ca> Reply-To: aaron@amisk.cs.ualberta.ca NNTP-Posting-Host: remarque.berkeley.edu Originator: aaron@cab005.cs.ualberta.ca Originator: mcb@remarque.berkeley.edu Vernor Vinge: A Fire Upon The Deep A Prograde Review by Aaron V. Humphrey This book was one of last year's Hugo winners, and I can certainly see why. It's just brimming with ideas--the whole notion of the galaxy being divided into "Zones" in which different levels of technology are possible (although similar to Jack L. Chalker's division of the Well World into hexes); the Tines, an alien race where each being is a pack of doglike beings who use sound to transmit thought from one to another; the Blight which threatens the entire galaxy, or at least a sizeable portion of it...and, as widely mentioned, the Net. The Net in the book doesn't remind me _heavily_ of Usenet, as some have been convinced; it does, certainly, share some characteristics of Nets in general (the flame, with possible insults marked for those from different contexts, was hilarious), but doesn't remind of Usenet specifically. The one problem I had with the book was this: The Blight is taking over hugh chunks of space, and intends to take over the entire galaxy. Most of the action focuses on the Tine world, on which has crashed the ship with the clue to the Blight's defeat. In fact, it spends, IMHO, too much time there. The Tines are a fascinating race, sure, and their control over the eventual fate of the marooned ship (and the two young human survivors) is crucial to the fate of the rest of the galaxy. But I found myself getting bored with them, especially when the "rescue" ship kept getting more and more delayed in their arrival. As a result, most of the tension was defused, replaced only by curiosity about how they _were_ going to defeat the Blight. All in all, a great read, though. Highly recommended. But then, it won the Hugo, didn't it? %A Vinge, Vernor %T A Fire Upon The Deep %I Tor %C New York %D April 1992 %G ISBN 0-312-85182-0 %P 391pp %O Hardcover -- --Alfvaen (Editor of Communique) Current Album--Firesign Theatre:I Think We're All Bozos On This Bus Current Read--Jayne Ann Krentz:Family Man "Thinks again--thanks to brain, the new wonder head-filler!" --Bluebottle From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue May 11 15:33:25 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!arclight.uoregon.edu!gatech!18.181.0.27.MISMATCH!sipb-server-1.mit.edu!senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!usenet From: David Brukman Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: A DEEPNESS IN THE SKY by Vernon Vinge Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: 07 May 1999 14:22:22 -0400 Organization: Sprynet News Service Lines: 131 Sender: wex@tinbergen.media.mit.edu Approved: wex@media.mit.edu Message-ID: Reply-To: David.Brukman@iname.com NNTP-Posting-Host: tinbergen.media.mit.edu X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.3/Emacs 19.34 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:2291 A DEEPNESS IN THE SKY by Vernon Vinge Book review copyright 1999 by David Brukman While not without flaws, this outstanding novel combines grand and thoughtful ideas, the sweeping grandeur of millenia of history and the immediacy and emotional impact of a small-scale adventure. Genre: Science Fiction (Aliens, Interstellar Civilizations) Synopsis: After eight millenia of space flight (I wonder if they are concerned about the Y10K bug?), the human civilization has achieved a sort of stasis. The light-speed communication and sublight transport have created a loose collection of cultures at various levels of sophistication, with Qeng Ho, a far-flung collection of trading families the only unifying influence. Evidence of an alien culture, only the third in history, has attracted a Qeng Ho exploratory expedition to a star system just beyond human space. However, an expedition from a nearby culture, young, repressive and well-armed, is arriving at the OnOff star at the same time. The natives of the planet, the spider-like inhabitants are just contemplating nuclear energy and space flight, when the forces above their heads are about to enter a deadly fight, one which will decide the fate of the Spiders and perhaps the course of the human civilization. Full Review: This is a remarkable book in both the breadth and the depth (no pun intended) of its ideas. Vinge, an expert in computer science, has made a name for himself in considering natural and artificial intelligence, its limits and implications. Some terms, like Vinge's Singularity and Intelligence Amplification, have entered the vocabulary of Science Fiction and Futurism alike. Other ideas, such as the limits of complexity of nanotech-like tools