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A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge
1993 Hugo
Award Winner
Got it
from: Public Library
613 Pages
A Fire Upon the Deep is
an eccentric two-ply many-ply yarn of a space opera. Jeffry and Johanna Olsndot, they’re kids and stranded
alone on a strange planet. Then Ravna
and Pham, they’re trying save the children and basically the rest of the
universe too. A Fire Upon the Deep shifts pretty seamlessly between
these two narratives beginning as two seemingly completely separate stories but
they shortly become so intertwined as to be one super-mega-crazy-awesome
story. I don’t even want to begin to try
to explain the Zones of Thought concept.
You can see there’s a lot going on here…and it’s all good.
Yeah, what they said
It’s
really hard to write a review for this book that doesn’t stupidly parrot
everything everyone has already said about it.
A Fire Upon the Deep is seriously
fantastic. I’m spoiling my own review
here by telling you that it gets a perfect score from me. I explain myself and sum up one of the most
oft repeated sentiments about this book with the first line from Jo
Walton’s review on Tor.com: “It’s not that I think A Fire Upon the Deep is perfect, it’s just that it’s got
so much in it”.
Likewise,
reviews also talk about how complex and exciting A Fire Upon the Deep is.
Again, they aren’t wrong. A Fire Upon the Deep made me feel like a new SF reader
all over again. One feels like it’s
possible to literally climb into this book and though Vinge’s universe is still
our home he’s reimagined it in such a way that makes it exciting to live here all
over again. Still, do you need to hear
me repeat what others have said better?
Characters… let’s talk
about them a bit
People
talk about movies being huge. Physically, they’re the same size as any
other movie, but that’s not what they mean.
A Fire Upon the Deep is a huge
book, that’s why Walton (and everyone else) says “it’s go so much in it”. It’s so huge and the action is so absorbing
that some really great characters are easily overshadowed in some reviews. I don’t blame anyone, even after spending
some time away from it there is so much that is indelibly etched in my
imagination and it’s like trying to blink the sun out of your eyes, it seems
you can never really make it go away completely.
I’m
actually loath to just sit here and describe this cast, because separated from
any context they might sound a little unreal.
A couple of kids get stranded on a strange planet cut off from much of
the rest of the universe where almost immediately a bunch of sentient and near-telepathic
dogs kill their parents and separate them into rival factions. Or how about the Skroderiders who, billions
of years ago, began the path to sentience as some kind of sponge/anemone and
even now can’t remember shit unless they’re literally sitting on top of a
computer. And the Tines…well, the Tines
are just awesome, I’m not sure I even want to attempt to make them sound strange – I’ll stick with the near-telepathic dog bit... But you get the picture, it could all sound a
little weird right? Maybe if you were
only half listening and you didn’t like science fiction and you didn’t actually
even like to read either…
Come on, A
Fire Upon the Deep is flush with characters, each of whom and their individual
circumstances could inspire their very own book.
I hate to
return over and over to Walton’s review but hey, she’s a good reviewer and there
was something else that made a lot of sense to me. She said: “This particular kind of
fascination is almost unique to science fiction. There a universe and the way it works is
really weird, and he keeps handing out pieces of it and you keep fitting it
together.” She’s right about how
compelling this universe is, but she misses a little of what it is that really
makes this book so hard not to call
perfect.
As cool as
pretty much everything about this book is, and as fascinating and compelling
the Zones of Thought and the weaving
of the two stories might be, anyone who has read these books can tell you the
reason they couldn’t stop turning pages and the things they cared about so much
were those damn cool ass dogs or poor Ravna and those freaking scared kids. A Fire Upon the Deep
might have some of the coolest Hard-SF elements of any Hugo winner ever, but it’s
still the people who leave you breathless.
Ask someone. They might not realize
it right away, but if they think about it,
they will know.
The next
time you’re talking to someone about A Fire Upon the Deep,
remember to tell them about Pham, the god/computer/man, and the slow-to-remember
Skroderiders, the sentient seaweeds. And
talk to them about the time you were glued to a SF novel because of a wolf pack. Because as huge and complex and fascinating
and great as A Fire Upon the Deep
is, it still doesn’t work without a cast that feels real despite however unlikely
they might be.
Recommendation
As I write
this review, I’ve read every Hugo winner from the 90’s, with the exception of
three, and I’m almost done with a couple of those. If I were to hastily characterize the decade’s
winners, I would call them dichotomous. A Fire Upon the Deep bridges the ultra-serious,
ultra-hard SF of Kim Stanley Robinson and the lighter, goofier, more
adventurous SF of Willis or Bujold.
Within 10 pages I was already telling my wife how great it was and my
surprise and excitement never went away.
I don’t want to sound dramatic, but this book was so indescribably
fantastic that I think I might die! But
really, in a decade with at least three of my favorite Hugo winners, A Fire Upon the Deep holds up really
well and promises even more for the prequel.
HEP SCORE
Universe
5/5
Social/Political
Climate 5/5
Dialogue
5/5
Scientific
Wonders 5/5
Characters
5/5
Overall
25/25
