Most Popular Books by Vernor Vinge

Four time Hugo Award winner Vernor Vinge has taken readers to the depths of space and into the far future in his bestselling novels A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky. Now, he has written a science-fiction thriller set in a place and time as exciting and strange as any far-future world: San Diego, California, 2025. 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. This is science fiction at its very best, by a master storyteller at his peak. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

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. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Tor Essentials presents new editions of science fiction and fantasy titles of proven merit and lasting value, each volume introduced by an appropriate literary figure. After thousands of years of searching, humans stand on the verge of first contact with an alien race. Two human groups: the Qeng Ho, a culture of free, innovative traders, and the Emergents, a ruthless society based on the technological enslavement of minds. The group that opens trade with the aliens will reap unimaginable riches. But first, both groups must wait at the aliens'' very doorstep, for their strange star to relight and for the alien planet to reawaken, as it does every two hundred and fifteen years... Amidst terrible treachery, the Qeng Ho must fight for their freedom and for the lives of the unsuspecting innocents on the planet below, while the aliens themselves play a role unsuspected by Qeng Ho and Emergents alike. More than just a great science fiction adventure, A Deepness In the Sky is a universal drama of courage, self-discovery, and the redemptive power of love. This new Tor Essentials edition of Vernor Vinge''s A Deepness In the Sky includes an introduction by the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award-winning Jo Walton, author of Among Others. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

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. A Fire Upon The Deep is the winner of the 1993 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

Vinge''s masterpieces together at last, in one epic volume The Hugo Award winning A FIRE UPON THE DEEP and its epic companion novel A DEEPNESS IN THE SKY, set in the same universe but 20,000 years earlier, were benchmarks for SF in the last decade of the 20th century. In FIRE ''Vinge presents a galaxy divided into Zones - regions where different physical constraints allow very different technological and mental possibilities. Earth remains in the "Slowness" zone, where nothing can travel faster than light and minds are fairly limited. The action of the book is in the "Beyond", where translight travel and other marvels exist, and humans are one of many intelligent species. One human colony has been experimenting to find a path to the "Transcend", where intelligence and power are so great as to seem godlike. Instead they release the Blight, an evil power, from a billion-year captivity.'' Publisher''s Weekly In DEEPNESS, ''the story has the same sense of epic vastness despite happening mostly in one isolated solar system. Here there''s a world of intelligent spider creatures who traditionally hibernate through the "Deepest Darkness" of their strange variable sun''s long "off" periods, when even the atmosphere freezes. Now, science offers them an alternative. Meanwhile, attracted by spider radio transmissions, two human starfleets come exploring - merchants hoping for customers and tyrants who want slaves. Their inevitable clash leaves both fleets crippled, with the power in the wrong hands, which leads to a long wait in space until the spiders develop exploitable technology. Over the years Vinge builds palpable tension through multiple storylines and characters.'' Dave Langford

The exciting sequel to The Peace War by the author of A Fire Upon the Deep

A classic science-fiction adventure by a Hugo Award bestselling author

In a short novel and six never-before-collected stories, one of science fiction''s finest authors takes science and humanity to the limit. For fans of Larry Niven, Carl Sagan, and others. From the author of Marooned in Realtime.

This discounted ebundle of The Zones of Thought Series includes: A Fire Upon the Deep, The Children of the Sky, A Deepness in the Sky “Vinge is one of the best visionary writers of SF today.” —David Brin Thousands of years in the future, humanity is no longer alone in 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. A Fire Upon The Deep — Fleeing a galactic threat, Ravna crash lands on a strange world with a ship hold full of cryogenically frozen children, the only survivors. They are taken captive by the Tines, an alien race with a harsh medieval culture, and used as pawns in a ruthless power struggle. The Children of the Sky — Ten years have passed on Tines World, and Ravna and the children have survived a war. While there is peace among the Tines, there are those among them—and among the humans—who seek power...and no matter the cost, these malcontents are determined to overturn the fledgling civilization that has taken root since the humans landed. A Deepness in the Sky — Thirty-thousand years before A Fire Upon the Deep, two human groups, the Qeng Ho, a culture of free traders, and the Emergents, a ruthless society based on the technological enslavement of minds, stand on the verge of first contact with an alien race. Other Books by Vernor Vinge Realtime/Bobble Series The Peace War Marooned in Realtime Other Novels The Witling Tatja Grimm''s World Rainbows End Collections Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge True Names At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

On a world of fascinating wonders and terrifying dangers, Vinge has created apowerful novel of adventure and discovery that will entrance the many readersof "A Fire Upon the Deep."

First in a quintessential hard-science fiction adventure, Hugo Award-winning author Vernor Vinge''s The Peace War follows a scientist determined to put an end to the militarization of his greatest invention--and of the government behind it. The Peace Authority conquered the world with a weapon that never should have been a weapon--the "bobble," a spherical force-field impenetrable by any force known to mankind. Encasing governmental installations and military bases in bobbles, the Authority becomes virtually omnipotent. But they''ve never caught Paul Hoehler, the maverick who invented the technology, and who has been working quietly for decades to develop a way to defeat the Authority. With the help of an underground network of determined, independent scientists and a teenager who may be the apprentice genius he''s needed for so long, he will shake the world. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Hugo-Award winner bestselling author Vernor Vinge'' s first novel

Dans l''immensité de la Galaxie, l''étoile Marche-Arrêt est une énigme. Elle s''éteint pendant deux cent quinze ans puis se rallume pour trente-cinq ans. Son unique planète est habitée par des araignées intelligentes qui viennent d''inventer la radio. Leurs signaux attirent deux expéditions interstellaires. Celle des Queng Ho, un peuple marchand et itinérant qui parcourt l''espace en vendant et en achetant de l''information technologique. Et celle des Émergents, issus d''une civilisation violente et sadique qui a fait de la lutte pour le pouvoir son mode de vie. Qui l''emportera ? Un chef-d''œuvre du space opera. Au tréfonds du ciel a obtenu le prix Hugo 2000 et se situe dans le même univers, mille ans plus tôt, que le roman précédent de Vernor Vinge, Un feu sur l''abîme (Prix Hugo 1993), publié dans la même collection.

Ils voyagent dans le temps pais à sens unique, vers l''avenir, dans des bulles de stase qui leur permettent de franchir les siècles ou les millions d''années. Ils ne sont plus que trois cents. Toute l''humanité, qui se chercher un nouveau pays d''années. Et lorsque Marta Korolev meurt, assassinée d''une façon étrange et effrayante, naufragée de la temporalité, ils savent qu''un assassin se cache parmi eux. Que Wil Brierson, l''unique policier de la communauté doit démasquer. Avant qu''il n''extermine le reste de l''espèce humaine...