because of lack of control, and the constraints on our understanding of complex, legacy software systems, are integrated into a taut adventure novel. Other more political points include the old trade-offs between the larger good and the human rights, the role of trade versus direct government, and the contribution of ubiquitous surveillance to the downfall of human society. In this novel, Vinge returns to the universe of the Zones, featured so prominently in _A Fire Upon the Deep_. Deepness takes place long before the previously published _A Fire Upon the Deep_. In Deepness, humanity is still confined to the Slow Zone, although neither the terminology nor the mileau of Fire is apparent. Instead, the implications of this play a strong role in the plot: the death of the great Dreams of the Dawn Age: artificial intelligence, faster-than-light travel, nanotechnology; the slow stagnation of the human progress, as civilizations grow, peak, and self-destruct, advancing human knowledge and technology by diminishing increments. In this environment, the only true power lies in information. This lure is what attracts expensive expeditions to the astronomical oddity of the OnOff star: the sun that shines for a few decades between centuries of cold, dark off state. The planet orbiting the star is far too inhospitable for a civilization to arize, therefore the radio signals must come from the remnants of an alien, star-faring race, the mythical grail worth almost any price. The sophisticated traders of Qeng Ho, an interstellar culture where the individuals spend the centuries of the slow, sub-light trips in cold sleep, are matched against a local civilization: the authoritarian Emergents are seeking the same prize. While lacking the negotiating and technical sophistication of the Qeng Ho, the Emergents have ruthlessness, and experience in treachery, and secret and chilling methods of intelligence amplification which may tilt the balance of power against the scattered human population. However, the unsuspecting Spiders, struggling against biological and social restriction of centuries of cold-enforced hibernation nine-tenths of their lifetimes, may end up being the victims--or the players in the deadly struggle in space. The struggle pits a group of naive Qeng Ho against exploitive, but still human Emergents, and a mysterious, Lazarus Long-type old man. The plot spares few punches, and the sympathetic characters suffer pain and death. Meanwhile, on the surface a small group of Spiders are followed as their actions change their civilization. The aliens are portrayed as almost rediculously anthropomorphic, as we follow Sherkaner Underhill (no relation to Salafrance), a Spider inventor like a combination of Einstein and Edison, and his remarkable family. The anthopomorphism is neatly explained by the miracles (and exaggeration) of Emergent translation, and in one scene the two plot lines merge spectacularly. With great skill, both the human and the alien characters become sympathetic to the reader, and add both suspense and elucidation to the grand picture. The foreshadowing and memories of generation-skipping, cold-sleeping humans are used to describe the frequently tragic sweep of millenia of human progress, while avoiding expositionary lumps and applying many of the lessons to the struggle in the OnOff system. While admiration is called for when describing a book of this quality, the work is not without some flaws. While well-handled, the frequently shifting point of view makes the somewhat complex plot harder to grasp and weakens emotional impact. The language extensions used, frequently computer culture-derived, are easily deciphered, but not entirely necessary. The examples are "oophase" for out-of-phase Spider children (children born in the middle, rather than in the beginning of the warm phase); "tas" for "it was", pov for "point of view" and the multiple uses of the word "lurk". The role that some of the Spiders play in the human struggle is revealed at the very end and seems unwarranted based on the persons involved. Despite some poignant elements, the book ends on a note of hope, both for the protagonists and the civilization. While no sequel is needed, one could be envisioned. The ideas and their implications explored in this book are too numerous to list here. Suffice it to say that the achievement of combining them with a taut, at times chillingly plausible plot of using poor man's versions of nanotechnology and intelligence amplification, nuclear weapons and conspiracies, human pain and human love (at times in alien individuals), is truly remarkable. This book is one of the best science fiction novels of the decade. Universe: The Zones %A Vinge, Vernon %D