Vernor Vinge

Vinge published his first short story, "Bookworm, Run!", in 1965 in Analog Science Fiction, then edited by John W. Campbell. He was then a moderately prolific contributor to SF magazines in the 1960s and early 1970s, including adapting two of his stories into a short novel, Grimm's World (1969), and publishing a second novel, The Witling (1975).

Vinge came to prominence in 1981 with his novella "True Names", which is one of the earliest stories to present a fully fleshed-out concept of cyberspace, which would later be central to stories by William Gibson, Neal Stephenson and others (and particularly to the cyberpunk genre).

His next two novels, The Peace War (1984) and Marooned in Realtime (1986), concern the impact of a technology which can create impenetrable force fields called "Bobbles" (with other properties which aren't revealed here as they are spoilers for the former book). These books built Vinge's reputation as an author who would explore his scientifictional ideas to their logical conclusions and in novel and particularly inventive ways. He was nominated for the Hugo Award for both books, but in each case lost to novels by William Gibson and Orson Scott Card.

These two novels and "True Names" also emphasized Vinge's interest in the technological singularity. "True Names" takes place in a world on the cusp of the singularity. The Peace War shows a world in which the singularity has been postponed by the Bobbles, while Marooned in Realtime follows a small group of people who have managed to miss the singularity which otherwise encompassed Earth.

Vinge finally won the Hugo Award with his 1992 novel, A Fire Upon the Deep. In it, Vinge postulates that the galaxy is divided up into "zones of thought", in which the further one moves from the center of the galaxy, the higher the level of technology one can achieve. Earth is in "The Slow Zone", in which the speed of light cannot be achieved, but neither can the singularity. Thus Vinge could write a classic space opera despite his belief that the technology required for such stories would push us past the singularity. Fire includes a large number of additional ideas making for an unusually complex and rich universe and story.

A Deepness in the Sky (1999) was a prequel to Fire, following competing groups of humans in The Slow Zone as they struggle over who has the rights to exploit a technologically emerging alien culture. Deepness also won a Hugo Award.

Vinge retired in 2002 from teaching at San Diego State University in order to write full-time.

His ex-wife Joan D. Vinge is also an accomplished science fiction author.

Bibliography

Novels

• Grimm's World (1969), revised as Tatja Grimm's World (1987)
• The Witling (1976)
• The Peace War (1984)
• Marooned in Realtime (1986) (These two novels collected as Across Realtime.)
• A Fire Upon the Deep (1992)
• A Deepness in the Sky (1999)

Collections

• True Names and Other Dangers
  • "Bookworm, Run!"
  • "True Names"
  • "The Peddler's Apprentice" (with Joan D. Vinge)
  • "The Ungoverned" (occurs in the same milieu as Across Realtime)
  • "Long Shot"
• Threats... and Other Promises (These two volumes collect Vinge's short fiction through the early 1990s.)
  • "Apartness"
  • "Conquest by Default" (occurs in the same milieu as "Apartness")
  • "The Whirligig of Time"
  • "Gemstone"
  • "Just Peace" (with William Rupp)
  • "Original Sin"
  • "The Blabber" (occurs in the same milieu as A Fire Upon the Deep)
• True Names and the Opening of the Cyberspace Frontier (contains "True Names" plus essays by others)
• The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge (These two volumes collect Vinge's short fiction through 2001, including Vinge's comments from the earlier two volumes.)
  • "Bookworm, Run!"
  • "The Accomplice"
  • "The Peddler's Apprentice" (with Joan D. Vinge)
  • "The Ungoverned"
  • "Long Shot"
  • "Apartness"
  • "Conquest by Default"
  • "The Whirligig of Time"
  • "Bomb Scare"
  • "The Science Fair"
  • "Gemstone"
  • "Just Peace" (with William Rupp)
  • "Original Sin"
  • "The Blabber"
  • "Win A Nobel Prize!"
  • "The Barbarian Princess"
  • "Fast Times at Fairmont High"

Uncollected Short Fiction

• "A Dry Martini" (The 60th World Science Fiction Convention ConJose' Restaurant Guide, page 60)
• "The Cookie Monster" (Analog Science Fiction, October 2003)

External Links

• ISFDB Bibliography: Vernor Vinge
• The Vernor Vinge directory at google

Referenced By