Customer Reviews

The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge

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My introduction to Vernor Vinge was "A Fire Upon the Deep," the novel that finally won him the long awaited Hugo award. With that and "A Deepness in the Sky" as an introduction, I was a little surprised to discover that Vernor Vinge was also once a beginning writer, just like the rest of us.

This collection of short stories is interesting both for the stories themselves and for the way they chart a truly excellent writer's evolution. The first few stories are amateurish and awkward. Very soon, they improve in both content and style. I ended up buying several of the books that grew out of the short stories included in this collection, and they were even better than the stories that inspired them.

I really enjoyed this collection of stories. Mostly, I was just pleased to realize that even someone who is as mind-blowingly intelligent and skilled as Vinge did not spring full-formed from his father's forehead, but developed incrementally into the writer he is today. I especially recommend this book to aspiring writers as inspiration.

_The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge_ is a wonderful compilation of most of Vinge's short stories and novellas (there are only two omissions, _True Names_ and _Grimm's Story_, the latter of which became the core of one of his novels, _Tatja Grimm's World_). The short stories range in dates from the very first stories he ever had published, such as _Bookworm, Run!_, copyright 1966 and written while Vinge was a senior in high school, to one written just for this collection, _Fast Times at Fairmont High_, copyright 2001. They range in length from the 900 word story _Win a Nobel Prize!_ to the novella length _Blabber_, though most range somewhere in between. All told there are seventeen stories in this collection, two of which were collaborations (_The Peddler's Apprentice_ was written with Joan D. Vinge and _Just Peace_ was a joint effort with William Rupp).

I really enjoyed the collection, there weren't any stories that I disliked and some were extremely good. His earlier stories, notably _Bookworm, Run!_, were a bit rougher, not as well done as later stories (which is understandable) but even those I liked.

There were several themes explored in his stories, many of them noted by Vinge himself as a foreword and in several cases an after word accompanied each story, where Vinge discussed where he was in his writing career at that time, inspirations for the story, earlier versions of the story, how well he felt that tale has held up to the test of time, and whether or nor he planned (or plans) to further develop the characters or the setting. He revealed for instance in his commentary on _The Blabber_ that that story was both the sequel to the novels _A Fire Upon the Deep_ and _A Deepness in the Sky_ and at the same time a prequel, as he wrote _The Blabber_ first.

Several of the stories were a bit dated, dealing with computer technology that has since become obsolete or with Cold War situations (or with post-World War III scenarios, which one can debate whether or not these settings are obsolete), though they were nonetheless well done fiction.

One of the themes explored by Vinge was the concept of the Technological Singularity or simply the Singularity, a problem he ran into as far back as his story _Bookworm, Run!_. Vinge felt that eventually thanks to biological evolution and to advances in technology future humanity will surpass current humans in terms of intellectual ability. Such superbeings would be nearly impossible to write about, that at that point human history will have reached a point that is impossible for modern humans to imagine, a "place where extrapolation" breaks down, a world that will be beyond our understanding. Such superbeings should be kept off stage, hinted at, perhaps only dealt with when they are children or otherwise weakened if at all. His coming to terms with the Singularity was behind the development of the various galactic zones of mental abilities and technologies (the Zones of Thought) in his critically acclaimed _A Fire Upon the Deep_ and _A Deepness in the Sky_ and in this volume _The Blabber_, behind the concept of the Slow Zone, a region of the galaxy where faster than light travel for instance was not possible and where superhuman intelligences could not function at greater than human levels, a region where one could set far future stories, have superhuman intelligences hinted at, but avoid going into realms that were "overtly science-fictional" or even fantasy.

Another concept that Vinge explored was the idea of anarchy, as both a model of future human society and as one that alien beings might follow. _Conquest by Default_ examined how an anarchical system might exist within an alien society (and what would happen when this technologically and numerically superior civilization arrived on Earth) while _The Ungoverned_ (a short story set between two other novels of his, _The Peace War_ and _Marooned in Realtime_, all of which can be found together by the way in the book _Across Realtime_) looked at how such a (largely peaceful) system might arise in a post World War III America. In both stories Vinge explored what set of assumptions exist for why the participants cooperate at all in such a system as well as what exists to prevent the formation of power groups that would be large enough to in effect constitute a government. While I don't agree with anarchy in any form, both stories were entertaining, with the aliens in _Conquest by Default_ quite alien indeed.

Several stories obviously dealt with aliens, from the anarchic Mikin in _Conquest by Default_ to the charming, funny, titular creature in _The Blabber_ to the frightening super race known as the Shimans in _Original Sin_. Vinge in my mind has always done an excellent job in constructing believable, interesting, and original alien species and civilizations.

In closing this was an enjoyable collection, one that provided a lot of insight into Vinge's creative process and thoughts behind his stories, providing more details on some of his novels, and was useful I think to budding writers, illustrating things to do and not do in writing fiction (and selling it too). Hard to pick a favorite story, but I loved _The Blabber_ a lot, greatly enjoyed _Gemstone_ (a very atmospheric tale, to say anything about it would spoil it), and I also liked _Conquest by Default_ and _Original Sin_ a great deal as well. _Fast Times At Fairmont High_ I feel will likely prove very prophetic on many levels and enjoyed that one for that reason as well as it being good fiction.