March 1999 %G ISBN 0-312-85683-0 %I Tom Doherty Associates (Tor) %O Cloth %P 607 pp. %T A Deepness in the Sky -- David Brukman "Long live Jame Talissen!" http://visitweb.com/InOtherWorlds "Fantasy, SF & Mystery Reviews" From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Jul 6 13:06:23 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!firehose.mindspring.net!gatech!18.181.0.27.MISMATCH!sipb-server-1.mit.edu!senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!usenet From: "Aaron M. Renn" Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: 01 Jul 1999 17:49:15 -0400 Organization: GNU's Not Unix! Lines: 163 Sender: wex@tinbergen.media.mit.edu Approved: wex@media.mit.edu Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: tinbergen.media.mit.edu X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.3/Emacs 19.34 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:2389 A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge Review Copyright (c) 1999 Aaron M. Renn [spoilers near the end, clearly marked as such --AW] Conclusion: Highly recommended, but contains flaws Vinge mentions the old legend of the curse of the mummy's tomb on page one, and that's exactly what this book is. Humans tamper with an ancient power they don't understand and unleash a horror upon the galaxy. Now it is up to a handful of humans (and aliens) to put the genie back in the bottle. There are a number of elements of pure genius in the book. None greater than the Zones of Thought setting, one of the most stimulating and thought provoking universes ever created. The Milky Way is divided into four concentric zones radiating from the center of galaxy. As distance from the galactic core increases, things go faster. I say "things" because it's not clear exactly what is included, but some of them include computers, starship speeds, and mental processes. The four zones are: - The Unthinking Depths. Most of the stars of the galaxy including the galactic core lie in this innermost circle. Virtually all technology ceases functioning. No known civilizations exist. - The Slow Zone. The next band surrounding the Depths. So named because nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. Civilization is possible but difficult. Most species reach the maximum technological height of the Slowness, then regress. Earth is in the Slow Zone (though some humans did make it to the Beyond). - The Beyond. This is where the high civilizations of the galaxy exist. Thousands if not millions of different species live in this band near the edge of the galactic disk, filling virtually every habitable planet. Faster than light travel and communications as well as advanced computer and AI systems can exist here. Worlds are linked via the Known Net, an Internet like communications medium. The record of advanced civilization in the Beyond goes back to the Ur-Partition - five billion years worth. Few species survived that entire time, of course, but the records of them remain in archives scattered throughout the Beyond. - The Transcend. This Zone includes the very edge of the galaxy and presumably inter-galactic space. It is so-named because beings and computer systems here normally "transcend" beyond the civilizations in the Beyond, becoming super-sophonts that cannot be comprehended by lesser beings. The evil being humans unleashed - termed "the Blight" by those in the Beyond - is a creature of the Transcend. As such, it is a creature of a nature we cannot understand, so we learn little about it. In fact, there's quite a bit in this book that we end up not knowing much about. This could be viewed as a flaw, but it has certainly had the positive effect of stimulating speculation and discussion. The humans created the Blight at High Lab in the Transcend. Realizing at the last what they had done, they plotted to escape. Their plan was to flee to the Low Beyond, where the encroaching slowness would thwart any attacks from the Transcend. Their planned rendezvous point was a small, insignificant planet just inside the Beyond. The rendezvous planet is populated by a sophont race dubbed the Tines. They are the second wonder of the book. The Tines are a dog like race existing at a medieval level of technology. They have the unique feature of only being sentient in packs of four to six or so. Any less and the Tines are little more than animals. Any more and the management of the group mind becomes too difficult. Vinge does an excellent job developing unique features of the Tines, though they are also one of his great failures. Whatever one may think about them though, it is undeniable that they are one of the most interesting and unique aliens in with world of SF. Vinge also does an excellent job with the