The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge
Encyclopedia
The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge is a collection of science fiction
short stories by Vernor Vinge
. The stories were first published from 1966 to 2001, and the book contains all of Vinge's published short stories from that period except "True Names
" and "Grimm's Story".
Bookworm, Run!
Also appears in:
The United States government has experimented with intelligence amplification
by connecting a chimpanzee named Norman Simmons to an electronic memory bank. However, they have accidentally cross-connected the experimental computer with the government's main databank. Norman has accessed all classified federal data and knowing this carries severe punishment, he uses this information to escape captivity.
Norman remains remotely connected to the government computers, and due to their own security systems, he cannot be disconnected. Norman uses his information access advantageously to evade government forces. Eventually, he contacts the last remaining Soviet agents in the United States to help him escape to Canada. At this point, the American forces close in, and Norman and his Soviet accomplices are captured. Norman is returned to the research compound and the Russians have their memories read and erased. The agent's memories reveal that the USSR has a similar experiment running: they have enhanced a dog with similar results. The story ends with the American officials contemplating what they see as the coming IA arms race.
Bob Royce, CEO of Royce Technology, Inc., and his security officer Arnold Su have discovered that one of their employees has embezzled 4 million dollars worth of computer time. The evidence points to Howard Prentice, a 90-something renaissance man doing computer science research for the company. Prentice reveals that he has used the computers to create a 4-hour computer-generated film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings
. This file is the culmination of a 30-year project by Prentice and his wife Moira to turn film into an art form which can be produced by individual artists.
)
Also appears in:
Describes the arrival of a peddler, Jagit Katchetooriantz, who travels into the future to sell his wares. The peddler travels into the future by placing himself in a stasis field and emerging from time to time. The peddler sells items from the previous civilization to the current civilization, hence he is dependent upon a changing civilization to create demand for his goods. During this visit the peddler encounters a planetary government which is dedicated to preventing any changing in civilization by maintaining the majority humanity at subsistence level. This government captures Jagit and attempts to interrogate him using their global computer network. However, the people who run this government and the computer network have survived from Jagit's last visit and he knows the passwords and codes to control it. Jagit uses this power to destroy the network and the government freeing humanity from its authority. He returns to his stasis field at the end of the story to continue his travel into the future.
Falls in the Bobble series between the novels The Peace War
and Marooned in Realtime
. Set in a future market anarchist American society, composed solely of independent individuals and private organizations. Security and police services are provided by organizations like Al's Protection Racket and Michigan State Police (MSP). There is at least one remaining nation-state, the Republic of New Mexico, which has territorial ambitions on Kansas
. This invasion is repelled by the cooperation of the MSP and other individuals and private organizations.
Description of a voyage from Earth to Alpha Centauri
by an automated, AI
controlled colony ship. The ship is launched because the Earth is going to be destroyed by a rapidly expanding sun. Ilse, the AI, is able to deal with the various situations and problems during the voyage to arrive on a suitable planet around Alpha Centauri where the process of rebuilding the human race is begun.
Set in a world where the Northern Hemisphere has been devastated by nuclear war, and nations in the Southern Hemisphere are now dominant. A scientific fleet from the Southern American Empire is investigating Antarctica and discovers an isolated tribe of humans. It is eventually determined that the tribe is descended from the only group of Afrikaners to escape from South Africa after a genocide of all white Africans after the northern hemisphere's nuclear war.
Set in the same world as "Apartness" but farther in the future where an alien civilization, the Mikin, have made contact with Earth. The Mikin culture is a newly star-faring, profit driven, anarchy. The Mikin's technology is significantly advanced beyond humanity's and their culture is unbelievably diverse due to an ingrained acceptance of differences. Although a small fraction of the Mikin want to eradicate humanity, the Mikin's primary goal is to bring other societies into their culture.
The story opens with a description of an attack on the unidentified losing side of a nuclear exchange. Ballistic missiles rain down on military installations, while smuggled bombs destroy cities. Over the next centuries the winning side of this conflict forms an oppressive solar system wide empire. The rest of the story is set in space on the occasion of the imperial heir's birthday celebration. During the party, the ship's captain is granted, and takes, an opportunity to use an antique nuclear weapon from the original war to destroy the spaceship. The captain believes this action will decapitate the empire and free the solar system from its tyranny.
