The Children of the Sky, Vernor Vinge
The Children of the Sky, Vernor Vinge
2 Rating(s)
List: $44.99 | Sale: $31.50
Club: $22.49

The Children of the Sky

Author: Vernor Vinge

Narrator: Oliver Wyman

Unabridged: 27 hr 42 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/11/2011

Categories: Fiction, Science Fiction

Synopsis

After nearly twenty years, Vernor Vinge has produced an enthralling sequel to his memorable bestselling novel A Fire Upon the Deep, the third in the Zones of Thought series.

Ten years have passed on Tines World, where Ravna Bergnsdot and a number of human children ended up after a disaster that nearly obliterated humankind throughout the galaxy. Ravna and the pack animals for which the planet is named have survived a war, and Ravna has saved more than one hundred children who were in cold-sleep aboard the vessel that brought them.

While there is peace among the Tines, there are those among them—and among the humans—who seek power…and no matter the cost, these malcontents are determined to overturn the fledgling civilization that has taken root since the humans landed.
On a world of fascinating wonders and terrifying dangers, Vernor Vinge has created a powerful novel of adventure and discovery that will entrance the many readers of A Fire Upon the Deep. Filled with the inventiveness, excitement, and human drama that have become hallmarks of his work, this new novel is sure to become another great milestone in Vinge's already stellar career.

Children of the Sky is one of Library Journal's Best SF/Fantasy Books of 2011

About Vernor Vinge

Vernor Vinge has won five Hugo Awards, two of them for novels in the Zones of Thought series, A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky. Known for his rigorous hard-science approach to science fiction, he became an iconic figure among cybernetic scientists with the publication in 1981 of his novella “True Names,” which is considered a seminal, visionary work of Internet fiction. His many novels also include Marooned in Realtime, Rainbows End and The Peace War.

About Oliver Wyman

Oliver Wyman, a native New Yorker, has appeared on stage as well as in film, and television. He is one of the founders of New York City's Collective Unconscious theater, and his performances include the award-winning “reality play” Charlie Victor Romeo and A.R. McElhinney's cult classic film A Chronicle of Corpses. He also lent his voice to several episodes of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Oliver's work as a narrator extends to over 150 audiobooks and has won many him awards, including Audie awards for his reading of Lance Armstrong's autobiography, It's Not About the Bike, and Thomas L. Friedman's The World is Flat. He also read James Frey's A Million Little Pieces, Tim Dorsey's Atomic Lobster, and David Weber's By Schism Rent Asunder. Oliver has won five Audie Awards from the Audio Publisher's Association, fourteen Earphone Awards from AudioFile Magazine, and two Listen Up Awards from Publisher's Weekly. Oliver was named a 2008 Best Voice in Nonfiction & Culture by AudioFile Magazine.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Mike on November 22, 2011

There's a scene in A Beautiful Mind where Nash is visited by a friend and former colleague after coming home from the mental hospital. Nash shows his friend his latest work, which is just childish scribbling, from a man who had previously done work worthy of a Nobel Prize. The friend gives him patro......more

Goodreads review by Angie on October 23, 2011

ALMOST a 5. I have seen some fairly critical reviews of The Children of the Sky, but it seems that in general they do not criticize the book for what it is but rather because it is not what they wanted it to be. Vinge fans have been waiting for this book eagerly, because the other two books in the s......more

Goodreads review by Bradley on August 08, 2024

Re-Read 8/8/24: I went into this with managed expectations and thought it was pretty great SF. As a Zones of Thought novel, it's weak compared to the other two -- but who cares! If you want to know what happened further down the line to all the Tines, their society, and all the stranded human childre......more

Goodreads review by Mike on August 28, 2016

First off, I was a huge fan of Vinge's other books, A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky. They were awesome examples of hard science fiction, rife with interesting and innovative ideas and characters. Sadly Children of the Sky does not come close to its predessesors. To me it felt like the......more

Goodreads review by Michael on December 08, 2023

This was a pretty cool conclusion to the Zones of Thought series with some really good villains and an interesting new Tine population from the Tropics that gets introduced. I liked the action and found the plot really moved along and had good character development and interesting, plausible charact......more

Quotes

“Imagine bootstrapping a fallen civilization into transcendence using nothing but a collection of hive-mind Machiavellis, a crippled hyperadvanced spaceship, and a pack of surly, scheming orphaned adolescents. Oh, and then there's the vengeful god ramscooping itself to relativistic speeds a mere thirty light years away. Vinge's explosive imagination and deft storytelling make epics sail past like hummingbirds--you'll steal daytime moments to read more, and lie awake at night contemplating what you've read.” —Cory Doctorow, bestselling and award-winning author of Little Brother

“Vernor Vinge's stories and novels have always surprised and entertained me, and The Children of the Sky carries on that grand tradition!” —Greg Bear, bestselling author of Hull Zero Three

“No one has ever crafted a more complex, fascinating, and strangely realistic alien race than Vernor Vinge's marvelous Tines.” —David Brin, bestselling author of The Postman and Startide Rising

“This is big-scale science fiction at its best.” —The Denver Post on A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge

“With uninterrupted pacing, suspense without contrivance, and deftly drawn aliens who can be pleasantly comical without becoming cute, Vinge offers heart-pounding, mind-expanding science fiction at its best.” —Publishers Weekly, Starred Review on A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge

“There are not too many novels that leave this reader screaming violently for more. Vernor Vinge's has done so.” —Locus on A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge

“When I was young and had to write my address in a school notebook, I would begin with my street and apartment number and then go on through city, county, state, country and continent in a litany of ever more grandiose place names that did not end until I reached 'Earth, Solar System, Milky Way Galaxy, The Universe.' In those days, it thrilled me that my small corner of the Bronx was just one part of the vastness I could see in the sky at night. This is the feeling I got from reading A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge.” —New York Times Book Review on A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge

“No summary can do justice to the depth and conviction of Vinge's ideas. The overall concept astonishes; the aliens are developed with memorable skill and insight; the plot twists and turns with unputdownable tension. A masterpiece of universe-building.” —Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review on A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge

“Though Vinge's galaxy is huger than one can begin to grasp, it is, at the same time, entirely seeable in the mind's eye. To find out how he does this trick, how he has managed to create a setting intimate enough to hold a single tale and big enough to tell a thousand, just read the book.” —John Clute, Interzone on A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge

Awards

  • Locus Awards - Nominee
  • Prometheus Award Nominee
Add to Cart
Add to Wish List