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A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge (1992)

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Re: A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge (1992)

#11

Post by AlotOfReading »

perihelions wrote: post #7

If anyone's purchasing this as an ebook, note that there is (unusually) a DRM-free version available [0]. I'm not sure if this is the publisher (Tor Books) or the author's decision -- the publisher's DRM philosophy been discussed on HN [1][2] but I don't know what the current information is. [0] for example (.epub), https://www.kobo.com/ww/en/ebook/a-fire-upon-the-deep-1 [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=56301…

Tor books is well known for publishing their entire library DRM-free. It's pretty awesome that such a reputable publisher has made their works accessible.

Re: A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge (1992)

#12

Post by NelsonMinar »

perihelions wrote: post #7

If anyone's purchasing this as an ebook, note that there is (unusually) a DRM-free version available [0]. I'm not sure if this is the publisher (Tor Books) or the author's decision -- the publisher's DRM philosophy been discussed on HN [1][2] but I don't know what the current information is. [0] for example (.epub), https://www.kobo.com/ww/en/ebook/a-fire-upon-the-deep-1 [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=56301…

Tor Books has had a policy of not having DRM on their eBooks for years now. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/05/tor-b...

Re: A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge (1992)

#13

Post by cybernautique »

mawise wrote: post #10

This is in my list of top 10 (ish) books I've read. If you've enjoyed it, He's got two more books in the Zones of Thought universe: A Deepness In The Sky, which follows Pham in his Queng Ho days before A Fire Upon The Deep (recommended!) as well as Children Of The Sky, which follows Ravna and the children on the Tines world as a direct sequel to Fire Upon The Deep.

Thanks for the recommendations! I'll put them on the top of my reading list. I generally consider A Fire Upon the Deep to be one of the great achievements of human imagination.

Reading this book and discovering Vinge's unique vision of a variable physics universe was akin to reading Tolkien and discovering his vision of a divine universe.

Re: A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge (1992)

#14

Post by goatlover »

jrootabega wrote: post #9
Causality1 wrote: post #5

A fantastic book. It will really make you ache for more information, though. Why do ascended beings only hang around for a few years and where do they go? What fraction of living beings survived the Blight and the Countermeasure? What is the present-day status of Earth?

I think looking at things like Stargate SG-1 seasons 9/10 show why it's better to be left with such questions than answers. And I think that no author would be able to satisfyingly describe concepts like that anyway, just the way that their "mortal" characters perceive such concepts.

Liu Cixin managed to provide some very interesting answers regarding the nature of the cosmic dark forest and higher dimensional space in Death's End, the third book in the Three Body Problem trilogy. The Expanse book nine, Leviathan Falls, will probably explain the advanced alien conflict and unknown aggressors that proceeded human discovery in the distant past. Given how the authors have handled mysterious alien stuff so far in the first eight books, looks like they can pull it off.

Re: A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge (1992)

#15

Post by jrootabega »

goatlover wrote: post #14
jrootabega wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think looking at things like Stargate SG-1 seasons 9/10 show why it's better to be left with such questions than answers. And I think that no author would be able to satisfyingly describe concepts like that anyway, just the way that their "mortal" characters perceive such concepts.

Liu Cixin managed to provide some very interesting answers regarding the nature of the cosmic dark forest and higher dimensional space in Death's End, the third book in the Three Body Problem trilogy. The Expanse book nine, Leviathan Falls, will probably explain the advanced alien conflict and unknown aggressors that proceeded human discovery in the distant past. Given how the authors have handled mysterious alien st…

I'll have to check it out! I've been delinquent on reading those.

Re: A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge (1992)

#16

Post by Causality1 »

jrootabega wrote: post #9
Causality1 wrote: post #5

A fantastic book. It will really make you ache for more information, though. Why do ascended beings only hang around for a few years and where do they go? What fraction of living beings survived the Blight and the Countermeasure? What is the present-day status of Earth?

I think looking at things like Stargate SG-1 seasons 9/10 show why it's better to be left with such questions than answers. And I think that no author would be able to satisfyingly describe concepts like that anyway, just the way that their "mortal" characters perceive such concepts.

I quite enjoyed SG-1 seasons 9 and 10. Perhaps I would also enjoy having those answers.

Re: A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge (1992)

#17

Post by jrootabega »

mawise wrote: post #10

This is in my list of top 10 (ish) books I've read. If you've enjoyed it, He's got two more books in the Zones of Thought universe: A Deepness In The Sky, which follows Pham in his Queng Ho days before A Fire Upon The Deep (recommended!) as well as Children Of The Sky, which follows Ravna and the children on the Tines world as a direct sequel to Fire Upon The Deep.

I acknowledge that I'm digressing into general Vinge talk here instead of Zones of Thought, but Rainbow's End was good, too, as more of a near-future vision that, these days, would barely be considered sci-fi. It's also got some elements that are scarily analogous to current trends in government/social media/political dialogue.

Re: A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge (1992)

#18

Post by moonbug »

mawise wrote: post #10

This is in my list of top 10 (ish) books I've read. If you've enjoyed it, He's got two more books in the Zones of Thought universe: A Deepness In The Sky, which follows Pham in his Queng Ho days before A Fire Upon The Deep (recommended!) as well as Children Of The Sky, which follows Ravna and the children on the Tines world as a direct sequel to Fire Upon The Deep.

Stay away from Children of the Sky unless, having finished Fire Upon the Deep, your response was "I'd sure like to hear more about those whiny children and the dogs"

Re: A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge (1992)

#19

Post by sillyquiet »

Some other really thought provoking books by Vinge which often go overlooked is "The Peace Wars" and "Marooned in Realtime"

My personal guilty favorite (I say guilty because he really buys into the outdated concept of the technological singularity) is Rainbow's End, which deals with notions of augmented reality, digitalization of books, and even touches on right-to-repair issues in a way.

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