Review: A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge

3.5 stars.

The good

• Some amazing, huge, reasonably original sci fi ideas. The two that really stand out are zones of thought and group minds:

• The Zones of thought: the galaxy consists of 4 concentric volumes, each with different laws of physics, where as you go further and further out, you have an increasing ability to travel faster (including faster than light AKA FTL), think faster, and build more powerful (artificial) intelligences. The inner-most is the unthinking depths, which is so slow that no intelligent species can live in it. Further out is the slow zone, where the original earth is, which allows intelligence, but doesn’t allow FTL, so the ability to travel fast or create advanced intelligences is limited. Surrounding that is the beyond, which allows FTL and powerful intelligences, so it’s home to countless species that span the galaxy. And further out still is the transcend, which contains incomprehensible, super-intelligent beings called the powers who have “transcended.” Beings from higher zones usually can’t go into lower zones (as it reduces their intelligence); moreover, if you drop from the beyond into the slow zone, you lose FTL, and may get stuck. I love the idea that the borders of the zones move all the time, so traveling in the lower beyond, for example, is super risky, as you may get trapped (so many ships have Bussar Ramjets and cold sleep as a backup system to get them back out of the slow zone, but at the cost of hundreds or thousands of years of slower-than-FTL travel).

• Group minds: the Tines are a species of dog-like creatures where individual members are no smarter than dogs on earth, but as they are able to communicate very rapidly via short-range ultrasonic waves, when they get together into groups of 5-6, they are able to operate as a single being with intelligence similar to a human. I loved the image of these dogs operating machinery, such as a bow and arrow, in groups of 5-6 that are so perfectly coordinated, that they seem to function as a pair of hands. And the idea that the groups are able to replace individual members as a way to maintain and/or evolve the overall “soul,” is brilliant.

• Moderately interesting characters, especially amongst the Tines.

• The ending was fairly satisfying.

The not so good

• I wasn’t a fan of the writing. Quite frankly, I found it slightly confusing at times, and had to re-read many sections to catch up.

• The plot felt oddly convoluted.

• The human characters mostly felt flat and uninteresting.

• Falls into a classic trap: introduces characters that are supposed to be ultra, mega, incomprehensibly intelligent… But of course, they can be no smarter than the author… And so in reality, none of those characters seem to do anything impressively smart. In fact, they seem to get outsmarted by humans.

Rating: 3 stars