escaping realtime

March 21, 2024 3:06 AM

Vernor Vinge, author of many influential hard science fiction works, died March 20 at the age of 79.
posted by Ten Cold Hot Dogs (90 comments total)

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posted by sammyo at 3:25 AM on March 21

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posted by inexorably_forward at 3:33 AM on March 21

Oh!

Fire Upon the Deep.
posted by Zumbador at 3:34 AM on March 21 [7 favorites]

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posted by eirias at 3:48 AM on March 21

Fire Upon the Deep was one of the first hard-sci-fi books I ever read, and really hooked me. That seems so long ago now. I’m kind of shocked Vinge was only 79.

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posted by Thorzdad at 3:53 AM on March 21 [4 favorites]

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posted by redyaky at 4:00 AM on March 21

“Damn it, Ferret! You’ve been goldbricking just to get a date?”

“But I know she’d like me if she would just give me a chance! I invited her
groundside, you know. For a drink. I have special skill with very dry martinis. I was
sure if I waited long enough, she would show.”

From A Dry Martini [PDF, skim to page 60]
posted by chavenet at 4:07 AM on March 21

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posted by dragonplayer at 4:12 AM on March 21

Vinge's books were based in "hard" SF but also were just good books: good dialogue and characters, well-paced stories, and stories that built up logically.

Time for a re-read, I think, and to raise a glass.
posted by wenestvedt at 4:15 AM on March 21 [7 favorites]

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posted by tdismukes at 4:17 AM on March 21

The Emergency were such great villains, and such a great expression of how horrible people will be to each other. “Artificial intelligence isn’t possible, huh? I guess we’ll just have to program people then.”
posted by notoriety public at 4:21 AM on March 21 [5 favorites]

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A Deepness in the Sky is personal favourite (later eclipsed by Children of Time IMHO, but the latter work would not exist without the former), and it should not be forgotten that True Names was one of the very first works of cyberpunk (predating, e.g., Neuromancer).
posted by bouvin at 4:30 AM on March 21 [6 favorites]

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Fire and Deepness were two of the books which really expanded my impression of what sci-fi could be.
posted by adamsc at 4:32 AM on March 21 [3 favorites]

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posted by lalochezia at 4:37 AM on March 21

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posted by faceplantingcheetah at 4:41 AM on March 21

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posted by procrastination at 4:42 AM on March 21

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posted by nzero at 5:07 AM on March 21

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posted by JamesD at 5:10 AM on March 21

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My ex introduced me to these and just thought of them last weekend at a used book store. Was wondering how the author was going.
posted by AngelWuff at 5:14 AM on March 21

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posted by Ber at 5:27 AM on March 21

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posted by blob at 5:32 AM on March 21

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posted by genpfault at 5:47 AM on March 21

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posted by oozy rat in a sanitary zoo at 5:48 AM on March 21

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posted by Zonker at 5:48 AM on March 21

I'm quite enamoured of the idea that gravity wells fuck up the smooth beauty of the universe, like dog shit on a cricket pitch. He had a neat idea and told some interesting stories based on the ramifications. I did find his character work and plotting generally lacking, so I grouped him in with Robert Forward and Hal Clement in the "scientists who tell stories" rather than "storytellers who use science" category. (If you've ever auditioned for a musical it's "singers who can dance" or "dancers who can sing" with very few people capable of doing a great job of both.) (His ex Joan D Vinge is a superlative storyteller.) Very parenthetic.

Anyway, I have to agree with others that Fire upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky are amazing books. Thanks for the words, Vernor.
posted by seanmpuckett at 6:08 AM on March 21 [6 favorites]

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I read Fire Upon the Deep and was mildly amused that the common tongue in the galaxy was Samnorsk (can maybe be translated to "joint Norwegian" or "common Norwegian). I could not begin to imagine what sequence of events would lead to that.
posted by Harald74 at 6:14 AM on March 21 [6 favorites]

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posted by Tell Me No Lies at 6:16 AM on March 21

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posted by kikaider01 at 6:18 AM on March 21

Dammit. He was a literary influence on my work: also, a nice guy in person.

(Per David Brin he'd been ill for some years with Parkinson's Disease, and took a turn for the worse last November. If you're waiting for one last novel, I think it unlikely: chronic illness makes it really hard to focus on writing fiction.)
posted by cstross at 6:23 AM on March 21 [17 favorites]

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posted by briank at 6:27 AM on March 21

No longer Marooned in Realtime but he didn't escape by passing through a Singularity.

