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Product Description
Product Description
The Hugo Award winning A FIRE UPON THE DEEP and its epic companion novel A DEEPNESS IN THE SKY, set in the same universe but 20,000 years earlier, were benchmarks for SF in the last decade of the 20th century. In FIRE '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 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.' Publisher's Weekly In DEEPNESS, 'the story has the same sense of epic vastness despite happening mostly in one isolated solar system. Here there's a world of intelligent spider creatures who traditionally hibernate through the "Deepest Darkness" of their strange variable sun's long "off" periods, when even the atmosphere freezes. Now, science offers them an alternative. Meanwhile, attracted by spider radio transmissions, two human starfleets come exploring--merchants hoping for customers and tyrants who want slaves. Their inevitable clash leaves both fleets crippled, with the power in the wrong hands, which leads to a long wait in space until the spiders develop exploitable technology. Over the years Vinge builds palpable tension through multiple storylines and characters.' Dave Langford
About the Author
Born in 1944, Vernor Vinge is one of the giants of the SF field. Vinge re-invigorated Space Opera with these two books. The critically acclaimed RAINBOW'S END took his career into the 21st century in spectacular fashion.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition
Vernor Vinge isn't a name in the UK and I don't know why but it could be that he has not been as prolific a writer as some. I discovered him in the States about a decade ago when I bought a book from a second hand stall. If someone told me that Iain M Banks and Alastair Reynolds had borrowed their themes from VV I would not be surprised. Intelligent, complex stories. Elegantly written. Here we have universe that you want to go to - with alien, aliens. The idea of a galaxy where zones limit the upper limit of complexity gives a backdrop for variety where medieval rubs up against the future.
What else? Well we have Powers (think a cross between Banks' Minds and a Transcended Race), Perversions/Blight (Godlike hegemonizing swarms) and aliens so odd that they make every other writer look a bit short changed in the imagination dept. Like so many other great sci-fi writers he has a doctorate in physics which keeps his universe believable and intelligent. Good plots, solid characters you believe in. Please read it and then tell me that Skroderiders are not the most appealing and loveable species ever dreamed up. If they don't exist out there, they should.
What else? Well we have Powers (think a cross between Banks' Minds and a Transcended Race), Perversions/Blight (Godlike hegemonizing swarms) and aliens so odd that they make every other writer look a bit short changed in the imagination dept. Like so many other great sci-fi writers he has a doctorate in physics which keeps his universe believable and intelligent. Good plots, solid characters you believe in. Please read it and then tell me that Skroderiders are not the most appealing and loveable species ever dreamed up. If they don't exist out there, they should.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition
Vernor Vinge is not an author I've heard talked about in the UK, but I was introduced to "A Fire Upon The Deep" about 18 years ago by a friend. I loved it, and when I wanted to read it again a few years later bought my own copy which I have read several times. Now I'm buying this Omnibus on Kindle simply to read "A Fire Upon The Deep" again, but I am so excited to realise that a second book exists and to read that as well.
"A Fire Upon The Deep" is brilliantly written with some of the most inventive alien races I have ever come accross. Rather than the standard humanoid aliens (though those are present as well) great imagination has gone into what other sorts of races could exist (I just love the pack mind characters). That along with Galatic Zones allowing medieval to go along side spaceships and far future makes for a gripping book. I found myself absorted from the beginning. I am just so glad I can read it again on my Kindle.
I don't usually write reviews... but just had to for this book because it has to be among the best I have ever read.
"A Fire Upon The Deep" is brilliantly written with some of the most inventive alien races I have ever come accross. Rather than the standard humanoid aliens (though those are present as well) great imagination has gone into what other sorts of races could exist (I just love the pack mind characters). That along with Galatic Zones allowing medieval to go along side spaceships and far future makes for a gripping book. I found myself absorted from the beginning. I am just so glad I can read it again on my Kindle.
I don't usually write reviews... but just had to for this book because it has to be among the best I have ever read.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Prior to starting this book, I wasn't convinced that I'd enjoy it. And after reading the first chapter I still wasn't convinced... but somewhere between the end of the first chapter and a third of the way through the first story I realised I was absolutely and completely engrossed. Both stories are epic, the characters well fleshed out, and the overall pace of the stories are perfect. I'm a huge Peter F Hamilton fan, and I now add Vernor Vinge to my all time favourite sci-fi authors alongside Hamilton.
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