Vernor Vinge

Alternate Cover Edition can be found here. A Fire upon the Deep is the big, breakout book that fulfills the promise of Vinge's career to date: a gripping tale of galactic war told on a cosmic scale. Thousands of years hence, many races inhabit a universe where a mind's potential is determined by its location in space, from superintelligent entities in the Transcend, to the limited minds of the Unthinking Depths, where only simple creatures and technology can function. Nobody knows what strange force partitioned space into these "regions of thought," but when the warring Straumli realm use an ancient Transcendent artifact as a weapon, they unwittingly unleash an awesome power that destroys thousands of worlds and enslaves all natural and artificial intelligence. Fleeing the threat, a family of scientists, including two children, are taken captive by the Tines, an alien race with a harsh medieval culture, and used as pawns in a ruthless power struggle. A rescue mission, not entirely composed of humans, must rescue the children-and a secret that may save the rest of interstellar civilization.

Robert Gu is a recovering Alzheimer's patient. The world that he remembers was much as we know it today. Now, as he regains his faculties through a cure developed during the years of his near-fatal decline, he discovers that the world has changed and so has his place in it. He was a world-renowned poet. Now he is seventy-five years old, though by a medical miracle he looks much younger, and he’s starting over, for the first time unsure of his poetic gifts. Living with his son’s family, he has no choice but to learn how to cope with a new information age in which the virtual and the real are a seamless continuum, layers of reality built on digital views seen by a single person or millions, depending on your choice. But the consensus reality of the digital world is available only if, like his thirteen-year-old granddaughter Miri, you know how to wear your wireless access—through nodes designed into smart clothes—and to see the digital context—through smart contact lenses. With knowledge comes risk. When Robert begins to re-train at Fairmont High, learning with other older people what is second nature to Miri and other teens at school, he unwittingly becomes part of a wide-ranging conspiracy to use technology as a tool for world domination. In a world where every computer chip has Homeland Security built-in, this conspiracy is something that baffles even the most sophisticated security analysts, including Robert’s son and daughter-in law, two top people in the U.S. military. And even Miri, in her attempts to protect her grandfather, may be entangled in the plot. As Robert becomes more deeply involved in conspiracy, he is shocked to learn of a radical change planned for the UCSD Geisel Library; all the books there, and worldwide, would cease to physically exist. He and his fellow re-trainees feel compelled to join protests against the change. With forces around the world converging on San Diego, both the conspiracy and the protest climax in a spectacular moment as unique and satisfying as it is unexpected.

The prequel to A Fire Upon The Deep, this is the story of Pham Nuwen, a small cog in the interstellar trading fleet of the Queng Ho. The Queng Ho and the Emergents are orbiting the dormant planet Arachna, which is about to wake up to technology, but the Emergents' plans are sinister.

Cel mai ingenios space opera al anilor ‘90, castigator al Premiului Hugo. La mii de ani in viitor, mai multe rase populeaza un univers in care potentialul unei minti este dat de locul ei in spatiu, de la entitati superinteligente de la marginea galaxiilor pana la mintile limitate din mijlocul lor, acolo unde nu poate functiona decat o tehnologie simpla. Nimeni nu cunoaste motivul pentru aceasta impartire ciudata a spatiului in „Zone Ganditoare“ si „Adancuri Neganditoare“, dar atunci cand oamenii de stiinta din Domeniul Straumli incearca sa trezeasca la viata un artefact vechi din Transcendent, ei elibereaza fara sa stie o putere atat de monstruoasa, incat mii de lumi sunt in pericol. Fugind de amenintare, o familie de cercetatori naufragiaza pe Planeta Stiletelor din Zona Lenta, unde o rasa cu o cultura medievala dura se afla in mijlocul unei lupte sangeroase pentru putere. O misiune contracronometru trebuie sa recupereze copiii familiei si un secret care ar putea fi salvarea tuturor celorlalte civilizatii din spatiu.

Since his first published story, "Apartness," appeared in 1965, Vernor Vinge has forged a unique and awe-inspiring career in science fiction as his work has grown and matured. He is now one of the most celebrated science fiction writers in the field , having won the field's top award, the Hugo, for each of his last two novels. Now, for the first time, this illustrious author gathers all his short fiction into a single volume. This collection is truly the definitive Vinge, capturing his visionary ideas at their very best. It also contains a never-before-published novella, one that represents precisely what this collection encapsulates--bold, unique, challenging science fictional ideas brought to vivid life with compelling storytelling. Including such major pieces as "The Ungoverned" and "The Blabber," this sumptuous volume will satisfy any reader who loves the sense of wonder, and the excitement of great SF. The volume collects Vinge's short fiction through 2001 (except "True Names", including Vinge's comments from the earlier two volumes.) Contents: "Bookworm, Run!" "The Accomplice" "The Peddler's Apprentice" (with Joan D. Vinge) "The Ungoverned" "Long Shot" "Apartness" "Conquest by Default" "The Whirligig of Time" "Bomb Scare" "The Science Fair" "Gemstone" "Just Peace" (with William Rupp) "Original Sin" "The Blabber" "Win A Nobel Prize!" (originally published in Nature, Vol 407 No 6805 "Futures") "The Barbarian Princess" (this is also the first section of "Tatja Grimm's World") "Fast Times at Fairmont High" (occurs in the same milieu as Rainbows End) (winner 2002 Hugo Award for Best Novella)