Classics on the Side: A Fire Upon the Deep, by Vernor Vinge

“Classics on the Side” is an additional, informal book club meet-up, which focuses on older and classic works from the sci-fi and fantasy genres. To see the Classics on the Side booklists, visit our Goodreads account: https://www.goodreads.com/classics_on_the_side_kc
Join us to discuss “A Fire Upon the Deep,” by Vernor Vinge. A classic space opera, this book was published in 1992 and won the Hugo Award in 1993.

Book description from Amazon:

Thousands of years in the future, humanity is no longer alone in a universe where a mind's potential is determined by its location in space, from superintelligent entities in the Transcend, to the limited minds of the Unthinking Depths, where only simple creatures, and technology, can function. Nobody knows what strange force partitioned space into these "regions of thought," but when the warring Straumli realm use an ancient Transcendent artifact as a weapon, they unwittingly unleash an awesome power that destroys thousands of worlds and enslaves all natural and artificial intelligence.

Fleeing this galactic threat, Ravna crash lands on a strange world with a ship-hold full of cryogenically frozen children, the only survivors from a destroyed space-lab. They are taken captive by the Tines, an alien race with a harsh medieval culture, and used as pawns in a ruthless power struggle.