Talk:A Deepness in the Sky

Localizers

This is the first Vinge work which introduces localizers. These are tiny devices which can contain a simple processor, sensors, and short-range communications. Vinge explores how mesh networking of these devices can put to use in ways quite different than traditional computer networks.

Did this novel come before or after his novella, Fast Times at Fairmont High? Localizers also play a major role in that work. --NeuronExMachina 18:24, 30 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Anyways, localizers also were used in The Peace War (although I'm not sure they were used under that name). --Stephan Schulz 01:57, 19 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Where? - Omegatron 23:23, May 23, 2005 (UTC)

I read a borrowed copy a few years back (it was out of print until recently). But it was a scene where some hunting/ambush was going on, and the Tinker technology was used to neutralize some thugs. The localizers used were bigger than the ones in Deepness, and did not move under their own power, if I remember correctly. --Stephan Schulz 11:06, 24 May 2005 (UTC)

Ahhh... with like the homing bullets and stuff. I remember that bit now. - Omegatron 13:41, May 24, 2005 (UTC)

Got it! --Stephan Schulz 13:57, 24 May 2005 (UTC)

The article for A Fire Upon the Deep states that A Deepness in the Sky is set twenty thousand years earlier. But this article states that this novel is set thirty thousand years earlier. Which is it? Was the author vague, or inconsistent? How far in the future is A Fire Upon the Deep set? --NotWillDecker

I think the interval between stories is never more than speculated about. that was my impression. Phams character in the original novel (fire upon the deep) is to a degree a kind of frankenstein lash up created from bits and pieces salvaged from a wreck (or wrecks) that have drifted up out of the slowzone. his age is therefore hard to pin point. - RD.

One beats the other by decades, but it doesn't matter since they are both waiting for the Spiders to defrost eventually. --Gwern (contribs) 03:21, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

The Qeng Ho arrive at the On/Off star a number of decades before the Emergency fleet arrives

I don't think that's true. I thought they arrived at the same time. — Omegatron 04:31, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

I'm reasonably sure they don't; I remember reading some lines to the effect that Qeng Ho watched the Emergents coast in-system for a long time. --Gwern (contribs) 04:48, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

It states that the Qeng Ho watched the Emergents arrive while they (the Qeng Ho, with faster ships) were decellerating. The Qeng Ho arrived first, but certainly not a few decades earlier. (I’m currently reading the book.) -Ahruman 21:12, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

OK then. My mistake. --Gwern (contribs) 21:15 13 January 2007 (GMT)

Article Linked from Slashdot

Heads up. - 4.240.238.78 06:39, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

IETF?

I remember some reference to the Internet Engineering Task Force in the book. What role did Vinge give them again? Kalaong (talk) 13:46, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

Could they be the entity that monitors the boundary of the Bottom? (oops, wrong book) Pham (in the backstory) sets up a broadcast system to try to give humanity a common clock and a steady source of information that might prevent local economic collapses; could that be it? —Tamfang (talk) 07:48, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

Translations

I thought I might add what the titles mean in English but I had to use Google translator and other online translators. Can other people check what I've come up with?
Chinese: Poles apart; [Formal] worlds apart; as different as high heaven and deep sea
Finnish: Celestial Depths
Russian: Depth in the sky
Croatian: Hole in the sky
French: In the Depths of Heaven
Italian: When Light Returns
Japanese: 最果ての銀河船団 (saihate no genga sendan) [lit: Galaxy Fleet's Farthest End] Title taken from Vinge's Japanese Wiki article
Darthjarek (talk) 12:21, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

Has any Critic Ever Compared Pham Nuen to Lazarus Long

I find a great similarity between these two characters. I think this is emphasized in the first part of this book and the first part of Time Enough for Love but the similar incidents at these times aren't the only common features. Their vast ages and the reverence with which some people treat them are other similarities. Even more, I find their personalities somewhat similar. 76.28.103.69 (talk) 17:45, 28 August 2009 (UTC)Will in New Haven76.28.103.69 (talk) 17:45, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

This would be interesting in a section on 'literary influences' or something like that. The Spiders are rather Tolkienesque with "Underhill" and "attercops". --Richardson mcphillips (talk) 18:46, 30 March 2015 (UTC)

Plot summary: "historic node"??

The term seems to be used primarily or only in geography, not history. Evidently used here to mean something like "critical moment". Perhaps it's a translation of an expression in another language that has that meaning, but it's not clear in English, so I have changed it. -- Thnidu (talk) 05:11, 20 June 2010 (UTC)

Afterthought: "critical juncture" is often used this way. -- Thnidu (talk) 21:15, 29 June 2010 (UTC)

Plot summary: The spiders' role

The plot summary currently states that Nuwen and the "younger Qeng Ho" (Ezr Vinh) defeated the Emergents. In fact, the spiders themselves do most of the work. A major part of the plot towards the end of the book is that some of the spiders had already secretly learned of the human presence in their system, and had already hacked into the Emergents' system; in the end, it is their own actions that foil the Emergent attack. The Qeng Ho's own attempt largely fails. The summary should be re-written to at least briefly address this, as it's a pretty major element of the plot. I don't think I'm up to it myself, however. 12 Oct. 2011

On/Off or OnOff

I've just read a TOR paperback edition, 2000, which has OnOff throughout. Did the first edition have On/Off? --Richardson mcphillips (talk) 18:48, 30 March 2015 (UTC)

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