A Deepness in the Sky [Mass Market Paperback]

Vernor Vinge (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 2000

After thousands of years searching, humans stand on the verge of first contact with an alien race. Two human groups: the Qeng Ho, a culture of free traders, and the Emergents, a ruthless society based on the technological enslavement of minds.

The group that opens trade with the aliens will reap unimaginable riches. But first, both groups must wait at the aliens' very doorstep for their strange star to relight and for their planet to reawaken, as it does every two hundred and fifty years....

Then, following terrible treachery, the Qeng Ho must fight for their freedom and for the lives of the unsuspecting innocents on the planet below, while the aliens themselves play a role unsuspected by the Qeng Ho and Emergents alike.

More than just a great science fiction adventure, A Deepness in the Sky is a universal drama of courage, self-discovery, and the redemptive power of love.

 

A Deepness in the Sky is a 1999 Nebula Award Nominee for Best Novel and the winner of the 2000 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This hefty novel returns to the universe of Vernor Vinge's 1993 Hugo winner A Fire Upon the Deep--but 30,000 years earlier. The story has the same sense of epic vastness despite happening mostly in one isolated solar system. Here there's a world of intelligent spider creatures who traditionally hibernate through the "Deepest Darkness" of their strange variable sun's long "off" periods, when even the atmosphere freezes. Now, science offers them an alternative... Meanwhile, attracted by spider radio transmissions, two human starfleets come exploring--merchants hoping for customers and tyrants who want slaves. Their inevitable clash leaves both fleets crippled, with the power in the wrong hands, which leads to a long wait in space until the spiders develop exploitable technology. Over the years Vinge builds palpable tension through multiple storylines and characters. In the sky, hopes of rebellion against tyranny continue despite soothing lies, brutal repression, and a mental bondage that can convert people into literal tools. Down below, the engagingly sympathetic spiders have their own problems. In flashback, we see the grandiose ideals and ultimate betrayal of the merchant culture's founder, now among the human contingent and pretending to be a senile buffoon while plotting, plotting... Major revelations, ironies, and payoffs follow. A powerful story in the grandest SF tradition. --David Langford, Amazon.co.uk --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

A war between two rival civilizations over trading rights to the planet Arachna results in the virtual enslavement of the Qeng Ho by the victorious Emergent culture. As the Spider-folk of Arachna evolve in their customary cyclical pattern, unaware of the threat that lies in their near future, a few Qeng Ho rebels work desperately to free themselves and save Arachna from conquest. This prequel to A Fire Upon the Deep (Tor, 1992) demonstrates Vinge's capacity for meticulously detailed culture-building and grand-scale sf drama. Recommended for most sf collections.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 800 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1ST edition (January 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812536355
• ISBN-13: 978-0812536355
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1.3 x 6.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (261 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #75,981 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

97 of 97 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Deeper Symmetry than Some Realize July 15, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Some have questioned the relation between A Deepness in the Sky and A Fire Upon the Deep, complaining that, aside from being in the same universe and sharing one character, that they have nothing in common.

I beg to differ.

A Deepness in the Sky is a Fire Upon the Deep turned inside out. There is a brilliant symmetry between the two novels and I definitely believe that either novel is enhanced by the reading of the other.

AFUtD was grand space opera. It was also representative of what Mr. Vinge hopes the future can be: unlimited vistas and boundless advances in technology. As a consequence, the book had a tendency to focus on its grand vision to the detriment of its characters, who ended up feeling flattened by comparison (read some of the Amazon customer reviews for AFUtD to see what I mean).

ADitS, by contrast, represents Mr. Vinge's fear of what the future may hold for us. If technology does, in fact, plateau at some level and if the technological singularity is never achieved, Mr. Vinge predicts that humanity will be doomed to an endless sequence of technological rises and falls. ADitS makes, in my opinion, some very good cases for this. As a consequence, even though the book is chock full of high technology, with respect to our civilization, and even though it imagines humanity spread among the stars, it manages to convey a sense of claustrophobia - especially for those who have read AFUtD. Because the universe is so "cramped", the focus of the novel is directed (with almost painful intensity) upon the characters of the novel.

This novel is long and it has more than its fair share of depressing aspects. I can not, however, think of anything that ought to have been subtracted from it.... As for the sense of pessimism, I think that it is absolutely critical to read this in context of the largert universe presented in AFUtD. Yes, the characters, and their cultures, are trapped within a cosmological box, but it's a box that DOES have an open end. An opening that will, more importantly, be found by Pham Nguwen... just not yet.

In sum, I think that this is a true tour de force and an entirely apt sequel to A Fire Upon the Deep. Read more ›

111 of 117 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Less is more February 11, 2000

By Will Martyn

Format:Mass Market Paperback

Vinge's body of work stands as a rebuke to that majority of SF writers who crank out a book or two of mediocrity every year. Although Vinge's books appear at three to four year intervals, each of them is a gem. His skills are getting even better, and this book and its predecessor, "A Fire Upon the Deep," will surely be considered classics.

Vinge has all of the tools of a good SF writer: a mastery of science, creativity in projecting future developments, and the grasp of history necessary to make future societies believable. He's also a good writer. He creates credible characters. The good guys have weaknesses and the bad guys a few admirable traits. His scenic descriptions aren't great, but he does succeed occasionally in creating a sense of place for his exotic locales.

But what marks Vinge as great is his logic. Many writers give have their protagonists win either because their opponents are stupid or are implausibly blind to key weaknesses in their position. The baddies in "Deepness" are smart and are constantly a half step ahead of the good guys, which makes for an exciting read. And, in a particularly brilliant touch, Vinge sets up the climax to look like a cheap deus ex machina, and then returns to explain how it all makes complete sense.

