A career-spanning collection of science fiction from one of the field's most highly regarded writers, The Collected Stories contains all of Vinge's published short fiction with the exception of two stories--almost 40 years of work including his first professional sale and his most recent novella (published here for the first time). It's a fascinating and thoroughly enjoyable review of his career, made richer by the addition of forewords and afterwords to the individual stories in which he discusses everything from the ideas that drove the story to insights on his own writing process.
Vinge's writing is characterized by a clear love of science and an empathy for human needs and feelings. He's intensely curious about what happens when people and science collide. His stories explore the legacies of racism and xenophobia, the pros and cons of anarchy, alien contact, and the sometimes even more difficult contact between humans. He's a master of big ideas, epic settings, and stories well told. --Roz Genessee
From Publishers Weekly
Though probably best known for his Hugo Award-winning novels (A Fire Upon the Deep; A Deepness in the Sky), Vinge, a mathematician and computer scientist, began his writing career with short stories, most of which are gathered in this not quite definitive collection (where are cyberpunk precursor "True Names" and "Grimm's Story"?), along with one new entry, the pop culture-weighted "Fast Times at Fairmont High." Vinge's stories are prime hard SF and also rich with ideas, if often weak on character. Some are also quite dated now, such as the Cold War setting of "Bookworm, Run!" where the future rests on an escaped experimental subject, the first "person" enhanced by direct computer link. "The Accomplice" predicts computer animation the hard way, while "The Whirligig of Time" anticipates space-based missile defenses like SDI. Vinge frames many stories, such as "The Ungoverned" and "Conquest by Defeat," which consider future anarchies, with the idea of a technological singularity the belief that we can't accurately predict what life will be like after the creation of "intelligences greater than our own." Too short to be a story, "Win a Nobel Prize" is a humorous deal with the devil with a biotech twist. "The Barbarian Princess," with its sly pokes at some of the oldest tropes of speculative fiction writing (and editing!), maintains all the color and charm of its original publication. Vinge's comments surrounding each story provide entertaining counterpoint. This collection is a bonanza for hard SF fans, particularly those who prize challenging extrapolation. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
In "Fast Times at Fairmont High," original to this volume, hard sf veteran Vinge (A Deepness in the Sky) takes a look at the high school of the future at exam time. That story is accompanied by 16 others that span the years 1966-2000, including classics such as "The Ungoverned" and "The Blabber," as well as tales published only in periodicals. Vinge demonstrates his keen grasp of a wide variety of styles and subjects in a collection that belongs in most sf collections. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Brilliant what-if plots and on-the-mark technological imaginings distinguish Vinge's stories, old and new. In "Fast Times at Fairmont High," one of the newest, two eighth-graders struggle to pass an exam for which using outside information sources--the Net, satellite links, or . . . ready-to-wear surveillance systems (!)--is verboten. Flying FedEx packages and a woman running a 411 service from her kitchen are two of the speculative delights in this gem. Whereas others' '60s and '70s stuff is dated, Vinge's stories are written so clearly and matter-of-factly that they seem timeless. And the science in them! Vinge handles biotech links between flesh and machine and sentient interstellar probes with equal aplomb, never losing sight of his characters' desires and fears. Several stories examine the possible postholocaust societies. In "Apartness," humanity hangs on, after a nearly totally fatal nuclear war, in the Southern Hemisphere, slowly recovering forgotten technology. In the highly entertaining "The Ungoverned," private "security" organizations, such as Big Al's Protection Racket, provide the limited policing available to the well-armed residents of Midwest America when they face sudden invasion by the Republic of New Mexico. Whether amusing, chilling, or poignant, each of Vinge's stories is a winner. Roberta Johnson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
"A masterful novel, complex in style and plot, heavy with science and social speculation . . . . Vinge is truly an original writer." --NOVA Express on A Deepness in the Sky
"Thoughtful space opera at its best, this book delivers everything it promises in terms of galactic scope, audacious concepts, and believable characters both human and nonhuman."
--The New York Times Book Review on Fire Upon the Deep
"True science fiction and a delight." --Publishers Weekly on True Names
"No summary can do justice to the depth and conviction of Vinge's ideas."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review) on A Fire Upon the Deep
Review
"A masterful novel, complex in style and plot, heavy with science and social speculation . . . . Vinge is truly an original writer." --NOVA Express on A Deepness in the Sky
"Thoughtful space opera at its best, this book delivers everything it promises in terms of galactic scope, audacious concepts, and believable characters both human and nonhuman."
