A Fire Upon the Deep

By: Vernor Vinge

Narrated by: Peter Larkin

Length: 21 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

A Fire Upon the Deep is the big, breakout book that fulfills the promise of Vinge's career to date: a gripping tale of galactic war told on a cosmic scale. Thousands of years hence, many races inhabit a universe where 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 the threat, a family of scientists, including two children, are taken captive by the Tines, an alien race with a harsh medieval culture, and used as pawns in a ruthless power struggle. A rescue mission, not entirely composed of humans, must rescue the children-and a secret that may save the rest of interstellar civilization.

A Fire upon the Deep, which began the Zones of Thought series, is the winner of the 1993 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

©1992 Vernor Vinge (P)2010 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

• Hugo Award, Best Novel, 1993

unique story

it had great parallel plots,detailed characterization, lively narration and fast-paced. performance was well suited to the characters.

what an adventure!

Simply put, a tale that is beaming with imagination. Space has never looked so interesting

don't know why this one is such a big deal

I read a lot of science fiction, but this one just didn't do it for me

awesome

awesome, great book loved it 15 words required for review. word word word word word

Galactic war, librarian heroine

This is the story of what happens to humans and other residents of the galaxy when they encounter more ancient beings in the far beyond. The Internet (or whatever the Internet has become in this future time) plays an interesting role, in that various powers use it to spread information and disinformation in the growing war. I really liked that the heroine was a librarian, so her knowledge of how to find information and act on it made her critical to the humans' survival.

Incredible book.

Gripping story with amazing narration, made me fall in love with science fiction all over again. Good depth of future oriented tech and well thought out alien lifeforms.

Not bothering with the next one

What did you like best about A Fire Upon the Deep? What did you like least?

I was looking forward to more of the story of Pham Nuwen and liked the concept of the Zones of Thought.

What was most disappointing about Vernor Vinge’s story?

But the Zones never really were explained in any meaningful way and the characters didn't develop in a way that increased my interest in what happens to them next.

Would you be willing to try another one of Peter Larkin’s performances?

Peter Larkins's performance was good enough. I did like his alien character voices which were distinct and interesting.

Did A Fire Upon the Deep inspire you to do anything?

I'm going to put this series away. Not worth a credit to go on to the next installment.

Eh it’s ok

The sci fi in this book is minimal, most of it is on a primitive alien planet from the perspective of two kids. Each time it cuts to the characters in space I think oh ya, that’s also happening. Which is disappointing because it’s the most interesting part of the book. If you can suffer through the Joanna and woodcarver parts you might like it.

I just read the publishers summary, it is incredible misleading. It makes it seem as though the focus was the space rescue mission. It’s not.

hard to understand

i think if i had read the story rather than listening to it i might have been able to get it, but i don't think i liked the story enough to read the book. I'll just wait for the inevitable movie.

Perfect epic sci-fi performed impeccably

First and foremost aside from the amazing story, Peter Larkin did an amazing job with this book. The range of characters he was able to deliver a unique personality to was something I don't hear done this perfectly.

The book itself was great. It starts off completely alien in almost every way. He was able to capture and depict post singularity beings, hive minded delepaths, and plant beings in a way that was incredibly weird to listen to, but completely understandable. A lot of parts in the book Vinge spent on crash courses on how these completely inhuman characters think. Some of the concepts warrant some further understanding like the zones of thought itself, but even in the book it is meant to remain a mystery.

Planning finish the series as it's set up with mysteries I'm hoping get touched on, and hoping to hear more of Larkin's voice acting