During a battle in which one colonizing species is about to use a mass-energy converter to destroy the main planet of a solar system they wish to conquer, an unknown craft appears intent upon doing the same to the system's star. This unknown craft belongs to a species which has "supervised its own evolution for more than 100,000 years" and the conversion of the star would destroy the entire galaxy
. The unknown craft is crewed by only two beings, and before they can destroy the star their mother appears behind them demanding to know what they are doing. At the mother's appearance it revealed that this species are the far-future descendants of humanity.
In a feudal society where scientific research is guarded at all times by the House which funded it, except during the "Science Fair". The Fair is an event held once a generation where scientific research is made public. One of the scientists reveals that he has discovered a star which is coming nearer to their world. He advocates that all scientific research must be made public and non-proprietary if the planet is to be able to cope with the nearest approach of this star. This story follows the agent who is hired to keep the scientist from being assassinated before he makes his presentation of his findings.
Sandra goes to stay with her grandmother and discovers that she possesses an artifact, the Gemstone, that was found by her grandfather in Antarctica. The object is a skull-sized rock, that emits feelings of cold and desolation, which are assumed to be memories of Antarctica, and can convert plastic into diamonds. These diamonds have supported Sandra's grandmother since her grandfather's death, but they also prompt some young men to break into her house and attempt to extort the cache of rough diamonds they assume she must have. During the break-in the house catches fire and the Gemstone is exposed to the fire. The heat causes the Gemstone, which turns out to be a creature, to become mobile, active, and happy while it is in the fire. As the fire burns out it returns to its dormant cold state.
Also appears in:
Chente, agent of the Canadian Hegemony is duplicated 19 light-years from Earth on the colony New Canada. The planet is about to undergo a core collapse which will likely destroy the entire colony. Chente must convince the disparate warring factions in the colony to work together to build an industrial base with which to deal with the disaster. When he is unsuccessful at convincing them, he sets himself up as an enemy to both groups in order to force them to work and develop together.
The story occurs on the planet Shima. The Shimans are a species whose individuals live only two and a half Earth-years, are extremely intelligent, and experience a ravenous hunger throughout their lives before dying in a parthenogenetic frenzy as their hundreds of young devour them from within. They have progressed from paleolithic
to industrial
age in the two centuries since contact with humanity. Earth's government works to keep the Shimans isolated on their planet because of the belief that the Shimans' hunger and fast life-cycle would cause them to overrun the galaxy. A human researcher is being employed to develop a longevity treatment for the Shimans. The organization that is backing the researcher wants the Shimans to be released in order to provide a worthy competitor to humanity, forcing them to improve and adapt.
On a human colony planet named Middle America, just inside the Slow Zone, lives Hamid, and his unique pet, the Blabber. While Hamid is working with tourists from the Beyond in an attempt to get out of the Slow Zone, another visitor, Ravna&Tines comes to the planet, offering to buy the Blabber from him. When Hamid does not accept their deal expediently, Ravna&Tines launch attacks on the planet and the Beyond tourists. Hamid and the Blabber eventually end up with Ravna&Tines and head into the Beyond.
The story occurs in the Zones of Thought universe and occurs after a A Fire Upon the Deep
. Tines is a member of the multi-part species introduced in A Fire Upon the Deep, the tines, and the Blabber is a missing member of Tines who is re-incorporated at the end of the story.
This is a letter offering a position to a researcher with an organization that will provide him with a mind-machine interface, implemented by a non-reversible tailored infection and manipulated with MRI. The letter describes other organizations using the technique to induce any psychopathology
, but promises to transform the researcher into an idiot savant in his field.
The technology also appears in the novel A Deepness In the Sky
used by the Emergents, a totalitarian, slave-based culture.
.)
Also appears in:
Rey Guille operates a shipboard publishing company which sails from market to market. At one port they discover Tatja Grimm, ignorant but unexpectedly intelligent, who is a perfect match for the character Harla, Barbarian Princess. When the ship runs into trouble at one of their ports of call with the Termite Folk, who take this fiction very seriously, Tatja is used to bluff an escape.
)
First appearance here.
