A Deepness in the Sky

Vernor Vinge

Apr 2007 · Zones of Thought Book 2 · Sold by Macmillan

About this ebook

Tor Essentials presents new editions of science fiction and fantasy titles of proven merit and lasting value, each volume introduced by an appropriate literary figure.

After thousands of years of searching, humans stand on the verge of first contact with an alien race. Two human groups: the Qeng Ho, a culture of free, innovative traders, and the Emergents, a ruthless society based on the technological enslavement of minds.

The group that opens trade with the aliens will reap unimaginable riches. But first, both groups must wait at the aliens' very doorstep, for their strange star to relight and for the alien planet to reawaken, as it does every two hundred and fifteen years...

Amidst terrible treachery, the Qeng Ho must fight for their freedom and for the lives of the unsuspecting innocents on the planet below, while the aliens themselves play a role unsuspected by Qeng Ho and Emergents alike.

More than just a great science fiction adventure, A Deepness In the Sky is a universal drama of courage, self-discovery, and the redemptive power of love.

This new Tor Essentials edition of Vernor Vinge's A Deepness In the Sky includes an introduction by the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award-winning Jo Walton, author of Among Others.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Ratings and reviews

And good read that captivates early but loses momentum until by the end you simply read to get to the conclusion. I feel the author got too caught up in minor character sub stories and that he tried too hard to make the spider aliens have human characteristics. He explains too much and this fictional book wrings away reader imagination and leaves a textbook feel. Never get attached to any one character as the story jumps about between a dozen different characters. An odd conclusion without sentiment

Over the course of telling an enthralling story (and making a great many thought-inducing observations and predictions over the course), Vinge plays the same cognitive tricks on the reader as his characters. This is one of the few novels I've kept through two moves and a major library purge, good for many rereads.

It's difficult for me to imagine how non-computer programmers see this book. As a programmer, I was thrilled by the clever uses of cryptography and computer security as themes. Would your average reader find these elements as interesting? Ignorable? Distracting? I don't know. What I do know is that this story combines a truly original alien race and society with a deeply plausible interstellar mercantile power-structure and that's really just the setting. The individual dramas are compelling; the action is gripping; and the science fiction is a plausible extrapolation which still manages to present a number of insightful leaps. As with all of Vinge's science fiction, the focus is not on the shiny tech toys, but on the consequences that they bring to the societies and even races that create and make use of them. For this, Vinge earns a seat at the table of science fiction authors who are not bounded by the limitations of their genre.

About the author

Vernor Vinge has won five Hugo Awards, two of them for novels in the Zones of Thought series, A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky. Known for his rigorous hard-science approach to science fiction, he became an iconic figure among cybernetic scientists with the publication in 1981 of his novella “True Names,” which is considered a seminal, visionary work of Internet fiction. His many novels also include Marooned in Realtime, Rainbows End and The Peace War.