A Fire Upon the Deep
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| Author | Vernor Vinge |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Tor Books |
| Released | April 1992 |
A Fire Upon the Deep (1992) is a science fiction novel written by Vernor Vinge. It combines superhuman intelligences, well-developed and believable aliens, variable physics, space battles, love, betrayal, genocide, Usenet, and more into an exceptional space opera. A Fire Upon the Deep won the Hugo Award in 1993 (tied with Doomsday Book by Connie Willis).
Besides the normal print editions, the novel was included on a CD-ROM sold by ClariNet Communications along with the other nominees for the 1993 Hugo awards. The CD-ROM edition included numerous annotations by the author that reveal his thoughts and intentions about different parts of the book.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
Two major plotlines exist in the Fire, triggered by the revival of a malevolent quasi-Power known as the Blight. Accidentally reconstituted by human explorers from instructions they found in an ancient library in the Low Transcend, this intelligence is able to infiltrate and control computer systems and biological beings, quickly infecting and taking over whole civilizations in the High Beyond.
With some understanding of what they have unleashed, a few humans escape from the research colony before the Blight regains its full capabilities and absorbs it. They travel to the edge of the Slow Zone, where the Blight has difficulty operating. They take with them some semi-living information about their enemy (later labeled Countermeasure) from the library, though they do not know what to do with it.
They land their sleeper ship, with a cargo of children in suspended animation, on a planet with a medieval civilization of dog-like creatures (the Tines) who exist as small packs of individuals. Each individual consciousness is generated by the "marriage" or enlistment of several Tines, who coordinate their thoughts via high-frequency sound. A single one is about as smart as a clever dog; two to three can think as well as a young human child; four to six is the standard; packs that are much larger rapidly degrade into incoherence, though a pack of eight is not unheard of. Other configurations are possible for specialized roles. Examples include long sentry lines and garrisoned slave teams.
The human adults quickly fall victim to a long-lived conflict between two Tine nations who fight over the ship. The closer group ambushes and kills the human adults. The other group is led by the Woodcarver, so named for the artistic talent that first made her (sexual identity amongst mixed-gender packs being determined by majority) famous. They are helped to develop cannon and other technology by a young human girl survivor with the assistance of an educational databank. The other group, led by Lord Steel in the absence of the much-feared Flenser (so named for his cruel research on other Tines), develops radio and cannon with the help of her younger brother and his communications with the outside world through the ship, as well as a well–placed spy in Woodcarver's camp. Each sibling is unaware of the other's survival and alliance with opposing groups.
Meanwhile, a woman, Ravna Bergsndot, is working as the only human intern at Relay, a vast, wealthy communication and information provider in the Middle Beyond that serves a significant portion of the galaxy. A friendly Power called "Old One" makes contact, seeking information about the Blight. It reconstructs a seemingly human man, Pham Nuwen, from a frozen body collected by a Slow Zone probe and stockpiled at Relay (along with parts from other bodies) and infuses him with some memory of his former life, to act as its remote agent.
Relay and Old One fall victim to a surprise attack by the Blight. Before Old One is killed, it downloads as much of itself as can fit into Pham, providing him with subconscious instructions to activate Countermeasure. During the attack, Pham and Ravna are in the company of Blueshell and Greenstalk, intelligent aquatic plants known as Skroderiders, who use sophisticated personal vehicles to enhance both their mobility and cognitive capabilities. All four escape Relay's destruction in the Skroderiders' starship, which had previously been chartered and equipped to rescue the human refugees. They then follow Jefri's signal to the Tines' planet. While en route, they narrowly escape an alliance of anti-human military fleets, which not only know that humans are responsible for the Blight's reanimation, but also suspect that they might be acting as its agents.
After allying with Woodcarver and defeating Steel, Pham initiates Countermeasure, a nanotechnological fungus-like substance/device. Countermeasure, or possibly another intelligence contacted by Countermeasure that is even more advanced than the Powers, drastically alters the boundaries of the zones of thought in that sector of the galaxy. This results in the boundaries of the Slow Zone being moved far enough out to envelop and destroy the Blight; however, this also kills Pham and strands the humans on Tines' World in the depths of the Slow Zone. It is also implied that this event thrusts thousands of uninvolved civilizations into an environment where much of their technology no longer works, a situation analogous to an Earth where electricity ceases to exist.