Fairmont High is an advanced high school in a future where everyone has access to almost unlimited computation and bandwidth. However, Fairmont High believes that it is important that their students be able to operate both on-line and off-line; thus, one of their exams must be completed while isolated from the network. The story follows two students as they investigate some rumored strange activity as their off-line exam project.
This story won the Hugo Award for Best Novella
in 2002.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
short stories by Vernor Vinge
Vernor Vinge
Vernor Steffen Vinge is a retired San Diego State University Professor of Mathematics, computer scientist, and science fiction author. He is best known for his Hugo Award-winning novels and novellas A Fire Upon the Deep , A Deepness in the Sky , Rainbows End , Fast Times at Fairmont High ...
. The stories were first published from 1966 to 2001, and the book contains all of Vinge's published short stories from that period except "True Names
True Names
True Names is the science fiction novella which brought Vernor Vinge to prominence in 1981. It is one of the earliest stories to present a fully fleshed-out concept of cyberspace, which would later be central to stories in the cyberpunk genre. Because of this, it is often referenced as a seminal...
" and "Grimm's Story".
Bookworm, Run!Bookworm, Run!"Bookworm, Run!" is a science fiction short story written by Vernor Vinge; it is Vinge's second published work of fiction. It appeared in Analog Science Fiction Science Fact in 1966, and was reprinted in True Names.....
Also appears in:
- Analog Science Fiction Science FactAnalog Science Fiction and FactAnalog Science Fiction and Fact is an American science fiction magazine. As of 2011, it is the longest running continuously published magazine of that genre...
, 1966
The United States government has experimented with intelligence amplification
Intelligence amplification
Intelligence amplification refers to the effective use of information technology in augmenting human intelligence...
by connecting a chimpanzee named Norman Simmons to an electronic memory bank. However, they have accidentally cross-connected the experimental computer with the government's main databank. Norman has accessed all classified federal data and knowing this carries severe punishment, he uses this information to escape captivity.
Norman remains remotely connected to the government computers, and due to their own security systems, he cannot be disconnected. Norman uses his information access advantageously to evade government forces. Eventually, he contacts the last remaining Soviet agents in the United States to help him escape to Canada. At this point, the American forces close in, and Norman and his Soviet accomplices are captured. Norman is returned to the research compound and the Russians have their memories read and erased. The agent's memories reveal that the USSR has a similar experiment running: they have enhanced a dog with similar results. The story ends with the American officials contemplating what they see as the coming IA arms race.
The Accomplice
Also appears in:- Worlds of If Science FictionIf (magazine)If was an American science fiction magazine launched in March 1952 by Quinn Publications, owned by James L. Quinn. Quinn hired Paul W. Fairman to be the first editor, but early circulation figures were disappointing, and Quinn fired Fairman after only three issues. Quinn then took over the...
, 1967
Bob Royce, CEO of Royce Technology, Inc., and his security officer Arnold Su have discovered that one of their employees has embezzled 4 million dollars worth of computer time. The evidence points to Howard Prentice, a 90-something renaissance man doing computer science research for the company. Prentice reveals that he has used the computers to create a 4-hour computer-generated film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
. This file is the culmination of a 30-year project by Prentice and his wife Moira to turn film into an art form which can be produced by individual artists.
The Peddler's Apprentice
(with Joan D. VingeJoan D. Vinge
Joan D. Vinge is an American science fiction author. She is known for such works as her Hugo Award-winning novel The Snow Queen and its sequels, her series about the telepath named Cat, and her Heaven's Chronicles books.-Biography:...
)
Also appears in:
- Analog Science Fiction Science FactAnalog Science Fiction and FactAnalog Science Fiction and Fact is an American science fiction magazine. As of 2011, it is the longest running continuously published magazine of that genre...
, 1975
Describes the arrival of a peddler, Jagit Katchetooriantz, who travels into the future to sell his wares. The peddler travels into the future by placing himself in a stasis field and emerging from time to time. The peddler sells items from the previous civilization to the current civilization, hence he is dependent upon a changing civilization to create demand for his goods. During this visit the peddler encounters a planetary government which is dedicated to preventing any changing in civilization by maintaining the majority humanity at subsistence level. This government captures Jagit and attempts to interrogate him using their global computer network. However, the people who run this government and the computer network have survived from Jagit's last visit and he knows the passwords and codes to control it. Jagit uses this power to destroy the network and the government freeing humanity from its authority. He returns to his stasis field at the end of the story to continue his travel into the future.
