A Deepness in the Sky

 A Deepness in the Sky was written after Vinge's earlier work, A Fire Upon the Deep, but it is a prequel of sorts.

 This time the story takes place in The Slow Zone, where FTL travel is not possible, and humankind has not yet discovered The Beyond.

  An exploratory mission is formed by a group, the Qeng Ho, to travel to what is known as the on/off star, which has a regular cycle where it deactivates and produces no light.  Pham Nuwen is the central character and he arrives on board the Qeng Ho ship, he is something of a legend in his section of the galaxy.

  They discover an inhabited planet orbiting the on/off star, with an intelligent species living there that has found a way to survive the cold periods when the star goes off.

 Shortly after the Qeng Ho arrive, another group known as the Emmergents also arrive, this starts the central conflict of the story.


 This is yet another great space opera by Vernor Vinge, and it does have a few tie-ins with his earlier novel A Fire Upon the Deep, although they are rather faint.

9.3/10