--The New York Times Book Review on Fire Upon the Deep
"True science fiction and a delight." --Publishers Weekly on True Names
"No summary can do justice to the depth and conviction of Vinge's ideas."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review) on A Fire Upon the Deep
Book Description
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.
About the Author
Born in Waukesha, Wisconsin and raised in Central Michigan, science fiction writer Vernor Vinge is the son of geographers. Fascinated by science and particularly computers from an early age, he has a Ph.D. in computer science, and taught mathematics and computer science at San Diego State University for thirty years.
He has won Hugo Awards for his novels A Fire Upon the Deep (1992) and A Deepness in the Sky (1999), and for the novella "Fast Times at Fairmont High" (2001). Known for his rigorous hard-science approach to his SF, he became an iconic figure among cybernetic scientists with the publication in 1981 of his novella "True Names," which is considered a seminal, visionary work of Internet fiction.
He has also gained a great deal of attention both here and abroad for his theory of the coming machine intelligence Singularity. Sought widely as a speaker to both business and scientific groups, he lives in San Diego, California.
The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge FROM THE PUBLISHER
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, Fast Times at Fairmont High, which 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.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Though probably best known for his Hugo Award-winning novels (A Fire Upon the Deep; A Deepness in the Sky), Vinge, a mathematician and computer scientist, began his writing career with short stories, most of which are gathered in this not quite definitive collection (where are cyberpunk precursor "True Names" and "Grimm's Story"?), along with one new entry, the pop culture-weighted "Fast Times at Fairmont High." Vinge's stories are prime hard SF and also rich with ideas, if often weak on character. Some are also quite dated now, such as the Cold War setting of "Bookworm, Run!" where the future rests on an escaped experimental subject, the first "person" enhanced by direct computer link. "The Accomplice" predicts computer animation the hard way, while "The Whirligig of Time" anticipates space-based missile defenses like SDI. Vinge frames many stories, such as "The Ungoverned" and "Conquest by Defeat," which consider future anarchies, with the idea of a technological singularity the belief that we can't accurately predict what life will be like after the creation of "intelligences greater than our own." Too short to be a story, "Win a Nobel Prize" is a humorous deal with the devil with a biotech twist. "The Barbarian Princess," with its sly pokes at some of the oldest tropes of speculative fiction writing (and editing!), maintains all the color and charm of its original publication. Vinge's comments surrounding each story provide entertaining counterpoint. This collection is a bonanza for hard SF fans, particularly those who prize challenging extrapolation. (Jan. 3) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Library Journal
In "Fast Times at Fairmont High," original to this volume, hard sf veteran Vinge (A Deepness in the Sky) takes a look at the high school of the future at exam time. That story is accompanied by 16 others that span the years 1966-2000, including classics such as "The Ungoverned" and "The Blabber," as well as tales published only in periodicals. Vinge demonstrates his keen grasp of a wide variety of styles and subjects in a collection that belongs in most sf collections. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
The Hugo Award winner of 1990's "hard" SF revival collects 17 of his shorter works-while recalling the editors who published them and how they shaped his career. In the late 1960s, when most SF writers were experimenting with literary techniques and flashy prose styles, Vinge (computer science/San Diego State) began writing a series of shorter works that clung to the pulp magazine traditions of the 1950s: stories soundly based on existing science that speculated on the social and political effects technology might have in the near future. His most famous piece, "True Names," predicted the Internet, and is not included here, but the equally prescient "The Accomplice," which in 1967 envisioned computer animation, is. Though Vinge self-effacingly dismisses it as a "most irritating combination of embarrassing gaffes and neat insights," the story forms a subtext for others that follow, asking to what extent science fiction can be rooted in scientific truths (which Vinge believes lead to unpredictable paradoxes) and still soar with the thrills and adventure of romantic fantasy. Thus, we learn that Vinge learned to "turn extrapolations sideways" to invent the more fantastic zones of thought found in his Hugo-winning Across Realtime series, while he was writing "The Blabber," a short, surreal traipse through American pop culture. Also included: "Peddler's Apprentice," a collaboration with Vinge's ex-wife Joan; several salutes to editors John Campbell, Damon Knight, and Jim Frenkel; and a long chunk of a new, near-future novel (Fast Times at Fairmount High).
Art & Photography
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