A Fire Upon the Deep

By: Vernor Vinge

Narrated by: Peter Larkin

Length: 21 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

A Fire Upon the Deep is the big, breakout book that fulfills the promise of Vinge's career to date: a gripping tale of galactic war told on a cosmic scale. Thousands of years hence, many races inhabit a universe where a mind's potential is determined by its location in space, from superintelligent entities in the Transcend, to the limited minds of the Unthinking Depths, where only simple creatures and technology can function.

Nobody knows what strange force partitioned space into these "regions of thought", but when the warring Straumli realm use an ancient Transcendent artifact as a weapon, they unwittingly unleash an awesome power that destroys thousands of worlds and enslaves all natural and artificial intelligence.

Fleeing the threat, a family of scientists, including two children, are taken captive by the Tines, an alien race with a harsh medieval culture, and used as pawns in a ruthless power struggle. A rescue mission, not entirely composed of humans, must rescue the children-and a secret that may save the rest of interstellar civilization.

A Fire upon the Deep, which began the Zones of Thought series, is the winner of the 1993 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

©1992 Vernor Vinge (P)2010 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

• Hugo Award, Best Novel, 1993

Truly creative

It is rare that a book with such deep, unique creativity is still easily accessible and enjoyable to listen to. The structure of the novel is traditional but characters and approach to themes are novel even for the sci-fi genre. The narrator has a pleasing timbre but lacks a variation for child and female voices. All in this is a great value of a listen.

A book that will leave you asking why

I am positive that there is an audience for this book. Perhaps I am not it. However if you like your Sci fi to have some logic behind it then give this one a pass. Too often I found myself asking the question of why. Why is the galaxy like this? Why would the characters do that? Why does the plot need so much finger waiving to explain things?

Good ideas here, but not enough to carry the story

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I enjoyed the space opera side of this story, but not the medieval side. I found myself dreading when the story would come back to the Tine world thread. Many novel thoughts within this story, but not enough to carry it for me. I give one more star to the ideas than I would otherwise to the story proper.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

More space opera and less Tine story line. And to be honest, not a lot of excitement in the journey. I wanted to like this story more, but just couldn't. Still, the ideas and the narrator took me to the end, which is further than they would have without Peter Larkin.

Any additional comments?

I had never listened to Peter Larkin before, but will wholeheartedly do so again. He was great. Had this story been by a narrator I thought less of, I probably would have given up about halfway through...

epic!

what a great book love the authors way with words and his interpretation of what the future may hold. very smart, thought provoking and theological/philosophical stuff. great character development and voice acting and what an epic scale!

Felt like a middle-school read

I think it was the Tines' world that put me off. I expected mature science fiction, and found myself in a story about kids and dogs and "puppies and stuff." Yes, there were interesting ideas--the zones of thought, pack-minds, "powers," etc.--but I just felt the whole thing to be too light for my tastes. Not that it's bad, just not what I expected. Don't think I'll be continuing the series.

Pleasant but not amazing

Narration was solid throughout. Definitely dragged at times, but I was still able to finish. Some interesting ideas were put together, but just didn't fall in love with the characters and story.

Could Vinge be from the beyond? I wonder?

So a little hard to get started when i had my cousins book ..BUT that is not the case when someone read it to me thank you Mr Larkin. So i love sifi star trek star wars all that stuff this is soooo far from not im not even sure if i comprehend just how far. If you are intrigued by this type of thing i can say it all will be fascinating a lot you might not comprehend but by the end you will be like "ok i see" or "i get it" and that's the thing what i put for a title. Mr. Vinge how is the man able to tell such detailed store of this kind with such detailed creatures yet he can, he did. hum i wonder? thank you Sir (power) Vinge Note: that one star was just cuss of the diff stuff my slow zone brain could comprehend stuff like this for a normal slow zoner would be dumb down doomed im like 1000 year born to early really sooo

Simply Epic

Excellent story, and masterfully executed by the narrator. The narrator was able to bring the story to life. Not to be missed for SciFi fans.

great sci-fi

great story, mediocre writing. the reader's voice kind of bugged me but it was compelling enough to finish anyway.

Brilliant fantasy with hints of sci-fi

Absolutely brilliant story, very thought-engaging, twists and full of action. Strong fantasy universe linked together with sci-fi events.
Not the biggest fan of the narrator but still good.