Science Fiction · EpicA superintelligence awakened in a research facility starts an interstellar crisis across the galaxy's Zones of Thought
A Fire Upon the Deep
by Vernor Vinge
A galaxy where the laws of thought change with location
Tor Books published the novel in April 1992, and the first edition has 391 pages. It is a hard science fiction space opera with superhuman intelligences, aliens and variable physics. The Milky Way is divided into four concentric Zones of Thought. A superintelligence is awakened at a research facility, and the story follows the interstellar crisis that results. Vinge's original title was Among the Tines. It is a loose prequel to A Deepness in the Sky and was followed by The Children of the Sky.
More about this book
Who
Ravna Bergsndot, Pham Nuwen, Jefri and Johanna Olnsdot, and the skroderiders Blueshell and Greenstalk.
World
A galaxy divided into four Zones of Thought.
What makes it different
It shared the 1993 Hugo with Doomsday Book. Its galactic Net resembles Usenet, and a CD-ROM edition carried Vinge's annotations.
Feel
Vast and inventive.
Page count and cover shown for: Selected edition
Further reading
- A Fire Upon the DeepWikipedia