A Fire Upon the Deep, by Vernor Vinge

Fantastic,fantastic book. The first really original science fiction that I’ve read in some time. At least two ideas in it that I’ve never seen anywhere else. The ending is a bit of a jumble, but not terrible.

Highly recommended.

8 comments

  1. This was one of my favourite SF books. The other 2 books/series that I enjoyed following included:

    * Richard Morgan – Altered Carbon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altered_Carbon
    * Peter F Hamilton – The Commonwealth Saga including Pandora’s Star & Judas Unchained.

    Highly recommended.

    • Hamilton is a fun author but he can’t write a short book or one not in a series to save his life. In order to read the Commonwealth Saga, you have to read four HUGE books. Enjoyable but I gave up after the first two. 🙂

      • I’m not digging the Void series as much as The Commonwealth saga. Between this and Alastair Reynolds Revelation Space they are 2 of the longer series I’ve tried to work through.

  2. ditto. bought this a couple of years ago and it remains one of my favourite SciFi books too.

  3. glad you liked it! It’s one of my all-time favorites. A Deepness in the Sky is also excellent and I liked the Peace War books too.

    • I’m stuck about halfway through Deepness. Great, too, but a little slow in the middle. Will get back to it soon.

      • Scott Putterman

        I actually liked A Deepness in the Sky more than A Fire Upon the Deep. Probably one of my favorite sci-fi books in a long time.

        • Scott,

          Yep, I made a mistake – A Deepness in the Sky is a much better book than a Fire Upon the Deep. Fire is a very innovative book but didn’t have the depth of character or the pacing that is so engaging. Fire did have a lot of novel ideas including the pack mind. But Deepness was definitely a more engaging, approachable and enjoyable read.