I'm so old I remember the Cheng Ho stories as the last things he wrote. True Names is indeed the urtext of Cyberpunk. The very first SF magazine I bought with my own money included Original Sin, which I would think could be a pretty good MeFi thread if there were a free-to-read instance to link to. How about Bookworm, Run!

He had his threescore and ten and then some so I cannot be too sad.
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 6:35 AM on March 21 [5 favorites]

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I love all his work. My personal favorite is Rainbows End, and I highly recommend it to anyone who may have missed that one.
posted by tclark at 6:36 AM on March 21 [6 favorites]

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posted by ZeusHumms at 6:45 AM on March 21

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posted by gentlyepigrams at 6:51 AM on March 21

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posted by suetanvil at 6:53 AM on March 21

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posted by audi alteram partem at 6:54 AM on March 21

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posted by hippybear at 6:57 AM on March 21

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Rainbow's End really resonates these days. A hopeful future, but nevertheless fraught with danger.
posted by Kikkoman at 6:57 AM on March 21

I always loved his writing.

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posted by The Lurkers Support Me in Email at 6:59 AM on March 21

I remember A Fire Upon the Deep capturing the spirit of the time it was written. Bandwidth limits were a big deal, and dial up was still a big thing. A friend of mine worked for the Federal Courts (still does), and he pooled his money with a couple of coworkers, bought a modem, and got their district office online using a dial up account, and UUCP.
His other stuff was good to great, but AFUtD caught on like wildfire.
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posted by Spike Glee at 7:02 AM on March 21 [3 favorites]

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posted by mersen at 7:13 AM on March 21

I read the Zones of Thought series for the first time last summer, and found it wonderful. Still mulling the translation/representation/anthropomorphization questions raised at the end of A Deepness in the Sky...

I coincidentally just finished reading Lifelode by Jo Walton, which is kinda like "What if Zones of Thought except magic?", if that sounds appealing to you.
posted by McBearclaw at 7:28 AM on March 21 [3 favorites]

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Across Realtime Trilogy.
posted by hypnogogue at 7:32 AM on March 21 [1 favorite]

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posted by Archer25 at 7:33 AM on March 21

There's no other writer I know of who successfully wove galactic-scale drama and personal-scale drama in the same story. His writing was also notable for avoiding easy good-guy/bad-guy setups (though he had those too), and had complex webs of individuals with different priorities trying to do the right thing.

His Zones of Thought books left some number of cliffhangers dangling. Dammit.
posted by adamrice at 7:42 AM on March 21 [3 favorites]

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posted by Mitheral at 8:03 AM on March 21

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posted by crocomancer at 8:13 AM on March 21

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posted by nickmark at 8:27 AM on March 21

What a productive life, and what a loss to science fiction.

I loved the galumphing huge space operas, but keep coming back to Rainbows End.
posted by doctornemo at 8:28 AM on March 21 [4 favorites]

Anyone who likes True Names would probably be well-advised to read The Shockwave Rider if you haven't.
posted by aramaic at 8:39 AM on March 21 [5 favorites]

Vinge wrote some of my favorite stories and books, especially A Fire Upon the Deep, which blew my mind when I first read it. It's got enough ideas and concepts crammed into it for three or four other novels.

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posted by Mr. Bad Example at 8:50 AM on March 21 [2 favorites]

I’ll add another Qeng Ho localizer:

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posted by torokunai at 9:08 AM on March 21 [3 favorites]

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posted by clew at 9:08 AM on March 21

I so loved his books that it's hard to pick a favorite. Thanks for all the great reads, VV! Rest in power.

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posted by Lynsey at 9:10 AM on March 21

I think it was either Fire or Deepness that had the idea of software code archaeology in order to keep the ships running. I think about that a lot at work, when someone says they have to keep things (applications) exactly functioning the same way forever.
posted by Gorgik at 9:13 AM on March 21 [8 favorites]

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I got to hang out with him and Kevin Kelly at the Accelerating Change conference in Sept 2005 at Stanford. He was really nice... and at that time working on a book with an Indian protagonist or setting, I can't recall. I have a pic somewhere of us involved in a really fascinating conversation about futures thinking.

