aw hell, this is awful news
Vinge is one of my all time favorite science fiction writers and A Deepness in the Sky remains one of the best books I've ever read (seriously, it's fantastic and has one of the most interesting alien races ever written)
he was a giant of the field and he will be missed
Just got the very sad news that Science Fiction great Vernor Vinge has died. He'd been dealing with Parkinson's disease for several years.
Vinge's space opera "A Fire Upon the Deep" was a wonderful rollick.
He popularized the notion of The Singularity.
#RIP#SF
Fire upon the Deep edges out Deepness for me, but they might be my two favorite scifi books, certainly my favorite pair
If a scifi book blows your mind once it's a success. those two did it three times apiece if you're being stingy
The last years of Parkinson's are especially rough. very sad news
The sheer dynamic range of A Fire Upon the Deep was stunning: from galactic scale AIs all the way down to hive-mind coyotes and sentient corals on scooters. I am in -awe-
Oof, definitely sad. I worked in AR/VR for nearly a decade and it amazes me how consistently any idea about what would be cool in AR/VR could be met with "did you read Rainbows End? That was totally a thing in Rainbows End"
WHAT NO LOVE FOR SKRODE RIDERS?
Vinge's novel Marooned in Realtime is another classic, a poignant SF detective story with touches of Brigadoon. His short stories were pretty great too.
