A Fire Upon the Deep: Big-canvas space opera with uninspired plot

A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge

A Fire Upon the Deep (1992) was the big breakout novel from Vernor Vinge, winner of the 1993 Hugo Award and nominated for the Nebula. It features a unique premise I haven’t encountered before: the universe has been separated into four separate Zones of Thought: the Unthinking Depths, Slow Zone, Beyond, and Transcend. Starting from the galactic core, the Zones demarcate differing levels of technological and biological advancement — but this doesn’t simply mean different stages of development. Instead, more advanced technologies cease to function when taken into slower zones, since the laws of physics themselves are different.

This include faster-than-light travel, so FTL ships that travel into slower zones need to also have ramjet drives to avoid losing power. Artificial intelligence also does not work in slower zones, and in the Unthinking Depths near the galactic core only the most primitive biological life forms can survive. Conversely, in the Beyond thousands of advanced alien species reside, linked together by FTL and something called “The Net,” which must have seemed really cutting-edge back in 1992, but is painfully dated now. Finally, the Transcend is where Beyond species go when they have reached a higher level of existence and become super-beings known as “Powers.”

Humanity first began in the Slow Zone on Earth, but later established some civilizations in the Beyond. They are far from the most important species, as it’s a crowded space. One of their research teams ventures from Straumli Realm into the Transcend, where they discover an ancient archive that could grant untold knowledge and riches, or a hidden evil being of terrible power… stop me if you’ve heard this storyline before! This is the opening of a million SF/horror films and books — I just thought Vinge might be able to come up with something more original. But alas, that’s what we get.

The evil superbeing grows at tremendous pace, and chases down and destroys one of the two fleeing human ships, but somehow the remaining one miraculously escapes with a few plucky young survivors, and possibly the key to destroying the ancient superbeing dubbed the Blight. And then they crash-land on a primitive planet named Tine populated by…. telepathic dog packs! The two young protagonists, Jefri and Johanna Olsndot, are captured by rival factions and must find their way back together amidst a struggle for supremacy, while learning the strange alien ways of their hosts.

I know that even the best novel can sound a bit silly when reduced to a brief synopsis. But that’s a pretty accurate description of the opening. Meanwhile, Vinge does a little better with the next group of characters, as we meet Ravna Bergsndot, the only human worker at a galactic communications network hub named Relay. When Relay intercepts a distress signal from the escaped ship of Jefri and Johanna, this draws the attention of one of the Powers from the Transcend dubbed “Old One.” Ravna tracks the distress signal to Tine, and the “Old One” recreates an ancient human named Phan Nuwen to find a way to defeat the Blight. They commission a merchant vessel manned by a wise-cracking outlaw and his Wookie sidekick… just kidding.

The vessel is piloted by the Skroderiders Blueshell and Greenstalk, two intelligent palm fronds that ride specialized wheelchairs to get around. There are some enjoyable interactions between Ravna, the ancient Pham, and the Skroderiders as they seek knowledge about the Blight, its intent (galactic mayhem and domination, of course), and how to potentially stop it. The Blight quickly grows in power, dragging in other races and annihilating worlds as it speeds toward Relay. But wait, let us recall that Tine is located in the Slow Zone, where advanced technologies don’t function. So despite the rapacious advance of the Blight, it cannot exert its full strength in the lower zones.

Sadly, the book bogs down in the extended middle portion as we follow the lives of Jefri and Johanna. We learn a lot about the Tines, who form telepathic packs with high intelligence, but whose members are fairly helpless when separated from the group. Their rival factions operate in a medieval world contested by the Flenserists, Woodcarvers, and Lord Steel. I found the aliens’ social structure interesting, but the rivalries and dialogue were fairly clunky, and the Tines were mostly stereotypical. This part of the book would have fit nicely with a YA SF tale, but really didn’t mesh well with the hard SF story set in space. Granted, this illustrated the vast gulf between the high and low zones, but it still made for an uneven tone. I found myself struggling to maintain interest in this subplot, but I’m aware that other readers liked the Tines and their unusual telepathic pack minds.

Inevitably the story picks up pace as the separate storylines converge on Tine, and there is a drawn-out medieval battle between the Tine factions, while Ravna and Pham and crew rush to reach Tine and unleash a force to destroy the Blight, which is close on their heels. There is a suitably whiz-bang finale (no Ewoks, thank goodness), and the Deathstar is… nevermind. What is lacking is any explanation of why the the galaxy has been divided into Zones of Thought, though clearly this has been done by some force that exceed even the “Powers” of the Transcend, since they too are bound by its rules. Since this is the first book set in this universe, I can understand not wanting to reveal everything, but at least some tantalizing hints would whet the readers’ appetite for more.

In the end, I thought the potential of Vinge’s world-building was vast, but the execution and writing left a lot to be desired. The plot is over-familiar, and the characters are weak despite the author’s best efforts. The audiobook is narrated by Peter Larkin, who has a very amiable reading tone, but felt relentlessly upbeat and would have benefitted from more emotional variation depending on the story tone. There is a follow-up called A Deepness in the Sky, which won the 2000 Hugo Award, but is actually a prequel according to chronology, so I can’t imagine it can shed much light on the origins or creators of the Zones of Thought. A third book called The Children of the Sky came out in 2011 and continues the story of Ravna on Tine, but the reviews I’ve read are fairly negative, so I am reluctant to try it. I’ll at least give A Deepness in the Sky a try.