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4.07 AVERAGE
4.07 AVERAGE
Incredible. A hard sci-fi space opera with a strong fantasy element. One of the best sci-fi novels I have ever read.
A Fire Upon the Deep rocks back and forth between complacency and sudden, shocking obliteration. The Blight is released, prompting a hurried, near-failed escape with the undefined countermeasure that can defeat it. Against all odds, safety is achieved, followed immediately by the near destruction of a family and the ship's payload by telepathic, medieval dog(gish thing)s. Nearer the center of the Blight's activity, its behavior is disregarded as something that will pass, as it has many times before, until it strikes, violently and unexpectedly.
This pattern of tension and relaxation continues for two thirds of the book until settling into a permanent state of high anxiety.
What makes the story of particular interest are the many (novel-to-me) ideas present in the story, and likely what earned it the Hugo award in 1993. The Regions of Thought are the most prevalent, in which different levels of technology are allowed to function. From the High Beyond, far from the core of the galaxy, where automation and higher functions make faster-than-light (FTL) travel possible, to the Low Beyond, where it begins to break down, into The Slowness (from which humanity escaped hundreds of thousands, or millions, of years before), where it does not function at all, and down into The Unthinking Depths--a region unexplored in this book.
From these regions of thought a variety of races emerge and thrive. Some live for millions of years in the Beyond, while others move on to the Transcend, beyond the Beyond, and become new lifeforms altogether (think along the lines of extrapolated intelligence thought to occur after Ray Kurzweil's Singularity or the invention of fully autonomous Artificial Intelligence). Those that exist in the beyond become intelligent beyond the scope of human understanding, sometimes benign and sometimes hostile, but usually leaving contact before 10 years or so, having evolved beyond contact or interest. The Blight is believed to be one such evil Power that will eventually pass--this proves terrifyingly incorrect.
The telepath dogs are also fascinating, once one gets past your understanding of dogs and disdain for medieval technology compared to space-faring civilizations. The Tines, as they are named, possess extraordinary potential through natural selection and the makeup of their packs. Tines are not able to function on an intelligent level individually, but when pack members are selected for specific traits can be highly intellectual and specialized, reminiscent of Frank Herbert's Mentats and Bene Gesserit sisterhood.
Vinge also showed some foresight for 1993, early in the public internet era, and a distressing trend--the Net of The Beyond, through which creatures communicate, share ideas, and receive information, is just as divisive, obnoxious, and overstuffed as the internet of today. In the Beyond, as today, the Net serves as a refuge for seemingly highly influential radicals and a focal point for intolerance and blame with a familiar propensity for twisting events to shape a particular narrative—this has gone on for the extent of written human history, so while it’s no surprise here, it makes sense that it continues, though it’s a disappointing trend.
Like many good books, the threads of the story draw ever tighter as the reader progresses, but without this knowledge some may not persist far enough to make that discovery. Of the two main elements of the story, very early on one seems to resolve itself and the other turns to a disappointing anticlimax--but that's a false start.
Vinge manages crushingly bad fortune and dramatic irony extremely well; one wonders if the book prescribes inevitable doom for the "good guys" and triumph for the "bad guys". A sliver of hope prevails, however, that a trick up someone's sleeve may save them all or a crucial insight might defeat deception, and it's to these a reader clings and continues on, all while dreading yet another sour turn of events because the enemies are just too clever, the odds too high, and the nature of the universe too great an obstacle.
Without specifying how or why, for fear of spoiling it, it's worthwhile to see the book through to its conclusion to a gratifying end.
Issues with the book include the eventual resolution and characterization, as identified by Katie's review.
The epilogue has value for the same reasons as the final chapters of The Return of the King. After Frodo has thrown the ring into the fire, the story is essentially over. There's a few quibbling points to clarify, but the epilogue is essentially just that, letting everyone know how the protagonists are doing and where they're expected to get to from there. There remain unanswered questions, but they are so far removed that it's supposed they are essentially irrelevant for thousands of years--of course, in a universe that measures time in billions of years, that may seem all too soon.
This pattern of tension and relaxation continues for two thirds of the book until settling into a permanent state of high anxiety.
