Just Finished Reading A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge

I was rummaging through a pile of stuff in the house when I came across a science fiction novel by Vernor Vinge that belongs to my son.  Upon further investigation into this author, I discovered that he has written a science fiction series titled Zones of Thought.  I got a copy of the first book, titled A Fire Upon the Deep, and just finished reading it...

One thing about science fiction that is often considerably different from more reality-based genres like mystery, crime, war, or romance is that the "world" that the author has introduced, along with the technology within it, involves an extensive use of new terminology and concepts.  This can make sci fi reading a bit cumbersome at the beginning of a story as the reader struggles to understand what the heck is going on.  A Fire Upon the Deep is no exception, with its own computer lingo and Vinge's idea of a galaxy divided into four different zones that affect attainable velocity and consciousness.  Since he didn't explain everything up front at the beginning, I had to just read on in faith until I could start to make sense of the scenario.  Once I did, though, it turned out to be a pretty good tale...and with well-developed characters who brought out the feelings of empathy, sympathy...and sometimes antipathy...that made them believable and memorable.

Three situations drive the plot in A Fire Upon the Deep.  One is the accidental reactivation, by human explorers, of a long-dormant, malevolent transcendant entity that threatens the very existence of life in the galaxy.  Another is the stranded party of people fleeing this Blight, as it has come to be called, as they struggle to survive around their adopted planet's dominant life form: the Tines.  And the third centers on an unlikely foursome as they race through space to rescue the survivors and recover from that group's grounded spaceship what may be the only thing that can stop the Blight...

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of A Fire Upon the Deep, besides those four galactic zones, is how Vinge studies the concept of group identity and consciousness through the civilization of the dog-like Tines.  I was also impressed with his unpretentious writing style...this made it much easier to grasp the mind-stretching ideas he was introducing into his story...

So now I'm hooked on another series.  A Fire Upon the Deep came out in 1992.  The next book, A Deepness in the Sky (1999), is said to be a prequel to the first book.  And Book Three of the series, the last one to be published, was only released in 2011.  So Vernor Vinge's Zones of Thought project isn't exactly one that I should sit around awaiting the next installment: he took 12 years to get around to the last one...