{"id":8204,"date":"2024-10-02T00:01:20","date_gmt":"2024-10-02T05:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/?p=8204"},"modified":"2024-10-03T07:14:10","modified_gmt":"2024-10-03T12:14:10","slug":"the-late-great-vernor-vinge-a-major-sf-writer-worth-remembering-and-reading-on-his-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/the-late-great-vernor-vinge-a-major-sf-writer-worth-remembering-and-reading-on-his-birthday\/","title":{"rendered":"The late great Vernor Vinge: A major SF writer worth remembering (and reading) on his birthday\u2028"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michael Grossberg<\/a><\/p>\n

Today, Oct. 2, is Vernor Vinge\u2019s birthday.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Acclaimed SF writer Vernor Vinge (Creative Commons license)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If he had lived, Vinge would have been 80 years old.<\/p>\n

Born Oct. 2, 1944, Vinge died in March, 2024 after struggling for several years with progressive Parkinsons disease.<\/p>\n

Yet, Vinge is worth remembering (and likely to be well-remembered) for his consistently brilliant and often prescient science fiction – several works of which have been recognized with Prometheus Awards over the decades.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

While Vinge has passed, his legacy remains.<\/p>\n

In particular, Vinge wrote an astonishing range of excellent, award-winning science fiction that often was prescient about exploring trends and technologies that most others hadn\u2019t begun thinking about yet.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
LFS President William H. Stoddard giving novelist Vernor Vinge his 2014 Prometheus Special Award for Lifetime Achievement at ConDor in San Diego Photo courtesy of Stoddard<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cA titan in the literary genre that explores a limitless range of potential destinies, Vernor enthralled millions with tales of plausible tomorrows, made all the more vivid by his polymath masteries of language, drama, characters and the implications of science,\u201d wrote his friend and fellow SF author David Brin in tribute to Vinge after his passing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccused by some of a grievous sin – that of ‘optimism’ – Vernor gave us peerless legends that often depicted human success at overcoming problems… those right in front of us… while posing new ones! New dilemmas that may lie just ahead of our myopic gaze. He would often ask: “What if we succeed? Do you think that will be the end of it?”<\/p>\n

READING VINGE: WHERE TO BEGIN?
\n<\/b>
\nWhile Vinge, who popularized the concept of the \u201csingularity,\u201d often considered the end of things, LFS members and other SF fans ought to consider a more relevant question after his passing: Where to begin?<\/p>\n

Vinge\u2019s novels are so multi-leveled, brilliant, intriguing, insightful and rewarding that they reward rereading. For Vinge fans but especially those who have not yet discovered the many pleasures and insights of his fiction, here\u2019s a guide to which Vinge works may be best to start reading.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A good place to begin is with Vinge\u2019s short fiction.<\/p>\n

That includes his seminal stories \u201cTrue Names\u201d and \u201cThe Ungoverned,\u201d both inducted into the Prometheus Hall of Fame, and his Hugo-winning novellas, \u201cFast Times at Fairmont High” and \u201cThe Cookie Monster.\u201d<\/p>\n

But which to read first?<\/p>\n

\u201cTRUE NAMES\u201d
\n<\/b>
\nI\u2019d recommend \u201cTrue Names,\u201d inducted in 2004 into the Prometheus Hall of Fame, because it\u2019s often cited as the first work of science fiction to depict cyberspace.<\/p>\n

A landmark when published in 1981, Vernor Vinge\u2019s now-classic story showed how the struggle for control might penetrate the new medium.<\/p>\n

Depicting the U.S. government as the central adversary, the story follows a group of computer hackers who keep their true identities secret while being among the first to adopt a new full-immersion virtual-reality technology.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>As the Prometheus Blog Appreciation notes, \u201cThey do so out of curiosity or an entrepreneurial desire to profit \u2013 both respectable and even laudable motivations from the libertarian perspective that appreciates the crucial role of innovation and free markets in advancing human progress, prosperity, well-being and knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more about this story, read the full Appreciation<\/a> of \u201cTrue Names.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTHE UNGOVERNED\u201d
\n<\/b>
\nLibertarian SF fans might also enjoy reading \u201cThe Ungoverned,\u201d the 2004 Hall of Fame winner and one of the rare SF stories to portray a plausible and fully libertarian society.<\/p>\n

Set in the ungoverned lands of a recovering future Kansas after a social collapse, Vinge\u2019s 1985 novella focuses on what happens when New Mexico\u2019s statist government tries to invade anarchist-libertarian Kansas with unexpected results.<\/p>\n

The story is of special interest to libertarians because it portrays a stateless social order along the lines envisioned by economist-historian Murray Rothbard, economist David Friedman and other leading anarcho-capitalist libertarian theorists.<\/p>\n

For more about \u201cThe Ungoverned,\u201d read the blog\u2019s review-essay Appreciation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

MAROONED IN REAL TIME
\n<\/b>
\nAfter reading one or more of Vinge\u2019s stories, and \u201cThe Ungoverned\u201d in particular, a good novel to read next is Vinge\u2019s Marooned in Realtime,<\/i> the 1987 Prometheus Best Novel winner.<\/p>\n