The Ungoverned
Also appears in:- Far Frontiers, Baen BooksBaen BooksBaen Books is an American publishing company established in 1983 by long time science fiction publisher and editor Jim Baen. It is a science fiction and fantasy publishing house that emphasizes space opera, hard science fiction, military science fiction, and fantasy...
, 1985
Falls in the Bobble series between the novels The Peace War
The Peace War
The Peace War is a science fiction novel by American writer Vernor Vinge, about authoritarianism and technological progress. It was first published as a serial in Analog in 1984, and then appeared in book form shortly afterward. It was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1985...
and Marooned in Realtime
Marooned in Realtime
Marooned in Realtime is a 1986 murder mystery and time-travel science fiction novel by American writer Vernor Vinge, about a small, time-displaced group of people who may be the only survivors of a technological singularity or alien invasion. It is the sequel to The Peace War and "The Ungoverned"...
. Set in a future market anarchist American society, composed solely of independent individuals and private organizations. Security and police services are provided by organizations like Al's Protection Racket and Michigan State Police (MSP). There is at least one remaining nation-state, the Republic of New Mexico, which has territorial ambitions on Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
. This invasion is repelled by the cooperation of the MSP and other individuals and private organizations.
Long Shot
Also appears in:- Analog Science Fiction Science FactAnalog Science Fiction and FactAnalog Science Fiction and Fact is an American science fiction magazine. As of 2011, it is the longest running continuously published magazine of that genre...
, 1972
Description of a voyage from Earth to Alpha Centauri
Alpha Centauri
Alpha Centauri is the brightest star in the southern constellation of Centaurus...
by an automated, AI
Ai
AI, A.I., Ai, or ai may refer to:- Computers :* Artificial intelligence, a branch of computer science* Ad impression, in online advertising* .ai, the ISO Internet 2-letter country code for Anguilla...
controlled colony ship. The ship is launched because the Earth is going to be destroyed by a rapidly expanding sun. Ilse, the AI, is able to deal with the various situations and problems during the voyage to arrive on a suitable planet around Alpha Centauri where the process of rebuilding the human race is begun.
Apartness
Also appears in:- New Worlds SF, 1965
Set in a world where the Northern Hemisphere has been devastated by nuclear war, and nations in the Southern Hemisphere are now dominant. A scientific fleet from the Southern American Empire is investigating Antarctica and discovers an isolated tribe of humans. It is eventually determined that the tribe is descended from the only group of Afrikaners to escape from South Africa after a genocide of all white Africans after the northern hemisphere's nuclear war.
Conquest by Default
Also appears in:- Analog Science Fiction Science FactAnalog Science Fiction and FactAnalog Science Fiction and Fact is an American science fiction magazine. As of 2011, it is the longest running continuously published magazine of that genre...
, 1968.
Set in the same world as "Apartness" but farther in the future where an alien civilization, the Mikin, have made contact with Earth. The Mikin culture is a newly star-faring, profit driven, anarchy. The Mikin's technology is significantly advanced beyond humanity's and their culture is unbelievably diverse due to an ingrained acceptance of differences. Although a small fraction of the Mikin want to eradicate humanity, the Mikin's primary goal is to bring other societies into their culture.
The Whirligig of Time
Also appears in:- Stellar One, Ballantine BooksBallantine BooksBallantine Books is a major book publisher located in the United States, founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. It was acquired by Random House in 1973, which in turn was acquired by Bertelsmann AG in 1998 and remains part of that company today. Ballantine's logo is a...
, 1974
The story opens with a description of an attack on the unidentified losing side of a nuclear exchange. Ballistic missiles rain down on military installations, while smuggled bombs destroy cities. Over the next centuries the winning side of this conflict forms an oppressive solar system wide empire. The rest of the story is set in space on the occasion of the imperial heir's birthday celebration. During the party, the ship's captain is granted, and takes, an opportunity to use an antique nuclear weapon from the original war to destroy the spaceship. The captain believes this action will decapitate the empire and free the solar system from its tyranny.
Bomb Scare
Also appears in:- Analog Science Fiction Science FactAnalog Science Fiction and FactAnalog Science Fiction and Fact is an American science fiction magazine. As of 2011, it is the longest running continuously published magazine of that genre...