The book he signed for me has a story about True Names... and it makes you think how prescient he was.
posted by infini at 9:13 AM on March 21 [5 favorites]

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I was just looking at Rainbow's End last night.
posted by joannemerriam at 9:36 AM on March 21

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posted by TheophileEscargot at 9:55 AM on March 21

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I read the news of his passing early this morning, and it hit me harder than I would have predicted. I had the honor of interviewing Vinge back in 2011 for the American Library Association conference in San Diego, and over the subsequent years had an opportunity to exchange occasional emails with him. He was unfailingly kind and generous, and his work (Especially Rainbows End, if you have not read that work please do so immediately) changed the way I see the world.
posted by griffey at 10:06 AM on March 21 [7 favorites]

. Maybe time for a reread of Fire, which impressed me with its oddity when I read it as a teenager.
posted by praemunire at 10:42 AM on March 21 [1 favorite]

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posted by buffalo at 11:43 AM on March 21

I'll read all of this but this is very upsetting to me. Strangely Vinge had a huge impact on me, not for any hard SF reasons, but very human reasons. A Deepness in the Sky basically cured my arachnophobia. I've written songs about it and gifted his books to many people. What a wonderful writer.
posted by kittensofthenight at 11:44 AM on March 21 [10 favorites]

I too thought he was older for some reason. What a huge loss.

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posted by Jacen at 1:03 PM on March 21

There is a Deepness in the sky, and it extends forever.

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posted by Phssthpok at 3:03 PM on March 21

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great post title, fitting homage.
posted by signal at 3:19 PM on March 21 [1 favorite]

My favorite of his was Marooned In Realtime, but Ravna from A Fire Upon The Deep impressed me so much I stole the name for a character of my own.
posted by lhauser at 6:18 PM on March 21 [2 favorites]

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posted by UhOhChongo! at 6:22 PM on March 21

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posted by equalpants at 6:43 PM on March 21

The Peace War went big and then Marooned in Real Time went mind-blowingly big.

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posted by whuppy at 6:56 PM on March 21 [1 favorite]

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posted by thixotemperate at 7:13 PM on March 21

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posted by johnxlibris at 7:15 PM on March 21

His ideas and visions are forever lodged in my brain.

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posted by brambleboy at 7:21 PM on March 21 [1 favorite]

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posted by AsYouKnow Bob at 7:22 PM on March 21

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What a terrific writer and visionary
posted by ndr at 7:32 PM on March 21 [1 favorite]

>forever lodged in my brain

being trying to get out to Vandenberg just to see a rocket land like in A Fire Upon...

Sad we've had 20 years of Marvel crap but no Vinge or Zelazny yet . . .
posted by torokunai at 7:48 PM on March 21 [1 favorite]

Whenever I see things like the Commodore 64 demo scene using modern computer tools to stuff programs into the tiny memory of a Commodore 64 and make it do things that would have seemed like black magic in 1984, I think of Pham Nguyen and the Godshatter and it seems more plausible than when I first read A Fire Upon the Deep.
posted by straight at 8:24 PM on March 21 [2 favorites]

I bought A Fire Upon the Deep and Greg Egan's Quarantine at the same time. I read Quarantine first, and it had three distinct moments where the ideas were so mind blowing I had to put the book down and just appreciate them. I was like, this is what I read science fiction for.

Then I started reading A Fire Upon the Deep. In just my first couple hours it hit me more times than I kept count with ideas which gave me that same incredible feeling of awe and delight.

Now it's not the only thing I read science-fiction for, but Vinge was able to deliver wonders as well as any author I know. I'm thankful he gave us so much.
posted by straight at 8:40 PM on March 21 [3 favorites]

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posted by augustimagination at 9:06 PM on March 21

I echo the praise for Rainbow's End, but I think "Fast Times at Fairmont High"—his Hugo-winning novella in a similar setting—effected me a lot more. The predictions about future technology and the effects it would have on culture and education seemed so compelling and believable. I haven't read it for a while but at the time I was convinced this is the future I was going to see in my lifetime.
posted by straight at 10:02 PM on March 21 [2 favorites]

Vinge was the first author I discovered who really understood computing and how it affected society. So in addition to the amazing, mind-blowing stuff in A Fire Upon the Deep was this sense of, "this guy gets it."
posted by suetanvil at 7:06 AM on March 22 [3 favorites]

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posted by of strange foe at 7:22 PM on March 24

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This hits harder than I thought. I've read and loved almost every fiction work that he ever published except for Grimm's World, from "Apartness" through "The Children of the Sky". Reading "True Names" in high school was formative, "A Fire Upon the Deep" absolutely captured me, and the Tines still have a special place in my brain. May he be long remembered.
posted by hackwolf at 12:53 PM on March 26 [2 favorites]