other aliens in this book, particularly the Skroderiders. I won't go into great detail on them, but they were extremely well conceived and developed. I personally found them more believable than the Tines, though not quite as interesting. A Fire Upon the Deep has that sense of granduer that makes for a great SF novel. The story stretches across billions of years, thousands of light years, innumerable species, high tech and low tech, humans and multiple aliens, grand concepts, and more. It certainly deserved the Hugo Award that it won in 1993. However, there is a dark side to AFUtD. Note that the next section contains SPOILERS. You have been warned. %A Vinge, Vernor %T A Fire Upon the Deep %I Tor %D 1993-02 (original publication in 1992-04) %G ISBN 0-812-51528-5 %P 613 pp. %O mass market paperback, US$5.99 C$7.99 . . . . . . . . . Early in the book the Zones of Though universe is explained to us in a conversation at a bar on Relay. This scene was totally contrived. Pham was controlled by the Old One. There was no reason for him to ask about the nature of the galaxy. Everyone else already knew it in the story and Pham could easily have pretended to have read about it in the library. No one would have suspected. I was very down on the book at that point, then got hit with .... By far the most outrageous plot weakness is the failure of Ravna and company to suspect that Jefri was being manipulated by the Tines. Until Pham starts to get some suspicions about half way through the book, everything Jefri says is taken at face value. By the time anyone starts to suspect something is up, it is too late. The Flensers have already been given advanced weapon designs and radios. I thought this was ridiculous and it grated on me the whole time I was reading. An eight year old kid is highly manipulable. Ravna knows that there is a war on the Tines planet and that one side had much to gain from advanced technology. The fact that Jefri explicitly begged for guns should have sealed it. Everybody in this universe is paranoid and spends hours analyzing possibilities of everything in the newsgroups, yet nobody suspects Jefri might be being used. Also, while I didn't expect these people to have a Prime Directive, one would think that they would have put at least a little thought into the practical and ethical problems introducing high technology into a backwards culture. Another problem is Vinge's failure to fully develop the Tines. He spends a large amount of time explaining their unique pack mind nature and various implications of that (for example, their inability to get close to one another), but then far too often makes them behave exactly like humans. Lord Steel in particular is a flawed character in this regard. He is nothing more than a generic Evil Overlord type, albeit one who has read the FAQ. Having a group of high tech people stranded on a low tech world - and children no less - is a plot device I've always hated in SF, and I didn't care much for it in this book either. I would rather the parents survived and the Tines had a more advanced technology from the get go. With these shortcomings all coming out early in the book, it is easy to see why a number of people don't like it. The first third of the book is by far the worst and it sets a negative tone that persists through the rest of it. Lucky for Vinge that he has so much great stuff to counterbalance this. Finally, in general the characters are rather poorly done and unlikeable. Ravna in particular is annoying. She has sex with a man put together from spare body parts by a Power, but has only about two seconds of confusion and angst about it. She refuses to let the galaxy know the truth about the Skroderiders, thus perhaps dooming billions to death. Even at the end, no one knows they are the tools of the Blight. What happens if someone stumbles across another Blight archive in the Transcend? Bad news. As I said, despite the flaws, Vinge has put together an intriguing novel and an absolutely wonderful universe. A Fire Upon the Deep is a must read for any serious SF fan. I'm eagerly looking forward to reading his current book, A Deepness in the Sky, which is set in the same universe. Aaron M. Renn (arenn@urbanophile.com) http://www.urbanophile.com/arenn/ From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sat Jul 31 15:06:12 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!nntp.primenet.com!nntp.gctr.net!newsfeed.enteract.com!cde.net!sipb-server-1.mit.edu!senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!usenet From: "Aaron M. Renn" Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: 19 Jul 1999 14:36:42 -0400 Organization: GNU's Not Unix! Lines: 85 Sender: wex@tinbergen.media.mit.edu Approved: