The Novels of Vernor Vinge

Last updated Summer, 1998

Vernor Vinge has undergone significant improvement over the course of his writing carear. His most recent works have been great, especially his magnum opus "A Fire Upon the Deep". Vinge has a rather frightening vision of the near future which he skirts about in his later stories: namely that if present trends continue, we will soon (like within 30 years) create a super human intelligence. Once this happens, Vinge thinks the age of humanity will be over. Frankly, I hope he is wrong (he says as much himself) but this idea gives a strong undercurrent of mystery and power to his science fiction.

A Fire Upon the Deep

This novel is very "big" and thoroughly enjoyable. Vinge introduces a great new idea with many ramifications and also creates a very plausible society of alien "dogs" that works quite well. Vinge's idea is that the rules of physics that we know here on Earth are NOT constant accross space. Essentially things get faster the farther away you go from the gravity well at the center of a galaxy. This novel won the Hugo for 1992 (along with the vastly inferior Doomsday Book by Connie Willis).

As of the fall of 1998, Vernor has yet to produce a new book. This makes a 6+ year lapse since his previous book. Rumors of a sequel to Fire Upon the Deep have been on the Net for at least three years. I, for one, am waiting with some anticipation.

Maroned in Realtime

This is a facinating "murder mystery" set in the far future. There are many strands to the plot and ideas that collide. I have re-read this book several times, and that is high praise indeed.

The Peace War

A very good book, well worth reading. Not quite as good as the other two, but still quite fun.

Other Vinge Books

• True Names and Other Stories. The short story True Names is quite famous in the Net community and justly so. While the rest of the world is going on its merry way, the real masters of the world are fighting it out in cyberspace! Those people who are not capable of hacking the internet are NOT going to get much of a say in the future. You can see why this book would appeal to internet users. :)

• Tara Grimm's World. A very early work from Vernor and not very good at all.

Here is a good web site devoted to Vernor Vinge.

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