What makes the story of particular interest are the many (novel-to-me) ideas present in the story, and likely what earned it the Hugo award in 1993. The Regions of Thought are the most prevalent, in which different levels of technology are allowed to function. From the High Beyond, far from the core of the galaxy, where automation and higher functions make faster-than-light (FTL) travel possible, to the Low Beyond, where it begins to break down, into The Slowness (from which humanity escaped hundreds of thousands, or millions, of years before), where it does not function at all, and down into The Unthinking Depths--a region unexplored in this book.
From these regions of thought a variety of races emerge and thrive. Some live for millions of years in the Beyond, while others move on to the Transcend, beyond the Beyond, and become new lifeforms altogether (think along the lines of extrapolated intelligence thought to occur after Ray Kurzweil's Singularity or the invention of fully autonomous Artificial Intelligence). Those that exist in the beyond become intelligent beyond the scope of human understanding, sometimes benign and sometimes hostile, but usually leaving contact before 10 years or so, having evolved beyond contact or interest. The Blight is believed to be one such evil Power that will eventually pass--this proves terrifyingly incorrect.
The telepath dogs are also fascinating, once one gets past your understanding of dogs and disdain for medieval technology compared to space-faring civilizations. The Tines, as they are named, possess extraordinary potential through natural selection and the makeup of their packs. Tines are not able to function on an intelligent level individually, but when pack members are selected for specific traits can be highly intellectual and specialized, reminiscent of Frank Herbert's Mentats and Bene Gesserit sisterhood.
Vinge also showed some foresight for 1993, early in the public internet era, and a distressing trend--the Net of The Beyond, through which creatures communicate, share ideas, and receive information, is just as divisive, obnoxious, and overstuffed as the internet of today. In the Beyond, as today, the Net serves as a refuge for seemingly highly influential radicals and a focal point for intolerance and blame with a familiar propensity for twisting events to shape a particular narrative—this has gone on for the extent of written human history, so while it’s no surprise here, it makes sense that it continues, though it’s a disappointing trend.
Like many good books, the threads of the story draw ever tighter as the reader progresses, but without this knowledge some may not persist far enough to make that discovery. Of the two main elements of the story, very early on one seems to resolve itself and the other turns to a disappointing anticlimax--but that's a false start.
Vinge manages crushingly bad fortune and dramatic irony extremely well; one wonders if the book prescribes inevitable doom for the "good guys" and triumph for the "bad guys". A sliver of hope prevails, however, that a trick up someone's sleeve may save them all or a crucial insight might defeat deception, and it's to these a reader clings and continues on, all while dreading yet another sour turn of events because the enemies are just too clever, the odds too high, and the nature of the universe too great an obstacle.
Without specifying how or why, for fear of spoiling it, it's worthwhile to see the book through to its conclusion to a gratifying end.
Issues with the book include the eventual resolution and characterization, as identified by Katie's review.
The human characters are especially underdeveloped (I'm looking at you, Ravna and Pham) and this is especially damaging to the novel since quite a bit of its emotional heft (including the novel's climax) hinges on them.
...the ending is rather abrupt and relies really heavily on deus ex machina intervention.
The epilogue has value for the same reasons as the final chapters of The Return of the King. After Frodo has thrown the ring into the fire, the story is essentially over. There's a few quibbling points to clarify, but the epilogue is essentially just that, letting everyone know how the protagonists are doing and where they're expected to get to from there. There remain unanswered questions, but they are so far removed that it's supposed they are essentially irrelevant for thousands of years--of course, in a universe that measures time in billions of years, that may seem all too soon.
adventurous
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
challenging
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Excellent, fully-realized world building. Immersive and unique. The amalgamation of hard sci-fi and Redwall-esque warring medieval animals at a massive scale really worked for me. True to the title, there is a sense of gravity and depth to the narrative, a bit like Dune. Vinge created really fascinating aliens in the Tines and the Scroderiders and the characters representing these races like Pilgrim and Blue Shell are beautifully developed. I liked how the book plunges the reader into the jargon of the world without slowing down the narrative with a lot of exposition. I didn’t feel like I fully understood the zones/transcend/powers until the end of the book and I kind of like that— it sustains some of the mystical qualities of the book’s universe. I haven’t read much science fiction that chooses such an audacious setting— this story is way, way into the future— and it was able to pull it off by making it feel really foreign.
