Jez gave me a copy of A Fire Upon The Deep by Vernor Vinge recently. He commented that it contained the best description of a group-mind he had read. Initially I misunderstood and thought he was referring to something like a hive-mind (see the Borg from Star Trek, or the Primes by Peter F Hamilton). But no, what we have here is a well-thought out story describing the lives and culture of pack animals, a bit like dogs, that have only animal intelligence when isolated, but link telepathically when in close proximity. Under special circumstances these ‘Tines’ then operate as humans would, with qualifications.
The novel itself is a fairly straightforward space opera: the grand backdrop for a classic race-against-time mission is a galaxy split into zones with difficult physical laws, zones that ultimately give rise to godlike beings that can infiltrate intelligent systems in subtle and cosmos-spanning ways.
At the outset I struggled a little with the style, the explanation of galactic zones and transcendental beings unfolds using its own jargon, this requiring the reader to hold onto half-formed concepts for a few pages longer than the norm (for a space opera!) in order to piece together the inferences. That said, I remember feeling the same way upon reading the first few pages of EE ‘Doc’ Smith’s Triplanetary, and you can’t get more simple action SF than the Lensman sequence! I think the fact that I was ten years old at the time didn’t help. My excuse now? Easy: I’m an addled middle-ager with apple molecules for brain cells.
Anyway, back to Vernor’s Vinge. I note that A Fire Upon The Deep dates back to around 1988, and this hints at why one facet of the story technique fails for me. Vernor uses the analogy of internet newsgroups as the vehicle for cosmic communications. In The Beyond (the zone of our galaxy where FTL is possible, and by far the most populous area) the so-called Ultrawave is used to beam information much faster than light: so fast that often real time communication is possible. The galaxy is networked via message groups that are text-based. It’s not clear that this is possibly some sort of metaphor for some other, impossible-to-illustrate methodology, but since messages seem to be confined to a few Kb in size, and galactic bandwidth hopelessly small, then I think we can assume these are described literally.
And that’s where the novel becomes a product of its time. The data bandwidths allowed by Ultrawave as described by Vernor are measured in units that wouldn’t embarrass a dial-up connection of ten years ago. And there’s no implication that this is a technical limit imposed by FTL comms, rather it smacks of the author just not reading his tea-leaves well enough.
Moreover, the very concept of newsgroups being used as the main means of communication is strange, especially so when even today newsgroup usage is on the wain, and we seem to be in the process of turning blogs into micronodes for all kinds of web-based content, cross-linked in an ever bewildering way.
The point being: if we expect content-rich comms now, and we allow for physical laws that transcend our own is it not more realistic to envisage an Ultrawave system that encompasses at least the information richness we currently employ?
In my opinion a far more successful futureview of comms traffic is provided by Peter F Hamilton in most of his recent novels - but notably Pandora’s Star and Judas Unchained. In particular his descriptions of hard-wired brain-friendly network front-ends are a joy to behold, and his grasp of the complexity of interrelated information would seem to be total. But, perhaps in 15 years’ time I will be critical of this too!
All that said, A Fire Upon The Deep is an enjoyable read, and my qualms about the cosmic infospace do not hinder that enjoyment. In other respects his concepts of hard science are well-formed. For instance, his description of the Ultradrive mechanism is ingenious - a system that employs tens of microjumps a second that imperceptibly give the impression of FTL travel. A system where the looser physical laws of The Beyond allow more computational power, thereby allowing clear space to be jumped to. Presumably the limiting factor is ‘how far can we scan, and how quickly can we compute the route?’ - and this varies depending on the physics of the zone around the ship. I am grateful too that Vernor acknowledges the huge problems presented to interstellar travellers when attempting to match delta vee between planets. He doesn’t just brush them this aside like EE Smith’s ‘going free’ inertia cancellation system (one wonders where the energy goes). Vernor’s jumping and flickering ships retain their starting velocity, which may or may not be useful when attempting to orbit a body 30,000 light years away, and have to fight like devils to make planetfall.
But what of the story? There are two distinct plot threads to enjoy: a manic plunge to find a secret weapon to save a ravaged galaxy; and a Robinson Crusoe-esque kids’ adventure in a strange land. The former features a character who is an adventurer of the swashbuckling variety, and though his role is integral to saving the universe, his position is oddly passive despite occasional passages of Han Solo blaster-wielding. The latter plot thread is far more engaging, depicting the predicament of two human children who are abandoned to the whims of the Tines, but in opposing power camps.
Overall, it is Mr Vinge’s realisation of the Tines’ world and culture that excels. ‘Pack’ combination has to be achieved in very controlled ways, else the result is loss of personality, degraded thought processes, confusion or just plain imbecility. The concept of distance is of paramount importance, and forms the backbone for all that the Tines do.
It’s a book about how distance is the ultimate limiting factor regardless of scale. Not only is A Fire Upon The Deep about the “awesome vistas of time and space” (according to the jacket notes) but also about the space between people.
This may not be classic SF, but it’s good enough to read and pass on. Thanks Jez.