Finally, Vinge also plays a neat little game with part of the narrative, making it seem to be from one point of view and then slowly revealing that it is, in fact, from another.

In sum, "Deepness" is not just a good story, but a good book by a talented author who has thought through everything. If you buy it, maybe Vinge can quit his day job and give us more like it.

50 of 52 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A masterpiece that can stand on it's own. January 6, 2000

By Saucy

Format:Hardcover

Any new book by Vinge is a must-read for me, especially in the wasteland of GOOD science-fiction, where great reads are few and far between. A Fire Upon The Deep is still one of my favorites of all time, so when I saw this puppy on the shelf, I grabbed it right away. And despite only a loose link to that book, this is probably some of the best science-fiction I've read in years. At first I was worried that there would be too many recycled ideas, like any first-contact novel. But really this is a book about the limitations of civilizations, whether limited by environment, like the Spiders, or limited by history, like the Qeng Ho and every other human civilization mentioned in the book. And at a broader level, for those who've read A Fire Upon The Deep, it's indirectly about the limits of technology, and the Failed Dreams which the characters could never realize are caused by their location in the galaxy. The book also has a lot to say about cultural blinders and how we perceive others-I also thought the Spiders were too human at first but by the end Vinge patiently and cleverly explained it all. And while a lot of what the book has to say about human nature is very pessimistic (slavery and the inevitable fall of civilizations), it ultimately ends on a positive note. Although lacking the scope and grandeur of the galaxy as protrayed in Fire, this book complements Fire by being more inward-looking, and manages to deliver what most science fiction can't deliver-real, believable people. Buy it! Now! Why are you still here? Go!

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars 5 first contacts for stellar clash of cultures December 28, 1999

By Bill Mac

Format:Hardcover

Vernor Vinge is one of the least prolific writers of the SF genre, yet his small canon contains some of the modern SF masterpieces. His True Names, along with Gibson's Neuromancer, is quite clearly an inspiration for works like The Matrix. Marooned in Real Time is one of the most unique murder mysteries, set during time travel after the disappearance of the entire human race. A Fire Upon the Deep is a masterful space opera and clear successor to the novels of Doc Smith. A Deepness in the Sky is a prequel to A Fire Upon the Deep and is every bit as good as the earlier novels, perhaps even better.

A Deepness in the Sky features one of A Fire Upon the Deep's protagonists, Pham Nuwen. In the first novel, Nuwen briefly mentions his life with the space faring Qeng Ho traders. Deepness features his last and perhaps greatest adventure among the Qeng Ho. Nuwen is just one of many fascinating characters who Vinge has created. Unlike his earlier works, in which only a few characters had depth, Deepness has a large cast of characters and Vinge develops them skillfully. Vinge draws from a pool that he has created by merging the Qeng Ho with the tyrannical Emergents and alien Spiders. In doing so, he has created a massive tour de force and one of the great novels of alien first contact.

A Deepness in the Sky is a long novel (over 600 pages) with several different threads going simultaneously. We are treated to Pham Nuwen and Ezr Vinh of the Qeng Ho and Tomas Nau of the Emergents engaging in plots that are only explained in bits and pieces as the novel progresses. On the Spider side, Vinge features Sherkaner Underhill, his family and his friends.... All the plot lines that feature these characters weave back and forth until converging in a near 100 page climax with twists and turns along the way. I did have some difficulty in keeping with the novel in the earlier passages. It seemed that as soon as I got interested in the Nuwen activities, Vinge would switch to the Spiders. Then as I got interested in the Spiders, he would switch to Ezr Vinh. Perhaps Vinge needs to write a novel like this because of decreasing attention spans but I found that it took more work to get back into it once I had left it.

One of the most fascinating aspects of the novel is the development of the Spiders. They are, well, spiders. It is hard for most people to find spiders particularly attractive or endearing. Many people, myself included, find them repulsive or at least ugly. However, the reader gets attached to these spider characters as much as the human ones, perhaps more so. For much of the novel, the spiders appear to be anthropomorphized. Just when one is lulled into thinking of them as people, Vinge uses terms like "cold sucks" to describe food and "eating hands" or "baby eyes" to describe body parts. The reason for the humanization of the spiders is explained in the novel's denouement but as a plot device it is very effective.

There are some major themes that punctuate this novel. One could easily surmise, for instance, that Vinge is against the widespread use of Ritalin to sedate otherwise healthy children. I find the choice of names for the Qeng Ho and its people fascinating. The names all appear to be Vietnamese or at least south east Asian. On the other hand, these people seem more like the Yankee traders of old. They seem more like Americans than Americans. Is Vinge making a statement about the globalization of American culture and values? Perhaps the greatest message is that free trade and individual freedoms are far more productive and enriching than tyrannies and tightly controlled lives. Perhaps the WTO should consider buying several hundred copies of A Deepness in the Sky and mailing them to the Seattle protesters. Vinge has delivered a powerful statement on the value of capitalism and the importance of individual initiative.

Ultimately, A Deepness in the Sky is a hard science fiction novel in which Vinge describes humanity's first contact with an alien species. It features an insider's knowledge of computer programming without providing details that could be either dated or excessively technical. It has enough action to keep one on the edge of one's seat. In spite of the conclusion of A Fire Upon the Deep, I doubt that we have heard the last of Pham Nuwen and I certainly hope that we hear more from Vernor Vinge. Read more ›