I also liked that, throughout the first act, and even throughout some of the latter parts of the story, the stakes felt realistic— low, almost. As in, “yes there are sometimes transcendent beings that destroy civilizations, but eventually they go away and it’s a big universe anyway.” One of the posts to the universe’s galactic web (written with full headers and “language paths,” etc., a flourish I loved) was even downplaying the cosmic significance of the Blight in one of the last few chapters, if memory serves. Keeping the stakes more grounded, for me, makes the story all the more urgent for the characters I care about, and it gives it a different, more mature flavor than a conventional space opera.
There were a few moments where the Tines character “Steele” felt a little over the top for me - at one point he complains that one of the humans won’t stop touching him and he “doesn’t like love” or something like that. And I also felt like the reader didn’t get quite enough insight into the feelings of the characters. Human protagonist Ravna has quite a few devastatingly tragic moments where the reader doesn’t hear much about how those moments affected her, and that made me a feel a bit less attached to the characters than I might have otherwise.
But all in all this was a super unique and enjoyably complex story whose universe is going to stick with me. 4.5/5.
I also liked that, throughout the first act, and even throughout some of the latter parts of the story, the stakes felt realistic— low, almost. As in, “yes there are sometimes transcendent beings that destroy civilizations, but eventually they go away and it’s a big universe anyway.” One of the posts to the universe’s galactic web (written with full headers and “language paths,” etc., a flourish I loved) was even downplaying the cosmic significance of the Blight in one of the last few chapters, if memory serves. Keeping the stakes more grounded, for me, makes the story all the more urgent for the characters I care about, and it gives it a different, more mature flavor than a conventional space opera.
There were a few moments where the Tines character “Steele” felt a little over the top for me - at one point he complains that one of the humans won’t stop touching him and he “doesn’t like love” or something like that. And I also felt like the reader didn’t get quite enough insight into the feelings of the characters. Human protagonist Ravna has quite a few devastatingly tragic moments where the reader doesn’t hear much about how those moments affected her, and that made me a feel a bit less attached to the characters than I might have otherwise.
But all in all this was a super unique and enjoyably complex story whose universe is going to stick with me. 4.5/5.
adventurous
challenging
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Re-read. I first started this book in fourth or fifth grade. It was probably the first non-Star Wars science fiction I ever read (maybe some Jules Verne before it). I understood very little of it. I think I finally finished it sometime in middle school, when I understood enough. I certainly remembered a lot of what happened when I reread it.
The book has a lot of imagination, and the ending was honestly quite moving. Probably the best part of the book. That and the introduction. Sometimes the writing felt a little pat. Vinge doesn’t have much of a style. But what he does have generally works. Some of the descriptions could’ve been a bit better, although some of that was my fault for not knowing all the terminology.
The book has a lot of imagination, and the ending was honestly quite moving. Probably the best part of the book. That and the introduction. Sometimes the writing felt a little pat. Vinge doesn’t have much of a style. But what he does have generally works. Some of the descriptions could’ve been a bit better, although some of that was my fault for not knowing all the terminology.
From now on, if you recommend a space sci-fi book to me and you didn't rate "A Fire Upon the Deep" at least 4 out of 5 stars, your suggestion won't be considered for my TBR!
1⭐️ DNF or Forced myself to Finish
2⭐️ It's Just a book
3⭐️ A Good Book
4⭐️ On My Reread List
5⭐️ god mode
1⭐️ DNF or Forced myself to Finish
2⭐️ It's Just a book
3⭐️ A Good Book
4⭐️ On My Reread List
5⭐️ god mode
Great ideas - packs, zones of thought - but my god it is long.
Following up on Scalzi's The Last Emperox (the last book I read), this one digs quite a bit deeper, with much heavier themes, and much more literary writing. Some of the concepts here are really quite interesting and, this does not happen often, makes you think about what it means to be human.
Are our parameters set? Will we not able to advance beyond a certain level because we are limited in our thinking capabilities because we are just one, not a group with a shared consciousness? Or will some other forces stop us? It is an interesting way to think about the Fermi paradox.
Are our parameters set? Will we not able to advance beyond a certain level because we are limited in our thinking capabilities because we are just one, not a group with a shared consciousness? Or will some other forces stop us? It is an interesting way to think about the Fermi paradox.