A Fire Upon the Deep
| A Fire Upon the Deep | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Author(s) | Vernor Vinge |
| Cover artist | Boris Vallejo |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Zones of Thought series |
| Genre(s) | Hard science fiction |
| Publisher | Tor Books |
| Publication date | April 1992 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover and paperback) |
| Pages | 391 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-312-85182-0 |
| OCLC Number | 24671893 |
| Dewey Decimal | 813/.54 20 |
| LC Classification | PS3572.I534 F57 1992 |
| Followed by | A Deepness in the Sky |
A Fire Upon the Deep is a science fiction novel by American writer Vernor Vinge, a space opera involving superhuman intelligences, aliens, variable physics, space battles, love, betrayal, genocide, and a conversation medium resembling Usenet. A Fire Upon the Deep won the Hugo Award in 1993 (tied with Doomsday Book by Connie Willis).[1]
Besides the normal print book editions, the novel was also included on a CD-ROM sold by ClariNet Communications along with the other nominees for the 1993 Hugo awards. The CD-ROM edition included numerous annotations by Vinge on his thoughts and intentions about different parts of the book.[2]
Contents |
Plot [edit]
The novel posits that space around the Milky Way is divided into concentric layers called Zones, each being constrained by different laws of physics and each allowing for different degrees of biological and technological advancement. The innermost, the "Unthinking Depths", surrounds the galactic core and is incapable of supporting advanced life forms at all. The next layer, the "Slow Zone", is roughly equivalent to the real world in behavior and potential. Further out, the zone named the "Beyond" can support futuristic technologies such as AI and FTL travel. The outermost zone, the "Transcend", contains most of the galactic halo and is populated by incomprehensibly vast and powerful posthuman entities.
A human expedition investigates a five-billion-year-old data archive that offers the possibility of unimaginable riches for the ambitious young civilization of the Straumli Realm. The expedition's facility, called High Lab, is gradually compromised by a dormant super-intelligent entity (actually encoded within the archive) later known as the Blight. The Blight rapidly learns how to infiltrate and control the computer systems of High Lab, and even develops the ability to possess and control the living humans. The novel starts with an imaginative description of the evolution of this superintelligence through exponentially accelerating developmental stages, culminating in a transcendent, nigh-omnipotent power that is unfathomable to mere humans. Shortly before its final "flowering", the changes in a single minute of the Blight's life are said to exceed those of 10,000 years of human civilization.
Recognizing the danger of what they have awakened, the researchers at High Lab attempt to flee in two ships. Suspicious, the Blight discovers that one of the ships contains a data storage device in its cargo manifest; assuming it contains information that could harm it, the Blight destroys the ship. The second ship is allowed to escape, unharmed, as the Blight assumes that it is no threat; but later realizes that it actually held a countermeasure, one of the few things in the universe that the Blight fears.
The ship lands on a distant planet with a medieval-level civilization of dog-like creatures dubbed "Tines", who live in packs as group minds. The ship is revealed to be a sleeper ship, carrying most of High Lab's children in "coldsleep boxes". The boxes are rapidly failing and the surviving adults begin unloading them, but are killed when one of two rival forces of Tines seize the ship. The faction that initially contacts the humans, led by a Tine known as Steel, kills the adults and destroys many of the coldsleep boxes. They also capture a boy named Jefri Olsndot, whom Steel intended on killing but eventually exploits in order to develop advanced technology (such as cannon and radio communication). Jefri's older sister, Johanna, is rescued by Pilgrim and Scriber, wandering Tines who bring her to the rival faction, led by Woodcarver. She is asked to help develop technology that could gain the upper hand in the impending war.
A distress signal from the sleeper ship eventually reaches "Relay", a major node in the galactic communications network. A benign transcendent entity (known as a "Power") named "Old One" contacts Relay, seeking information about the Blight and the humans who released it. Old One constructs a seemingly human man, Pham Nuwen, to act as its agent. Pham and Ravna Bergsndot – a human employee of Relay's owners, the wealthy Vrinimi Organization – trace the sleeper ship's signal to the Tines world. Vrinimi Org helps modify a vessel, the Out of Band II, to reach the Tines world and to investigate what the ship carried with it from the High Lab.
