The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge

Rating:
Summary: Helps you understand where Vernor came from
Review: Despite reading SF for over 30 years, I only encountered V.V's works in the past year because he had received major awards. I was impressed but could not understand how he had achieved such levels of proficiency. This collection with an almost Asimovian set of chatty and personal introductions helps lay out the map. Strongly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Very interesting compilation of short stories
Review: I consider Vinge to be one of the best SF authors around. "A Fire Upon the Deep" and "A Deepness In The Sky" were works of art. "Across Realtime" is a very different type of book from these, but is impressive in its own way. A collection of short stories, "Across Realtime" presents some of Vinge's work from as far back as the 60's. Each story has commentary from the author as to how he came up with the plot ideas, and the fact that he was writing sci fi stories 30+ years ago that still seem contemporary is simply amazing.

Rating:
Summary: Very interesting compilation of short stories
Review: I consider Vinge to be one of the best SF authors around. "A Fire Upon the Deep" and "A Deepness In The Sky" were works of art. "Across Realtime" is a very different type of book from these, but is impressive in its own way. A collection of short stories, "Across Realtime" presents some of Vinge's work from as far back as the 60's. Each story has commentary from the author as to how he came up with the plot ideas, and the fact that he was writing sci fi stories 30+ years ago that still seem contemporary is simply amazing.

Rating:
Summary: Uneven, but generally good, collection
Review: It's no secret that Vernor Vinge is an accomplished novelist (Need proof? He's won Hugo Awards for each of his last two novels). But how is he at short fiction? This is the question I was asking myself when I picked up this volume. I've read and greatly enjoyed all of his novels (save the fix-up effort 'Tatja Grimm's World), but haven't read (or even heard) of any of his shorter works.

I was by and large satisfied with this collection of short fiction. While there are no excellent stories here, neither are there any bottom-dwellers. Many of the stories take place in the settings of Vinge's novels. 'The Ungoverned' takes place after the events in his 'Peace War' series. 'The Blabber' fits into his Deepness duology. 'The Barbarian Princess' is part of the Grimm's World book. But the stories that don't fit into Vinge's novels share many of the same ideas and themes. Many, if not all, of the stories posit a Technological Singularity, an occurence that is featured prominently in nearly all of Vinge's work.

My favorite story is 'Original Sin' a fascinating and evocative depiction of an alien society. The sole story original to the collecton, novella 'Fast Times at Fairmont High' is an enjoyable depiction of a future junior high school.

None of the stories in the collection have the depth or Importance of Vinge's award-winning novels, but nearly every story is compulsively readable and entertaining. This is a fine addition to the Vinge completist's book shelf.

Rating:
Summary: Uneven, but generally good, collection
Review: It's no secret that Vernor Vinge is an accomplished novelist (Need proof? He's won Hugo Awards for each of his last two novels). But how is he at short fiction? This is the question I was asking myself when I picked up this volume. I've read and greatly enjoyed all of his novels (save the fix-up effort 'Tatja Grimm's World), but haven't read (or even heard) of any of his shorter works.

I was by and large satisfied with this collection of short fiction. While there are no excellent stories here, neither are there any bottom-dwellers. Many of the stories take place in the settings of Vinge's novels. 'The Ungoverned' takes place after the events in his 'Peace War' series. 'The Blabber' fits into his Deepness duology. 'The Barbarian Princess' is part of the Grimm's World book. But the stories that don't fit into Vinge's novels share many of the same ideas and themes. Many, if not all, of the stories posit a Technological Singularity, an occurence that is featured prominently in nearly all of Vinge's work.

My favorite story is 'Original Sin' a fascinating and evocative depiction of an alien society. The sole story original to the collecton, novella 'Fast Times at Fairmont High' is an enjoyable depiction of a future junior high school.

None of the stories in the collection have the depth or Importance of Vinge's award-winning novels, but nearly every story is compulsively readable and entertaining. This is a fine addition to the Vinge completist's book shelf.

Rating:
Summary: A writer's evolution
Review: My introduction to Vernor Vinge was "A Fire Upon the Deep," the novel that finally won him the long awaited Hugo award. With that and "A Deepness in the Sky" as an introduction, I was a little surprised to discover that Vernor Vinge was also once a beginning writer, just like the rest of us.

