Not since William Gibson gave us the fully realized world of cyberspace in Neuromancer has anyone given us so rich a diet of new ideas: Imagine a universe where the laws of physics vary along the axis of the great wheel of the Milky Way galaxy. As we move further out the axis the speed limit increases until the speed of light is no barrier. Further out that axis, beings of higher and higher mental capability inhabit the galaxy, their thought processes not inhibited by living in the "slow-zone." Unfortunately, we inhabit the slow-zone and so can't even imagine a world of faster-than-light travel and higher-order intelligences.
Perhaps the most inventive concept in Vernor Vinge's science fiction novel A Fire Upon the Deep is the group mind created by the integration of the individual consciousnesses of a species resembling a cross between wolves and ferrets on a distant world (also in the "slow-zone"). Vinge explores what it is like to have a mind that endures and evolves even as the components in it mature and die. What is the meaning of a plural "self"?
Among the fun elements of the book is the literary device of creating a galactic computer teleconference, which itself becomes an actor in the story. A wide-ranging debate on the fate of the galaxy unfolds following the unprecedented event of the murder of one of the higher beings. Ultimately the issue becomes whether humanity should be eliminated for being responsible for the murder. The story has wit and style, but it's the ideas that maintain a grip on the reader.
- Peter Schwartz
A Fire Upon the Deep, by Vernor Vinge, US$21.95. TOR Books: +1 (212) 388 0100.
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