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 sci fi fairytale.

I really loved the idea of the zones in the galaxy dictating the intelligence of aliens but its never really expanded upon, the thynes are a very interesting alien species that are unique to imagine. there's intelligent plants that drive around in little machines, a red headed space Frankenstein dude, a superintelligent space net virus, and Shrek

Great story, but the female and child voices are painful.

The story was very interesting and engaging, but the narrator used really annoying voices for the children and women that sounded nothing like a female voice or a child’s voice.

Transcendent SciFi

I read Fire in the Deep years ago and only really remembered that I liked it and the concept of slow zones in space. I decided to listen and finish the series. I love Vinge’s SciFi, and this doesn’t disappoint. I thought some of the voices used for the young pups were annoying.

Interesting idea, wasn’t too enthralled with the story

The zone idea was cool but the characters they followed were meh didn’t really care about any of them. Also the monster never really felt real just vaguely out there and a threat

Uneven

There are parts of this book they were excellent, and I really liked, but it was uneven. Certain characters I could really get behind, but others I had no vested interest. It’s OK.

Just not a good listen

I am in agreement with a lot of the reviewers on here. This is the kind of book you buy because you want to spend time digesting the author's ideas, and audiobook is the wrong format for that kind of intellectual exercise.

The entire beginning of the book is basically bungled. A strong prolog makes you think the story is going in one direction, and you're basically waiting for any indication that that plot line will advance. Then you're treated to pages of disjointed narrative, as hive mind dogs fight, and every fight among them seems to be described by language similar to "a furious struggle", which is about as descriptive as the dust covered fights in cartoons.

The narration has cartoonish voices for the characters, as others have said, which is really distracting. It often feels like every character is a child.

I decided to stop listening around chapter 5 because I realized that I didn't really care what happened to the established characters, and I didn't want to hear about the new character that was being introduced.

Might be worth reading in print, but I highly recommend you skip this audiobook version.

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.