Vernor Vinge's 'A Fire Upon the Deep

"Vernor Vinge's 'A Fire Upon the Deep'"," A handful of novels

were more than outpaced by dozens of short stories as well as

numerous feature articles.
 In fact Vinge's works of fiction are noted for their complexity,

depth of story and character which has rendered him something

of a grandmaster in the SF and won him numerous plaudits from

other writers (some of whom have alluded to him in their own

publications - a highly unusual honour for any author).
 Vinge's idea is that the Milky Way Galaxy is divided up into

zones of thought or intelligence, from 'Slow' to 'Fast'.
 The Galaxy-spanning cultures created by Vinge are beautifully

imagined, held together by a sort of interstellar network of

communications points and databanks - a version of our own

Earth-bound web given the free reign of space.
 We follow the adventures of a small group of diverse but very

engaging characters who are affected by this calamity and how

they eventually combat it.


Several years later Vinge followed up the novel with 'A Deepness

in the Sky' (1999), a slightly lesser but still very worthy sequel or

perhaps more accurately prequel set in the same Universe.
 In 'A Fire Upon the Deep' Vinge showed his ability to create

entirely believable, and engagingly human, aliens but in many

ways he surpassed himself in 'A Deepness in the Sky' and justly

garnered several more awards.

 Vernon's Vinge is a writer of consummate skill, and humanity, and

anyone wanting to read, and inhabit for a time, one of the most

creative universes of the Sci-Fi genre is in for a true literary

pleasure.


click here for something different