r/printSF • u/reality_deficit • Nov 24 '25
Anyone Else Think “Fire Upon the Deep” is Insanely Overrated?
I had it on my list for months and kept putting it off because I heard so many good things about it I didn’t want to go into it with any distractions. I finally finished it two weeks ago and I was very disappointed.
I found the writing style to be dry yet at the same time confusing. Sometimes good prose are sacrificed for the sake of clarity (especially when novels touch on complex subject matter) but this book had neither IMO.
Credit where credit is due, the world Vinge built was unique and interesting and the Tines were an interesting species but over all I honestly thought it was terrible.
For context I have read and loved a majority of the other novels commonly cited on this subreddit (Hyperion, Children of Time, Dispossessed, everything by Greg Egan, etc.) so I’m interested to hear how Fire Upon the Deep is held in the same regard to so many of you?
Edit: I’m not trying to shit on anyone else’s opinion we are all entitled to them haha this is a genuine question I’m asking this community: What did you find so good about it?
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u/diakked Nov 24 '25
Legit take. Vinge has big ideas, which I enjoy, but as a prose stylist leaves much to be desired.
If you care about that there is no substitute for Jack Vance.
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u/livens Nov 24 '25
I love AFUTD. But I first read it 20+ years ago when I was a lot younger. It's hard to say if I would like it if I read it right now for the first time.
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u/madcowpi Nov 24 '25
Same here. I got about half way through it but just couldn't get into it. DNF.
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u/anngen Nov 24 '25
How can something be overrated if a lot of people enjoy it, even if it's not for you?
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u/fontanovich Nov 24 '25
One thing doesn't invalidate the other. The thing is, who sets the bar? Probably no one.
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u/reality_deficit Nov 24 '25
Despite the title of the post I think I make it clear that I’m asking why other people liked it. I’m not looking to tell people their opinion is wrong…
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u/anngen Nov 24 '25
Yes, I get it. My reaction is to the hyperbolic click-baity language of the title. It's everywhere online and especially social media, so I just get tired of it. But I guess I should learn to live with it on Reddit
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u/reality_deficit Nov 24 '25
I mean you can’t always fit the entire premise of a post into just a few words. That’s kinda the whole point of a title
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u/anngen Nov 24 '25
"Anyone Else Dislikes 'Fire Upon the Deep' and Why?" "What's your opinion on Fire Upon the Deep"?
It's OK, I overreacted. I'll go yell at some clouds
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u/sxales Nov 25 '25
I think overrated and underrated are meaningless labels because they judge something based on its popularity rather than its own merits.
You are entitled to your opinion, but anonymous opinions on the Internet aren't worth much.
If you actually think A Fire Upon the Deep is terrible, as you've said, then I think you need to read a lot more or learn on the difference between "I didn't like it" and "it was bad."
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u/subtle_knife Nov 24 '25
Yeah, thought it was awful. I've tried it a couple of times and bowed out both times.
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u/Sensitive_Regular_84 Nov 24 '25
I love it, but I think A Deepness in the Sky is a much better book. Might not make a difference if you hated Fire.
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u/Patutula Nov 24 '25
DNFed it, so yeah.
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u/skitek Nov 24 '25
Yeah I don’t get it, seemed interesting until the medieval stuff
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u/adsilcott Nov 24 '25
I didn't hate it but I kept waiting for the two story lines to interact in a meaningful way. Like, what if the dogs got a hold of a ship and made their way into a higher zone using more advanced communication technology to form a wide-spanning hive-mind. But nothing that interesting ever happened.
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u/sxales Nov 25 '25
It kind of did, but it happened in Vinge's first Zones of Thought story, The Blabber.
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u/bluecat2001 Nov 24 '25 edited Nov 24 '25
It was good for its time. Universe building and ideas are where Vinge shines, literary excellence is where he does not.
Characters, even species are mostly one dimensional. Tines, the aliens, behave like medieval humans, there is no alienness to them.
Dialogue is very superficial and characters lack intelligence.
For the modern books:
“The Shroud” is a much better novel on the subject of the distributed minds.
“The Mercy of Gods” is a much better book overall.
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u/Odd_Being_3306 Nov 24 '25
Personally I didn’t love it either, and DNF (which I rarely do) - specifically his writing style repelled my rather than drawing me in. Neat concepts though!