, 1970
During a battle in which one colonizing species is about to use a mass-energy converter to destroy the main planet of a solar system they wish to conquer, an unknown craft appears intent upon doing the same to the system's star. This unknown craft belongs to a species which has "supervised its own evolution for more than 100,000 years" and the conversion of the star would destroy the entire galaxy
Galaxy
A galaxy is a massive, gravitationally bound system that consists of stars and stellar remnants, an interstellar medium of gas and dust, and an important but poorly understood component tentatively dubbed dark matter. The word galaxy is derived from the Greek galaxias , literally "milky", a...
. The unknown craft is crewed by only two beings, and before they can destroy the star their mother appears behind them demanding to know what they are doing. At the mother's appearance it revealed that this species are the far-future descendants of humanity.
The Science Fair
Also appears in:- Orbit 9, G. P. Putnam's SonsG. P. Putnam's SonsG. P. Putnam's Sons was a major United States book publisher based in New York City, New York. Since 1996, it has been an imprint of the Penguin Group.-History:...
, 1971
In a feudal society where scientific research is guarded at all times by the House which funded it, except during the "Science Fair". The Fair is an event held once a generation where scientific research is made public. One of the scientists reveals that he has discovered a star which is coming nearer to their world. He advocates that all scientific research must be made public and non-proprietary if the planet is to be able to cope with the nearest approach of this star. This story follows the agent who is hired to keep the scientist from being assassinated before he makes his presentation of his findings.
Gemstone
Also appears in:- Analog Science Fiction Science FactAnalog Science Fiction and FactAnalog Science Fiction and Fact is an American science fiction magazine. As of 2011, it is the longest running continuously published magazine of that genre...
, 1983
Sandra goes to stay with her grandmother and discovers that she possesses an artifact, the Gemstone, that was found by her grandfather in Antarctica. The object is a skull-sized rock, that emits feelings of cold and desolation, which are assumed to be memories of Antarctica, and can convert plastic into diamonds. These diamonds have supported Sandra's grandmother since her grandfather's death, but they also prompt some young men to break into her house and attempt to extort the cache of rough diamonds they assume she must have. During the break-in the house catches fire and the Gemstone is exposed to the fire. The heat causes the Gemstone, which turns out to be a creature, to become mobile, active, and happy while it is in the fire. As the fire burns out it returns to its dormant cold state.
Just Peace
(with William Rupp)Also appears in:
- Analog Science Fiction Science FactAnalog Science Fiction and FactAnalog Science Fiction and Fact is an American science fiction magazine. As of 2011, it is the longest running continuously published magazine of that genre...
, 1971
Chente, agent of the Canadian Hegemony is duplicated 19 light-years from Earth on the colony New Canada. The planet is about to undergo a core collapse which will likely destroy the entire colony. Chente must convince the disparate warring factions in the colony to work together to build an industrial base with which to deal with the disaster. When he is unsuccessful at convincing them, he sets himself up as an enemy to both groups in order to force them to work and develop together.
Original Sin
Also appears in:- Analog Science Fiction Science FactAnalog Science Fiction and FactAnalog Science Fiction and Fact is an American science fiction magazine. As of 2011, it is the longest running continuously published magazine of that genre...
, 1972
The story occurs on the planet Shima. The Shimans are a species whose individuals live only two and a half Earth-years, are extremely intelligent, and experience a ravenous hunger throughout their lives before dying in a parthenogenetic frenzy as their hundreds of young devour them from within. They have progressed from paleolithic
Paleolithic
The Paleolithic Age, Era or Period, is a prehistoric period of human history distinguished by the development of the most primitive stone tools discovered , and covers roughly 99% of human technological prehistory...
to industrial
Industrial society
In sociology, industrial society refers to a society driven by the use of technology to enable mass production, supporting a large population with a high capacity for division of labour. Such a structure developed in the west in the period of time following the Industrial Revolution, and replaced...
age in the two centuries since contact with humanity. Earth's government works to keep the Shimans isolated on their planet because of the belief that the Shimans' hunger and fast life-cycle would cause them to overrun the galaxy. A human researcher is being employed to develop a longevity treatment for the Shimans. The organization that is backing the researcher wants the Shimans to be released in order to provide a worthy competitor to humanity, forcing them to improve and adapt.