It's no secret that Vernor Vinge is an accomplished novelist (Need proof? He's won Hugo Awards for each of his last two novels). But how is he at short fiction? This is the question I was asking myself when I picked up this volume. I've read and greatly enjoyed all of his novels (save the fix-up effort 'Tatja Grimm's World), but haven't read (or even heard) of any of his shorter works.

I was by and large satisfied with this collection of short fiction. While there are no excellent stories here, neither are there any bottom-dwellers. Many of the stories take place in the settings of Vinge's novels. 'The Ungoverned' takes place after the events in his 'Peace War' series. 'The Blabber' fits into his Deepness duology. 'The Barbarian Princess' is part of the Grimm's World book. But the stories that don't fit into Vinge's novels share many of the same ideas and themes. Many, if not all, of the stories posit a Technological Singularity, an occurence that is featured prominently in nearly all of Vinge's work.

My favorite story is 'Original Sin' a fascinating and evocative depiction of an alien society. The sole story original to the collecton, novella 'Fast Times at Fairmont High' is an enjoyable depiction of a future junior high school.

None of the stories in the collection have the depth or Importance of Vinge's award-winning novels, but nearly every story is compulsively readable and entertaining. This is a fine addition to the Vinge completist's book shelf.

I had read Vinge's Zones of Thought novels "A Fire Upon the Deep" and "A Deepness in the Sky" before getting this. These two novels were vast, intricately plotted stories. Vinge does well to flesh out the characters and ideas in the relatively short stories of this book. It surprised me to learn he has been writing short fiction since his teens. One of the fascinating parts of reading this collection is seeing his writing style develop, although it was never too shabby in the first place.

These stories were written over the last 30+ years, and his style varies from the classic Asimov-like tone of 60's sci-fi to one with more than a nod towards fast-talking cyberpunk. I found them all enjoyable in their own way - his speculative treatment of computer animation from the 60's is quaint, while "Fast Times" ended a bit abruptly just as it was getting interesting (it's being turned into a novel). The writing is never boring, and more often than not inspired - one of the better books I've read of late.

Vernor Vinge is a stalwart of the Science Fiction community and a retired mathematics professor, so I decided to explore his writing with his Collected Stories. I was not disappointed. The entire book is filled with interesting explorations, more than just stories. I really enjoyed the recurring theme of Artificial Intelligence that runs through his work and it wasn't until after I read this volume that I discovered that he's done significant work in the field of technological singularities, arguing that technological advancements are perpetuating and moving at a rate resulting in a situation where the prediction of future inventions and the state of the world become near-impossibilities.

In particular I liked his stories dealing with futures and anarchist themes, with the best being The Ungoverned followed by a bizarre karma story, The Whirligig of Time where ruling aristocrats get their comeuppance. Another future story, Apartness was incredible for its world building and post-apocalyptic future where a settlement in Antarctica provides some answers.

I highly recommend Fast Times at Farimont High for anyone with children because we're not far from this level of school projects, given the technology children have access to.

None of the stories are bad, but I'm only giving the collection 4 stars because the quality is a bit uneven. That's to be expected from a career-long collection. The following is the list of stories you'll find in the volume:

"Bookworm, Run!"
The Accomplice
The Peddler's Apprentice
The Ungoverned
Long Shot
Apartness
Conquest by Default
The Whirligig of Time
Bomb Scare
The Science Fair
Gemstone
Just Peace
Original Sin
The Blabber
Win a Nobel Prize!
The Barbarian Princess
Fast Times at Fairmont High

- CV Rick

Despite reading SF for over 30 years, I only encountered V.V's works in the past year because he had received major awards. I was impressed but could not understand how he had achieved such levels of proficiency. This collection with an almost Asimovian set of chatty and personal introductions helps lay out the map. Strongly recommended.

Vernor Vinge has won several wards for his novels (A DEEPNESS IN THE SKY), and over the last three and a half decades has also produced some of the best science fiction short stories. THE COLLECTED STORIES OF VERNOR VINGE provides most of the author's short stories plus a novella, FAST TIMES AT FAIRMONT HIGH. Most of the tales are well written furbishing the reader with provocative concepts though many of those from before the fall of the Wall seem more alternate history in nature. The added bonus of Mr. Vinge's commentary to most of the contributions provides readers with insight to the author's philosophy. Fans of science fiction anthologies that induce deep postulating on the part of the reader will enjoy this collection, but it is best savored over a couple of weeks.

Harriet Klausner

The print quality in this edition is dreadful. It looks like a third-generation Xerox copy. It's printed on low-quality paper as well.

Just a heads up to potential buyers: The print quality in this edition is quite poor. It looks like an old 300 dot-per-inch laser printer on newsprint paper. You might be better off with a different edition or story collection.

The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge is an excellent, mostly thematic group of short stories by the author including his earliest. As a big fan, it's interesting to note the progression of his craft, his story-telling ability, over the years.
The other surprise was how many of the stories were similar in theme, especially with his later popular novels like Deepness and Marooned in Realtime.
An excellent read in small doses.