wex@media.mit.edu Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: tinbergen.media.mit.edu X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.3/Emacs 19.34 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:2400 A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge Review Copyright (c) 1999 Aaron M. Renn Conclusion: Highly Recommended A Deepness in the Sky is billed as a prequel to Vinge's 1992 award winning A Fire Upon the Deep. But anyone who reads it just wanting to explore more of the wonderful universe Vinge created in that earlier work will be very disappointed. Deepness is connected to Fire by only the most tenuous of threads, that being the reminisces of Pham Nuwen about his life with the Qeng Ho. Deepness is different from Fire in all the ways I thought Fire was great. Where Fire deals with plots and mysteries extending over billions of years, Deepness covers a much shorter span of time. Where Fire spans a vast sweep of thousands of light years, Deepness takes place almost exclusively in one solar system and, in what will surely infuriate some, where Fire took place against the lush backdrop of the Zones of Thought universe, Deepness does not. While technically in the same milieu as Fire, the entire story takes place in the Slow Zone and nothing of the true order of affairs is known to the characters. With much of the best of Fire stripped away, I should have been very unhappy with Deepness. Instead I liked it more, finding it superior to Fire in almost every way. The plot was better. The characters were far better. Heck, there were even a few people I liked in there. The evil is more comprehensible. The ending vastly more satisfactory. I suspect because it takes place in the Slowness, Vinge had mercy on us and actually allows us to see and understand the technology used in the story. Many of the obnoxious plot weaknesses of Fire are absent in Deepness, though a few do slip in. As I said earlier, the plot draws on Pham Nuwen's tales of the Qeng Ho in Fire. On the edge of human space there is an anomalous star called OnOff, so named because at regular intervals it switches between being a brown dwarf and a star much like our own sun. When a signal from an intelligent alien race is detected coming from there, a Queg Ho trading fleet moves in to investigate. However, they were not the only ones who heard the signal. A group of humans called the Emergents is also on the way to OnOff. The Queg Ho have a bad feeling about these Emergents, and their fears prove to be justified. Soon after their arrival at OnOff, the two fleets blow each other to bits leaving the Emergents in control of what's left. With no functioning starships left, the remains of the two fleets bide their time in orbit waiting for the alien Spiders to reach a level of technology high enough to build new ramscoop ships. I won't give more detail about what happens, but there are plots and counterplots among the Queg Ho and Emergents, cool technology, and Vinge's trademark interesting aliens to make this a real page turner. As with Fire, some things are left unexplained or only hinted at, which should keep the newsgroups buzzings with speculation for years to come. I particularly liked the ending. I was groaning with dispair at first, thinking Vinge was setting me up for a sequel, then he wrapped it all up in a way that made any sequel moot, and tied up some loose ends from Fire at the same time. (This is the one place in the book where it really helps to have read Fire first). A Deepness in the Sky is the best book I have read this year and it will be a definite Hugo contender. I only fail to call it a masterpiece because of a few mistakes repeated from Fire. For example, the head honchos of the bad guys are, like Flenser and Steel, generic Evil Overlord types, though exceptionally competent ones. They are cunning, manipulative, suspicious of everything and everyone, and evil incarnate. Also, the alien Spiders, like the Tines, behave almost exactly like human beings when not involved in something directly related to their unique physiology. At least in Deepness he comes up with a real explanation for this, though it takes until well into the second half of the book to learn what it is, leaving the reader stuck believing the worst for most of it. There are some more annoying kids to put with in there too. Unlike in Fire, however, these problems don't seriously compromise the work. This one is a must read for all science fiction fans and comes with my highest recommendation. %A Vinge, Vernor %T A Deepness in the Sky %I Tor %D 1999-03 %G ISBN 0-312-84683-0 %P 607 pp. %O hardcover, US$27.95 C$38.95 -- Aaron M. Renn (arenn@urbanophile.com) http://www.urbanophile.com/arenn/