The Blabber
Also appears in:- Threats... and Other Promises, Baen BooksBaen BooksBaen Books is an American publishing company established in 1983 by long time science fiction publisher and editor Jim Baen. It is a science fiction and fantasy publishing house that emphasizes space opera, hard science fiction, military science fiction, and fantasy...
, 1988
On a human colony planet named Middle America, just inside the Slow Zone, lives Hamid, and his unique pet, the Blabber. While Hamid is working with tourists from the Beyond in an attempt to get out of the Slow Zone, another visitor, Ravna&Tines comes to the planet, offering to buy the Blabber from him. When Hamid does not accept their deal expediently, Ravna&Tines launch attacks on the planet and the Beyond tourists. Hamid and the Blabber eventually end up with Ravna&Tines and head into the Beyond.
The story occurs in the Zones of Thought universe and occurs after a A Fire Upon the Deep
A Fire Upon the Deep
A Fire Upon the Deep is a science fiction novel by American writer Vernor Vinge, a space opera involving superhuman intelligences, aliens, variable physics, space battles, love, betrayal, genocide, and a conversation medium resembling Usenet...
. Tines is a member of the multi-part species introduced in A Fire Upon the Deep, the tines, and the Blabber is a missing member of Tines who is re-incorporated at the end of the story.
Win A Nobel Prize!
Also appears in:- NatureNature (journal)Nature, first published on 4 November 1869, is ranked the world's most cited interdisciplinary scientific journal by the Science Edition of the 2010 Journal Citation Reports...
Vol. 407 No. 6805 "Futures", 2000
This is a letter offering a position to a researcher with an organization that will provide him with a mind-machine interface, implemented by a non-reversible tailored infection and manipulated with MRI. The letter describes other organizations using the technique to induce any psychopathology
Psychopathology
Psychopathology is the study of mental illness, mental distress, and abnormal/maladaptive behavior. The term is most commonly used within psychiatry where pathology refers to disease processes...
, but promises to transform the researcher into an idiot savant in his field.
The technology also appears in the novel A Deepness In the Sky
A Deepness in the Sky
A Deepness in the Sky is a Hugo Award–winning science fiction novel by Vernor Vinge. Published in 1999, the novel is a loose prequel to his earlier novel A Fire Upon the Deep...
used by the Emergents, a totalitarian, slave-based culture.
The Barbarian Princess
(This is also the first section of Tatja Grimm's WorldTatja Grimm's World
- Background :Eighteen years after the publication of Grimm's World, Jim Baen of Baen Books offered to reprint the novel. Vinge revised the original text of Grimm's World and added a new beginning. The plotline now begins with "The Barbarian Princess", a short story originally published in 1986 in...
.)
Also appears in:
- Analog Science Fiction Science FactAnalog Science Fiction and FactAnalog Science Fiction and Fact is an American science fiction magazine. As of 2011, it is the longest running continuously published magazine of that genre...
, 1986
Rey Guille operates a shipboard publishing company which sails from market to market. At one port they discover Tatja Grimm, ignorant but unexpectedly intelligent, who is a perfect match for the character Harla, Barbarian Princess. When the ship runs into trouble at one of their ports of call with the Termite Folk, who take this fiction very seriously, Tatja is used to bluff an escape.
Fast Times at Fairmont High
(occurs in the same milieu as Rainbows EndRainbows End
Rainbows End is a 2006 science fiction novel by Vernor Vinge. It was awarded the 2007 Hugo Award for Best Novel. The book is set in San Diego, California, in 2025, in a variation of the fictional world Vinge explored in his 2002 Hugo-winning novella "Fast Times at Fairmont High" and 2004's...
)
First appearance here.
Fairmont High is an advanced high school in a future where everyone has access to almost unlimited computation and bandwidth. However, Fairmont High believes that it is important that their students be able to operate both on-line and off-line; thus, one of their exams must be completed while isolated from the network. The story follows two students as they investigate some rumored strange activity as their off-line exam project.
This story won the Hugo Award for Best Novella
Hugo Award for Best Novella
The Hugo Awards are given every year by the World Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was once officially...
in 2002.
Release details
- 2001, United States of America, Tor Books ISBN 0-312-87373-5, Pub date 17 November 2001, Hardback