This collection of short stories is interesting both for the stories themselves and for the way they chart a truly excellent writer's evolution. The first few stories are amateurish and awkward. Very soon, they improve in both content and style. I ended up buying several of the books that grew out of the short stories included in this collection, and they were even better than the stories that inspired them.

I really enjoyed this collection of stories. Mostly, I was just pleased to realize that even someone who is as mind-blowingly intelligent and skilled as Vinge did not spring full-formed from his father's forehead, but developed incrementally into the writer he is today. I especially recommend this book to aspiring writers as inspiration.

Rating:
Summary: A writer's evolution
Review: My introduction to Vernor Vinge was "A Fire Upon the Deep," the novel that finally won him the long awaited Hugo award. With that and "A Deepness in the Sky" as an introduction, I was a little surprised to discover that Vernor Vinge was also once a beginning writer, just like the rest of us.

This collection of short stories is interesting both for the stories themselves and for the way they chart a truly excellent writer's evolution. The first few stories are amateurish and awkward. Very soon, they improve in both content and style. I ended up buying several of the books that grew out of the short stories included in this collection, and they were even better than the stories that inspired them.

I really enjoyed this collection of stories. Mostly, I was just pleased to realize that even someone who is as mind-blowingly intelligent and skilled as Vinge did not spring full-formed from his father's forehead, but developed incrementally into the writer he is today. I especially recommend this book to aspiring writers as inspiration.

Rating:
Summary: Great anthology
Review: Vernor Vinge has won several wards for his novels (A DEEPNESS IN THE SKY), and over the last three and a half decades has also produced some of the best science fiction short stories. THE COLLECTED STORIES OF VERNOR VINGE provides most of the author's short stories plus a novella, FAST TIMES AT FAIRMONT HIGH. Most of the tales are well written furbishing the reader with provocative concepts though many of those from before the fall of the Wall seem more alternate history in nature. The added bonus of Mr. Vinge's commentary to most of the contributions provides readers with insight to the author's philosophy. Fans of science fiction anthologies that induce deep postulating on the part of the reader will enjoy this collection, but it is best savored over a couple of weeks.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Enlightening anthology, though with its ups and downs
Review: Vernor Vinge is perhaps the premier craftsman of stories which turn on novel changes in the nature of reality. He's a master of plumbing the depths of an idea and crafting a fully-realized world around one or several fantastic notions.

Collected Stories has plenty to reward the Vinge fan: Insightful annotations by the author suggesting his thoughts on writing each story, or expanding on his notion of the Singularity which our technological progress is pushing us towards, and how that idea has shaped his excellent novels. Several stories ("The Ungoverned", "The Blabber", "The Barbarian Princess") which occur in the worlds of his novels. Even a new novella, "Fast Times at Fairmont High", printed here for the first time, conjecturing a near-future junior high school where all the students are wired into the net and teachers must pose new and unusual tests for them to complete.

Despite this, the collection is nonetheless uneven. A couple of stories take a hardly-believeable turn into libertarianism or anarchic capitalism, failing to persuade me that their societies wouldn't destroy themselves in mere days. And a couple are based on disappointingly simple ideas, such as what sort of people might someday be forced to colonize Antarctica, or the impact that certain detritus in space might have. Even "Fast Times" I found disappointing as it seemed reluctant to resolve certain details of its plot, and it seemed also to undercut its own message of the importance of basic skills over specific knowledge.

The best stories in this collection combine Vinge's knack for ideasmanship with his best storytelling. "Original Sin" has humanity confronting an up-and-coming race which has all of our talents and advantages in spades, and plopping its heroes at ground zero among these people; it's a pretty terrifying story. And "The Blabber" explores some elements from his novel A Fire Upon the Deep in a somewhat different setting, with some implications that make you wish he'd return to continue the story someday.

Reading this collection suggests that Vinge perhaps works best in a long format, as nothing here equals his best novels, Fire and Marooned in Realtime. But there's entertaining stuff here, and if you've enjoyed his novels then you'll probably find this worth a shot.