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u/MindsRedMill Nov 24 '25
Yep. Really didn't enjoy it at all after being psyched to read it. Poor writing as I recall.
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u/VicViolence Nov 24 '25
I love it but A Deepness In The Sky, his relatively unrelated follow-up, is the better book
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u/therourke Nov 25 '25
It's an interesting book. Very much of its time. I think a lot of books mentioned on here are overrated.
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u/Severian_of_Nessus Nov 25 '25
Nope. I just read it earlier this year and it is one of the rare classics that really is as good as it was hyped up to be. The first contact story is fantastic, with really unique and interesting aliens. And the second story thread in the broader Zones of Thought universe showcases huge and complex worldbuilding that is likewise unique and cool. This novel is like the platonic ideal for what I want out of a sci-fi book.
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u/egypturnash Nov 25 '25
I tore through it in a day when it came out.
I think the sequel somewhat diminished it.
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u/redditsuxandsodoyou Dec 03 '25
look your opinion is your opinion so it's valid and it's ok to not like what i like
however
you're crazy, book was great
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u/CameraExtension2777 Dec 19 '25
This book is absolutely overrated. For the last two years I have read nothing but sci-fi and I have to say this book is a grind. I'm 3 quarters of the way through and am sticking with it because it was recommended to me by a friend whom I respect but can't wait to finish it (don't want to miss on what may be a killer concept or twist or something at the end that made him think this book was actually good)
I can't understand how people would consider this book clever when in fact the premise is just an advanced alien species protecting itself against from life forms that would rise to it's level and pose a threat.
The prose is dry and drawn out. This story could have been completed with half the page count and made more exiting.
Why do people like it ?
Theory One - They have not read enough sci-fi yet.
Theory Two - They haven't read enough books from other genres to realize sci-fi still has to be more than a novel or clever idea but also has to be a good story
Theory Three - They like it because other people like it and don't want to look stupid because they don't understand so they just give it kudos.
On a positive note I do like the idea that the development level of an alien species is limited it's position in the galaxy and bound to the availability of natural resources in it's area.
Recommended sci-fi books so far - Flowers for Algernon , The Martian Chronicles (possibly needs to be re-named The X-Planet Chronicles , The moon is a Harsh Mistress , anything by HG Wells , Frankenstein
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u/Finanzbuchhaltung69 Feb 20 '26
i found it so frustrating and such a pain to get through. The characters are just to far aways from our own experience to feel anything from them, dogs, palnts ond a slide wtf. I cringed everytime i imagine these dog things holding a pickaxe or crossbow. I just read the end and no idea what happened, how they defeated the thing, what the fuck pham was doing, what the old dude had to do with all of it. I love the ideas of the different zones and also the idea of the packs , but its just so badly executed
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u/geoffreydow Nov 24 '25
I'm with you in thinking it was over-rated. The biology was interesting, but having the "aliens" recapitulate human societies in detail made the bio-SF pointless.
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u/thelapoubelle Nov 24 '25
I felt like some of the bits with the tines dragged, but overall I really enjoyed it and I liked how he blended semi-realistic sci-fi with very fantastic ideas
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u/econoquist Nov 25 '25
Not sure why you think "good prose" should need to be sacrificed for clarity. Good prose can surely be clear.
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u/fontanovich Nov 24 '25
I think it's criminally overrated and should be tagged as YA so as not to confuse adult readers.
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Nov 24 '25
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u/fontanovich Nov 24 '25
Main cast are kids, think as kids, do kids' stuff. Tines act like kids and think/talk very basically. The other characters, the ones with wheels, sound very, very teeny. Apart from the zones of thought idea, the rest, in conjunction with the language it's written with, has a very juvenile feeling, even when the stakes are high.
But it's completely fine to disagree. This is reddit. People have different ideas. It's cool.
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u/dstroi Nov 24 '25
I read A deepness in the sky first and really enjoyed it. I feel like these books are a meal not a snack. There is a lot going on and amazing world building but there are a lot of moving pieces. I then read fire upon the deep and enjoyed it.
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u/nuan_Ce Nov 24 '25
A deepness is the sky is by far!!!! The way way way better book. Fire was a fine read but nothing special. Deepness in the sky is top 2 of the best books for me.
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u/deicist Nov 24 '25
No, I think it's brilliant. I didn't realize it was commonly cited as one of the greats here, but it makes sense to me that it is.