[edit] Major themes
[edit] The zones of thought
Vinge has often expressed an opinion that realistic fiction set after the development of superhuman intelligence — an event that he calls the Singularity and considers all but inevitable — would necessarily be too strange for a human reader to enjoy, if not impossible for a human writer to create. To sidestep the issue, he turns the Singularity sideways from time into space, postulating that the galaxy has been divided (possibly by some unknown super-technology in the distant past) into "zones of thought":
- The Unthinking Depths is the lowest level, containing the galactic core. Even the simplest organic or machine intelligences function poorly, if at all. Space travel is nearly impossible, basically requiring big, dumb vessels with neolithic automation and massive redundancy. These properties make actual exploration of this zone problematic.
- The Slow Zone is the next layer. FTL travel and communications do not function, dependent as they are on some physical property of the universe which changes abruptly at the boundary between the Beyond and the Slow Zone. Intelligence above the level of human-equivalent is not possible. Molecular nanotechnology also doesn't function well, if at all. Earth is deep within the Slow Zone.
- The Beyond is where the majority of the action takes place in A Fire Upon the Deep. FTL travel and communication are possible, though the latter can be prohibitively expensive, often requiring planet-sized transceiver arrays. Antigravity and mind-machine interfaces, along with many other technological advances, work in the Beyond. The limits to organic and machine intelligence vary smoothly from the boundary of the Slow Zone (the "Bottom of Beyond") to that of the Transcend (the "Top").
- The Transcend is where super-intelligences known as Powers reside. Here there are no limits on nanotechnology, FTL travel is very fast (relative to the Beyond), FTL communications bandwidth is cheap, and there are no limits to organic or machine intelligences or meldings between the two. Indeed, each of the Powers is a single consciousness created from an entire civilization. The Powers have passed through the technological singularity and their behavior is usually beyond human comprehension. They routinely create intelligent species from scratch, build Dyson Spheres, and in general perform near-miraculous feats of engineering on scales both atomic and cosmic. They regard involvement in the affairs of races in the Beyond in much the same way that humans would care about the competition for Alpha Male status amongst a pack of wild animals.
At the same time, Vinge implies that the Transcend can be dangerous for the inexperienced or incautious since, because organic and machine intelligence are so closely linked and interchangeable, computer viruses can literally infect organic minds.
[edit] Trivia
A prequel to this book was subsequently written, A Deepness in the Sky, set twenty thousand years earlier in the "Slow Zone" near Earth, detailing the earlier adventures of Pham Nuwen.
The name "Lord Steel" suggests Josef Stalin (Russian сталь (stal) means steel; –ин (–in) is an adjectival suffix), as do many of the Flenserist society's names, mores and structures.
Several subtle references to computer science are found in the book. For example, at one point Woodcarver mentions that a particular arrangement of the parliament chamber was strangely effective — the arrangement resembles a hypercube.
The name of the starship Lynsnar is a liberal composite of the two Norwegian words lyn (noun for lightning, or adjective form of fast) and snar (fast). Many other names have a Norwegian sound to them. Arne is a common Norwegian male name. Most of the humans' surnames have the suffix -sndot, suggestive of a blending of the common Scandinavian -son (or -sen) and -dottir; this form may have developed during the "Age of Princesses" on Nyjora, the Slow Zone world from which humans reached the Beyond. Vinge writes in the foreword that he was partly inspired to write the book by a visit to Tromsø, a town in the arctic region of Norway.
[edit] See also
[edit] Awards and nominations
- Hugo Award Winner of Best Novel 1993 (tied with Doomsday Book by Connie Willis)
[edit] Release details
- 1992, United States of America, Tor Books, ISBN 0312851820, Pub date April 1992, Hardback
- 1993, United States of America, Tor Books, ISBN 0812515285, Pub date February 1993, Paperback
[edit] Sources, references, external links, quotations
- A Fire Upon the Deep publication history at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Review by Danny Yee
- Review by Russ Allberyzh:深渊上的火