The Blight attacks Relay and Old One. Old One has given Pham the information necessary to activate the Blight Countermeasure subconsciously, a process known as godshatter (which will result in his death). Pham and Ravna escape Relay's destruction in the Out of Band II. After arriving at the Tines homeworld and allying with Woodcarver to defeat Steel, Pham initiates the Countermeasure, which extends the Slow Zone by thousands of light-years to enclose the Blight. This ends the threat of the Blight at the cost of wrecking thousands of uninvolved civilizations, causing trillions of deaths and potentially the extinction of several galactic races. The process strands the other humans on the Tines world, now in the depths of the "Slow Zone" where rescue by an advanced civilization is impossible.
Just before Pham dies, he realises that although his body is a reconstruction, the memories implanted by Old One are real. Vinge expands on Pham's backstory in A Deepness in the Sky.
Races [edit]
- Aprahanti
A race of humanoids with colorful butterfly-like wings who attempt to use the chaos of the Blight to reestablish their waning hegemony.
- Blight, The (Super-intelligence)
A representative being of a dormant super-intelligent entity group. Such super-intelligences can rapidly infiltrate and control the computer systems of less technologicaly advanced species, and even develops the ability to possess and control biological beings. Such super-intelligences are effectively immortal, nigh-omnipotent and transcendent.
- Dirokimes
Older race of inward dreamers, original inhabitants of Sjandra Kei.
- Humans
All humans in the novel (except Pham) are descended from Nyjoran stock.[3] Old Earth is noted as being on the other side of the galaxy. One of the major human habitations is Sjandra Kei, three systems[4] comprising roughly 28 billion[5] individuals. Their main tongue is Samnorsk.
- Skroders / Riders / Skroderiders
A sessile race of trees with fronds that are used for expression. 5 billion years ago, the Blight gave them wheeled mechanical constructs (skrodes) to move and as short-term memory, and the destruction of the Blight survived as their founding myth. The Blight is able to corrupt and operate the Riders via their Skrodes.
- Tines
A canid race, each 'person' comprising a group mind of 4-8 individuals, connected by sound-waves. Each 'soul' will last as long as it has members, potentially hundreds of years.
Related works [edit]
Vinge first used the concepts of "Zones of Thought" in a 1988 novella, "The Blabber", which occurs after Fire. Vinge's novel, A Deepness in the Sky (1999), is a prequel to A Fire Upon the Deep set 20,000 years earlier and featuring Pham Nuwen. Vinge's Children of the Sky, "a near-term sequel to A Fire Upon the Deep", set ten years later, was released in October 2011.[6]
Vinge's former wife, Joan D. Vinge, has also written stories in the Zones of Thought universe, based on his notes. These include "The Outcasts of Heaven Belt", "Legacy", and an upcoming novel featuring Pham Nuwen.[7]
Awards and nominations [edit]
A Fire Upon the Deep shared the 1993 Hugo Award for Best Novel with Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis.[1] The book was nominated for the 1992 Nebula Award for Best Novel,[8] the 1993 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel,[1] and the 1993 Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.[1]
Critical reactions [edit]
Jo Walton wrote: "Any one of the ideas in A Fire Upon the Deep would have kept an ordinary writer going for years. For me it’s the book that does everything right, the example of what science fiction does when it works. ... A Fire Upon the Deep remains a favourite and a delight to re-read, absorbing even when I know exactly what’s coming." [9]
References [edit]
- ^ a b c d "1993 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved September 26, 2009.
- ^ Review of the annotated ebook edition of A Fire Upon the Deep at Slashdot
- ^ Vinge, Vernor (1992). A fire Upon the Deep (1st mass market ed.). New York: Tom Doherty Associates. p. 62. ISBN 0812515285. LCCN 91-39020.
- ^ p. 436
- ^ p. 322
- ^ "Interview with Vernor Vinge". Norwescon. 2009-10-12.
- ^ Vinge, Joan D. (2008-11). "A letter to my readers".
- ^ "1992 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved September 26, 2009.
- ^ The Net of a Million Lies: Vernor Vinge’s A Fire Upon the Deep, review by Jo Walton, 2009.
External links [edit]
- A Fire Upon the Deep title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Prologue and first nine chapters at Baen Ebooks
- A Fire Upon the Deep at Worlds Without End
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