A Deepness in the Sky

ISBN: 0-312-85683-0 Order from: Amazon.com Barnes & Noble.com

While not without flaws, this outstanding novel combines grand and thoughtful ideas, the sweeping grandeur of millenia of history and the immediacy and emotional impact of a small-scale adventure.

Reviewed by David on April 25, 1999 (rev. 2)

Genre: Science Fiction (Aliens, Interstellar Civilizations)

Synopsis: After eight millenia of space flight (I wonder if they are concerned about the Y10K bug?), the human civilization has achieved a sort of stasis. The light-speed communication and sublight transport have created a loose collection of cultures at various levels of sophistication, with Qeng Ho, a far-flung collection of trading families the only unifying influence.

The evidence of an alien culture, only the third in history, has attracted a Qeng Ho exploratory expedition to a star system just beyond the human space. However, an expedition from a nearby culture, young, repressive and well-armed, is arriving at the OnOff star at the same time.

The natives of the planet, the spider-like inhabitants are just contemplating nuclear energy and space flight, when the forces above their heads are about to enter a deadly fight, one which will decide the fate of the Spiders and perhaps the course of the human civilization.

Full Review: This is a remarkable book in both the breadth and the depth (no pun intended) of its ideas. Vinge, an expert in computer science, has made a name for himself in considering natural and artificial intelligence, its limits and implications. Some terms, like Vinge's Singularity and Intelligence Amplification, have entered the vocabulary of Science Fiction and Futurism alike. Other ideas, such as the limits of complexity of nanotech-like tools because of lack of control, and the constraints on our understanding of complex, legacy software systems, are integrated into a taut adventure novel.

Other more political points include the old trade-offs between the larger good and the human rights, the role of trade versus direct government, and the contribution of ubiquitous surveillance to the downfall of human society.

In this novel, Vinge returns to the universe of the Zones, featured so prominently in A Fire Upon the Deep. Deepness takes place long before the previously published A Fire Upon the Deep. In Deepness, humanity is still confined to the Slow Zone, although neither the terminology nor the mileau of Fire is apparent. Instead, the implications of this play a strong role in the plot: the death of the great Dreams of the Dawn Age: artificial intelligence, faster-than-light travel, nanotechnology; the slow stagnation of the human progress, as civilizations progress, peak, and self-destruct, advancing human knowledge and technology by diminishing increments.

In this environment, the only true power lies in information. This lure is what attracts expensive expeditions to the astronomical oddity of the OnOff star: the sun that shines for a few decades between centuries of cold, dark off state. The planet orbiting the star is far too inhospitable for a civilization to arize, therefore the radio signals must come from the remnants of an alien, star-faring race, the mythical grail worth almost any prize.

The sophisticated traders of Qeng Ho, an interstellar culture where the individuals spend the centuries of the slow, sub-light trips in cold sleep, are matched against a local civilization: the authoritarian Emergents are seeking the same price. While lacking the negotiating and technical sophistication of the Qeng Ho, the Emergents have ruthlessness, and experience in treachery, and secret and chilling methods of intelligence amplification which may tilt the balance of power in the scatterred human population.

However, the unsuspecting Spiders, struggling against biological and social restriction of centuries of cold-enforced hibernation nine-tenths of their lifetimes, may end up being the victims—or the players in the deadly struggle in space.

The struggle pits a group of naive Qeng Ho against exploitive, but still human Emergents, and a mysterious, Lazarus Long-type old man. The plot spares few punches, and the sympathetic characters suffer pain and death. Meanwhile, on the surface a small group of Spiders are followed as their actions change their civilization. The aliens are portrayed as almost rediculously anthropomorphic, as we follow Sherkaner Underhill (no relation to Salafrance), a Spider inventor like a combination of Einstein and Edison, and his remarkable family. The anthopomorphism is neatly explained by the miracles (and exaggeration) of Emergent translation, and in one scene the two plot lines merge spectacularly.

With a great skill, both the human and the alien characters become sympathetic to the reader, and add both suspense and elucidation to the grand picture. The foreshadowing and memories of generation-skipping, cold-sleeping humans are used to describe the frequently tragic sweep of millenia of human progress, while avoiding expositionary lumps and applying many of the lessons to the struggle in the OnOff system.

While admiration is called for when describing a book of this quality, the work is not without some flaws. While well-handled, the frequently shifting point of view makes the somewhat complex plot harder to grasp and weakens emotional impact.

The language extensions used, frequently computer culture-derived, are easily deciphered, but not entirely necessary. The examples are "oophase" for out-of-phase Spider children (children born in the middle, rather than in the beginning of the warm phase); "tas" for "it was", pov for "point of view" and the multiple uses of the word "lurk".

The role that some of the Spiders play in the human struggle is revealed at the very end and seems unwarranted based on the persons involved.

Despite some poignant elements, the book ends on a note of hope, both for the protagonists and the civilization. While no sequel is needed, one could be envisioned.

The total list of ideas and their implications explored in this book is too long to list here. Suffice it to say that the achievement of combining them with a taut, at times chillingly plausible plot of using poor man's versions of nanotechnology and intelligence amplification, nuclear weapons and conspiracies, human pain and human love (at times in alien individuals), is truly remarkable. This book is one of the best science fiction novels of the decade.

Universe: The Zones

Art: Vernor Vinge at Lunacon, March 6, 1999, Rye, NY

Overall: 8; Plot: 7; Characters: 7.5; Style: 6.5; World-building: 8; Originality: 8.5;

ISBN: 0-312-85683-0 Order from: Amazon.com Barnes & Noble.com