A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge

 

A Fire Upon the Deep is a space opera written by Vernor Vinge in 1992. It won the Hugo Award in 1993 and is about the dangers of God-like AI and the singularity. It has amazing world building and is one of the first to tackle the issue of misinformation on the internet. 

To understand A Fire Upon the Deep, you first must understand the setting. Vinge divides the Milky Way Galaxy into Zones of Thought. The innermost zone, near the center are the Unthinking Depths. There is minimal intelligence there. If a ship finds itself in the Unthinking Depths, it will be stuck there forever. The next zone is the Slow Zone where Earth resides and where humans originated from. Intelligence is possible here but not sentient AI. Faster than light travel is also impossible here. The next layer is The Beyond where most of the story takes place. Here sentient AI, faster than light travel and faster than light communication is possible. Thousands of years ago, a group of Norwegian humans made it to the Beyond and settled in different worlds. Beyonders communicate using the Net, jokingly referred to as the "Net of a Million Lies". As you go higher in the Beyond, higher intelligence and speed are possible. Finally, the outer rim of the galaxy is The Transcend where everyone, including AI is God-like. 

Humans in the High Beyond, on the borders of The Transcend accidentally release a super AI called the Blight. The Blight destroys everything in its path, threatening The Beyond. A group of humans escape and crash on a planet in the Lower Beyond where strange aliens live in a Medieval Technological world. The humans carry the antidote to the Blight. They communicate from their crashed spaceship with a human named Ravna, and her mysterious shipmate Pham, created by a powerful being in the Transcend and her crew of sentient plants who move around on scooters. We follow first the humans trying to survive in the harsh Medieval like world with aliens who are constantly at war. Then we follow Ravna on her ship with her crew trying to outrun The Blight and get to the planet because Pham knows how to use the antidote to save the rest of The Beyond. 

This book has some of the best worldbuilding I have ever read. What I thought was going to be only about humans trying to outrun a super AI, ending up being about the politics of the weirdest aliens. I wish I could go into detail about the aliens, but my favorite part of the book was how Vinge slowly revealed the nature of these aliens, catching me trying to anthropomorphize the characters. Then we get into their civilization, history, and politics. Not only do we learn about life on this planet, but we learn about life and politics in the Beyond. We learn more about humans and about the history of other aliens. We learn how the beings in the Transcend affect life in the lower levels of the galaxy.

Vinge kept it interesting by keeping up the tension and showing how their petty politics could end up affecting the entire galaxy of which they are not even aware. It moves slowly on the planet while the adventures with Ravna in space are more fast paced as she fights to stay alive and keep her ship from falling into The Blight’s power. At the same time, she deals with lies spread on The Net. Aliens around The Blight spread hatred towards humans, giving Ravna less places to go to refuel and take care of her ship. The humans on the Medieval Planet are constantly at risk as the different factions prepare to battle each side. The aliens only keep the humans alive because they help the aliens learn about more advanced technology giving each side an advantage on the battlefield. 

It is a long book. It took me a couple of months to read, mostly because I was terribly busy. Whenever I had quiet time, I would read a chapter. I looked forward to going back into that world and was sad when I finally finished the book. 

Not everyone likes the book. I read complaints about the characters. Ravna is the weakest character because she acts as more as the expositor character. Her stories are either about trying to keep Pham alive or interpret what is truth or lies on The Net. As she served her purpose, I accepted her characterization.

This was a fun space opera with amazing world building and lingering questions about technological singularity. I give it an S for superior. I look forward to reading Vinge’s other books that take place in the Zones of Thought.