A depth in the sky
A Deepness in the Sky (original title: A Deepness in the Sky ) is the second novel in the series "Zones of Thinking" by Vernor Vinge and can be assigned to the hard science fiction genre . The novel won the Hugo Award in 2000 and was nominated for the Nebula Award in 1999. The events of the novel A Depth in the Sky , published in 1999, set long before the story of the first novel in the "Zones of Thought" series, A Fire on the Depth (1995).
content
A depth in the sky tells in two initially parallel narrative strands on the one hand the story of a human exploration and trade expedition to the OnOff star system, on the other hand the civilizing progress of the spiders , a species of intelligent arachnoids that live on the only planet of the OnOff star system - Arachna - Life.
The OnOff system has the important peculiarity that the star Arachna will go through a cold phase in 215 out of 250 years, during which the entire surface of the planet is covered by ice.
The human expedition consists of two fleets, the busy and bustling Dschöng-Ho on the one hand and the autocratic climbers on the other. Thanks to a technological lead, one of the world powers on Arachna succeeds in ending a long war with a neighboring nation through sabotage during the cold phase, in which the researcher Sherkander Underhill and the secret service officers Victory Smith and Hrunker Unnerby play a decisive role. Meanwhile, the competition between Dschöng-Ho and climbers leads to a space battle not long after their arrival in the system. in which the climbers attacked the Dschöng-Ho. In the course of this devastating battle, both sides lose so many human and material resources that they are now forced to work together to survive and, with the help of the spiders, make their fleets fit for interstellar flights again.
The result of this stalemate and skillful manipulation on the part of the climbers leads to a situation in which the climbers enslave the Jöng-Ho and control them by means of mental enslavement . However, exposed to the constant risk of exposure, a conspiracy develops in the ranks of the Jöng-Ho under the legendary spaceman Pham Nuwen (aka Pham Trinli) with the aim of freeing the Jöng-Ho. Together with the spiders, this conspiracy finally succeeds in breaking free from the yoke of the leading ruling caste of the climbers and preventing them from devastating the nations of Arachna with a nuclear attack.
Awards
- Hugo Award (2000)
- Prometheus Award (2000)
- John W. Campbell Memorial Award (2000)
- Kurd Laßwitz Prize (2004)
expenditure
- A depth in the sky . Heyne Verlag , Munich 2003, ISBN 3-453-87063-8 .
- A depth in the sky . Heyne Verlag , Munich 2007, ISBN 3-453-52223-0 .
literature
- Karsten Kruschel : A depth in the sky , in: The Science Fiction Year 2004 , edited by Sascha Mamczak and Wolfgang Jeschke , Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-453-87896-5 , pp. 927-930.
- Erik Simon : Filling the void. Connections and symmetries in Vernor Vinge's novels from the Zone Universe . In: The Science Fiction Year 2004 , ed. by Sascha Mamczak and Wolfgang Jeschke , Wilhelm Heyne Verlag Munich 2004, ISBN 3-453-87896-5 , pp. 161-168.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hugo Award for the best novel (English) ( Memento of the original from May 7, 2011 on WebCite ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Nebula Award 1999 (English)