Set after the events in \u201cThe Ungoverned,\u201d Marooned in Realtime<\/i> looks back to an era in which libertarian values had triumphed, with the central character admired for his pivotal role in ending one of the Earth\u2019s last states.<\/p>\n

Taking the same concept as Vinge\u2019s earlier Prometheus-finalist novel The Peace War<\/em> of the \u201cbobble,\u201d a spherical impenetrable force field that agelessly traps whatever it encloses, Marooned in Realtime<\/em> jumps forward over thousands or millions of years in a story of cosmic vision.<\/p>\n

For more about Marooned in Realtime,<\/i> read the Prometheus Blog\u2019s review-essay Appreciation.<\/a><\/p>\n

VINGE\u2019S NEW SPACE OPERA<\/b><\/p>\n

Arguably the centerpiece of Vinge\u2019s work is the interconnected but separately readable novels in his future-history series that helped define the New Space Opera, beginning in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Both A Fire Upon the Deep<\/i> and A Deepness in the Sky <\/i>won Hugo Awards for best novel, with the latter also winning the 2000 Prometheus Award for Best Novel.<\/p>\n

A Deepness in the Sky<\/em> probably is most rewarding to read first, since its events precede A Fire Upon the Deep<\/i>. However, each novel was written to be independent, with its own story that can be appreciated on its own.<\/p>\n

Published in 1999, Deepness <\/i>is both a sequel and something of a prequel to Fire, <\/i>published in 1992.<\/p>\n

Set 30,000 years before Fire, Deepness<\/i> revolves around contact and conflict between the Qeng Ho, a decentralized group of interstellar trading families, and the Emergent fleet of the more bureaucratic and hierarchical Spider civilization.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Set in the inner Milky Way galaxy with fully realized characters, both alien and human, the story highlights the threats to civilization from centralized power while illuminating the civilizing dynamics of free-trade networks.<\/p>\n

As the Prometheus Blog appreciation notes, Vinge\u2019s epic novel imagines a complex future with many human-inhabited planets that have developed over several thousand years through slower-than-light interstellar travel, terraforming, life-extension techniques, and advanced computer networks.<\/p>\n

Yet many of these advanced societies repeatedly have collapsed into barbarism and decay through the failed dream of collectivism, statism, or subtle computational failures.<\/p>\n

A trading fleet based on the interurban mercantile networks of the overseas Chinese and other Asian communities, the Qeng Ho turns out to be the actual sustaining force for development and civilization.<\/p>\n

For more about A Deepness in the Sky<\/i>, read the full Prometheus Blog Appreciation.<\/a><\/p>\n

Note: Vernor Vinge was one of only four SF writers to receive a Special Prometheus Award for Lifetime Achievement.<\/p>\n

Such recognition was well-deserved.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

F YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE PROMETHEUS AWARDS:<\/b><\/p>\n

* Prometheus winners:\u00a0For the full list of Prometheus winners, finalists and nominees \u2013 including the annual Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) categories and occasional Special Awards \u2013 visit the enhanced\u00a0Prometheus Awards page<\/a>\u00a0on the LFS website, which now includes convenient links to all published essay-reviews in our Appreciation series explaining why each of more than 100 past winners since 1979 fits the awards\u2019 distinctive dual focus on both quality and liberty.<\/p>\n

* Read \u201cThe Libertarian History of Science Fiction,\u201d<\/a> an essay in the international magazine\u00a0Quillette<\/i>\u00a0that favorably highlights the Prometheus Awards, the Libertarian Futurist Society and the significant element of libertarian sf\/fantasy in the evolution of the modern genre.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0Watch videos of past Prometheus Awards ceremonies (including the recent 2023 ceremony<\/a> with inspiring and amusing speeches by Prometheus-winning authors Dave Freer<\/a> and Sarah Hoyt)<\/a>, Libertarian Futurist Society panel discussions with noted sf authors and leading libertarian writers, and other LFS programs on the Prometheus Blog\u2019s\u00a0Video page.<\/a><\/p>\n

* Check out the Libertarian Futurist Society\u2019s Facebook page<\/a> for comments, updates and links to Prometheus Blog posts.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0Join us! To help sustain the Prometheus Awards and support a cultural and literary strategy to appreciate and honor freedom-loving fiction, \u00a0join<\/a> the Libertarian Futurist Society, a non-profit all-volunteer association of freedom-loving sf\/fantasy fans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Michael Grossberg Today, Oct. 2, is Vernor Vinge\u2019s birthday. If he had lived, Vinge would have been 80 years old. Born Oct. 2, 1944, Vinge died in March, 2024 after struggling for several years with progressive Parkinsons disease. Yet, Vinge is worth remembering (and likely to be well-remembered) for his consistently brilliant and often … Continue reading The late great Vernor Vinge: A major SF writer worth remembering (and reading) on his birthday\u2028<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[32,30,37,2021],"tags":[306,308,190,2502,99,100,307,69],"class_list":["post-8204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-updates","category-obit","category-memorial-tributes","category-vernor-vinge","tag-a-deepness-in-the-sky","tag-a-fire-upon-the-deep","tag-marooned-in-real-time","tag-new-space-opera","tag-the-peace-war","tag-the-ungoverned","tag-true-names","tag-vernor-vinge"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pe8nGl-28k","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8204"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8221,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8204\/revisions\/8221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}