The landing is successful, but the Olsndots are attacked by the local inhabitants, intelligent, doglike creatures each made up of 4 or more single entities sharing a group mind. They are going to try landing on a planet, but they want to be together one last time just in case it doesn’t work. While most of the kids remain oblivious in a state of coldsleep, Jefri and Johanna Olsndot are awakened by their parents, the ship’s pilots. One ship is destroyed by this new Power they helped create, but another ship containing the children manages to escape. However, the archivists soon came to suspect they are in danger and prepare to leave under the pretense that it’s just a perfectly normal departure. In the process, they awaken a sentient being that attempts to keep the humans in the dark about its existence. Those who found it moved themselves and their families in order to study it further, with hopes of becoming knowledgeable and rich.
The story begins with a discovery that drives the rest of the plot – an ancient archive brimming with secret knowledge. However, if you’re afraid of spoilers skip past the horizontal line. In anticipation of the sequel, A Fire Upon the Deep will be re-released in trade paperback in August, and it is easy to find in mass market paperback now (it is also available as an e-book, but if you glance through review headlines on Amazon it appears that the Kindle edition at least leaves something to be desired).Įven though the description below is quite possibly the longest plot description I have ever written, A Fire Upon the Deep is a complicated book and what’s below only talks about the setup for the main plot and the two different subplots. In October of this year the sequel, Children of the Sky, will be released nearly 20 years after A Fire Upon the Deep first came out. There is a prequel to this science fiction novel called A Deepness in the Sky that also won quite a few awards for speculative fiction books, including the Hugo Award. (Coincidentally, The Book Smugglers just reviewed Doomsday Book today if you want to read about the other Hugo winner for the year.) It was also nominated for several other awards such as the Nebula Award, the Campbell Award, and the Locus SF Award.
A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge tied with Doomsday Book by Connie Willis as the winner of the Hugo Award in 1993.
0 kommentar(er)
