Rating: 
Summary: best of the best
Review: This book is one of the best for wonderful characterization. Vinge creates new races of beings who are wildly different from us but still engaging. An author who can create both exciting plots and delightful characters; so often not found in the same repertoire. One of my favorites.
Rating:
Summary: Creme de la Creme
Review: This book doesn't need my help or praise, but here goes: BUY IT.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating ideas, and original speculations
Review: Usually, for me to love a book, it has to grab my interest and hold it for multi-hour long stretches at a time. This book, however, has won my heart a little differently. I again and again had to put it down just to ponder Vinge's quite original (as far as I know) view of the galaxy. Toss in some really unique aliens, and you've got a bunch of mind-blowing, quality reading.It is a tad long, the plot is only OK, and the characters are sometimes a little flat, but the speculative factors make up for these weaknesses and more (there's a reason it won the Hugo award). If you're up for a mind-job, I recommend this book. If you're up for a thriller, grab something else.
Rating: 
Summary: The story itself was a lot less than a sum of its parts.
Review: Despite some of the most vividly realised concepts I've ever come across in an SF novel, this book failed to satisfy me. The aliens are original, realistic, well thought out and used to good effect. The backdrop of a galaxy with different zones of consciousness is fresh and fascinating. The sequences concerned with the interaction between such zones is well executed. Yet against such a high-concept backdrop the internet-like text-only communication network seemed incongruous and old fashioned; the central characters failed to make me care for them and the ending of the book was a real anticlimax. After so many pages I had expected something spectacular. I'd planned to read the prequel "A Deepness in the Sky", but at 800 odd pages it'll probably suffer from the same problems.
Rating:
Summary: It's a winner
Review: I've been a fan of Asimov for a long time but serveral years ago I bought and read "A Fire Upon the Deep" and I think Vernor Vinge created a terrific peice of SF in this book. His style seems unique and I found it to be a very enjoyable read. Recently I've found my self craving another book by Vinge and may now get a copy of "A Deepness in the Sky" to see if it too is another really good peice of SF. I highly recomend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Wow.
Review: Science Fiction is not my genre and so i'm a lot behind if this is the 1992 Hugo award winner. My primary interest is dog training. A central storyline here involves a most marvolous and immginative explanation of how intelligence could develop in a pack mentallity. Very original. A review above this said it was "slow going". Hmmm. i'm not usually attracted to thick, pulpy novels with lurid titles, but was completely sucked in by this one. Three in the morning is an hour I haven't seen in a long time. This book was a Christmas present from my son...thanks, Silas.
Rating: 
Summary: Slow Going, But Worth Reading Anyway
Review: This was a very silly book for the professor of my Intro to Sci-Fi class to assign at the end of the semester. Not because of the page-count, as relatively large as that is; not because it's too weighty or complex to understand, either, since it really isn't. However, it *is* a book that moves somewhat slowly--and which will not, frankly speaking, keep you turning pages late into the night out of any fervent desire to see what happens next. Despite this, I'd still highly recommend it for the reader who doesn't mind possibly being in for a long haul. The concepts introduced in _Fire Upon the Deep_ are fascinating: Zones of Thought, Skroderiders, Powers, Transcendence--and particularly the Known Net, an Internet-like contrivance which links a good part of the galaxy together. Balanced against these science fictional elements is the more fantastic setting of Tines' World, a medieval land inhabited by dog-like creatures who communicate through telepathy and have an intriguing method of genetic engineering. Whether you're a fan of science fiction, fantasy, or just a good tale, there's something here for you. Unfortunately, the rushed and anti-climactic ending does detract from what would otherwise be an excellent story. Know what to expect before you buy this book: interesting--and fresh!--ideas, wonderfully vivid characters, a bit of humor, a bit of horror, technological exposition, and a good, solid plot. Don't read this if you're out for something quick and light, and be prepared to put it down now and then, maybe even picking something else to read before you finish. This isn't a fast or easy novel to get through... but the virtues of it make it worthwhile to endure this vice.
Rating:
Summary: A New Master!
Review: The concept, the story, the characters and the prose all come together to create one of the outstanding works of the 90's. In this book, Vinge steps to the forefront as one of the major talents on the science fiction landscape. Fairly described as "space opera", the book is also much more. Vinge's science backround shows in the masterful job done in painting a very complex universe grounded in vanguard technology of our day. Any serious science fiction fan has to read this book.
Rating:
Summary: The reviewers at Amazon are a great guide!
Review: I decided to read this novel based on the glowing reviews posted by other Amazon readers - and was left breathless by the scope of the universe that has been created by Vernor Vinge. He has created wonderous alien races that are described in rich detail, allowing the reader to look upon the world from a non-human perspective. Additionally, another reviewer commented on the incredible foresight Vinge had in utilizing communications throughout the universe using a meta-web...especially since this book was written in 1992, years before message boards became commonplace. Though some reviewers may say this is just space opera - I remember many people calling the Star Wars saga just a space opera. This book is absolutely worth reading - it will keep you riveted from cover to cover! After reading this novel, I will definitely have to read A Deepness in the Sky.
Rating: 
Summary: Firewood, at best
Review: Is this really what the sci-fi world is coming to? On the strength of his Hugo Award and the good reviews this work received on this website, I decided to give Vinge's "Fire Upon the Deep" a try. And was bitterly disappointed. Vinge writes like Jeffrey Archer on a bad day and his characters have the psychological depth, and are about as interesting, as Jackie Collins'. This is not Space Opera, it is Space Soap Opera. Seriously, chuck this one in the fire, and order a few of Iain M Banks' early ones, or Dan Simmons' Hyperion/ Endymion, for a display of the beauty, scope and insight that really good Science Fiction can offer.
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