A Fire Upon the Deep

What A Fire Upon the Deep is about

Vernor Vinge's space opera is set in a galaxy divided into zones of thought, from the Transcend, where superintelligent beings dwell, down to the Unthinking Depths, where only simple minds can function. When a human expedition at High Lab stirs up something it should have left alone, a superintelligence later called the Blight begins to spread.

One fleeing ship carrying children in cold sleep lands on a world of dog-like creatures called Tines, who think as groups and live at roughly medieval technology. The surviving children, Jefri and Johanna, are separated and taken in by rival Tine powers, one of them led by the ruthless Flenserists. Ravna Bergsndot, the only human working at Relay, becomes caught up in the effort to stop the Blight, helped by a being from the Transcend that has reconstituted a man named Pham Nuwen.

The novel won the Hugo Award in 1993. It mixes strange alien societies, tense betrayals, and big questions about intelligence and danger, and it has a direct sequel, The Children of the Sky, and a loose prequel, A Deepness in the Sky.

Questions about A Fire Upon the Deep

When was A Fire Upon the Deep published?

A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge was first published in 1992.

Was A Fire Upon the Deep one of the best books of 1992?

A Fire Upon the Deep is #10 on BookWard's Best Books of 1992, out of 43 1992 books that cleared our data bar. 296 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.3 out of 5 (72 ratings).

Why is A Fire Upon the Deep on the Best Books of 1992 list?

296 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.3 out of 5 (72 ratings).

More of the best books of 1992

• Welcome to Dead House Robert Lawrence Stine, #1
• The Secret History Donna Tartt, #2
• The Indispensable Calvin and Hobbes Bill Watterson, #3
• Snow Crash Neal Stephenson, #4
• The Shadow Rising Robert Jordan, #5
• The Artist's Way Julia Cameron, #6

See the full Best Books of 1992, the Top 100, or new books on Rising.